ATF

ATF Didn't Consult White House On Emergency Request For Controversial Gun Rule

Ryan J. Reilly | October 6, 2011, 6:00AM

Here's some news for all the NRA members convinced that ATF's rifle reporting requirement in four border states is a diabolical plot by the Obama administration to crack down on the Second Amendment. ATF didn't consult the White House before they published an emergency request for a proposed rule requiring gun dealers in four border states to report bulk sales of semi-automatic weapons in the Federal Register.

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Texas

Concealed-Carry License Gets You Fast-Track Access To Texas Capitol

David Taintor | February 15, 2011, 9:21AM

Texas State Capitol

Some frequent visitors to the Texas Capitol in Austin are obtaining concealed handgun licenses in order to gain quicker access through the building's security screening, Reuters reports.

Concealed handgun license holders can enter the Capitol via an expedited "CHL access" line, while "schoolchildren and tourists" have to pass through metal detectors, according to the report.

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Guns

'Gun Ban Obama?' Not So Much, Say Gun Control Advocates

Ryan J. Reilly | October 12, 2010, 9:18AM

President Barack Obama and ATF agents

To hear some gun rights activists tell it, President Barack Obama wants to take away your guns and, any minute now, jack-booted federal agents could knock on your front door to collect them.

Such predictions started during the 2008 campaign. "Obama would be the most anti-gun President in American history," screamed a banner at the National Rifle Association's GunBanObama.com. It got so bad that Obama even had to reassure voters he wouldn't take away their guns. Even after the election, gun sales boomed.

You'd expect a President so opposed by many gun rights groups to get high praise from gun control advocates since he took office. But advocates like those from the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence are far from satisfied with the progress on gun control being made in this administration.

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Gregory Girard

Man Charged With Stockpiling Weapons Was Tea Partier, Palin Fan

Zachary Roth | February 12, 2010, 11:19AM

Gregory Girard

The Massachusetts man charged this week with stockpiling weapons after saying he feared an imminent "Armageddon" appears to have been active in the Tea Party movement, and saw Sarah Palin, who he said is on a "righteous 'Mission from God,'" as the only figure capable of averting the destruction of society.

As we reported yesterday, Gregory Girard, a Manchester technology consultant, was found with a stash of military grade weapons, explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters, camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles, say police. They believe Girard, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was "preparing for domestic and political turmoil," and feared martial law would soon be imposed.

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Gun-Toters

New Mexican Tea Partiers Bring Guns To Anti-Obama Rally

Justin Elliott | January 4, 2010, 10:21AM

A gun-bearing protester in Alamogordo, New Mexico Saturday.

A group of tea partiers and Second Amendment activists in New Mexico decided to kick off the new decade with a show of arms at a demonstration protesting President Obama's "socialist" policies, according to local media reports via Think Progress.

Over three hundred people attended the protest in Alamogordo in southern New Mexico, which was organized by the Otero Tea Party Patriots and a group called the Second Amendment Task Force.

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Gun-Toters

Revealed: MN Gun-Toter's Grocery Store Parking Lot Pepper Spray Case Records

Justin Elliott | October 6, 2009, 6:04PM

Josh Hendrickson

Remember the rash of right-wing protesters who showed up to Obama events in August and September armed -- sometimes to the teeth?

In the middle of September, the gun-toter du jour was Josh Hendrickson, who came to an Obama health care speech in Minneapolis with a Glock and a Kel Tec 380 in his back pocket. But Hendrickson was a little different from the other gun-toters: he showed up at the event just after getting out of jail for a pepper-spraying incident.

And based on court records we've obtained, that episode appears to have been an unfortunate flareup of Mall Cop Rage. It resulted in a fifth degree assault misdemeanor conviction.

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Gun-Toters

Secret Service Questioned Man With Guns Outside Obama Rally In Minnesota

Justin Elliott | September 15, 2009, 3:58PM

A Kel Tec 380 pistol

When 32-year-old Josh Hendrickson left his house for a protest outside President Obama's health care rally in Minneapolis Saturday, he considered whether to go armed.

When he typically goes out, he told the Star-Tribune, "I grab my wallet, my keys and my gun."

Make that two guns.

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Faithful Word Baptist Church

Secret Service 'Aware Of' Gun-Toter And Pastor's Prayers For Obama To Die

Justin Elliott | August 31, 2009, 12:14PM

Faithful Word Baptist Church, Tempe, Arizona

Asked about pastor Steven Anderson and gun-toter Chris Broughton's repeated wishes for President Barack Obama to die, Special Agent Darrin Blackford of the Secret Service sends along this statement:

"We are aware of the situation and appropriate follow up will be conducted."

Broughton is the member of Anderson's Faithful Word Baptist Church who brought an AR-15 rifle and a hand gun to an Obama event in Phoenix earlier this month. Anderson later confirmed to TPMmuckraker that just 24 hours before that show of arms-bearing, Broughton attended the pastor's fiery sermon in which he prayed for "Obama to melt like a snail tonight" for being a "socialist devil, murderer, infanticide."

And yesterday, Broughton and Anderson took their statements even further, with the pastor saying he'd like Obama to die of brain cancer like Ted Kennedy, and Broughton for the first time publicly saying that he, too, would like the president to be dead.

No word on what form the Secret Service's follow up will take. And the agency would not comment on a CNN report that it interviewed Anderson.

Gun-Toters

Gun-Toter From Obama Event: I, Like My Pastor, Want The President To Die

Justin Elliott | August 31, 2009, 11:18AM

Pastor Steven Anderson and Chris Broughton

The violent anti-Obama sentiment coming out of central Arizona managed to get still more toxic over the weekend.

Chris Broughton, the man who brought an AR-15 rifle and a handgun to an Arizona Obama rally earlier this month, says he "concurs" with his fundamentalist pastor's prayer for President Obama "to die and go to hell."

And in an interview with a local TV station, pastor Steven Anderson himself elaborated on his statement to TPMmuckraker that he would prefer Obama to die of natural causes so "he's not some martyr."

"I don't want him to be a martyr, we don't need another holiday. I'd like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer," Anderson now says.

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Gun-Toters

Pastor Of Gun-Toter At Obama Event Prayed For Obama To Die

Justin Elliott | August 27, 2009, 3:14PM

Pastor Steven Anderson and Chris Broughton

Chris Broughton, the man who brought an assault rifle and a handgun to the Obama event in Arizona last week, attended a fiery anti-Obama sermon the day before the event, in which Pastor Steven Anderson said he was going to "pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell", Anderson confirmed to TPMmuckraker today.

Anderson also said Broughton had informed the pastor about his planned show of arms-bearing, but "he planned out the AR15 thing long before he heard that sermon," delivered Sunday August 16 at the fundamentalist Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ.

This is the second example of the gun-toters at the Arizona Obama event tied to the violent fringes of American life.

"I don't obey Barack Obama. And I'd like Barack Obama to melt like a snail tonight," Anderson said in the sermon.

The sermon, which was titled "Why I Hate Barack Obama" and also contained virulent anti-gay themes, continued:

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