Free Republic

Second amendment supporters at Arizona Capitol in 2013 A recent poll from the Seattle Times ran through the blogosphere with decidedly positive results for second amendment activists.   In spite of splitting the second amendment supporters with two answers, the total came with 79% in favor of a strict reading of the second amendment (no infringements) and 18 percent in favor of the status quo.   Only 7% were for increased restrictions on second amendment rights, even worded as a "background check" measure. It appears that many people have been educated and have become more sophisticated in their understanding of the...

Jose Patiño is a 25-year-old Dreamer from Arizona who recently appeared in “The Dream is Now” documentary. I was sitting in the kitchen with my mom and her prayer group when one of her friends, Lucero, got a call about her son, Luis, who is in detention. As my mom serves us menudo (spicy Mexican stew), I ask Lucero what happened to her son. She tells me that Luis was detained after a police officer stopped him and discovered he didn’t have a driver’s license. He is now in the Eloy Detention Center. Despite having two U.S. citizen children and...

Armed Arizonans at an Anti-IRS Rally This story in Arizona follows a classic defense of others scenario.  A suspect pulls a gun and points it at an unarmed security officer.   A former Marine, 61 years old, sees the situation and pulls his own gun.  He is concerned not only for the security officer, but his wife, who has just left the store and arrived at the scene.  He orders the suspect to "freeze", but the suspect points her gun at the former Marine, who fires.  The suspect and confederate then flee the scene on a motorcycle.   It...

At the Pima County morgue in Tucson, Ariz., anthropologist Robin Reineke was going through the personal effects of the hundreds of unnamed migrants who try to cross the border between the United States and Mexico each year but instead wind up here among the dead. Reineke co-founded and is the executive director of the Colibri Center for Human Rights, which helps families of border crossers find missing loved ones. It's "important for us to think about the human cost of our border today, the human cost of immigrations," she said.Reineke keeps a locker room filled with personal effects found with...

PINAL COUNTY - An illegal immigrant is arrested in Pinal County and it's discovered he had gained access to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. On Thursday, Dec. 26, at 7 p.m., a Pinal County Sheriff's deputy stopped a 2006 Ford Expedition westbound on Interstate 10 near milepost 180 for a traffic violation. The driver of the vehicle identified himself, using an Arizona Identification Card, as 37-year old Armando Villalobos of Phoenix. The deputy did a routine license and warrant check. Villalobos returned with a "No License" status and a felony warrant for his arrest out of Texas. The warrant showed he...

I had just gotten out of the shower, and was getting dressed for work, when I heard a loud explosion. I looked out the window and saw a large plume of smoke. I went out with my digital camera and recorded the video I posted on my YouTube channel. I don't know what exploded yet, and I don't have time to check because it is almost time for me to start the job. I'll probably find out later what happened. The video is HERE or at the link above.

Shooting in the Arizona Desert has a long history An interesting case from Arizona, where a rancher was dragged into court on the unfounded pretext that he was illegally building a shooting range on his large acreage near Prescott. From the Daily Courier: PRESCOTT - In what has become an issue pitting gun rights against land use codes, a Williamson Valley landowner had his Second Amendment rights upheld in a Tuesday hearing in Prescott. Brad DeSaye, owner of Headhunter Ranch LLC, said he never intended to build gun ranges on his properety. (sic) "The wild rumors that brought us to...

A bombshell revelation, as the News 4 Tucson Investigators uncover exclusive information about an illegal immigrant on the job, with a badge and gun, working as a law enforcement officer in southern Arizona. The investigation in this case began when a man applied for a visa to stay here in the United States. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began their own background investigation on that man. That's when they learned he has a sister, who is an officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. The News 4 Tucson Investigators discovered that officer, Carmen Figueroa, has actually been working for DPS...

Officials removed a man with an unspecified infectious disease - possibly tuberculosis - from a US Airways Express flight with 70 passengers on board shortly after it landed in Phoenix over the weekend, authorities said on Monday. The unidentified man was removed from Flight 2846 from Austin, Texas, when it landed on Saturday after the airline received an alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding a passenger known to have an infectious disease, a spokesman for the airline said.

