Free Republic

Republican Sen. Rand Paul said “everybody probably would have died” when someone opened fire at a GOP congressmen baseball practice Wednesday, had it not been for House Majority Whip Steve Scalise’s security detail. “Everybody probably would have died, except for the fact that the Capitol Hill police were there,” Paul said on MSNBC. “And the only reason they were there is because we had a member of leadership on our team.” Scalise was shot in the hip when the gunman opened fire with a rifle during the practice for an annual congressional baseball game of Democrats vs. Republicans. Members of...

June 15, 2016: Just months after Department of Homeland Security advisers claimed “the threat from right-wing extremists domestically is just as real as the threat from Islamic extremism,” DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson suggested his department should be in charge of implementing gun control. But media pioneer Matt Drudge reacted to Johnson’s comments with his own demand. He insisted the DHS secretary give up his own guns first. “Homeland Jeh says Give up Your Guns!” Drudge tweeted Wednesday. “You go first, Brah.” As WND reported, after a terrorist attack in Orlando, Florida, Johnson told CBS News’ “This Morning” on June 14...

We’ve all heard ridiculous claims about law enforcement, but this one really takes the cake. State Representative Minnie Gonzalez (D-Hartford) had quite a bit to say about HB 6663, a Police Accountability Bill she is passionately supporting. Discussing the bill in front of the Connecticut Legislature’s General Assembly, Gonzalez said: “This bill is to hold accountable and to stop those cowboys that, because they got a bat and a gun, they think they can go shooting especially young kids in our community. This is not the Wild Wild West. And no consequences. Those cowboys doesn’t belong in the police department....

Rep. Elizabeth Esty (D-Conn.) called for campaign finance reform to mitigate the gun lobby’s influence on the political process and urged Democrats to drop the phrase “gun control.” Esty said gay Americans, in particular, shouldn’t support government “control” of any aspect of their lives so they should use the term “gun safety” instead of “gun control” when advocating for tougher gun laws. She told attendees at the Center for American Progress Action Fund event that the NRA leadership is “way out of touch” with its membership on the issue of background checks for every gun sale. “I mean, the numbers...

On Monday, Florida’s Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey doubled down on last week’s pro-self-defense comments by making clear that police respond to 911 calls in minutes but criminals take lives in mere seconds. On June 9 Breitbart News reported Ivey’s earlier comments, wherein he urged citizens to get a gun, get mentally prepared, and let terrorists scratch and claw to defend their own lives for a change.

Tacoma Washington is likely to do away with its ban on electric weapons. The Supreme Court decision in Caetano PER CURIAM decision (pdf) is the reason why.  From Caetano: The Court has held that “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,” District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. 570, 582 (2008), and that this “Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States,” McDonald v.Chicago, 561 U. S. 742, 750 (2010). Caetano was directly about electronic weapons.  Lawsuits against...

Florida’s Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey is urging law-abiding Americans to arm up, get familiar with their firearm, and be ready to make terrorists worry about defending their own lives, for a change. Ivey made these comments in a video he posted to Facebook in reaction to the horrendous attacks on unarmed, law-abiding Londoners. Looking at terror attacks around the world, Ivey observed: Terrorists and active shooters are using every weapon available to target citizens. Guns, knives, trucks, hammers, and even explosives have all become the weapon of choice for murderers who only have one goal–killing innocent and law-abiding citizens....

FBI crime report figures show that Alaska, Arizona, and Wyoming–three states that abolished their concealed requirement years ago–have since witnessed a decreased in handgun murders. This runs completely counter to the left’s doom and gloom predictions whereby they claim doing away with a government-issued carry permit will mean more bad guys carrying guns, more shootings and violence, etc. FBI figures published by the NRA show that Alaska’s handgun murder rate “declined after the state enacted permitless carry in 2003.” Moreover, in the years since Alaska’s permit requirement was abolished “handgun murders have declined as a percentage of the total number...

There’s something afoot in Michigan which will come as welcome news to Second Amendment supporter around the nation. The state house passed a new bill this week which, if signed into law by Governor Rick Snyder, would make it legal for residents to carry their handguns concealed without needing any special permit to do so. Reuters reports that the move remains controversial, but Republicans in the state even found a few Democrats to vote with them on the measure.

A mother shot and killed an armed suspect in front of her young children during an attempted home invasion in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Indianapolis police confirmed the fatal shooting and said the mother and her four children were fine, according to local NBC4i.com. The mother came face to face with the armed intruder in front of her children, who were all under the age of seven. Police said she shot the intruder and protected her children in the process. Police confirmed the suspect was indeed armed. He was unidentified as of press time. Neighbors told Fox affiliate Fox 59 the...

