Free Republic

Congressional Democrats are trying to build support for an effort to bar gun purchases by terror suspects, hoping to take advantage of the same public anxieties about security that gave Republicans a ringing House victory. The Democratic push seems likely to fall victim to opposition from the National Rifle Association and congressional gun-rights backers, chiefly Republicans, who have smothered firearms curbs for years. If the Republicans who control Congress block votes on the proposal, Democrats hope to profit politically by winning sympathy from angry voters. ...

The Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor is the best air superiority fighter ever built, but could America have done better? When the YF-22 prototype won the contract for the Advanced Tactical Fighter in April 1991, it was a lesser plane compared to the Northrop YF-23 in many ways. Though the YF-22 was a more maneuverable aircraft, the YF-23 had far greater supersonic cruise capability — especially when outfitted with the General Electric YF120 variable cycle engines. Even when powered by the less powerful Pratt & Whitney YF-119, the YF-23 had the ability to fly an entire sortie at supersonic speeds above...

<p>The highly influential Center for American Progress, which has deep ties to the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton, recently released an extensive report calling for the nation’s lead agency on gun regulation to be merged into the FBI.</p> <p>The generalities of the center’s 182-page report were widely covered by media upon its release last May. However, the details in the report were largely unmentioned, including by conservative media agencies.</p>

HOUSTON – A federal agent is under investigation after he allegedly assaulted a man at a high school football game, then pulled his gun on a crowd that gathered during the melee. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms special agent Marc Delpit, father of a St. Thomas High School football player, allegedly got into an argument with a fellow team father during half-time in a recent game against Angleton High School. Several witnesses allege Delpit punched the man to the ground and continued to assault him as bystanders gathered and attempted to intervene, KHOU reports. The special agent told police...

We love the Can Cannon! Heck, everyone loves the Can Cannon. We’re on record as saying it’s the best fun-gun ever! So, we were incredibly perturbed to learn that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recently issued a letter on the Can Cannon saying that when it is affixed to a rifle receiver it is considered a (SBR) or short barrel rifle and when place on a pistol it becomes an (AOW) Any Other Weapon. Now, by itself, the Can Cannon is not a firearm or a controlled item. But the minute it is put on a rifle...

John Hawkins writes at Townhall: "Boehner Resigned? Good. Go Cry, Drink And Surrender Somewhere Else." Well, Boehner's resignation is far too late for me and especially far too late for the Fast and Furious investigation that he derailed because the FBI was blackmailing him. Long-time readers will recall that when the Issa committee got around to noticing the fact, uncovered by this blog and FOX News' William La Jeunesse, that the middle men who the ATF agents were forbidden by their superiors from following (the ones who actually transported the weapons across the border) were the Miramontes brothers who were...

The U.S. government is fighting to keep details of how its own federal gun agents let Mexican drug cartels buy rifles in Arizona illegally out of an upcoming murder trial in which two men will be tried for the killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry who died after he ran into men carrying those same illegal guns. In a court filing Monday, prosecutors are trying to keep some details about the guns found at the slain agent’s murder scene away from the jury. Terry, 40, was part of the Border Patrol’s elite BORTAC unit. In December 2010, the...

On August 24 officials from the Obama administration will be attending the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) conference in Mexico City. The ATT was signed by Secretary of State John Kerry on September 25, 2013 but never ratified by the US Senate. Nevertheless, Gun Owners of America reports that Obama officials will be in Mexico City for the conference. Breitbart News previously reported that the ATT is an international gun control treaty designed to be implemented apart from, or in spite of, the general framework of governance for countries that are signatories to it. Thus, while it will not do...

One of the men charged in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry pleaded guilty to one count of murder, Monday morning. Once a potential candidate for the death penalty after the murder of the agent, the drawn up plea deal now states that the U.S. and the defendant will ask for 360 months imprisonment, with credit for time served since his arrest in October 2012. The Justice Department indicted Rosario Rafael Burboa Alvarez last summer in connection with the killing. Alvarez was identified as the recruiter for the rip-off crew that ran into Terry's elite BORTAC unit...

