Free Republic

The four decades since 2016 have seen a breathtaking restoration of the Republic of the United States of America.  Looking back from 2056, the historians and pundits say it was inevitable. The United States had enormous energy resources, an educated and ethical workforce, a history of entrepreneurial spirit. The fruits of the digital industrial age, genome processing, and robotic development were on the edge of explosion. The resurgence back from the malaise and blame America thinking of the Obama administration was certain to happen, with a wealthy, prosperous, powerful and free America the obvious result. It wasn't that way....

Harlan Ellison, one of the most influential sci-fi writers of the twentieth century, passed away today in his sleep. He was 84 years old. Christine Valada, the widow of the late Len Wein and a friend of Harlan and his wife Susan, officially announced the author’s passing on Twitter. “Susan Ellison has asked me to announce the passing of writer Harlan Ellison, in his sleep, earlier today,” Valada wrote. “For a brief time I was here, and for a brief time, I mattered.”—HE, 1934-2018. Arrangements for a celebration of his life are pending.

This has become an American routine: After every mass shooting, the debate over guns and gun violence starts up once again. Maybe some bills get introduced. Critics respond with concerns that the government is trying to take away their guns. The debate stalls. So even as America continues experiencing levels of gun violence unrivaled in the rest of the developed world, nothing happens — no laws are passed by Congress, nothing significant is done to try to prevent the next horror. So why is it that for all the outrage and mourning with every mass shooting, nothing seems to change?...

Five people have died and several others are hurt after a shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper building in Annapolis, Maryland, local and federal officials say. The names of the dead were not released immediately. The suspected shooter is in custody, and authorities are questioning him, officials said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. "I don't know what to say other than our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families, and we take comfort knowing that they are in God's embrace," Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh said. Injured victims are being treated at R. Adams Cowley Shock...

During a courtesy call before her confirmation, Justice Elena Kagan responded to a remark by Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, about gun rights. Risch told Kagan she may not realize how important the issue was to most Americans... Kagan said she had never owned or fired a gun. "But I told the senator if I was fortunate enough to be confirmed, I would go hunting with Justice Scalia." Kagan lived up to her word. She has accompanied Scalia to a shooting range and on several hunting trips, she said. “It turns out, it's kind of fun," she added.

Image by Troy Nemitz On May 31, 2018, about two o'clock in the afternoon, 23-year-old Noah Kolis was guiding three friends from Chicago. They started at his boyhood home near Cora, Wyoming. His dog, a Chesapeake-Lab mix, was with them. They were heading to some rock formations. Noah was carrying his 460V Smith & Wesson revolver. Two other men in the party were carrying bear spray.  The two men with bear spray had fallen 50 yards behind. The dog alerted on something. Noah thought it was some sort of big animal. Then he saw the bears, a grizzly sow...

A political action committee backing former state Sen. Michael Johnston of Denver for the Democratic nod for governor has received another $1 million dollars from Michael Bloomberg, bringing the wealthy former New York mayor’s total donations to the committee to $2 million. ... The $1 million contribution was the largest that any campaign committee received in the most recent reporting period from May 31 to June 13, according to the secretary of state’s office’s TRACER campaign finance system. Second on the list: another $750,000 from fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder to his gubernatorial campaign, bringing his total...

Two up-and-coming U.S. rappers, XXXTentacion and Jimmy Wopo, were killed on Monday in separate shootings near Miami and in Pittsburgh, police and local media reported. In Florida, the Broward County sheriff's office said that XXXTentacion, 20, was shot while leaving a motor sports dealership in Deerfield Beach, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Miami. The rapper, whose real name was Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy, was later pronounced dead, the sheriff's department said. "The adult male victim has been confirmed as 20 year old Jahseh Onfroy, aka rapper #XXXTentacion," the sheriff's department said in a posting on Twitter....

The weekend began with seven people shot in just an hour on the South Side. It ended with 10 people shot in two attacks on the West Side. By Monday morning, at least 56 people had been hit by gunfire in Chicago over the weekend. At least nine of them died(snip) "Most of Chicago celebrated and enjoyed this weekend," Chicago police First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio told reporters,(snip) "However, we saw an unacceptable and frustrating level of gun violence in several communities. “There’s too many illegal guns on the street,” he added, echoing a constant theme of his boss, Superintendent...

Gun control advocates can now boast of a new group of allies joining their dubious coalition: witches. It kind of makes sense. We all know that gun control is based mainly on magical thinking. Its advocates, after all, ask us to believe we’re just a few more “commonsense safety measures” away from a world in which evil people who are otherwise determined to kill others refrain from doing so for fear they might violate a gun control law somewhere along the way. A related premise is that gun control advocates hold the keys to ending violent behavior once and for...

