Every Liberty piece The Keep has published, grouped by what you’re actually trying to understand — the mechanics and terminology, the state-by-state rules, or where the litigation actually stands. Start with the first one if you’re new to reading gun policy without the spin.
Start here
Every other section on this page assumes you can already do one thing: read what a bill or a rule actually says, not what a headline says it says. That skill is the real starting point for reading gun policy without picking a side by accident — the difference between a bill that changes background-check procedure and one that changes who can buy at all, or between a proposed rule and a rule that’s actually in effect. Start here if any of the pieces below ever leave you wondering whether a summary you read elsewhere was accurate.
- State Gun Legislation: How to Read a Bill Without the Spin — the plain-English skill this whole pillar assumes you have.
Terminology and mechanics
Two mechanical distinctions that get flattened by loose language more than almost anything else in this space. The first is the one federal law actually turns on: what makes a firearm semi-automatic versus fully automatic, under the single-function-of-the-trigger test that’s been the real legal line since 1934 — not whether a gun looks military-styled. The second is procedural rather than mechanical: how an NFA gun trust actually works, including the tax-stamp change that took effect in 2025 and 2026, and why the paperwork exists at all. Neither piece argues a policy position. Both explain what the words and the process actually mean before any argument about them can be honest.
- Semi-Automatic vs Fully Automatic: Why an AR-15 Isn’t a Machine Gun — the one mechanical test that separates the two categories under federal law.
- Gun Trusts and NFA Paperwork, Explained — including the 2025/2026 tax stamp change.
State-by-state rules
Gun law is mostly state law, and “basically the same everywhere” claims go to die against it. This section maps five of the areas where the actual rules vary the most: concealed-carry reciprocity, mapped state by state rather than summarized as “mostly fine” or “mostly not”; red flag laws, compared on what an ERPO process actually requires, not just whether a state has one; what a “constitutional carry” state really permits versus what the headline implies; the three-tier structure behind safe-storage and child-access-prevention laws, which vary more by trigger condition than most people expect; and the permit-to-purchase debate, argued from the actual licensing mechanics rather than the slogans on either side. None of these pages say what the law should be. They say what it currently is, state by state, so a claim about “the law” can be checked against the specific state it’s actually about.
- Concealed Carry Reciprocity, Mapped — full/partial/no-recognition, state by state.
- Red Flag Laws, State by State — how ERPO laws actually compare across states.
- “Constitutional Carry” States: What They Really Allow vs. the Headlines — what permitless carry actually permits.
- Safe Storage and Child Access Prevention Laws, State by State — the three-tier breakdown of trigger points.
- The Permit-to-Purchase Debate Nobody’s Having Honestly — the licensing debate, argued straight.
Where the courts and rules actually stand
This is the fastest-moving section on the site, and the one with a standing monthly accuracy review attached to it for exactly that reason. It covers the Bruen decision and the historical-tradition test it created, which everything below runs through; the bump-stock ban reversal, decided on statutory grounds rather than the Second Amendment; the federal-versus-state split on ghost gun rules and where the Bondi v. VanDerStok litigation left things; how interstate transport protections under FOPA actually work when moving a firearm across state lines; the pistol brace rule’s full litigation timeline, still moving as of this writing; and why one California liability-insurance ordinance has survived challenge after challenge when similar measures haven’t. Every piece here is checked against its live legal status on a monthly cadence, not just written once and left — this is the one part of the site where “currently” actually means currently.
- The Bruen Decision: What Actually Changed, and What Didn’t — the legal test everything downstream runs through.
- The Bump Stock Ban Reversal: What the Supreme Court Actually Changed — a statutory-interpretation ruling, not a Second Amendment one.
- Ghost Gun Rules: Federal vs. State — including the Bondi v. VanDerStok outcome.
- Interstate Transport Laws for Legally Moving a Firearm — how FOPA protections actually work.
- The Pistol Brace Rule: Where the Litigation Actually Stands — the full timeline, Mock v. Bondi through ATF’s 2026 proposal.
- Gun Liability Insurance Mandates: Why San Jose’s Is Still Standing in Court — why this one ordinance has survived challenge after challenge.
The research behind the debate
One piece that steps back from any single law or ruling to look at the research behind a much broader claim: whether more guns actually mean less crime, a thesis with real academic weight on multiple sides of it. This isn’t a takedown or a defense of the idea — it’s a look at what the actual data shows and doesn’t show, and where the strongest version of the argument runs into the weakest version of the evidence.
- Revisiting “More Guns, Less Crime”: What the Research Actually Shows — a critical look at the thesis, not a takedown or a defense.
Legal and legislative status changes. The pieces in “where the courts and rules actually stand” get a monthly accuracy review; new Liberty writing focuses on settled fact and mechanics rather than live litigation.
The other two pillars have guides of their own: The Capital Guide and The Coffee Guide.