ScreenHunter_12 Aug. 10 17.29 A legal response filed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives claims a Freedom of Information Act-related complaint improperly targets them. “The ATF is not an ‘agency’ within the meaning of the F.O.I.A., 5 U.S.C. § 552 (f) (1), and is, therefore, not a proper party defendant,” the response claims . . . The complaint, filed June 23 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks an order to compel the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed in March...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is reporting that gun production has more than doubled during the Obama presidency, increasing “140 percent.” This jump is based on 2013 production numbers, which is the most recent year where complete numbers are available. According to The Hill, the gun industry manufactured approximately “4.5 million firearms” the year before Obama entered office. In 2013 the number manufactured was “13.8 million.”

A key part of President Obama’s legacy will be the fed’s unprecedented collection of sensitive data on Americans by race. The government is prying into our most personal information at the most local levels, all for the purpose of “racial and economic justice.” Unbeknown to most Americans, Obama’s racial bean counters are furiously mining data on their health, home loans, credit cards, places of work, neighborhoods, even how their kids are disciplined in school — all to document “inequalities” between minorities and whites. This Orwellian-style stockpile of statistics includes a vast and permanent network of discrimination databases, which Obama already...

Connecticut Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal, both Democrats, have called on President Obama to take executive action to close a “loophole” in federal gun control legislation. The so-called “default to proceed” rule under the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act allows firearm dealers to sell a weapon to an individual if they have not been notified by the FBI of a buyer’s criminal background within three business days. If the background check has not been completed within three days, the dealer has discretion to sell the firearm. The rule allowed Dylann Roof, the alleged killer of nine people at a...

Security Expert: Feds Involved In Day-To-Day Busts Isn't Something Seen Every Day. Bullet-riddled windows, yellow crime scene tape, and evidence markers denoting where shell casings fell on the sidewalk are becoming all-too-familiar sights on New York City streets. Now in an unprecedented move, a federal agency is joining the effort to get gun crimes under control, CBS2’s Marcia Kramer reported Monday. Kramer is told it was a collective decision made by the federal government, the NYPD, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Those agencies are mounting a...

We are an enlightened people who tend to do what is best for ourselves, our family and ultimately our nation. Our inalienable—that is, God given—rights form the most important part of our Constitution and have been ingrained in the psyche of the American people. The Second Amendment has stood the test of time even though it has been under attack from progressives for as long as I can remember. In the past, there has been concern for individuals who owned guns, and this concern has reached a fever pitch. Congress was right to cut funding from the ATF to stop...

Fairfax, Va. –The National Rifle Association today announced support for H.R. 2710, federal legislation aimed at limiting the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) from using executive overreach to undermine the Second Amendment. H.R. 2710 was introduced by United States Representative Rob Bishop (UT-1). "This important legislation would prevent arbitrary ammunition bans like the one attempted earlier this year by the Obama Administration," said Chris W. Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action. "With the support of America's law-abiding gun owners, the NRA was able to beat back Obama's attempt to ban ammunition used by...

The Justice Department plans move forward this year with more than a dozen new gun-related regulations, according to list of rules the agency has proposed to enact before the end of the Obama administration. The regulations range from new restrictions on high-powered pistols to gun storage requirements. Chief among them is a renewed effort to keep guns out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable or have been convicted of domestic abuse. Gun safety advocates have been calling for such reforms since the Sandy Hook school shooting nearly three years ago in Newtown, Conn. They say keeping guns...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Orrin Hatch may soon give the President authority to write gun control restrictions into a “trade agreement.” So click here to contact your Senators –- whether they are liberal or conservative. Urge them to vote against the anti-gun “fast track” bill (S. 995). Will UN-style gun control be rammed down our throats? Gun import bans ... Microstamping of firearms ... Ammunition bans ... The full implementation of the anti-gun UN Arms Trade Treaty ... Illegal amnesty which locks in millions of new, anti-gun voters.

MILWAUKEE — The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, charged with enforcing the nation’s gun laws and regulating the firearms industry, has been so hobbled by high-profile operational failures, internal dysfunction and external limits on its authority that the agency should be eliminated and merged into the FBI, a new report concludes. The report, by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, comes in the wake of a bill by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that seeks to dissolve the agency and move its law enforcement and gun industry regulatory functions into the FBI and other agencies. The bill and...

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, charged with enforcing the nation's gun laws and regulating the firearms industry, has been so hobbled by high-profile operational failures, internal dysfunction and external limits on its authority that the agency should be eliminated and merged into the FBI, a new report concludes. The report, by the left-leaning Center for American Progress, comes in the wake of a bill by U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that seeks to dissolve the agency and move its law enforcement and gun industry regulatory functions into the FBI and other agencies. The bill and the...