Free Republic

So does having a gun make you safe? No. In fact, it makes you, your family and your community far less safe. A recently published study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that a gun in your home makes you more likely to be a victim of suicide, accidental shooting or homicide.

If Brakey’s bill passes and is signed into law, Maine would join Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Vermont, and Wyoming in abolishing concealed carry permit requirements in their states. They would also join Montana, which only requires a concealed carry permit inside city limits.

Never one to bemoan an increasing amount of options in 22LR, I am pleased to see Savage releasing the Landry Signature Series Rifles. Modeled with input from Troy, Jacob, and Chase Landry (from Swamp People), the Landry series rifles feature a synthetic stock with a transferred gator camouflage pattern.

A routine car stop in Brooklyn led police to apprehend a man in possession of a high-powered machine gun — a weapon that the NYPD's new gunshot-detection system may have recorded being used recently, cop sources said. Anti-Crime Unit cops from the 81st Precinct in Bedford-Stuyvesant pulled over a 2013 Chevy Impala on Ralph Ave. near Bainbridge St. on Wednesday evening because it had excessively tinted windows.

On April 2, NPR reported that concealed carry permits and gun ownership for self-defense is surging in the black community. This marks a seismic shift toward guns in the black community, as more and more individuals realize the safety of their lives and the the lives of their families is literally in their own hands.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America’s TerriLynn Barnett Miller said her group opposed SB 45 to no avail. The Topeka Capital-Journal quotes Miller as saying her group “spoke out against this dangerous setback for public safety [but] Governor Brownback ignored [them].” Another loss for Moms Demand Action, another win for freedom.

Washington, D.C., will drop its appeal of a federal court ruling that overturned the city’s ban on carrying handguns in public, Attorney General Karl Racine announced Wednesday. City attorneys will instead focus on defending concealed-carry laws adopted by legislators in the months after U.S. District Court Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. declared the ban was unconstitutional. “We need to focus our energies not on litigating old laws, but defending new ones that our leaders enacted in good faith to comply with court rulings while still protecting public safety,” Mr. Racine said. Up until Judge Scullin’s ruling in July, D.C. residents...

PORT MORRIS — Police and community members are looking to shut down a violent night club where bullets come with the cocktails. Over the past four months, at least three incidents of gunplay have occurred just outside of Club Miami, a Bronx nightclub located at 26 Bruckner Blvd., and neighbors say they are fed up.

Polls show that gun owners cite self-protection as the primary reason they are armed. Their intentions are generally good and admirable. The gun-rights movement has done a great job making the argument for individuals to be armed to protect themselves and their families in their own homes. What if you are faced with a menacing home intruder and police are far away? In that situation, it makes good sense to be armed. But there is an unfortunate lesson playing out for those who have armed themselves to feel safer—and for all of us, too. The gun-rights movement has worked hard...

Opponents of the bill are fearful that making it easier to carry a concealed handgun will create a charged environment where gun violence could quickly escalate. Zandra Rice Hawkins, Executive Director of Granite State Progress, said that allowing for constitutional carry will simply gut already weak gun laws. "In New Hampshire, it is already easier to legally carry a handgun than it is to legally drive a car," Hawkins told the Union Leader."SB 116 would make that worse. It is reasonable to deny concealed carry permits to those who are a danger to themselves or others."

Robert Yuille, whose wife, Cindy, was killed in the Dec. 11, 2012, shootings at Clackamas Town Center, said, "I'm here today for Cindy because she no longer has a voice." He argued that expanding background checks was a "no-brainer" because they help keep guns out of the hands of felons and others who are prohibited by law from possessing guns.

Wednesday, April 1, 2015Gov. Sam Brownback to sign bill allowing unlicensed conceal-carryBy Tim Carpenter Gov. Sam Brownback pledged to sign legislation Thursday allowing Kansas adults to carry concealed firearms without first obtaining a license or undergoing weapon training. [...]

The debate over changing Las Vegas gun laws and the guns laws in Nevada covers, like the desert outside Las Vegas, a lot of ground. On one side are individual rights and freedoms and the laissez-faire spirit of the mythical Old West. On the other side are modern concerns such as suicide prevention and protecting women from violence. Sometimes both come in to play, as when Linda Cavazos of the group Moms Demand Action was quoted by guns.com as saying in support of background checks, “This isn’t a partisan issue – it’s about respecting the Second Amendment and keeping guns...

Katie Pavlich talked to The WON at the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (SHOT) last January about her role in creating Safe Haven: Gun-Free Zones in America. It airs Wed., April 1, on Outdoor Channel. You may know Pavlich as a conservative contributor to Townhall magazine, FOX news and as a columnist at The Hill and Pittsburgh Tribune. In this documentary, she and the team at Outdoor Channel removed politics and emotions from a hot-button topic that sits at the front and center of firearms and freedom in this country.

Adding to the sting of losing the case, the Court also held that “defendants Lucky Gunner and the Sportsman’s Guide are entitled to an award of reasonable attorney fees and costs.”

On March 26, the Tampa Bay Times responded to the numerous pro-Second Amendment bills making their way through the Florida legislature by suggesting that “gun rights are not absolute.” In other words, “shall not be infringed” does not mean “shall not be infringed.” According to the Times, the numerous gun rights bills–especially campus carry–show that Republican legislators are controlled by the NRA and do not understand that if certain limits are not placed on Second Amendment rights, public safety is sacrificed.

On March 22 a man who opened fire on children and adults in a Philadelphia barbershop was shot and killed by a citizen with a concealed carry permit. The armed citizen had been walking by the barbershop when he heard gunshots. He ran inside and shot the gunman. According NBC Philadelphia, the incident arose after two men got into a fight in the barbershop. An unnamed 40-year-old man fought with another customer then pulled out a gun and started shooting. Police said the man fired on “customers and barbers,” and some of those customers were children. As the 40-year-old man...

The 15 likely Republican hopefuls for the White House in 2016 have varying positions on things like immigration reform and foreign policy but, The Washington Post reports, they are in unanimity on at least one point: a love of guns and broad opposition to new limits of their purchase or use. With the exception of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who the Post calls the field's "one true outlier," the 14 other presidential hopefuls have all received A-ratings from the powerful National Rifle Association, though some got A-pluses, others A-minuses.

NBC News and a local affiliate have being slapped with a libel and slander lawsuit for March, 23, 2015 report that aired on Today (also known as The Today Show) entitled, “Bombs for Sale? Popular Stores Sell ‘Dangerous Explosives.'”

61 percent of Floridians oppose requiring colleges and universities to allow concealed weapons on their campuses. 61 percent of Floridians oppose changing Florida law to allow guns in K-12 schools. Only eight percent of Floridians say the state's gun laws should be weakened, compared to 48 percent who would like to see gun laws strengthened, and 39 percent who would like gun laws to remain unchanged.