Free Republic

Hummers are very capable vehicles, but like all machines, they are not more capable than  the people operating them.  In Fort Worth, Florida, a man spent all day drinking and getting a tattoo done.  When he decided to leave, he started driving erratically over the lawn and neighbors driveway.   When the lawn's owner started screaming, the neighbor grabbed a firearm of unidentified make and caliber/gauge. The neighbor fired one shot that deflated the front passenger tire; Gonzolez-Lopez backed up, then started toward them.   The neighbor then shot out the passenger side rear tire.   The Hummer driver retreated and drove...

According to CBS St. Louis, "Gun sales are up across St. Louis." In fact, they have "quadrupled" at some area gun stores. Buyers are not simply the stereotypical white, male gun store customers. Instead, gun store owner Steve King described many of those pouring into his store--Metro Shooting--as "females, single mothers ... black people, white people ... [and] Asians."

The police department in a St. Louis suburb where a man was shot and killed by a police officer is asking protesters to gather only during daylight. Ferguson has been the site of nightly protests and unrest since 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed during a confrontation with an officer on Saturday. In a news release issued Wednesday, the department asked that all people who assemble to pray or protest do so in “an organized and respectful” manner and disperse well before evening to ensure the safety of participants and the community. “The City of Ferguson mourns the loss of...

No matter if there's a black man in the White House; there's always a power structure founded on and fostered by whiteness that exists with little challenge. Rude Pundit with a heartfelt exposition on the same principle once expressed by Martin Luther King Jr. as "rioting is the language of the unheard": That photo is of police patrolling the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, in the wake of a night of riots and looting in the wake of the shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white cop. In that suburb of St. Louis, the population is 67% black,...

The Obama VA may be running a back door gun registry under the guise of a “free gun lock” program. A Progressives Today reader sent in this letter they received with the following worrisome comment attached: Is this a backdoor way of the VA attempting to create a gun registry on vets? I think it is… (Click to enlarge) Dear Veteran:The James E. Van Zandt VA Medial Center is extending the opportunity to request free gun locks to the Veterans we serve. We are providing this opportunity because, as your partner in health care, we are committed to keeping you...

As a libertarian, it’s easy for me to get agitated about the theoretical burden of high taxes, wasteful spending, and costly regulation. But even regular people should get upset when they get exposed to specific examples of individuals who are victimized by abusive government. Regarding the particular topic of Second Amendment freedoms and government misbehavior, I know I get very angry when I read about what happened to folks like Adam Meckler and Benjamin Srigley. And now we can add Shaneen Allen to the list. Here’s some of what Glenn Reynolds of the University of Tennessee wrote for USA Today....

After learning that Los Angeles police shot and killed Ezell Ford Monday night, I spent a good deal of time Tuesday night and Wednesday morning trying to find out if the victim was unarmed. Ford was a 25-year-old black man (pictured above) who had reportedly suffered from mental illness. The official police statement online never mentioned if Ford had a weapon when he was killed. Although several media organizations reported he was unarmed, I could find no evidence from LAPD or the family to corroborate that claim. I wanted to determine if Ford should be added to the tragic list...

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/08/10/ray-rice-shaneen-allen-gun-column/13862831/

It is often very hard for women who have been victims of sexual type crimes to publicly discuss what has happened to them. Last week in Washington, five women came forward to discuss how gun free zones at colleges have prevented them from defending themselves. From rape and sexual assault, to stalkers, to one woman whose stalker killed her husband, to death threats,these women bravely came forward and talked of the traumas -- all but one telling their story publicly for the first time. One woman's story made national headlines. Taylor Woolrich, a junior at Dartmouth College, has been stalked...

I don't think I can even post an excerpt of this story on FR. The gist is that a kook professor is positing on Holmes' show that if an open carry group enters a restaurant, the patrons should (among other things) exit en masse without paying.

The WA Alliance for Gun Responsibility continues to pad its war chest. The independent spending group is leading the push to get voters to approve in November I-594, a measure that would require background checks for gun sales. Ex-Microsoft CEO Steven Ballmer (and new LA Clippers owner) and his wife Connie were already big donors to the group, but they kicked in an additional $250,000 between them, according to public records. That brings the group’s total fundraising to about $3.2 million, records show. The group has spent about $2.2 million and still has about $1 million still on hand. Meanwhile,...

