When Minnesota passed its permit-to-carry law in 2003, anti-gun opponents argued that allowing civilians to have firearms in public spaces would lead to chaos and rampant violence. Now the law has been on the books for over a decade, and a record number of Minnesotans have carry permits: 200,000, or roughly one in 20 residents of the state. Fatalities linked to permit holders are rare—and their numbers are falling at the same time as the total number of active permits goes up.

“Most criminals aren’t trained ninja assassins, they are opportunists,” explained Andrew Rothman, president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance. “When they find out they don’t have an easy victim, they change their minds about pursuing a crime.” James Franklin, executive director of the Minnesota Sheriffs’ Association agreed: “Virtually every case has been a person defending themselves.”

A Chicago man with a concealed-carry license foiled the plot of two men trying to rob him and the woman with him in the Englewood neighborhood late Thursday night. At 10:05 p.m., the 24-year-old man and his companion were approached by two men who said they were robbing them and had a gun, according to Officer Janel Sedevic, a Chicago Police spokeswoman.

Armed with his legally concealed firearm, the man being robbed drew his gun and shot one of the men in the chest, said police. The would-be victim was shot in the leg, and the other attempted robber ran away. Both men were taken to Advocate Christ Medical Center. The victim was in stable condition, and the man who tried to rob him was in critical but stable condition.

The leftist political magazine Mother Jones has worked to establish itself as one of the loudest voices in the anti-gun media machine, but they goofed in a recent article, titled “The United States Has Had More Mass Shootings Than Any Other Country.” While the piece was designed to point out the fact alluded to in the headline—and blaming the availability of guns to law-abiding citizens, naturally—the magazine inadvertently pointed out what works about America’s high rate of firearm ownership.

As AWR Hawkins points out in a Breitbart post, the study also reveals that significantly fewer people die in each “mass public shooting” in America as compared to other countries—an average of 6.9 here versus 8.8 abroad. While the article ascribes the difference to the rapid, armed response typical of American police, Hawkins points out that such shootings are also ended—or prevented entirely—by civilians carrying concealed firearms.

While Seattle Mayor Ed Murray claims the city’s new $25-per-gun and 5-cents-per-round ammunition taxes will somehow address the issue of “gun violence,” in reality the new ordinance will only make life more difficult for gun shops in the city and for law-abiding residents wishing to purchase firearms and ammo in Seattle.

In effect, Seattle’s tax does nothing more than unfairly punish law-abiding gun owners for criminal violence. That fact, along with the state’s pre-emption law forbidding such an ordinance, has prompted the National Rifle Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation and other groups to file a lawsuit over the matter.

“Once again, anti-gun activists in Seattle have chosen to violate the Washington state Constitution and trample upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA executive director. “They tried to enact similar regulations back in 2009 and lost. It’s a shame to see such a waste of public resources on issues the courts have already ruled to be unconstitutional.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry signed the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty in September 2013. A month later, 50 U.S. senators signed a letter opposing the treaty. Although the treaty hasn’t been ratified to date, that hasn’t stopped Obama administration officials from traveling to Mexico City for the U.N. Small Arms conference this week.

The event is intended as a kick-off to the implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty, which is intended to ultimately usher in global gun registration. So you can bet this presidential administration will be all-too-happy to set into motion any plans or policies that come from the meetings. The end result would spell doom for the Second Amendment.

“This treaty threatens individual firearm ownership with an invasive registration scheme,” said Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA executive director. “These are blatant attacks on the constitutional rights and liberties of every law-abiding American.”

Texas’ new open-carry law is causing signs prohibiting firearms to be removed from government buildings. The Dallas Morning News reports that, starting in September, “Texans will have a formal process by which to complain to the state attorney general about government entities that might wrongfully bar concealed guns,” backed by the threat of legal action and penalties.

To comply, the Dallas Park and Recreation Department is removing “no-gun” signs from 10 rec centers. However, some government-owned properties that are leased to private entities, such as convention centers and the Sixth Floor Museum, are resisting the new regulations. The Dallas County Zoo is defending its weapons ban, claiming it qualifies for exemptions for “educational institutions” and “amusement parks.”

Texans, like NRA board member Charles Cotton, are eager to test these claims: “The City of Dallas or whoever is going to continue with that kind of stuff, and they are going to get sued.”