New Data for
Self-Defense Activists

Located just one click away — wait, don’t go just yet! — there’s a new website loaded with information on the defensive use of firearms by law-abiding U.S. citizens appropriately called the Defensive Gun Use Database.

The handiwork of the conservative Heritage Foundation, the database is described by writer Amy Swearer of the Daily Signal as “an interactive map featuring news accounts from police reports.” But this resource is much more than just a quick stop on the World Wide Web.

Insider Online checked it out recently and it lives up to the hype. Featuring an interactive U.S. map, blue circles mark incidents from whence reports of defensive gun uses (DGU) emanate. Click on any of these circles and a small chart with information about the case, with link to a news story, appear at the bottom.

In addition to being convenient, it’s just plain fascinating. Mapping DGU incidents from 2019 and 2020, nearly 900 cases from the Pacific Northwest to Florida are at your mouse click or fingertip at the time of this writing, and the site is presumably updated regularly.

According to Swearer, senior legal policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, “The database proves, every single day lawful gun owners use their firearms to defend themselves and others against criminals when the government simply could not get there in time.

“These gun owners are not vigilantes who went looking for trouble,” Swearer said, “They did not intentionally place themselves in dangerous situations. Many of them even fail to fit the caricature of ‘typical gun owner.’”

While the Defensive Gun Use Database is not “meant to be a comprehensive list of all such incidents occurring in the United States,” according to the Daily Signal, this correspondent finds it to be very useful.

And as Swearer noted in her announcement, “These confirmed cases help prove that the ‘good guy with a gun’ is not a myth. Rather, lawful gun owners clearly play an integral role in promoting public safety and protecting individual rights.”

This correspondent co-authored a book titled Good Guys With Guns last year, with Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation. People who read that paperback seemed to find it very useful and this Heritage Foundation database is almost certain to become very popular with gun rights activists.

https://www.heritage.org/data-visualizations/firearms/defensive-gun-uses-in-the-us/

https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/04/20/loading-a-new-database-of-defensive-gun-use/

www.amazon.com/Good-Guys-Guns-Alan-Gottlieb/dp/0936783699

2 Million Guns

The month of March saw “about two million” gun sales in the U.S., according to the New York Times, which reached the figure by analyzing federal data.

The newspaper said it was “the second-busiest month ever for gun sales, trailing only January 2013,” and its quite an admission for the newspaper. For the entire month, according to FBI/NICS data, there were 3,740,688 NICS background checks initiated.

Because not all checks are for firearms transfers — such as those run for concealed carry permits and other purposes — an estimate brings the number closer to the 2 million mark.

As noted in our recent report, there is much anecdotal evidence many, if not most, of these sales were to first-time buyers. Perhaps just to needle the gun prohibition lobby, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), issued a news release welcoming all of those new gun owners to the firearms community.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb rubbed it in, observing, “They’re learning firsthand about waiting periods, possible registration requirements and problems sometimes involved with background checks, and how their rights might be delayed or even denied because some criminal has the same or similar name. In most states, they are discovering they need a license or permit to carry outside of their home, and there may be a whole additional set of requirements involved.

“They’re also hearing gun control groups demanding that gun shops be closed, while officials in some states are opening jail cells and releasing convicted criminals,” he added. “It’s absurd, and new gun owners realize it.”

He counseled new gun owners to “seek competent training (and) learn to handle your new firearms safely.”

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/01/business/coronavirus-gun-sales.html

https://americanhandgunner.com/discover/new-gun-buyers-experience-epiphany-during-pandemic/

https://www.ccrkba.org/ccrkba-welcomes-new-gun-owners-be-safe-be-informed/

Volquartsen Habu

People who like .22-caliber pistols ought to warm right up to the new Habu from Volquartsen. And with a name “derived from a Japanese pit viper,” the Habu looks ready to strike.

According to the company, the Habu “combines the features of the Volquartsen Scorpion .22 LR pistol with the push-button takedown functionality of the Ruger MK IV pistol.” That takedown function was greatly responsible for bringing a MK IV pistol into Insider Online’s gun safe.

The Habu features the Volquartsen LLV Competition Upper designed with a stainless-steel barrel and laser hardened stainless steel breech, housed in an aluminum shroud. Available with either a 4.5” or 6” barrel, the Habu “utilizes a Ruger MK IV standard aluminum frame that has been retrofitted with the Volquartsen Accurizing Kit” and has an integral Picatinny rail on top and bottom.

Quick like a viper, the Habu has just a 2.25 lb. trigger pull.

https://volquartsen.com/

Reader Response to ‘Epiphany’ Story

Insider Online’s special report on new gun buyers experiencing something of an “epiphany” about gun control laws got some interesting reader reactions. Here’s one received via email:

I must admit I read this excellent article with a slight smile on my face. Suddenly the anti-guns faction is worried about protecting themselves and their families, should police presence and response be affected by the pandemic. And, well, they should be concerned. Here in Reno, break-ins are on the rise, particularly against the elderly.

I am a 78-year-old geezer who has always believed in the 2nd Amendment. As a Brinks employee I “carried” for years, and I have had my CCW since leaving California to retire in Nevada. Therefore, I have no reason to rush to my local gun store at this time, as I am already prepared for the current situation and the possible need for personal protection. I have also been a subscriber to GUNS and American Handgunner for more than 20years. Keep up the good work. I’ll stay subscribed, though only two years at a time (I don’t know how much longer I’ll last).

Art Schubert
Reno, NV

https://americanhandgunner.com/discover/new-gun-buyers-experience-epiphany-during-pandemic/

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