Born out of the necessity rapidly to put inexpensive submachine guns in the hands of American soldiers and Marines, it was so cheap it looked like a mechanic’s tool rather than the product of advanced American industrial know-how. It was supposed to serve as a replacement to the iconic and expensive Thompson submachine gun, but developed a reputation of its own that kept it in the U.S. military inventory from World War II all the way through Desert Storm. Nobody really loved the M-3 that G.I.s dubbed the “Grease Gun.” But nobody really hated, either.

A Texas gun rights advocacy group plans to hold a walk Saturday in Houston's historically African-American Fifth Ward. Members of Open Carry Texas told Local 2 Investigates that they plan to walk through Fifth Ward neighborhoods to educate people on their Second Amendment rights. "If they come with their weapons, I'm quite sure they'll be a lot of us with weapons also," said community activist Quannel X. After hearing Quanell X's statements, Open Carry Texas member David Amad defended the group's decision to hold the event in the Fifth Ward and said the organization's motivations are being prematurely misjudged. "We've...

Gun sales are up across St. Louis since the shooting of Michael Brown and subsequent nights of violence. Sales have quadrupled at ‘Metro Shooting’ in Bridgeton according to owner Steven King. He says sales have mainly been to men, but not all: “Probably a dozen or two dozen guns to females, single mothers. We’ve sold to black people, white people. We’ve sold to asians who have businesses on West Florissant.” said King. “They’re just afraid of whats going on and they’re coming in to purchase either additional firearms or their first firearm.”

At this year’s American Bar Association annual meeting in Boston, ABA President James R. Silkenat took the opportunity to tout the ABA’s Standing Committee on Gun Violence. The Standing Committee is one of the ABA’s advocacy wings, and is affiliated closely with the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

The decision is Vesely v. Armslist, LLC (7th Cir. Aug. 12, 2014). Here’s the Brady Campaign’s theory: On April 13, 2011, Jitka Vesel, a 36-year-old immigrant from the Czech Republic was shot and killed by Demetry Smirnov, a Russian immigrant residing in Canada who had met Jitka online a few years earlier. Smirnov stalked her to her workplace parking lot where he shot her 11-12 times with a .40-caliber handgun…. The complaint alleges that [Smirnov] illegally purchased from a private seller whom he located through armslist.com, an online gun auction site owned by defendant Armslist, LLC. The complaint alleges that...

Though guns are not the most common method by which people attempt suicide, they are the most lethal. About 85 percent of suicide attempts with a firearm end in death. (Drug overdose, the most widely used method in suicide attempts, is fatal in less than 3 percent of cases.) Moreover, guns are an irreversible solution to what is often a passing crisis. Suicidal individuals who take pills or inhale car exhaust or use razors have time to reconsider their actions or summon help. With a firearm, once the trigger is pulled, there’s no turning back.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's dollars have been defeated again, this time in Wisconsin. Despite Bloomberg dumping $150,000 into the Democrat primary for Milwaukee County Sheriff on behalf of anti-gun Milwaukee Police Lt. Chris Moews with a goal of defeating pro-self defense incumbent Sheriff David Clarke, Clarke was victorious last night. Clarke defeated Moews 52 percent to 48 percent. The race was called Wednesday morning after results were too close to call Tuesday night. Here are Clarke's remarks from last night, before the race was called this morning.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Sentinel Journal has Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke (D) defeating challenger Milwaukee police lieutenant Chris Moews by nearly 5 percent. According to the Sentinel, Clarke garnered 56.8 percent of the vote to Moews' 52.1. This percentage is slightly less than that with which Clarke won in 2000 -- when he beat Moews by six points -- but the August 12 victory comes after Michael Bloomberg dumped $150,000 into the race against Clarke.

"Police said they received a call about four to five men in the area armed with shotguns and wearing ski masks and they got reports of shots fired in the area. Police officers arrived and saw 'multiple subjects running,' said police spokesman Officer Brian Schellman. "An officer approached one of the men and he pulled a handgun on the officer who then fired, Schellman said."