Knife Right’s ‘Knife Owners Protection Act’ Introduced in Congress, Crucial Knife Owner Protections Published on Thursday, November 14, 2013 Tags:Doug Ritter|Knife Rights|Preemption Laws|Second Amendment Knife RIghts are Second Amendment RightsKnifeRights.org Washington, DC:-(Ammoland.com)- Knife Rights’ Knife Owners’ Protection Act, H.R.3478 (KOPA), was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives today by sponsor Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ). Knife Rights Chairman Doug Ritter explained, “KOPA will protect law-abiding knife owners travelling throughout the U.S. from the vagaries of restrictive state and local laws.As long as possession of the particular knife is legal in the state where the journey starts and ends, and provided...

TUCSON - How secure are U.S. military installations? You would think the answer is: very. But, as the News 4 Tucson Investigators uncovered, one installation, right here in southern Arizona, continues to face potential outside security risks, and the problem doesn't seem to be getting any better. Fort Huachuca is only 15 miles north of our state's border with Mexico. The Army post covers more than 73,000 acres. In many parts, the terrain is steep and rugged. Much of the work that goes on at Fort Huachuca is classified but, as the News 4 Tucson Investigators learned, keeping people who...

My thanks to Don Cline, who posted this account on the  AZCDL email list.  From the date on the email, this occurred on 16 November, 2013.  It is clear that Don wants wide distribution. From Don: My wife, her mother, and I drove down to Goodyear, west of Phoenix, to my daughter’s home to celebrate our granddaughter’s first birthday today.  We were early and my wife and her mother wanted to do some shopping at Hobby Lobby.  I dropped them off and went to find a Batteries Plus store and ask some questions about the battery I’m using for...

“I think conventional wisdom is that time is not on our side,” McCain told reporters on Monday after an event in Chicago. “But there are a number of members of Congress who have primaries and when those primaries are done, they may be more inclined to address the issue of comprehensive immigration reform.”

Police said the two armed suspects entered an apartment and one of the intruders was shot to death. The second intruder fled the scene and police are searching for him. Police said the resident was not hurt

fficials in Arizona are seeking to ensure that residents who cannot prove they are United States citizens do not vote in statewide elections. According to the Associated Press, Attorney General Tom Horne and Secretary of State Ken Bennett announced on Monday that "residents who haven't submitted proof of citizenship won't be able vote for such offices as governor, secretary of state, attorney general and candidates for the state Legislature." The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Arizona "couldn't require such documentation to cast ballots for federal offices," and the "only federal offices on Arizona ballots next year will be U.S. House...

PHOENIX -- It was a wild weekend for a valley homeowner. He returns home from work to find an intruder in his home. That homeowner, armed with a gun, fired shots at the suspect -- killing him. Now we're hearing the 911 call that the homeowner made to police just moments after he pulled the trigger. We went to the homeowner's house and talked to him. He's really upset about the shooting and did not want to talk on-camera. But what he told us is exactly the same story he told a 911 operator when he called right after the...

A Democratic member of Congress is using the government shutdown to pressure the Department of the Interior to prohibit oil and gas exploration on federal land. Energy companies should not be able to use federal lands if those lands are closed to hikers and campers, according to Rep. Raul Grijalva (D., Ariz.), the co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Grijalva started an online petition to demand that Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack “stop mining [on] public lands while visitors are locked out.” “Fossil fuel and logging companies shouldn’t have special access to our federal lands while...

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - Mention the phrase "girls’ night" and most people think of the local bar scene and the age old ploy designed to attract women patrons - not to mention the men who are inclined chase them. But girls’ night is taking on a whole new meaning at a number of area gun clubs, where women are dropping their designer purses and picking up pistols instead. Managers at the Scottsdale Gun Club say concerns over personal safety have women flocking to their establishment. What was once a monthly event is now held bi-monthly, as part of “Ladies for Liberty”...

PHOENIX — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the appointment of an independent monitor and a community advisory board to ensure that an Arizona sheriff is complying with constitutional requirements after finding his office engages in racial profiling. U.S. District Judge Murray Snow found in May that the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Joe Arpaio singled out Latinos and deputies unreasonably prolonged detentions. It was the first finding by a court that the agency covering Arizona's most populous county engages in racial profiling after a small group of Latinos sued the sheriff's office for violating their constitutional rights, saying...

PHOENIX (AP) -- Arizona's most populous county halted prosecutions of both smugglers and those being smuggled on Monday.