Free Republic

During the decades the American Rifleman has published “The Armed Citizen”

Defensive Thoughts for the Day Get Good With Gun Gab by Greg Perry Always practice your response when asked why you carry a gun or what you think of gun control. Through the years several writers and enthusiasts have written great sound bites you can use. Gun people love to exchange gun-related effective statements that are funny, cut to the heart of gun controls evil, promote freedom & defense, or all of the above. Being armed emotionally and conversationally is almost as important as being armed with bullets that fly out your guns muzzle. The left thinks it owns the...

WASHINGTON - U.S. Capitol Police arrested a man carrying a rifle outside the Capitol building Friday, authorities said. The man was in custody and no one was injured, police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. An officer first spotted the man near Union Station, about two blocks from the Capitol. A car belonging to the suspect was being searched.

FORT HUACHUCA — The head of the House Armed Services Committee will visit the post Friday and Saturday. Isaac Newton “Ike” Skelton IV, the Democratic representative from Missouri’s 4th District, will be coming to the post, and later travel to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, to receive mission briefings and to meet with soldiers and airmen and their families, according to C.J. Karamargin, spokesman for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whose 8th Congressional District includes both military installations. Democrat Giffords, who is a member of the committee, invited the chairman to look at key installations in her district, Karamargin said....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 9, 2007 – The U.S. military’s most senior enlisted member locked up his office yesterday in pursuit of other seniors – senior citizens living in the Armed Forces Retirement Home here. Army Command Sgt. Maj. William J. Gainey, senior enlisted advisor to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, jokes with Army veteran Jo Colvard-Willa Cooper about being married to a sailor, Aug. 8, 2007. Gainey and his joint travel team spent their workday visiting the Armed Forcers Retirement Home in Washington, D.C. Photo by Sheila R. Abarr  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Army Command...

One man was killed and another wounded after being shot in Queens late Tuesday by a contractor who told investigators that the men had demanded $20,000 from him and threatened to harm his wife, law enforcement officials said. The contractor, Lulzim Kupi, 42, told investigators he shot the men in self-defense. He was expected to be charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, the police said. One man who was shot, Redinel Dervishaj, 32, was in stable condition at Elmhurst Hospital Center with gunshot wounds to the arm and torso, law enforcement officials said. The other man,...

GREENCASTLE - An Antrim Township mini-mart owner who has been the victim of several recent burglaries shot an intruder during a confrontation early Thursday, according to Pennsylvania State Police. Merlony Colaco, 29, has seen his Molly Pitcher Mini-Mart at 13640 Molly Pitcher Highway burglarized more than half a dozen times since March. Colaco has owned the store for a year and a half. The first year was relatively tranquil, but in March the establishment was robbed four times in 14 days. In one incident, Colaco held a woman at bay with a gun until police arrived. On Thursday at 1:46...

A Gainesville man awoke to the sounds of a dog fight early Monday. When he walked outside, he found his dog locked in the jaws of a large pit bull. "I'm sound asleep and my wife says there's a dog fight in the yard," said Fletcher Sutton, 58. "And within 90 seconds I find myself standing in the yard in my bathrobe with a knife in one hand, a gun in the other and a dog dead between my legs." ...

Calling Blood Type AB Donors We have received an urgent request from the United States Department of Defense for type AB plasma. We will be shipping them 100 units a week thru mid-August. We ask for your help at this time. As a blood type AB donor, the plasma in your body is universal – it can go to anyone of any blood type. Who uses plasma? Burn patients, trauma patients, even our troops wounded in battle. Type AB is also rare. Only 4% of the population is type AB, so you can imagine how in-demand your plasma must be....

Armed Forces Day "America Supports You" Saturday, May 19, 2007 President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country. On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department -- the Department of Defense.

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md., May 18, 2007 – Ask someone serving in the military, and you might be surprised to hear them tell you just how much Armed Forces Day means to them. As the country commemorates its 57th Armed Forces Day tomorrow, soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines say they’re grateful for a special day set aside to recognize them and their service. It’s particularly important, they say, while the country is at war. After 14 years in the Army and two deployments to the Middle East, Army Sgt. Robert Clark said he welcomes a day honoring the...

