Free Republic

I recently posted about taking Joe hunting, and how he is now capable of hunting on his own.   Joe is on the right, Jason is on the left.  Last year, Jason expressed an interest in hunting, but we were not able to make it happen.   This year, I was able to take Jason on his first hunt. I arrived to pick up the young hunters.   A mistake had been made in setting the alarm clock, so no one was up, and I was knocking on the door at 5:15 a.m.   They got up shortly, and we were able to...

.22 rimfire is starting to become more available, as tremendous demand is being met.   From around the country I am hearing reports of more .22 rimfire being available, though supplies are still not sufficient to keep stores stocked. My friend Jerry needed to purchase some shotgun ammunition for dove hunting, as I was taking his son and friend out as beginning hunters.   We drove to Wal Mart.   Shotgun ammunition has never been in short supply.   Wal Mart was out of dove loads!  Shooting dove with duck loads or buck shot is not a good idea.   I should explain that...

I had read about Moms Demanding Action's strident calling for a boycott of Kroger's over MDA's dislike of the exercise of the second amendment.  I had also read the new media's urging to show support for Kroger's polite reply that the MDA's should mind their own business.   Of course, political manipulation is the MDA's business... and that runs exactly contrary to the limits on government that allow for toleration of others. So I stopped at Fry's and filled up the tank.   I was open carrying, as I usually am in Arizona, especially at this time of year.  Opening day...

Tempe, AZ: Luis has been in deportation proceedings as a result of a minor traffic incident. On July 7, 2014, his attorney submitted a request for a stay of removal to keep Luis in the United States with his wife and children, but that request has been denied by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), despite matching the agency’s own “low priority” criteria for removal. He now lives under the threat of immediate deportation. At a press conference at 9:30am, Rev. Eric O. Ledermann will discuss his congregation’s call to stand with and support the Lopez-Acabal family so that they may...

Last year, I wrote about mentoring a new hunter.   It is harder to bring new hunters into the gun culture now than when I was a child.   When I started hunting at age 11, with an air rifle on the farm in northern Wisconsin, I grabbed a gun, stepped out the door, and was hunting.   My father had carefully told me what pests I could hunt.  In  a year, I was using a real rifle,  a .22.  My father taught me to shoot, but most of my early hunting was alone or in the company of one or...

A terrified Arizona widow, armed with a revolver, hid in her bathroom then shot and subdued a robber who broke into her home. Incredible 911 audio captures the courageous 47-year-old woman work her way through the May ordeal, shooting and wounding Michael Lewis, 20. Lewis has since pleaded guilty to second-degree burglary and aggravated assault for breaking into the unidentified woman’s Phoenix home near 67th Ave. and Indian School Road, KPNX-TV reported.

<p>Mary Rose Wilcox is a career politician from Phoenix' South side who runs a Democrat political machine that has been compared to Daley's in Chicago.  She was running in the Democrat primary for a congressional seat in the deep blue "safe seventh" district of Arizona, one of the few Arizona districts that is safe for Democrat candidates.   She had name recognition, organization, and money on her side.   She decided to differentiate herself from her main opposition, Ruben Gallego, by being more willing to chip away at second amendment rights.</p>

In a previous article I wrote about the improper signage at the Meteor Crater rest stop in Arizona.   At the first stop, I failed to obtain a picture. The rest stop is a member of a pair of rest stops as is often seen; one on each side of the freeway.   On the return trip, I stopped at the sister rest area to see if it had the bad signage as well.   It did.  The sign appeared to be identical with the sign that I recalled on the South side of I-40. Note the location of the prohibition on...

A man and his wife see a neighbor drive up to her house.   The neighbor is in her 60's.   As they watch, a strange man approaches her, speaks to her, then grabs her, drags her from the SUV, throws her to the ground, and jumps in the vehicle.  The wife opens the passenger side door, but is struck by the vehicle and knocked down.   The husband fires several shots from a handgun.   A short while later, the vehicle crashes.   From azfamily.com: The responding officers discovered it was the stolen vehicle and that the driver was the...

I was on a mission of mercy.   A close friend needed a lady and her goods to be transported cross country.   I found myself hauling a good sized trailer on I-40, looking for a gas station with easy in and out.  I stopped at Meteor Crater rest stop to give everyone a break. As I came out of the facility, I asked a gentleman who was uniformed as staff, where the next truck stop was, because I was hauling a good sized trailer.  He graciously told me that there was one at exit 255, about 20 miles further east....