Gun control laws are pointless, and here's all you need to know about that: From the early 1990s until 2016, guns in circulation in the U.S. just about doubled, while violent crime was just about cut in half. Worse (for the gun grabbers), gun control laws often lead to outcomes the gun grabbers never intended: In that post AWB [the Bill Clinton-era "Assault Weapon Ban"] world, you could still buy a GLOCK or a Beretta, but why would you? Unless you had a source of pre-ban magazines you felt screwed and cheated. Why carry a full size pistol that could...

A year ago, Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives staged a sit-in demanding a vote on federal gun-safety bills following the shootings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The National Rifle Association’s lobbying was largely blamed for no vote happening. But looking deeper, the Second Amendment with the unique American individualism wrapped around it underlies all. It is America’s fundamental gun problem. As Michael Waldman at the Brennan Center for Justice suggests in Politico Magazine (2014), the NRA’s construing of the Second Amendment as an unconditional “right” to own and carry guns (a “right” beyond actual constitutional law...

(Peter Hitchens at :29)....no they can't shoot me because they've been disarmed by the state. A couple of interesting points that people need to consider until the year 1920, Steven touched upon, the gun laws of this country made Texas look effeminate. There was complete freedom in this country to own and buy guns to such an extent that the unarmed police at one major incident in London where they had to deal with a foreign anarchist gang in 1909 borrowed guns from passers by to shoot them..... (at 2:43)...At one point in our history citizens were actually required to...

The Wisconsin legislature is moving forward with Constitutional Carry in bill AB 247.  In 1998, the people of Wisconsin voted for Constitutional Carry in a state referendum amending the state constitution. The amendment, which created Article I, Section 25, is very clear. It received 74% of the vote. From Article I Section 25:  The people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation or any other lawful purpose. AB 247 is a comprehensive bill that puts Section 25 into practical law in Wisconsin.  From fox6now.com: MADISON -- A proposed bill would allow people in...

A Chicago teen was shot dead last Saturday after attempting to rob a 24-year-old man with a valid concealed carry permit. Meanwhile, the concealed carry permit holder has not been charged for the shooting. Though, that may change pending the results of the investigation. “According to police, the [24-year-old] shooter is considered the victim at this point,” Oak Park village spokesman David Powers told the Chicago Tribune. “The Cook County State’s Attorney could decide otherwise based on the findings of the investigation, which is still ongoing.”

The St. Louis Police Department has decided to sell 27 of its historic and valuable Thompson submachine guns in an effort to raise the funds necessary to purchase new duty firearms for its officers, according to a report from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Kentucky-based Midwest Distributors has agreed to pay $22,000 for each of the iconic rifles, but they will likely sell the old police arsenal to private parties for much, much more.

The Texas Legislature has passed significant knife law reform by large margins. The bill is on the way to Governor Abbott, and will likely be signed into law. The bill removes bowie knives, dirks, throwing knives, daggers, swords and spears from the list of “illegal knives”.H.B. 1935 in the House with a vote of 131 to 1. The Senate vote has not yet been reported. In the last legislature a similar bill was approved by the Senate unanimously. The ban on knives was first passed in 1871.In 1871, the reconstruction government in Texas passed the bill to forbid the...

Last week the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) held an event in Manassas, Virginia, focused on the hearing protection offered by firearm suppressors. Suppressors and firearms from Daniel Defense and Sig Sauer were used at the event, which was designed to be hands-on. This means the reporters and writers who were present got to shoot every firearm and use every suppressor at the range. Breitbart News attended the event, which drew attention to the suppressor legislation contained in the Hearing Protection Act. That Act was put forward by Representatives Jeff Duncan (R-SC-3) and John Carter (R-TX-31) on January 9. It...

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck warns that national reciprocity for concealed carry will be a disaster in California. In a May 25 op-ed published by the Los Angeles Times, Beck wrote, “The mere presence of more concealed weapons on California streets would make police work here much more hazardous.” Beck did not mention, however, that police officers around the nation support gun rights over gun control and specifically support concealed carry for law-abiding citizens. On January 11, 2017, Breitbart News reported a Pew Research Center survey showing that rank-and-file police officers support protecting citizens’ gun rights over passing...

I read with fascination this article that appeared in the Macon, Georgia Telegraph today, which I’m pleased to see is getting a fair amount of press on my favorite pro-Second Amendment sites. And by fascination, I really mean the sort of morbid, irresistible curiosity that compels one to stare at car accidents and other scenes of destruction, like The Kramer. In it, breathless researchers from Boston University trumpet their newly launched State Firearm Law Database. The article is sure to appeal to the logic challenged, especially those who already suffer from full-blown hoplophobia. Michael Siegel and Molly Pahn propose to...