Free Republic

More than 100 people lined up to check out the handguns and rifles being auctioned off in Poteau on Saturday (May 18). The LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office auctioned off 264 weapons that had been confiscated and held in the department’s evidence vault. Sheriff Rob Seale said some of the guns were collected as far back as 1999. “A lot of them are weapons that have been seized in court cases that have been cleared,” said Seale. “A lot of them are just lost property that’s been found, property that’s been turned over by the owners.” The auction brought in potential...

LITTLE ROCK, AR- The gun debate is not over. Lawmakers say the gun battle will soon be back on the Senate floor. That has some people worried, especially gun enthusiasts who say we should enforce the gun laws that are already on the books. The issue has divided the nation. At first, many called for a ban on certain guns and ammunition, now there are calls for tougher background checks. Donna Terrell talks with one mother, Regina Pryor, who knows about guns, specifically , one of the most controversial, the AR-15. "They call them assault rifles, but they are not...

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) - Police say one of their officers shot and wounded an armed burglary suspect Thursday morning. Sergeant Cassandra Davis says the man was one of possibly three suspects who broke into vehicles on 416 North Pierce Street just before around 5:40 a.m. Police found one suspect near University and H Street. Traffic was shut down in the northbound lane while officers tried to take him into custody. The suspect and officers shot at each other. The suspect was hit in the upper torso and hospitalized. At last check, he was listed in critical condition. No officers were...

On 4 April, 2013, Arkansas HB1700 became ACT 746. The revised law will not go into effect until late July or early August of this year. The bill makes a definition change in the statute that has been interpreted to limit the legal carrying of weapons in Arkansas. The original language was this:A person commits the offense of carrying a weapon if he or she possesses a handgun, knife, or club on or about his or her person, in a vehicle occupied by him or her, or otherwise readily available for use with a purpose to employ the handgun,...

LITTLE ROCK, AR -- Little Rock Police are responding to a bank robbery just down the street directly west of the department. According to the Little Rock Police Department, the robbery occurred at Bank of the Ozarks located at 109 North Chester. Officers received the call at 11:40Wednesday morning, and say the suspect is a black male who stands 5 feet 10 inches tall with a medium build, wearing a white and bluecap and a white denim jacket. He was seen running eastbound from the bank. (Directly towards LRPD). Police say the suspect said he had a weapon, but never...

A 76-year-old man from Auburn, Mass. says a bear was about to kill him when it entered his backyard recently, so he took his gun, aimed it, and fired. He killed the bear, but now the senior citizen and military vet is facing charges because he apparently didn’t possess the right gun permit.

In May, New England's fishermen will again see a cut to the number of fish they can catch, this time so deeply that the historic industry's existence is threatened from Rhode Island to Maine. But as hard as the cuts are likely to hit fishing communities, local seafood eaters may not notice at all. In the region's markets, grocery stores and restaurants, imported fish dominate, and the cuts make that less likely to change. The cuts will shrink the catch limit 77 percent for cod in the Gulf of Maine and 61 percent for cod in Georges Bank, off southeastern...

A Democratic senator claims impostors pretending to work for his office are calling people in his state to ask how many guns they own. Sen. Mark Pryor, of Arkansas, took to Twitter Friday to clarify that he is not the one behind those calls.

Animal rights charity PETA killed almost 90 per cent of dogs and cats placed in the care of the shelter at its Virginia headquarters last year, it has been revealed today. The charity, well-known for attention grabbing publicity campaigns such as the 'I'd rather go naked' anti-fur campaign, euthanized 1,647 cats and dogs last year and only placed 19 in new homes according to the data submitted to the Virginia Department for Agriculture and Consumer Services. PETA told Mail Online that the animals they take in at the center are 'unadoptable', however 89.4 per cent of pets is much higher...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with timber interests in a dispute over the regulation of runoff from logging roads in western forests. In a 7-1 vote, the court reversed a federal appeals court ruling that held that muddy water running off roads used in industrial logging is the same as any other industrial pollution, requiring a Clean Water Act permit from the Environmental Protection Agency.

During a brief address Saturday (March 9) in Benton County, Rep. Sue Scott, R-Rogers, discussed a plan to revive an amended version of her open-carry measure, House Bill 1408. The amended bill, which she referred to as a “baby step,” would protect those with a concealed-carry permit if their firearm inadvertently becomes exposed, as when the wind blows a jacket open, in unincorporated areas, she said. The amended version is expected to be heard Tuesday in the House Judiciary Committee, Scott said.

