Free Republic

The events that have unfolded in Ferguson, Missouri, in recent weeks have revealed many tragedies, among them the fact that the death of so many youth of color in this country is still debatable in its status as a vaunted “feminist issue.” But it is, and the expansive definition of reproductive justice, which reaches into the universe of conditions necessary to create and sustain life, shows us how. As RH Reality Check Senior Legal Analyst Imani Gandy put it so well in a recent tweet: Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady I saw so many people on Twitter saying "I don't want to...

The international spotlight has recently been shining on Ferguson, Mo., after an 18-year-old black man was fatally shot by a white police officer. There was massive national and international media coverage, much of it engendered by the tantalizing thought that here was a clear-cut case of racism leading to police brutality and indicative of the evil inherent in American society. Violent demonstrations and riots ensued, with massive property damage and many outside agitators descending on the town, supposedly to guarantee justice as defined by mob mentality. Perhaps it would be useful to examine the tragedy with the facts on the...

A shooting range instructor in Arizona was accidentally shot and killed by a 9-year-old girl who was learning how to shoot an Uzi, authorities said on Tuesday. Charles Vacca, 39, was teaching the girl how to use the automatic weapon on Monday morning at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range in White Hills, Arizona, when she pulled the trigger and the kickback caused the gun to lurch over her head, investigators said. Vacca was hit by a stray bullet and airlifted to University Medical Center in Las Vegas, where he was pronounced dead late Monday. The girl was at the...

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have donated $1 million to a Washington state campaign seeking to expand background checks on gun sales, bringing the total amount the campaign has brought in up to nearly $6 million. ... The large donation comes on the heels of fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $500,000 donation earlier this month. Also last week, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer donated an additional $1 million, bring his total donation to the campaign to nearly $1.4 million.

A firearms instructor has died after he was shot by a nine-year-old girl when she fired an Uzi at a shooting range in the Arizona desert. Mohave County sheriff’s officials said 39-year-old Charles Vacca, of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, died at the hospital on Monday after he was shot at the Last Stop outdoor shooting range. Mohave County Sheriff Jim McCabe told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that Vacca was standing next to the girl when she pulled the trigger. The gun recoiled and it went over her head. The paper reported that the girl had successfully fired the 9mm weapon...

Who knew adding a gun to Pilates could be such a good time? I don’t know a single buddy that can do this. Anyone ever tried it before? -

Wilcox for Congress In a close primary duel, Arizona congressional candidate Mary Rose Wilcox targets her opponent's support for Stand Your Ground.Could the 2012 killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin prove a deciding factor in an Arizona Democratic congressional primary? Former Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox certainly hopes so. Seeking to gain an edge over her rival, ex-state Rep. Ruben Gallego, in the weeks leading up to Tuesday's primary, Wilcox's campaign has invoked Martin's shooting and her opponent's past support for a controversial Stand Your Ground law. "America doesn't need more Trayvon Martin tragedies," read a mailer distributed by...

The development is about 15 years old One of the major reasons for those who push for a disarmed population to desire the registration of all firearms is that it makes the ownership of the means to self defense contingent on government approval.  This is the philosophy that "everything that is not permitted is forbidden", rather than the standard English/American philosophy that "everything that is not forbidden is allowed".  It is an enormous difference in perspective.  In Revere, Massachusetts, a homeowner evicted from a party after getting in a fight.   He returned with his 50 year old step father.  ...

SunTrust Bank is cutting ties with three types of legal businesses in the latest evidence of the Obama administration’s secretive crusade against “objectionable” enterprises. SunTrust, which counts more than 400,000 small business clients, cited “compliance requirements” as its reason for closing accounts with “payday lenders, pawn shops and dedicated check-cashers.” “It is consistent with long-standing industry practice to review relationships to ensure they satisfy a range of business and risk considerations,” the bank said in a little-noticed press release dated Aug. 8. In the same blanket notice, however, SunTrust underlined its support for maintaining bank relationships with licensed gun sellers....

ST. ALBANS (VT) — Police video and documents provided to the St. Albans Messenger show how an ordinary traffic stop last week degenerated into a physical altercation, which further disintegrated into the use of ethnic and homophobic slurs. Local attorney Peter J.R. Martin, 74, was stopped by Officer Mike Malinowski of the St. Albans Police Dept. (SAPD) Thursday, June 12, at 5:30 p.m. for having tinted windows, which are not legal in Vermont. The incident occurred on Lake Road near Cherry Street at St. Albans Bay. Martin was subsequently charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. He has pleaded not...

