Free Republic

The state Senate on Thursday approved sweeping new restrictions on using guns in California in response to the December mass shooting by two terrorists that left 14 dead in San Bernardino. Lawmakers approved 11 bills including measures mandating background checks for Californians buying ammunition and outlawing the manufacture and sale of semiautomatic rifles with detachable magazines. The bills, which next go to the Assembly for consideration, represent the most ambitious effort at gun control in decades in California, which already has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation.

Obama has consistently spoken out against Second Amendment rights. A poster showing Barack Obama is seen in the background as customers line up to look at firearms at a gun shop in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008. The Cheaper Than Dirt gun store recorded a record day of gun sales the day after the election of President-elect Barack Obama and is having trouble keeping up with the demand for assault riffles. (Flickr) It sounds like Hillary Clinton would not be any better.

According to police, a Kokomo, Indiana, robbery suspect fled the scene after his would-be victim drew her gun in self-defense. The incident occurred around 5:45 a.m. on May 12. According to Fox 59, a woman was walking to her residence and was confronted by a suspect standing at the door. “She said the man displayed a gun, and he threatened her and demanded her money.” She responded by pulling her own gun, and “the suspect ran away.”

Mesquite, TX investigators said according to witnesses, an incident that started with a harmless traffic maneuver, ended with a man being shot and killed in self defense this Sunday. Officers responded to a report of gunfire in the area of Rodeo Center Drive and Military Parkway about 10:15 p.m. where they discovered the body of Armando Macias Jr., 25, who died from apparent gunshot wounds. When Macias and two family members witnessed a car turning around in their driveway, they began to yell and curse at the people in the vehicle. The driver of the car, who was unfamiliar with...

... There appears to be a troubling trend within the VA. As of December 2015, almost 99 percent of the names listed on the 'mental defective' category for the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, otherwise known as the national gun-ban list, are from the Veterans Administration. Once a person's name is on that list, they are banned from owning or possessing a firearm. Their Second Amendment rights are completely null and void...

Doctors routinely ask if you smoke, and counsel you to wear your seat belt when you’re in a car. Technically, either behavior isn’t any of their business, but they do fall under the umbrella of preventive care. Now Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the violence prevention research program at the University of California Davis, and his colleagues want to add firearms to the office visit for similar reasons. First, he says that no federal or state laws prevent doctors from asking their patients about whether they have guns in the home.

Donald Trump will deliver a speech to thousands of NRA members at an annual meeting in Kentucky this week. But he wasn't always so pro-gun. Rather than impose gun control on law-abiding citizens, he wants to imprison gun-toting violent criminals for longer periods of time. Rather than expand background checks, he wants to fix the current system, which he says is "broken."

Katie Couric’s gun control documentary “Under the Gun” was released May 15 without any portion of a four-hour interview conducted with John Lott, Jr. Lott is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and a known gun scholar whose seminal work is More Guns, Less Crime. On May 6, Lott tweeted that he had been “interviewed for 4 hours” for Couric’s film and he “bet” that four hours would be reduced to a “select few minutes” of actual screen time. The reduction happened alright. But instead of using those select few minutes, Couric and director Stephanie Soechtig cut Lott’s interview...

The plaintiffs in the case included three individuals who wanted to open a new gun store in Alameda County. They were joined by pro-Second Amendment groups: The Calguns Foundation, California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, and the Second Amendment Foundation. “Today, the Court appropriately reminded the County that civil rights can’t be outlawed through piles of regulation. We look forward to securing Second Amendment rights through this case and many others to come,” concluded Brandon Combs, executive director of The Calguns Foundation. “We’re very happy to see the Court take a very principled and reasoned approach to protecting the fundamental,...

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved quickly to announce some sort of gun control proposal after it was reported that the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was more than disappointed with the liberal senator’s lack of gusto on the issue of gun control (via the Hill): "He made a promise to a room full of advocates, leaders, and gun violence victims last fall in New York to bring an expanded background check bill to the floor this year,” said Brady spokesman Brendan Kelly. "With the first quarter down, he hasn't done it.” Brady is one of the largest gun control...

