Free Republic

Last year, a landowner in rural Yavapai County, Arizona, was finally vindicated in a hearing after a prolonged legal battle with local zoning officials.  The case involved local officials who claimed that they had the power to shut down shooting on private land, because shooting was not an "approved use" in the zoning code.  The closest complaining neighbor was  miles distant from the property.  A common practice in "model" zoning codes is to invert the ordinary structure of American law, claiming that everything that is not allowed is prohibited, instead of the long recognized construct of everything that is...

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That adage has more application than usual in California, where Democrats hold all of the statewide offices and supermajorities in the legislature. They can enact any policies they want, with only the judicial branch offering belated checks on their power. And when I say belated, that’s literally the case with state Senator Rod Wright, whom a jury found guilty in January of committing eight felonies regarding his residency and eligibility for the office he held.Normally, politicians who get that kind of a verdict have the decency to resign. If not, the body in...

Beginning in early 2011, state Sen. Leland Yee repeatedly solicited bribes to fund his San Francisco mayor and California secretary of state campaigns, according to the FBI agents who brought him down last month. But he appears to have devoted more time and energy to a far more lucrative pursuit: crafting or carrying legislation benefiting special interests who supply campaign contributions. It's a practice that's all too common in Sacramento, but Yee was a master. :snip: Yee introduced 20 bills from 2011 to 2014 that advanced a special interest over the public interest, according to this newspaper's review of his...

Title pretty much says it all. Video at link.

A Milford man appears to be the first person charged after failing to comply with Connecticut’s law requiring the registration of certain firearms and standard capacity magazines: A 65-year-old man faces an array of charges after he allegedly shot a squirrel in his yard Monday morning. James Toigo, 258 Housatonic Dr., was charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm, cruelty to an animal, first-degree reckless endangerment, second-degree breach of peace, failure to register an assault rifle and three counts of possessing large-capacity magazines, according to a police press release. Police were directing traffic in the area of Housatonic Drive when...

While the gun-rights community is focused on the National Rifle Association-backed New York State Rifle and Pistol Association lawsuit (NYSRPA) challenging New York’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) Act, a lesser-known complaint has also been filed that has both promise and controversy built in. The case is Razzano v. Cuomo, filed in the United States District Court, Eastern District of New York by “Gabriel Razzano, individually and on behalf of a class of all other persons similarly situated,” by attorneys Robert J. La Reddola and Steven M. Lester. What’s immediately noticeable in the brief is that the “class members”...

ATTACK: Matthew Douglas de Grood has been arrested after allegedly stabbing and killing five people at a house party in Canada [FACEBOOK/AP]Matthew Douglas de Grood, the son of a veteran police officer, has been charged with five counts of murder following the killings in Calgary.Police Chief Rick Hanson said: "We have never seen five people killed at one scene. The scene was horrific."At least 20 people were at the house party which was being held to celebrate the end of term at the University of Calgary.De Grood, 22, was invited to the party and soon after arriving picked up...

Happy Patriots' Day. In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. ...   As we peer into society's future, we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to...

A Riverside County sheriff’s deputy was hospitalized Wednesday after accidentally shooting himself in the leg when a large dog approached him at a Riverside home.

“We’re making progress but we need to do more,” McCarthy said. However, an investigation published by Chicago Magazine claims that the “progress” is an illusion. The article says that under pressure from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Chicago cops have been reclassifying murders and violent crimes. The result is a nearly unprecedented drop in numbers. "This is a betrayal of public trust in a sense that Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Superintendent Garry McCarthy are public servants. They are paid by our tax dollars and we deserve in return truth from them,” said Elizabeth Fenner, Editor in Chief of Chicago Magazine. McCarthy responded...

