Most people are probably unaware of it, but on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving, handguns, rifles and shotguns will be sales tax free in South Carolina. State lawmakers passed a bill in June that includes the sales tax holiday on firearms. They called it the Second Amendment Recognition Act.

Sales of handguns, rifles and ammunition have surged in the last week, according to gun store owners around the nation who describe a wave of buyers concerned that an Obama administration will curtail their right to bear arms.

An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.

Experts say U.S. economic conditions and the presidential election are partly responsible for an increase in the sale of guns and ammunition this year.

Data supplied by federal and state government show sales of firearms up 8 to 10 percent in 2008, continuing a trend that began in 2006, The Washington Post reported Monday.

Data provided to The Sunday Telegraph by nearly every police force in England and Wales, under freedom of information laws, show that the number of firearms incidents dealt with by officers annually is 60 per cent higher than figures stated by the Home Office.

The number of justifiable homicides committed by police and private citizens has been rising in the past two years to their highest levels in more than a decade, reflecting a shoot-first philosophy in dealing with crime, say law enforcement analysts.

It is clear that the intention is to demonize gun ownership while making the 'permit' aspect convey a privilege rather than a right, as guarded by the 2nd amendment of the Constitution. Further, the claim that the former sheriff was 'corrupt' is meant to justify the revoking of permits, which are also associated emotionally as being wrong to hold. Instead, government should control who's allowed to carry self-defense.

City officials have agreed to return hundreds of firearms that police officers confiscated in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, part of a deal to resolve a lawsuit filed by gun lobbying groups.

Texas state representative, Suzanna Gratia-Hupp, whose parents were killed by an insane gunman while her gun was out in the car, gives very moving and bold testimony about the REAL reason that the second amendment was designed to protect our God-given right to keep and bear arms.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has joined with a coalition of religious and civil rights organizations in an effort to stop the Senate's consideration of H.R. 6842, which would endanger the lives of D.C. residents and the millions of people who visit Washington each year.

The headlines in the Finnish Press (below) discuss a shooting rampage by an 18-year old High School student, Pekka-Eric Auvinen. Before killing six students, the head teacher and a nurse, and turning the gun on himself, Auvinen indicated that he "ate SSRI antidepressants" which, he said, made him feel "aggressive."

The 34-year-old mother of two grabbed a shotgun that had been pointed at her face early Wednesday, starting a struggle that ended with one intruder killed with his own weapon and another in the hospital.

We just got a call from Devline Rossell, a charter captain based out of Venice, Louisiana. He was shopping in New Orleans to get some supplies before the arrival of Gustav (currently listed as a tropical storm that has left at least 22 dead in the Caribbean) and reported that the item most in demand was not food, clothing or shelter.

Jews with guns is not necessarily an oxymoron.

Certainly not in Israel, where the sight of firearms is commonplace. In contrast, gun ownership among American Jews is far rarer, although just how rare is unknown. Reliable statistics on this phenomenon may be nonexistent.

Marinette County Sheriff Jim Kanikula did not immediately release the suspect's name, motive or details of the arrest.

A member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corp. is suing Nassau County to get back nine rifles and 15 handguns seized from his Freeport home by police after he made repeated visits to the office of Rep. Carolyn McCarthy to complain about what he believed to be "illegal aliens" in his neighborhood.

Aides to McCarthy (D-Mineola), whose husband was one of six people slain by Colin Ferguson in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre, eventually called police, which led to the seizure of the weapons.