It’s a tradition as old as yellow journalism, “Bash the Second Amendment” week, and it was off to a vigorous start with last night’s debut of “Under the Gun,” touted as a “documentary” hosted by Katie Couric and broadcast on Epix. The press seems to relish in doing gun control stories in the week leading up to the annual convention of the National Rifle Association. The NRA gathers this coming weekend in Louisville, and in addition to the Couric program, there’s an anti-gun opinion piece in today’s Seattle Times from Jerry Large, and another column in today’s Daily Californian that...

On May 12, The Washington Post’s editorial board contended that the shooting spree carried out by federal police officer Eulalio Tordil on May 5 and 6 highlights the need for a national gun registry. Ironically, the WaPo points to Maryland as one of the few states that already has a registry in place. Yet Tordil allegedly carried out his heinous attacks in Maryland. He is alleged to have shot and killed his estranged wife in Prince George County on May 5, then shot and killed a random male and female in Montgomery County on May 6.

MTV is urging viewers to pinpoint politicians who want teachers to be armed for self-defense–and then vote those politicians out of office. In a video segment called “The Racket,” MTV pointed out that the state of Tennessee recently enacted a law to become the tenth state to adopt legislation allowing teachers to be armed for self-defense. Then the network ridiculed the sponsor of that legislation, Representative Andy Holt (R-Dresden), for saying he would “like to see 100 percent removal of all gun-free zones in public places.”

While on vacation in Florida recently, I was able to sneak away for a day and drive up to Kel-Tec CNC Industries for a tour of their facilities. Seems like a lot of people think Kel-Tec is four guys in a garage assembling a couple dozen guns a month, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Cranking out over 150,000 firearms each year, Kel-Tec is the fifth or sixth largest U.S. firearms manufacturer, and the video above and gazillion photos below show how they do it .

The National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action is launching an informational website to stop the Californication of Nevadans’ gun rights. The VoteNoQuestion1 website exposes the truth about how a universal background check would criminalize the commonplace activities of many Nevada gun owners. “The law-abiding gun owners of Nevada need to know that Question 1 would cost them their money and their freedom. It could even criminalize many of their commonplace activities,” said Catherine Mortensen, NRA Spokesperson. “This ballot initiative was bought and paid for by outside gun control groups bent on the Californication of Nevada. Armed with the facts,...

On May 9 — less than two years since universal background checks were hoisted onto the backs of law-abiding citizens in Washington state — Gabby Giffords was in the state campaigning for special protective orders that will allow firearm confiscation. The orders — “Extreme Risk Protection Orders” — would be similar to California’s Gun Violence Restraining Orders, inasmuch as they would allow “family or household members” to petition a judge to order the temporary confiscation of firearms from another family member or person living in the household.

Former ABC, CBS and NBC anchor Katie Couric takes on the National Rifle Association and other Second Amendment supporters in a new film entitled Under the Gun, which will debut at 8 p.m. on Sunday, May 15, on the Epix pay cable channel. Currently an anchor for Yahoo! Google News, Couric is an executive producer and narrator of the documentary, which -- according to the movie's website -- “examines the events and people who have kept the gun debate fierce and the progress slow, even as gun deaths and mass shootings continue to increase.” In case there was any inkling...

While I am sure that most would opt to select .223/5.56 NATO over .22LR for home defense, but I have heard the argument that .22 would be “better” for home defense since its reduced energy would mean that it would penetrate through fewer walls. On the flip side, others argue that the 5.56 would be better as the round would tumble dissipating its energy and thus penetrate less.

In November, Maine’s public will be asked to decide whether lawful owners of firearms should be required to go to a gun dealer, pay a “reasonable fee” and be required to fill out a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Form 4473 to buy or sell a firearm. The referendum’s proponents claim that these requirements are easy, will make us safer, and that this will not be gun registration. Such claims are misleading. Who will determine the amount of this “reasonable fee”? Why should the owner of lawful property, which he or she may have owned for decades, be...

Using an actual 8-millimeter handgun without ammunition, he went on to show how to unload the magazine and pack it in the case.