Administration

• The White House reportedly will propose that Congress cut funding for the ATF from $1.625 billion (!) to roughly $1.2 billion in fiscal 2026 by cutting funding for ATF offices that have criminalized law-abiding gun ownership through regulatory fiat. This would be the agency’s lowest budget since at least 2016. Keep cutting.
• The US Department of Justice has upended the government’s longstanding legal position on the Second Amendment by submitting an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court supporting petitioners in a case challenging the constitutionality of a state gun control law. This appears to be the first time in history the government has taken the side of gun owners in a legal case. The move boosts the odds that the Supreme Court will take up the case, which could eliminate one of the primary responses that states with stricter gun laws have adopted in the wake of the Bruen ruling. It comes after DOJ asked the Court not to take up challenges to the gun ban for non-violent felons and other prohibited persons. This case, known as Wolford v. Lopez, challenges Hawaii’s Act 52, a clearly unconstitutional extremely restrictive gun law adopted in response to the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen ruling, which struck down New York’s unconstitutional concealed carry law. Perhaps we can MAGA.
• More.
• Harmeet Dhillon May Be the Best Friend the Second Amendment Has in the Trump Administration Right Now.
• Federal grants funded with your money have long supported numerous anti-gun nonprofits, while pro-Second Amendment organizations do not benefit from any federal funding. In fact, pro-Second Amendment groups for the past 50 years have been fighting against a federal bureaucracy that makes us spend immense amounts fighting federal gun initiatives. The Washington Post reported that approximately 75 grants, totaling over $180 million, were abruptly canceled by the US Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi. Recipients were ordered to cease grant-funded operations immediately, and access to already allocated funds was revoked. The DOJ defended the cuts as the elimination of “wasteful spending” that did not align with the Trump administration’s priorities. Well, not only wasteful, but not authorized by the Constitution. We don’t know how many such grants remain.

Litigation

• The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that a public housing authority can’t evict a tenant just for failing to register his firearm with the government as required by law, even if his lease has a clause allowing eviction for breaking a law (here’s the case).
• A three-judge panel of the Illinois 4th District Appellate Court ruled last week in the case Guns Save Life v. Kelly that the Illinois Firearms Owner Identification card government permission slip scheme, required to purchase or possess a gun in the state, is constitutional.
• The New Jersey Superior Court reinstated criminal charges for firearm possession against three young adults because, the court said, the defendants lacked standing to raise their Second Amendment claims because they failed to pay money and apply for a handgun carry permit – a permit that is not issued to people of the defendants’ ages (18-20).
• Maryland’s post-Bruen carry ban scheme appears to not be doing well in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which just heard arguments in a case challenging the law: Kipke v. Moore.
• Texas Carry Restriction Challenge Could Deal a Blow to Carry Bans Nationwide.
• The Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a Michigan school did not violate the free-speech rights of a third-grade student who was told to remove a hat she wore during “hat week” that had an image of an AR-15-style rifle and the message “come and take it” in capital letters. The court said because the hat could be disruptive and perceived as threatening, the school’s actions were readily defensible. I disagree.
• Supreme Court’s “Ghost Gun” Ruling Accidentally Paves Way For Next-Gen 80% Firearms.
• Grassroots report.

Enemies

• Remember you can check friendorfoe.us for anti- and pro-gun establishments by location.
• In an interview with the Los Angeles Airport Peace officer’s association on Nov 11, 2021, Los Angeles county Sheriff Alex Villanueva said if he could he would ban the sale of all Semi-Automatic rifles with detachable magazines. Villanueva recently switched political parties from Democrat to Republican. Besides the fact that sheriffs shouldn’t be politically affiliated, he apparently didn’t change his stripes.
• A Dr. Annie Andrews, MD (pediatrician), recently posted a gun ban message on X. Andrews claims to be CEO & Founder of @their__future PAC, The Only PAC For Kids. She also claims to be Republican.
• Jacksonville, Florida’s illegal gun registry.
• The government’s due process.
• ATF’s suppressors. These Only Ones (OO) use the same “hearing protection” argument that we mere law-abiding citizens do. (But we should be claiming it as a right government has no power to abuse.) Meanwhile, the Left/OO tells its useful idiots that, in the hands of mere citizens, they are “inherently dangerous devices” and “deadly accessories.”
• A mentally ill, violent repeat offender recently attacked an adolescent Tucson girl catching her bus home from school. It seems that each time the man is arrested, the court simply lets him go. I suggest that henceforth in such cases, the cops take the newly-released judge’s best friend and drop him off in front of the judge’s house.