Knoxville, Tenn. (CBS DC) – Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told a crowd of law school students that if taxes in the U.S. become too high then people “should revolt.” Speaking at the University of Tennessee College of Law on Tuesday, the longest-serving justice currently on the bench was asked by a student about the constitutionality of the income tax, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. Scalia responded that the government has the right to implement the tax, “but if it reaches a certain point, perhaps you should revolt.”(continued)

Over the weekend, I spent a lot of time reading about the Bundy Ranch Saga, looking into the area in Nevada where the Bundys live, and asking Google a bunch of questions I wanted answers to. While researching, I happened upon a press release from an environmental group, and decided to call the person listed as the "contact" person. The leftist environmentalist and I had about a 45 minute conversation over the phone about the Bundy Ranch, Nevada, and the history of what has been happening there, from his perspective. It was a long time to be on the phone,...

We are all miserably accustomed to being informed that our rights must be curtailed because the Founders “couldn’t have imagined” the way in which they would eventually be exercised. “Well, sure it made sense to have an armed population back when the people only had muskets,” this argument tends to go. “But now that four-year-old children can buy semi-automatic nuclear death-rays with their Happy Meals, it’s just anachronistic.”

There is a new wrinkle in rights-denial and the lame-stream media told you nothing, except we want to get as many people into the background-check system as possible, to make everyone safer. 90% of the public supports this. (92%, according to a democrat’s party mailer with Mr. Obama’s name on it) First, let me repeat: 90% of the public doesn’t support much of anything, especially gun stuff, so that number, like most “news” numbers these days, especially from advocates, politicians or government (unelected apparatchiks) is totally bogus (John Lott dissected their ludicrous math). Even so, try this “thought experiment” opinion...

Fourth week of prices. My intention was to generate trending graphs this week, but as I started playing with the data I realized this post would become hideously huge. So what I would like the reader base to do is to determine what graphs/trends would be most useful and/or interesting. As of right now we are tracking 42 vendors, 9 calibers, and 2 lot sizes. Against those 3 vectors, we have the prices by date. We could do average price per round per caliber by vendor. Or trend lines of prices by lot size by caliber by vendor. Really anything...

Photo: Alma E. Hernandez, For The San Antonio Express News Henry Vichique, shown with his pregnant wife, above, is the 19 year old man who was tased by police for carrying a WWII Russian rifle in a San Antonio residential neighborhood while walking home.  From the Houston Chronicle: San Antonio police arrested him March 30 while he was walking home with a loaded Russian World War II-vintage rifle slung across his shoulder. The event occurred after dark.   Police at the scene told Henry that people had reported that he had been pointing the rifle at others.   Henry replied that...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)BUNKERVILLE, Nev. -- Armed civilians continue to guard the Cliven Bundy ranch. They have traveled from afar, are camped out, and remain at their posts for hours in an effort to provide security for the cattle rancher. Bundy supporters drove to Bunkerville from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and other states to show they believe in Bundy's cause. The rancher has been in a battle with the federal government over the illegal grazing of his cattle for the past two decades. "I'm just here to help them sleep easy and rest at night," said Booda Cavalier, who says he is providing security...

<p>A telephone bidder in New Mexico made the winning bid for the Colt .45 revolver Thursday night.</p> <p>The auction of numerous items related to Earp and his family in Scottsdale, Ariz., brought in more than $445,000, officials with J. Levine Auction & Appraisal officials said.</p>

A government unloosed from its authorizing document, in open revolt against the principles laid out and defined therein, with the will, intent and ability to execute citizens for trivial offenses, basically parking tickets (oops, forgot to feed the meter on the cattle) is, by definition, a domestic terrorist. The politicians and agents involved in such criminal activity as theft of property (water rights in U.S. v Hage a similar, but much more egregious case than the issue with Cliven Bundy) involving the BLM, determined by the judge to be involved in a criminal conspiracy is the definition of domestic terrorists....

It is the responsibility of the federal government to protect the United States from "invasion." How is it possible that top administration officials have directed 21,000 border patrol officers to retreat or distance themselves and seek cover in response to thrown or hurled projectiles from illegal aliens or drug smugglers? They are directed to keep their weapons holstered when drug smugglers drive by, and agents can't use guns against a fleeing vehicle. Instructions also indicate that officers will be penalized if they don't step back. The new rules were issued this March by Michael Fisher, chief of U.S. Border Patrol....