Michael Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety is "bankrolling" a gun control initiative in Nevada that seeks to expand background checks for private firearm transfers, guns sold at gun shows, "or among friends and family." In other words, Bloomberg is bankrolling Everytown which, in turn, is bankrolling a ballot initiative to make private gun sales without a background check illegal in Nevada.

A Florida man demonstrated human' occupation of the top predator spot by shooting a big bobcat that had lost its fear of men.   The big cat was killing and eating a chicken a day for a month, and killed the last one just feet from the man  and his children. Florida Farm Where Bobcat Killed 30 Chickens From local10.com: "Saturday evening we were sitting in the hot tub and right there, you see the feather on the ground? The cat came out of nowhere, killed a chicken right in front of us, like 8 feet away. Just splattered blood...

Last week, Sarah wrote about how the Kroger supermarket chain was responding to Moms Demand Action’s petition to ban open carry in their stores. Kroger spokesman Keith Dailey said, "We know that our customers are passionate on both sides of this issue and we trust them to be responsible in our stores." While it’s from a pro-gun control organization, the Wall Street Journal published a good map from them showing where the open carrying of handguns is legal.

“This is a fighting school, not a shooting school.”Rangemaster John Hall set the tone as he welcomed us to the 250 Pistol class is that is the core of the “Gunsite experience.” The 19 students in the class paid close attention as Hall introduced us to the concepts that Jeff Cooper introduced in the Arizona desert for the first time 38 years before. Nineteen of us were taking part in a five-day class to learn how to fight with a pistol, using methods that have become the standard by which all other forms of handgun fighting are judged.Our four...

Rep. Elijah Cummings, along with other members of the Congressional Black Caucus, sent a letter Monday to President Barack Obama, urging the administration to pursue changes to local law enforcement structure to “prevent more Fergusons,” including a federal czar to oversee local law enforcement. “The administration must quickly establish a national commission to review existing police policies and practices,” the letter reads. “And identify the best policies and practices that can prevent more Fergusons and vastly improve policing in communities across the nation.” In addition to the commission, the letter calls for the appointment of a federal czar within the...

Baton Rouge Code of Ordinances § 13:95.3 provides, (a) It shall be unlawful for any person to have in his possession a firearm, or other instrumentality customarily used or intended for probable use as a dangerous weapon, in any premises where alcoholic beverages are sold and/or consumed on the premises except the owner or lessee of the premises, or their employees [or law enforcement officials]…. (b) … Any person who enters a place where alcoholic beverages are sold and/or consumed on the premises does, by the mere fact of entering, consent to a search of his person for any firearm...

A federal judge in Fresno on Monday ruled the state's 10-day waiting period for buying firearms is unconstitutional for those who've previously purchased weapons and cleared background checks. U.S. District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii issued the ruling after a March bench trial, as well as deposition testimony and numerous briefings that concluded at the end of June. Last December, he had denied a request by state Attorney General Kamala Harris to throw out the lawsuit. Harris, along with the California Department of Justice, were defendants in the suit. "As an individual plaintiff I was ecstatic," said Madera County resident...

>Today, a federal judge ruled that California’s 10-day waiting period is unconstitutional. Gun owners Jeffrey Silvester and Brandon Combs, along with Calguns Foundation and the Second Amendment Fondation, challenged the law, saying that the 10-day waiting period adds additional costs and disruptions preventing them from exercising their constitutional Second Amendment rights (via Calguns Foundation): In the decision released this morning, Federal Eastern District of California Senior Judge Anthony W. Ishii, appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton, found that “the 10-day waiting periods of Penal Code [sections 26815(a) and 27540(a)] violate the Second Amendment” as applied to members of certain...

NORTH LAWNDALE — Dozens of people gathered on a West Side street Monday afternoon to protest the shooting death of 19-year-old Roshad McIntosh, who was killed by police Sunday night. Thunder boomed overhead and blowing rain hit a blood-soaked porch in the 2800 block of West Polk Street, where McIntosh's mother, Cynthia Lane, stood outside surrounded by supporters. "I want my baby, they killed my baby," Lane said, sobbing. Police responded to a call of an armed men at the Polk Street address Sunday around 7:10 p.m., and when they tried to talk to McIntosh, he ran, authorities said. Police...

In JEFF SILVESTER v. KAMALA HARRIS, the United States District Court for the eastern District of California found that the 10 day waiting period to receive a firearm after a background check, was a violation of the second amendment for people who already owned a firearm (and could be shown to do so in the California database), who had a valid CCW license in California, or who owned a firearm and had a Certificate of Exemption (COE).  This is a significant win for restoration of second amendment rights in California.   The court gave the government of California 180 days...