--Chad Love

Is the National Rifle Association's power on the wane? Please don't beat the messenger, but that seems to be the thrust of a recent blog post from the Economist that argues the NRA's influence on national elections is mostly an illusion and that it's also on the wrong side of changing demographic shifts that in the future will further erode its influence.

"...Paul Waldman, of the American Prospect, has recently argued that the NRA's dominance is a myth. He has looked closely at the figures and writes, “Despite what the NRA has long claimed, it neither delivered Congress to the Republican party in 1994 nor delivered the White House to George W. Bush in 2000.” He also argues that NRA money has no impact on congressional elections, as it spreads its money over so many races, and that NRA endorsements are “almost meaningless” as most go to incumbent Republicans with little chance of losing.

--Chad Love

A Grand Junction, CO man accidentally shot a woman in the head after mistaking her red mohawk for a red bird that had been harassing his cat. But wait, it gets better! The woman, as it turns out, was both drunk and possibly in possession of meth, and the man who shot her was a convicted felon who wasn't even supposed to own a firearm in the first place!
 
Confused? Read on... From this story on UPI.com:
 
A Colorado man who shot a woman in the head after mistaking her red Mohawk hairdo for a bird has been placed on probation, authorities say. Derrill Rockwell, 49, of Grand Junction, was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay more than $10,000 in restitution Friday after pleading guilty to felony possession of a weapon by a prior offender, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported. Several other related charges against him were dropped, the newspaper said.

by David Maccar

When I was told the folks at Vision Research were willing to let us use two of their very expensive, very high-speed cameras, I knew immediately what had to be done.
Shoot stuff.

So many questions could be answered. How, say, does PowerBait trout goop react to a .223 round at 19,300 frames per second? (Television, by comparison, runs around 30 frames per second.) What happens when you shoot a basketball with an expandable broadhead or a can of tomato soup with a .308?

-- Chad Love

States with gun-friendly cultures have their sights set on luring the nation's gun companies away from their historic locations in the increasingly gun-hostile northeast.

From this story in the New York Times:
For more than a century, the nation’s firearms industry, including iconic brands like Colt, Smith & Wesson and Winchester, has been concentrated in Northeastern and Midwestern states that now have restrictive gun-control laws. But recently, states like Idaho, Alabama and Montana have presented a novel argument as part of an effort to lure the firearms industry’s high-paying jobs south and west: Gun makers would be happier and more successful among citizens who regularly use firearms than they would be remaining in states trying to limit gun rights.