The Only Ones

• The Clayton County jail in Jonesboro, Georgia went into lockdown after officers could not find a missing inmate who was convicted of murder, only for cops to discover they had left the inmate at the courthouse.
• Your tax dollars at work: Houston, Tx, Mayor John Whitmire has finalized a contract agreement with the Houston Police Officers’ Union to raise the salary of first-year police officers to $81,000.

DGUs

• Cheer camp dad is a hero after killing gunman in shooting near Florida’s Tropical Park, sources say
• ‘Hurry up and shoot Him!’ Teen’s Last Words Before Being Shot Dead by Armed Citizen in Chaotic Kansas City Liquor Store Clash
• Driver Who Shot Man Charging at Him with Chef’s Knife CLEARED by Grand Jury in Syracuse Road Rage Killing
• Teen shoots man during domestic dispute in Kenwood
• Elderly man opens fire on 35-year-old intruder who violently attacked him and his wife during terrifying home incident
• The Armed Citizen:
  • America’s 1st Freedom – May 2, 2025
  • American Rifleman – May 2, 2025
  • American Rifleman – May 5, 2025

Not a DGU?

• You can’t shoot someone for ringing your doorbell.
• Fort Dodge, IA police say a shooting that occurred earlier this week was an act of self-defense. According to authorities, the individual who fired the shot, now considered the victim, acted after another person began swinging a hacksaw at him multiple times. The offender now faces a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. I think something is missing from this story. I have a lot of hacksaws, and while they could be used as a weapon – as could an egg beater – it would never occur to me that it should be classified as “deadly.”
• Number of people killed in Florida this week by bears and alligators: 2.

Tactics & Stuff

• Bolt-action shotgun history.
• Left-handed manipulation of right-handed semiauto shotguns.
• Gun vs. knife.
• NRA’s CC for Women magazine.
• 5 Facts About America’s Gun Culture from a Liberal Gun-Owning Sociologist.
• Think you know all about drams? Read on.

Industry News

• More Sig saga. And here.

Interesting

• Ukrainian soldiers who film their kills of Russian soldiers or tanks can earn points to purchase weapons from a military tech “Amazon.”
• Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir says his country can learn from America’s gun laws.
• South Carolina death sentence firing squad report: Target placed too low, missing the heart. Graphic discussion.

Fun?

• We have a story/rumor reported as follows: Years ago there was widely-reported invention for testing aircraft windshields. The Federal Aviation Administration’s “chicken cannon” is an air-powered device designed to launch poultry carcasses at high speed into jetliner windshields, simulating in-flight impact with birds for testing.
• The Brits heard about this unusual device and asked to borrow it for testing the windshields of their high-speed trains. To their amazement, the chicken they fired punched through their superstrength windshield like a hot knife through butter, completely penetrated the engineer’s chair, smashed an instrument panel and buried itself in the rear wall of the engine cab.
• Stunned, British officials bundled up their test results and asked the FAA to review the procedure and tell them what went wrong. It didn’t take much analysis before the FAA realized they had failed to pass on a precaution they hadn’t even thought necessary.
• They advised our pals-across-the-pond to use only thawed chickens in future tests.

Products

• Rock River Arms’ .380 AR SBR is what it says, an AR-style SBR chambered in .380 ACP. Designed for export but reportedly now available stateside. No one seems to know why.
• Tippmann Ordnance Shows Off Eye-Popping Gatling Guns, New .380 “Pirate” Pistol.
• Some new handguns for 2025.