Free Republic

Gun control advocates have recently put hundreds of millions of dollars toward "public health" studies, with predetermined outcomes. These studies are beginning to find their way to the main stream media. Soon there will be an avalanche of studies, and their advice puts lives at risk. John Lott is the founder of this organization and is seeking to counter the bogus studies by providing rapid response to the new studies as well as conducting high-quality peer-reviewed academic studies. Lott, the author of More Guns, Less Crime and The Bias Against Guns, has conducted decades of research showing that armed citizens...

Last Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) responded to the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch in very forceful terms. “Those people who hold themselves out to be patriots are not,” Reid said. “They’re nothing more than domestic terrorists,” A day later, Reid appeared alongside his fellow Nevada senator, Republican Dean Heller, for a joint appearance on Las Vegas’ NBC affiliate. They apparently don’t see eye to eye. “What Sen. Reid may call domestic terrorists, I call patriots,” GOP Sen. Dean Heller said during the rare joint appearance on KSNV-TV. “We have a very different view on this.” […]...

Liberals can be disarming. In fact, they are for disarming anybody who can be disarmed, whether domestically or internationally. Unfortunately, the people who are the easiest to disarm are the ones who are the most peaceful — and disarming them makes them vulnerable to those who are the least peaceful. We are currently getting a painful demonstration of that in Ukraine. When Ukraine became an independent nation, it gave up all the nuclear missiles that were on its territory from the days when it had been part of the Soviet Union. At that time, Ukraine had the third largest arsenal...

Regarding the Boston Bombing and the Bundy Ranch invasion: The nation is getting a wake-up call. Bombs and gun battles in the streets. Heavily armed federal police forces declaring martial law and locking down neighborhoods and huge swaths of land in desert communities. Heavily armed federal land "management" and forest "service" agencies using military grade weapons and tactics to collect civil "debts" and threatening to "shoot" innocent men, women and children who get in their way. And then corrupt U.S. mob senators who are in on the take and who are perpetrating the destruction of America have the audacity to...

Given the de minimis coverage by the self-gelded mainstream media, you may have missed the altogether remarkable events that recently unfolded in southern Nevada. For decades, rancher Cliven Bundy has grazed his cattle on government land, which has been designated habitat for the desert tortoise, one species on an ever-lengthening federal list of endangered creatures. Compounding the offense, despite two court orders, Bundy has refused to pay grazing fees to the federal Bureau of Land Management because, as he points out, his family's use of that land goes back to the 1870s, i.e., well before the U.S. Fish and Wildlife...

Bullet casings and plastic Easter eggs lay scattered in the grass after a gunfight broke out Sunday in a park crowded with families and children celebrating the holiday. When police arrived at Alfred "Al" Barnes Jr. Park around 5 p.m., two young men were dead and two others were rushed to Tampa General Hospital with serious injuries. A person dressed as the Easter bunny, who had been entertaining families earlier, joined children behind crime scene tape as investigators combed the scene. "It was a family day," said Lt. Ronald McMullen, a spokesman for Tampa police. "We had been in and...

(CNSNews.com) - Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, in his new book, recommends six rewrites to the U.S. Constitution. He would restrict gun ownership to militia members; ban the death penalty; and allow government to set "reasonable limits" on campaign financing, among other things. But Stevens says he's no radical: "I think every one of my proposals is a moderate proposal," Stevens told ABC's George Stephanopoulos in an interview that aired Sunday on ABC's "This Week." One of Steven's proposals would add five words to the Second Amendment, which would then read: "...the right of the people to keep...

Let us consider the stories of two Oregon Coast men who enjoy walking on the beach but go about it in dramatically different ways. One man, Matt Love from Astoria, walks on the beach at least five times a week with his 15-year-old husky and has been known to build driftwood forts and plunge naked into the ocean. He just turned 50 and works as a writer, publisher and educator. The other man, Dustin Harris from Lincoln City, walks down Highway 101 and across the beach open carrying a rifle, pistol and a permitted concealed weapon and causes multiple people...

It’s easy to get discouraged if you believe in small government and individual liberty. It seems that the burden of the public sector is always expanding and that politicians and bureaucrats are always figuring out new ways to restrict our freedoms. But let’s not lose hope. We still have a lot of economic liberty, particularly if you count non-fiscal policy factors. And we still have the Second Amendment. Heck, we don’t just have the right to keep and bear arms, we exercise that right in massive numbers. Take a look at this impressive graphic. We’re #1 in some bad ways,...