Multiple rural county sheriffs from Utah testified Thursday about the abusive use of police power by Bureau of Land Management rangers or forest protection officers with the U.S. Forest Service. They are asserting it is time to rein in the authority the agencies should have never been allowed to exercise. Sheriffs from San Juan, Kane and Garfield counties spoke in favor of HB155, sponsored by Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, which proposes to limit BLM rangers and forest protection officers from exercising police power over state and local laws unless someone's safety is at risk or federal contracts are in place...

SLA and FDM. Does not fail from firing stresses. 600+ rounds (.223).

More than 200 people crowded into the Monticello High School auditorium on February 7 for a public hearing on the proposed designation of endangered species status for the small population of Gunnision Sage Grouse in San Juan County. Representatives from the US Fish and Wildlife Service faced a mostly hostile but mostly respectful crowd. They were there to explain the rationale behind the proposed designation and how it may affect the area. Two rules are proposed: one would designate the bird as an endangered species and the other would designation large swaths of land as critical habitat. San Juan County...

Legislation that would move the ownership and management of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands in New Mexico to the state has been introduced at the Roundhouse. The Transfer of Public Lands Act is sponsored by Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-Alamogordo, and Sen. Richard C. Martinez, D-Espanola... Herrell said New Mexico has a rich history of farming, ranching, hunting, fishing and oil drilling. "In our past we have also had a thriving timber industry that is unfortunately near nonexistent ... ... A healthy timber industry, managed responsibly by New Mexicans, would not only help our economy by creating...

Elephant rides are becoming endangered species at SoCal parades, zoos, fairs and festival. Several organizations have yanked elephant rides from street fairs, festivals and zoos in SoCal, thanks to the lobbying efforts of Animal Defenders International.

The Hage family last Thursday filed a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court, appealing a claims court judgment that stripped away part of their $14 million award in a suit against the U.S. Forest Service over grazing rights in Monitor Valley. Nye County Commissioner Lorinda Wichman said Tuesday she’s afraid the ruling by a court of appeals for the federal circuit overturning part of the judgment in the Wayne Hage case — that only hand tools are allowed to be used to maintain roads in the national forest — could jeopardize the $250,000 the county spent on the...

Lawyers for the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will square off Friday before a federal judge in Oakland in the first round of a legal battle to continue the commercial oyster operation in the Point Reyes National Seashore. At stake is Salazar's decision in November not to renew a 40-year lease that gave oyster farm operator Kevin Lunny the right to commercial operations in 2,500-acre Drakes Estero, a five-fingered estuary that features extensive eelgrass beds and a harbor seal colony. The decision, hailed by wilderness advocates, gave Lunny's company 90 days to shut down a business...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas Senate is voting on legislation that would allow concealed handguns in churches, the first of several gun-related measures expected in this year's session.

The Sierra Club has announced its approval for a "one-time" use of civil disobedience. The civil disobedience is intended to step up their efforts to oppose the Keystone pipeline. Many of the other groups opposing Keystone have been engaging in civil disobedience as a tactic, including arson-based ecoterrorism. This will be the first time in the Sierra Club's history that they have approved violating the law.

With the imminent return of Ken Salazar to Colorado, and talk of his future political aspirations bubbling up in the papers, we thought it a good time to recount a brief history of Secretary Salazar’s failures at the Interior Department. ... First and foremost amongst Salazar’s fiascos is the BP oil spill. The Deepwater Horizons disaster is firmly etched in the American conscience as an example of bumbling incompetence and haphazard, if not non-existent, leadership. Salazar mucked up his role so badly that unnamed White House sources spanked him publicly in The Washington Post as an “erratic spokesman” who was...

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ... has proposed designating 1.7 million acres in southwest Colorado and southeast Utah as critical habitat for the bird ... The designation sometimes, but not always, means restrictions on human activities on that land. The public and the scientific community have until March 12 to comment before the agency makes a final decision on whether to list the Gunnison sage grouse as endangered.

