August 11, 2026

Senator Stephenson files bill to encourage Beretta to move to Utah

May 17, 2013 by

Maryland’s loss could become Utah’s gain. As Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley this week signed one of the strictest gun control laws in the nation,  firearms manufacturer Beretta considered  the effect of the new law on it long-time manufacturing operations in the state. “We are confronted with a state government that wants to ban our products […]

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Publius Online on Utah Political Capitol’s podcast

January 22, 2013 by

On Monday, I was a guest on Utah Political Capitol’s weekly podcast. A new venture in the Utah political landscape, my conversation was with Eric Ethington and Curtis Haring, by their description two “long-time Utah politicos.” They are friends, and though we often disagree on public policy (I met Curtis during his time in leadership at the […]

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Gun laws won’t stop violence, but do infringe the 2nd Amendment [KSL]

January 11, 2013 by

On Wednesday, Governor Cuomo of New York called for passage of the toughest gun laws in the country. But do more gun laws result in less violence?

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Guns and Social Network Reactions

December 27, 2012 by

I think it would be safe to say that very few of political watchers had gun regulation on the radar in the days before the Sandy Hook shootings. Since…well, it’s hard to talk about anything else (and not just because the fiscal cliff story is the least-interesting-and-most-difficult-to-understand-but-perhaps-most-important-story this year).

With that in mind, I asked a couple friends over at PoliticIt to take a look at what trends they saw in social media immediately before and immediately after the Newtown shooting. (PoliticIt, if you’ve not heard of it before, is the brainchild of Josh Light and Sterling Morris. They collect data from social networks, the internet, and “the real world” to create a measure of politicians digital influence that accurately predicts electoral success.)

They showed me some interesting things.

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A brief history of the Second Amendment in the Supreme Court [contributor]

December 22, 2012 by

Congress is again considering an “assault weapons ban.” The call is for compromise, reasonable restrictions and common sense gun control. I could go on a lengthy diatribe that was comprehensive in nature regarding the proposed legislation, but others have already responded thoroughly.

Owing to the nature of this blog, I will instead offer a perspective taken from previous court opinions that may be relevant to the proposal.

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Is it about the guns? [KSL]

December 19, 2012 by

Before we jump to conclusions, pass laws with long-reaching consequences, let’s take time to take a closer look at those who are behind the guns. They are, in many respects, those who need our help the most, and by the time they have taken up deadly weapons, we have as a society missed their need for help. Restricting gun ownership is an easy, if misguided answer. Addressing how we help the mentally ill and those on society’s fringes will require more of us, but ultimately will save more lives.

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