Good news. Crime is down in Chicago. Walk the streets late at night. Carry your wallet in your back pocket. It’s safe. Homicides dropped 18 percent in Chicago last year and crime overall was down 16 percent, according to statistics released by the police department this morning.Shootings across the city dropped by 24 percent from 2012 and 16 percent from 2011, according to the department’s numbers. Sexual assaults were down 6 percent from last year, robberies down 12 percent, serious battery down 16 percent, burglaries down 22 percent, motor vehicle thefts down 23 percent, thefts down 3 percent. How was...

The Latin motto on the great seal of the State of Massachusetts, loosely translated, means: "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty."  It is rather inconsistent with Massachusetts strict firearms laws.  Those laws became a little more reasonable on April 18th, 2014. A federal judge, relying on both the McDonald and Heller decisions and current Massachusetts law, effectively removed one class of prohibited people from the law. The case MICHAEL WESSON, THOMAS WOODS, and COMMONWEALTH SECOND AMENDMENT, INC.,  involves two well established men who had out of state marijuana convictions from decades ago.    Massachusetts decriminalized...

Conservative commentator S.E. Cupp had some tough words for former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg in the wake of him giving $50 million to push his gun control agenda. Appearing as a guest on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos, the CNN Crossfire co-host mocked Bloomberg’s efforts: “Well, he's the best, and by that, I mean the worst face for gun control. And believe me, my friends at NRA high-fived when they heard about this. [See video below.]

Mike McDaniel is one of the best and most knowledgeable thinkers and writers when it comes to guns and the Second Amendment. That's why it's worth sitting up and taking notice when he revisits one of his own posts to discuss reader objections. I'll run you through what Mike has to say and then tell you why I agree with him. This is a long post, but I hope it's engaging enough to sustain your interest all the way through, so that you'll take the time to weigh in with your own opinions.It all started with a post entitled "Why...

A group of armed militia and protesters, some sporting nametags reading "domestic terrorist," remain camped out on a cattle ranch in Nevada, where they have been purportedly defending the property since a tense showdown ended with the federal government last week. A 20-year struggle between rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management over decades of alleged illegal cattle grazing on public land ended last Sunday, with the government backing down from a controversial week-long cattle round-up.

As the United States of Obama allows less individual freedom, we need to reaffirm that democracy without individual freedom is tyranny. Until we reaffirm that, and refuse to accept tyranny, our "leaders" will continue to demand not only more of the same from us but also that more world "leaders" emulate them. Overview -- Our foreign and domestic problems are intertwined. The phrase "salami tactics" is well explained in the following video. When watching it, please consider that salami tactics can be used not only by international aggressors but by domestic aggressors as well -- by governments that want to destroy individual freedoms over the objections of their subjects...

The Armed American Radio broadcast with Mark Walters is on every Sunday 8PM Eastern, 5PM Pacific. Coming to you live from the Crossbreed Holsters Studio. Find AAR on your local stationFacebookListen Live Are you sad because the GunTalk radio show with the awesome Tom Gresham ended it's last few minutes, and you have to wait a week for another firearms-related radio show to appear so you can listen? Do you crave to hear from the experts across the nation about our current problems regarding twisted politicians inflicting their anti-gun agendas on free Americans? Do you fear the way certain government...

BUNKERVILLE — A GMC pickup motors across a bridge over the Virgin River, kicking up a cloud of desert. The door swings open. This is my ticket inside the militia that’s become rancher Cliven Bundy’s fighting brigade. Brandon Rapolla, a 39-year-old concrete mixer from Oregon, steers the truck toward the militia camp that’s assembled to support Bundy’s battle with the Bureau of Land Management. There’s an assault rifle propped between Rapolla’s knees. A .338 Magnum rifle, designed to take down big game at a distance the length of three football fields or more, rests within arm’s reach on the back...

HARTFORD — A Newbury Street resident shot at two men — hitting one — after they menaced him, rammed his car and pulled a gun on him early Saturday, police said. The wounded suspect was hospitalized and the other was charged with several crimes. The Newbury Street man who fired the shots is considered a victim and will not be charged, police said. He was not injured, and had a valid permit for his pistol, according to investigators. The man, a National Guard staff sergeant who requested his name not be used to protect him and his family, tells Fox...

A group of armed militia and protesters, some sporting nametags reading "domestic terrorist," remain camped out on a cattle ranch in Nevada, where they have been purportedly defending the property since a tense showdown ended with the federal government last week. A 20-year struggle between rancher Cliven Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management over decades of alleged illegal cattle grazing on public land ended last Sunday, with the government backing down from a controversial week-long cattle round-up. The BLM defused the standoff, citing safety concerns for its employees and the protesters, some of whom were on horseback and others...