The chance to traipse through Florida's Everglades in search of wild pythons up to 15 feet long has attracted nearly 700 thrill-seekers from throughout the county. The Sunshine State is offering cash prizes in the month-long “Python Challenge,” which begins tomorrow and is aimed at helping to control the exploding population of the non-native Burmese pythons, which have devastated Florida's eco-system. Anyone is eligible for the hunt ... cash prizes of up to $1,500 will be given to hunters who catch the largest and most pythons. The pythons that have nearly eradicated entire native species such as deer, bobcats and...

The Little Rock Police Department is investigating a weekend shooting incident on the city's west side after a store owner exchanges gunfire with suspects who tried to rob his business. It happened Saturday afternoon around 4:45 along North Bowman Road. A police officer on patrol said he heard two to three loud bangs before he was flagged down by several people reporting the shooting. Police say the 27-year-old owner of Urban Swagg said three suspects beat him in the head and face before tying him up and then tying up his 25-year-old girlfriend too. It happened after the men walked...

FAIRBANKS — A wolf attacked a Tok trapper on his snowmachine last week about 30 miles off the Taylor Highway, biting through the man’s parka and three layers of clothing to put a 3-inch gash on his arm. Lance Grangaard, 30, said he was “putting along” on his Ski-Doo Tundra on Thursday afternoon, coming down a frozen creek, when he saw the wolf out of the corner of his eye. “I turned in time to stick my arm up,” said Grangaard, who was trapping with his father, Danny, in a remote area off the Taylor Highway known as Ketchumstuk. “A...

The acting U.S. Commerce Secretary on Friday ordered federal regulators to return about $544,000 in unjust fines collected from 14 fishermen or fishing businesses, most of whom worked Northeast waters. Secretary Rebecca Blank also directed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to forgive two other complainants a combined $150,000 in debt. Her decisions followed the second phase of a lengthy probe into charges by New England fishermen of abusive, unfair treatment by the officers and attorneys who enforce the nation's fishing laws. Blank's decisions mean nearly $1.2 million in unjust penalties has now been ordered returned to fishermen. In May...

New legislation that jumps the death tax to 55 percent of estates exceeding $1 million threatens 526,421 family farms, of about 25 percent of all farms in America. ... Farm values are largely tied up in non-liquid assets like land, buildings, and livestock. Many farm and ranch families would be forced to sell their assets to satisfy Washington Democrats' insatiable appetite for tax money. Up to 24 percent of America's farm and ranch families could be forced to hand over a large chunk of their heritage to the Internal Revenue Service when a family member dies. This would economically devastate...

Utah - The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation into the unlawful closing of a county road on BLM public lands. At the February 27 meeting of the County Commission, Commissioner Bruce Adams said the county claims the road and directed the county road department to destroy the berm “that has been placed in the middle of our road” and do whatever is required to make the road passable. Adams also asked that the road department track all costs on the project, in the event a citation is issued, to determine the restitution that would need to...

A California family that has operated an oyster farm on the bucolic Northern California coast is fighting back after the federal government moved to kick it off of the National Park Service property where the shellfish have been legally harvested for nearly 80 years. The Drakes Bay Oyster Company faces closure and its 30 employees will be out of work if the National Park Service reclaims some 1,100 acres of an estuary as part of a plan to create a larger marine wilderness preserve at Point Reyes National Seashore in Marin County. Owner Kevin Lunny said federal officials told him...

Today’s attack was a chilling reminder of the day earlier in November when the seven-year-old girl was snatched by a saltwater crocodile 210 miles east of Darwin. ... Saltwater crocodiles, which can grow up to 25ft and weigh more than a ton, are plentiful in the Northern Territory... Crocodiles are protected in the Northern Territory and their numbers have increased steadily, resulting in a number of attacks on people, One man writing to the Northern Territory News today said: ‘This has got to stop – there are too many crocs. ‘Of course we need to use common sense when in...

A suspected residential burglary left one transgendered woman in the hospital Wednesday night. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office arrested Camille Acuff, 29, on suspicion of residential burglary and misdemeanor assault. She remained Thursday in the Washington County Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing. The Sheriff’s Office said Acuff followed a woman home without lights on. When the woman arrived at her home on Black Oak Addition in Fayetteville, she honked the horn several times to alert her family inside. The woman’s father came outside and confronted Acuff, who then reached down inside the car, according to a preliminary report from...