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A transgender man who made headlines by giving birth to three children can divorce his wife of more than 10 years, an Arizona appeals court ruled on Wednesday, rejecting a lower court's decision. A three-member panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals unanimously decided that the divorce can proceed because Thomas Beatie's 2003 marriage in Hawaii was considered legal in Arizona. "As the Beaties' Hawaii marriage was lawfully entered in Hawaii and is not deemed void by Arizona law, the marriage is valid within this state," said Judge Kenton D. Jones, in the 12-page opinion. The court's...

Sunday in Tucson AZ, an illegal immigrant with no drivers license was pulled over for a routine traffic stop over an illegal right turn. However, that traffic stop led to police and Border Patrol officers being swarmed by a spontaneous protest. Two female protesters crawled underneath a vehicle in an attempt to stop the turnover of the suspect by the local police to Border Patrol agents. Border Patrol agents were forced removed the woman by pulling them out by their legs as protesters hurled insults at the officers.

Gun v. knife defenses are fairly common, but usually the person with the knife realizes that they are outclassed by someone with a gun, and runs away.   To have three such cases where the person with the knife is shot,  in one day, is uncommon.  It may mean that more self defense cases are being covered; it may simply be a statistical fluke. The most dangerous situation for a defender facing someone with a knife, is to not know that their opponent is armed until they are under assault.  The first case involves alleged defense of another in Phoenix,...

Arizonan with Rifle slung at local treat shop A controversial arrest in Phoenix, where police arrested a prominent local research doctor who was protesting, with a rifle slung on his shoulder, at the unsecured airport Starbucks, prompted this exchange between Mark Curtis, a 12News anchor and Marc Victor, the victims attorney. The exchange occurs in the video from 1:55 to 2:22: Mark Curtis, anchor, 12News: "Someones carrying a gun, and they're with their children, and they see a man walk into a Starbucks with a rifle on his shoulder.  What would stop them from blowing your client away? Marc...

We know this is a planned invasion... But Boehner (Boner) has beat the drum of 'Obama does not uphold or enforce the law." Hint hint: Obama really, truly doesn't... But... The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act Of 2008 will either be "upheld" and "enforced" by Obama - or it won't. Under it, certain children under this Act are placed under the care of the Dept of Health and Human Services, are given the least restrictive environment, are given an attorney and can plead their case before a judge to stay in the U.S. And GWB signed this into...

At this time of year in Arizona, I open carry.   I was in a McDonald's, drinking coffee and using the Internet when I considered how ordinary this all was, and how much heat was being put on Open Carry Texas for merely working to obtain the same freedoms in Texas.   Freedoms that are part of the law in most states of the union, somewhere around 44 states, at last count.  It was particularly surprising how much of the heat was coming from within the gun culture.  So I decided to stand with Texas.   I saw a gentleman who did...

MESA, AZ (CBS5) - The mother of a fallen Mesa officer is writing President Barack Obama regarding illegal immigrants in the U.S. Mary Ann Mendoza's son, Sgt. Brandon Mendoza was killed after an illegal immigrant was driving the wrong way on the road and hit Mendoza's vehicle head on. Mary Ann Mendoza released the following letter: "President Obama, "I am writing this letter to you regarding illegal immigrants. "As a tax paying, law abiding citizen of the United States, I WANT my voice heard on this issue. My son, Sergeant Brandon Mendoza, an officer who was with the City of...

Mary Rose Wilcox and Ruben Gallego from the Republic There are only a couple of safe Democrat seats for Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives.   One of them is in the 7th district, a seat that is now held by the retiring Ed Pastor.   I had the unfortunate experience to be "represented" by Ed for a number of years until gerrymandering moved the borders of the district.  In retrospect, Mr. Pastor was at least not an aggressively evil anti-rights activist, more of the "follow the party line" kind of guy.  It was rumored that as long as Ed...

More whistleblowers are coming forward from the VA, but this woman from North Carolina gives a special insight into the way that wait-list fraud propagated within the system. Paulene DeWenter makes clear that the use of secret wait lists was no spontaneously-occurring method for front-line workers to deal with overstressed resources, but a deliberate strategy employed by VA management. DeWenter tells WITN that her boss told her to use the secret wait list method, or else she would buy DeWenter a bus pass — one way out of town ... DeWenter blew the whistle after one of the patients on...

If you think this sudden flood of illegal immigrant children is spontaneous, think again. According to a “help wanted” Request For Information (RFI) posted on FedBizOpps.gov, the feds were looking for vendors to help escort unaccompanied alien children (UAC) in JANUARY of this year. The specific vendor requirements state: ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] is seeking the services of a responsible vendor that shares the philosophy of treating all UAC with dignity and respect, while adhering to standard operating procedures and policies that allow for an effective, efficient, and incident free transport. The Contractor shall provide unarmed escort staff, including...