Delta Airlines and Bank of America pulled out of their sponsorship of New York’s Public Theater on Sunday over a production of “Julius Caesar” that re imagines the main character as President Trump. Shortly after Delta, who was a four-year sponsor, made its announcement, Bank of America yanked its support as well. The Shakespeare in the Park play tells the story of the leader assassinated by Roman senators over the fear that he’s becoming too tyrannical, but rather than the original setting, the production stages Caesar (Gregg Henry) and his wife, Calpurnia, (Tina Benko) with Donald and Melania Trump lookalikes....

When gun control advocates can’t win on guns, they have tried to either silence those who support self-defense from having their views covered in the media, youtube banning videos intending to sell firearms or accessories or how to use guns or build them, or prevent firearms companies from getting financing. On financing, the first strategy was to use government pressure. With that ended, individual finance companies are making life difficult for those in the firearms industry.

On Tuesday the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) secured an injunction blocking Deerfield, Illinois, pending “assault weapons” ban. On April 3, 2018, Breitbart News reported that Deerfield was not only banning said weapons but empowering its chief of police to confiscate them and destroy them. He would also be empowered to confiscate and destroy “high capacity” magazines. On April 5, 2018, Breitbart News reported that SAF filed suit against Deerfield, claiming the village’s “assault weapons” ban violated Illinois’ preemption law. SAF’s lawsuit was joined by the Illinois State Rifle Association and Deerfield resident Daniel Easterday.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal sent letters to a number of gun parts manufacturers threatening legal action unless they halt future sales in New Jersey. Grewal’s action targets unnamed “ghost gun makers” who he argues advertises build and kits to New Jersey residents with possible civil action under New Jersey’s Consumer Fraud Act, with as much as a $10,000 penalty for initial offenses. He holds that fraud is committed because the makers do not disclose that possessing a firearm classified under state law as an unregistered “assault weapon” in New Jersey is a crime. “As the chief law enforcement officer...

As a first step, I would like to challenge Sen. Rubio to publically explain why any American civilian actually needs to own a military assault weapon. The 2nd Amendment of our Constitution consists of 26 words written in arcane language that has caused much confusion down through the years. Since the amendment was written at a time in our history where virtually every home contained a flintlock musket and gun ownership was an accepted, normal part of everyday life, it’s reasonable to believe that, rather than dealing with individual gun ownership, the 2nd Amendment was intended to protect the right...

Wexler retired from the Secret Service in 2014 after 27 years with the agency. ~~~~~~~~~~~ He had offered in the past to make security recommendations. The district “finally took me up on the offer” in December when a teacher on behalf of the school’s security committee asked him to conduct a “site survey” of the campus. Was school security sufficient? they wanted to know. ~~~~~~~~~~ He said he printed out details about the school: its floor plan, bell schedule and an aerial map. Then he arrived early for his meeting Dec. 13 and pulled his truck into the visitor’s parking...

AOKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma's Republican Governor Mary Fallin vetoed a bill that would have allowed adults to carry handguns without a permit and signed another that permits religious organizations to exclude same sex couples from adoptions, managing to anger both gun and gay rights groups on the same day. The twin actions announced late Friday were among more than a dozen decisions on legislation taken by the term-limited governor as she clears the decks in her waning months in office. They also followed a tumultuous session of the Legislature that saw striking teachers march on the Capitol, prompting lawmakers to...

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson introduced legislation this week that would create a national gun registry. Known as the “Crime Gun Tracing Modernization Act,” the bill would require ATF to set up a “searchable, computerized database” of all records pertaining to the sale, importation, production or shipment of firearms. The agency would be given three years to get the system up and running. “The fact that there is a law on the books that forces agents to comb through millions of files by hand is absolutely ridiculous,” said Nelson, a Florida Democrat.

The Florida government did not conduct background checks on thousands of applicants for concealed weapons for a year because the state employee was unable to log into the system. According to a February 2016 investigative report from Florida’s Inspector General, first reported by the Tampa Bay Times, a state Division of Licensing employee identified as Lisa Wilde was unable to log into the system to actually complete these background checks. She never mitigated this issue. When determining eligibility for purchasing a firearm, applicants must undergo a background check known as the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which is...

Last month, April, 2018, the California Department of Justice raided prominent Kern County Farmer, Jeffrey Scott Kirschenmann. The justification for the raid was pictures the farmer had sent to the Department of Justice in an attempt to register a rifle. The DOJ claimed the rifle was an illegally modified “Assault weapon”.  During the raid, the DOJ confiscated 230 rounds of ammunition, a dozen guns, two objects claimed to be “silencers”, and some sort of trigger activator. There is reason to be wary of the accuracy of the claims of what was found during the raid. California law is very complex....