(LITTLE ROCK, Ark.) -- Police have charged one person in connection with a robbery and shooting at a Little Rock bank on Monday afternoon. The shooting occurred at the Arvest Bank branch on Chenal Parkway. Police said a man was shot by a suspect in the parking lot of the bank, after the suspect robbed the victim of an undisclosed sum of money. Then as the robber was fleeing in a getaway vehicle, a man at a nearby gas station who had a licensed gun, reportedly then fired at the suspect. While another vehicle was hit, investigators said the suspect...

Open carry of guns just went into effect in Oklahoma November 1st. It's something legislators in Arkansas have been trying to pass for years, but always failed. Lawmakers and gun owners think now is the time for Arkansas to adopt an open carry law. Open carry of guns is a sensitive issue with strong opinions on both sides, and while passing open carry laws in the past have always failed in Arkansas, now with the support of neighboring state Oklahoma, open carry supporters say, it betters the chances Arkansas could pass a similar law. 43 states allow gun owners to...

Police say no charges will be filed against an Arkansas man who they say shot someone who tried to break into his home. officers say a man who lives on Fick street came home today to find Ryan Gingerich hiding under his child's bed. Wtnesses say Ginerich had a wrecking bar and a screwdriver in his hands. The homeowner ran to get a gun and Gingerich jumped out a window. Police say Ginerich didn't stop when the homeowner told him to, so he was shot.

Human remains found ravaged by one or more brown bears on a southeast Alaska island are likely from a Sitka man overdue on a boating trip ... They also found evidence of a struggle. They followed a trail of disturbed vegetation and articles of clothing to the human remains, which had been partially eaten. The remains had been cached within 50 yards of the beach.

The newly-established Umbrella Corporation Weapons Research Group—no known connection to the pharmaceutical company, although their company logos are extremely similar—is preparing to launch a line of AR parts starting with a polymer pistol grip. With the help of Magpul they've developed an un-textured pistol grip that has a near vertical slant to it at just 13 degrees from perpendicular. These vertical pistol grips are emerging from a few different manufacturers including Magpul and Bravo Company Manufacturing and give people who prefer to shoot with their rifle stock collapsed or near-collapsed a more comfortable grip. The shelf price for this grip...

Fearing for his life, a 38-year-old Vancouver Island man says he ran from the fangs and claws of a ravenous cougar and scaled a hefty piece of construction equipment in a desperate bid to escape. With his pants shredded by the cougar's jaws and a shoe lost along the way thanks to a swipe from the animal's claws, John Frank Jr. said he climbed a locked-up excavator's boom and called for help on his radio. The community of Ahousat, B.C., located north of Tofino, B.C., on the island's west coast, responded to Tuesday's attack, with some residents arriving on scene...

Republican Heather Wilson, a candidate for U.S. Senate in New Mexico, has a new ad criticizing her opponent, Democratic congressman Martin Heinrich, for voting twice for a medical device tax that Heinrich had noted himself would be bad for job creation. ... Wilson, a former member of the House, is running to replace retiring Democrat Jeff Bingaman in the Senate.

A B.C. woman who was attacked on her sofa by a starving cougar that strolled into her house in search of a meal says her faithful dog saved her life. Angie Prime, 35, was sitting in the living room of her home in Trail, located in southeastern B.C., on Saturday evening, talking to her husband on the phone and getting ready to take her three dogs out for a walk before turning into bed. Then she caught a flash of something that should not have been in the house. "I just happened to catch something out of the corner of...

A national group representing off-highway recreationists is suing the U.S. Forest Service to try to overturn a new travel management plan on national forest lands in the Sierra west of Reno they say is overly restrictive. The Pacific Legal Foundation said in a lawsuit filed recently the agency plan adopted in 2010 illegally closed more than 800 miles of roads and trails the public has used for years in the Tahoe National Forest. ... Similar disputes are under way in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, primarily in northeast Nevada's Elko County, and in the Eldorado National Forest in California mostly west...

Welcome to the Wild West, 2012 style. The Feds to Tombstone: “If you want to fix your water line, better lawyer up and talk to President Obama.”... Obama, is truly the out of touch candidate. The U.S. Forest Service — of which the president is ultimate boss — is preventing, on the flimsiest of excuses, Tombstone Arizona from rebuilding its water pipeline. Obama, conniving, is putting Tombstone, a fixture of American history, in mortal danger. ... A massive forest fire in 2011 wiped out the vegetation in Coronado National Park, wherein lies Tombstone’s waterworks — which were destroyed by the...