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2007 – Today’s servicemembers reflect the same determination shown by those who fought for America’s freedom more than 200 years ago, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said in a message issued as the annual Armed Forces Day observance approaches. Armed Forces Day -- always the third Saturday in May -- is observed May 19 this year. Gates said many people are familiar with the opening of Thomas Paine’s treatise called “The Crisis,” written in defense of the then-fledgling American Revolution: “These are the times that try men’s souls.” Less familiar, he said, is a later passage...

A jeweller shot in the chest during an armed robbery escaped injury because the bullet hit his mobile phone, a court heard yesterday. Shop manager Darren Prior, 25, was chasing the raider who had looted his shop of diamond rings worth £50,000. Despite the raider firing a "warning shot" past him, Mr Prior continued the pursuit down an alleyway, where the gunman suddenly stopped and turned before firing at him from just 20 feet away. Store manager Darren Prior was shot during an armed robbery, but escaped injury because the bullet hit his mobile phone

ABC’s "20/20" Seeking "Armed Citizen" Stories Friday, April 06, 2007 Gun ban groups often claim that private citizens rarely, if ever, use guns in self-defense. ABC News’ "20/20" is now putting that claim to the test, asking viewers to submit their own real-life "Armed Citizen" stories. ABC’s website asks: Have you ever defended yourself from a crime in your home, in your business, or in public by using a gun? Perhaps you warded off a potential attacker by simply showing a gun? If you’ve personally used a gun in a legitimate act of self-protection against a criminal attacker, we encourage...

Armed woman holds suspected burglar Friday, March 30, 2007By NADIA M. TAYLOR Staff Reporter A mother who had just dropped off her daughters at school Wednesday morning held a suspected robber at gunpoint after she returned home to find him in her south Mobile driveway, Mobile police said. Lelia Richardson left her Parkway Drive home at about 7 a.m. to take her two daughters to school, police spokesman Officer Eric Gallichant said Thursday. When she returned about 50 minutes later, she saw an unfamiliar car under her carport and the door to her home open. The door frame was busted...

Armed US police could be on London streets By Brendan Carlin and John Steele Last Updated: 10:01am GMT 06/02/2007 Armed foreign police could patrol the streets of London during the 2012 Olympics under an unprecedented scenario outlined by one of Scotland Yard’s most senior officers. Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, the man in charge of security preparations for the Games and Britain’s most senior Muslim police officer, also raised the prospect of British troops being drafted in to help with the huge security challenges. Security experts are privately debating how to protect the Olympics from terror attacks from Islamic extremist “jihadi”...

We are pleased to announce that Richard A. Wannemacher, Jr., Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs – National Cemetery Administration, has accepted our invitation to address the audience attending EchoTaps Worldwide 2007 at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN on May 19, 2007. VA Memorial Affairs is responsible for providing burial space for Veterans and their eligible family members; maintaining National Cemeteries as national shrines, sacred to the honor and memory of those interred or memorialized there; marking the graves of Veterans with a Government-provided headstone or marker; providing Presidential Memorial Certificates in...

President Bush says the U.S. needs to increase the size of Army and Marines, and says strategy and tactics in Iraq will change to meet the situation on the ground. Bush also said Wednesday that insurgents in Iraq thwarted U.S. efforts at "establishing security and stability throughout the country" in 2006. At a year-end news conference, Bush said the United States will "ask more of our Iraqi partners" in 2007, and he pledged to work with the new Democratic Congress, as well. Bush sidestepped one question _ whether he would order a so-called surge of troops in Iraq as a...

President Bush says the U.S. needs to increase the size of Army and Marines, and says strategy and tactics in Iraq will change to meet the situation on the ground. Bush also said Wednesday that insurgents in Iraq thwarted U.S. efforts at "establishing security and stability throughout the country" in 2006. At a year-end news conference, Bush said the United States will "ask more of our Iraqi partners" in 2007, and he pledged to work with the new Democratic Congress, as well. Bush sidestepped one question _ whether he would order a so-called surge of troops in Iraq as a...