The U.S. Forest Service has re-examined the effects of a logging project on lynx habitat in an attempt to lift a judge's block of the Lolo National Forest project. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy ruled in June that the Forest Service did not properly analyze the cumulative effects of the 2,038-acre Colt-Summit project on lynx habitat.

CHEYENNE, Wyo. — The judge in a lawsuit filed by the widow of a man killed by a grizzly bear has decided not to view the mauling site near Yellowstone National Park in person on the advice of the U.S. Marshals Service, which has deemed the area too risky because of recent bear activity. ... A 430-pound grizzly killed Erwin F. Evert, of Park Ridge, Ill., six miles east of Yellowstone in June, 2010. The male grizzly had just reawakened after being trapped, tranquilized and studied by members of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, which is tasked with researching...

A small boy is safe in Mesa after quite the run-in with a black bear Saturday. State wildlife officials tell us the boy spotted the young bear outside of his home before turning around and running back. The bear chased after him until the boy's father shot it with a gun. Officials say the bear was able to run back into the woods where they believe it eventually died. They are continuing to search for the carcass. "We do support the father in this case because he certainly had the right to do protect his family from this threat," Mike...

A MONSTER white pointer snatched a young surfer before trying to knock a jet-ski rider into the water in the fifth fatal shark attack in 10 months along a 380km stretch of the WA coast. The 4m killer dubbed Brutus by surfers near Wedge Island, 180km north of Perth mauled a 24-year-old man as he surfed with a mate at 9am yesterday. Fisheries Minister Norman Moore ordered a shark hunt to capture and kill the beast, saying of the unprecedented spate of attacks: "We seriously have got a problem." The jet-ski rider who tried to retrieve the man said it...

A spunky 17-year-old who had his right arm partially torn from his body during a vicious alligator attack, told FoxNews.com that he wants the alligator’s head. "I'm going to use it for a prosthetic armrest," Kaleb Langdale said in an exclusive interview. “I want his head." The Florida teen lost his right arm below the elbow Monday night during an alligator attack. He said he survived by offering the 11-foot alligator his arm, and used the skills he learned by watching TV shows like "Swamp People" to survive the brutal attack. "I'm glad the alligator attacked me, because if it...

NEVADA CITY, Calif. - A mountain lion attacked a 63-year-old man camping northwest of Nevada City. ... the man decided to stop and sleep for the night while on the planned hiking trip, and laid a sleeping bag out on a tributary to the Yuba River. The man told officials that during the attack, the mountain lion bit and clawed him through the sleeping bag. The animal bit into the man's cap and his clothes. "The lion immediately began a ferocious attack. It bit him into his head. It bit him on the hands," said Patrick Foy, of the Department...

A lack of transparency by top Obama administration officials has prompted an environmental group to sue the Interior Department to determine whether wind power projects are killing large numbers of bats and birds. The American Bird Conservancy (ABC) filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia accusing the government of intentionally withholding the information and refusing to comply with requests for certain documents under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). “It’s ridiculous that Americans have to sue in order to find out what their government is saying to wind companies about our wildlife,” ......

Six lions were speared to death by angry residents after preying on dozens of goats and cows in a settlement near the Kenyan capital's national park. Herders in the small township of Kitengela, on the outskirts of Nairobi, ambushed the animals because they said they had been killing their livestock. The group, who are mainly Maasai pastoralists, said about 28 goats and eight cows had been killed by the marauding lions in the last two days. Francis Kasha, a livestock keeper, whose animals were killed in a previous attack says these types of incidents have been on the increase, forcing...

A teen was arrested Tuesday night in Fort Smith after police say he attempted to rob Chaffee Liquor with a knife. The store manager pulled a gun on the attempted aggravated robber then called police. Cpl. Steven Dooly says the 16-year-old went into Chaffee Liquor on the corner of Massard and Zero Street around 8:20 p.m. Manager Jerry Hurlocker told police the teen walked to the counter with a folding lock blade knife and threatened him with it saying, ‘Give me all your f—ing money!’ according to the report. After a second threat, Hurlocker reached under a shelf and picked...