Free Republic

On October 15, an armed man wearing a skeleton mask robbed a bank inside a Cincinnati Kroger, and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America responded by calling the robbery "a wake up call to Kroger's leadership to prohibit the open carry of firearms in its stores." Armed robberies are already banned by law, but such laws did not stop the man in the skeleton mask from carrying out his evil deed.

A week ago I wrote an article about the unicorn event of an open carrier having his firearm stolen by an armed robber.   It is only the second event that has been documented.   Numerous pundits sided with those who want their political opponents disarmed.   An important detail was left out of the story. Multnomah County, where the robbery took place, requires that openly carried guns must be unloaded.   The ordinance makes it an offense to possess a loaded magazine or speed loader if you do not have a concealed carry permit.  As the open carrier was barely old enough...

(AUDIO-AT-LINK)Republicans are conflating crises as if there's an ISIS terrorist with Ebola at the Border. Lowry and Shrum debate if hitting-the-panic button can work in November and if Dems can counter with good economic news and GOP voter obstruction. Then: Is Panetta patriotic or betraying?On The Politics of Ebola.It’s life imitating art, seemingly ripped from identical scenes in Outbreak, Contagion and the conclusion of Planet of the Apes, except Gwyneth Paltrow doesn't act as if she's dying -- though tens of thousands of West Africans, at a minimum, actually will. Based on the news axiom "if-it-bleeds-it-leads" and the cerebral amygdala's...

Full title: Documents Obtained by Judicial Watch Reveal that Fast and Furious Rifle Was Used in 2013 Phoenix Gang-Style Assault Judicial Watch today announced that, based on information uncovered through a Judicial Watch public records lawsuit against the City of Phoenix, the U.S. Congress has confirmed that an AK 47 rifle used in a July 29, 2013, gang-style assault on an apartment building that left two people wounded was part of the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) Operation Fast and Furious gunrunning program. An October 16 letter sent from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) to Deputy...

On 26 July, 2014, 57-year-old Brian D. Murphy defended himself against a charging grizzly in Glacier National Park.  The case is interesting for a number of reasons.  Two months after the attack, Murphy was charged with discharging a firearm in Glacier Park, a misdemeanor that carries a $500 fine.   On 9 October, a motion to dismiss the charge was put forward by the U.S. Attorney's Office after Murphy's attorney said that they would raise the  defense of self-defense.    Judge Keith Strong granted the motion last Thursday.  From missoulian.com: The U.S. Attorney’s Office has dismissed the charge against 57-year-old Brian...

Documents obtained through a lawsuit recently issued against the City of Phoenix by government watchdog Judicial Watch reveal a weapon from the Department of Justice's Operation Fast and Furious was used to injure two people in a 2013 gang-style assault on an apartment complex. When the incident occurred and during investigation afterward, police worked with federal law enforcement agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Department of Homeland Security, FBI and Drug Enforcement Agency in the case, raising suspicions the assault wasn't simply a typical, local gang shootout and prompted questions about the details of where the weapons...

Nashville Police Chief: Secret Service Tried to Fool Armed Homeowner with Fake Search Warrant By Robert Farago on October 16, 2014 “Nashville Police Chief Steve Anderson recently sent a letter to Congress alleging that Secret Service agents asked Nashville police to falsify a warrant so that the agents could search the home of a Nashville resident who had posted about President Obama on Facebook,” benswann.com reports. More specifically, “in January of 2013, Secret Service agents working out of the Nashville field office visited the home of the resident who made the Facebook postings and knocked on his door. Then, an...

People who carry concealed handguns near public events and demonstrations in the nation’s capital shouldn’t have to be personally warned by a police officer before they are subject to arrest, D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier said Thursday. Lanier testified at a hearing on the D.C. Council’s proposal to allow residents and visitors to get concealed handgun permits for the first time in nearly 40 years. The bill was drafted in response to a judge’s ruling this summer that struck down the District of Columbia’s ban on carrying guns outside the home. The bill would ban the carrying of handguns within...

Filmmaker Michael Moore took to Twitter early Thursday morning to slam conservatives for what he believes is their role in exacerbating the Ebola outbreak. In a series of tweets, Moore took to blaming everyone from the NRA to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, congressional Republicans, to Wall Street bankers. Many have used Ebola to advance their respective political agendas, and Democrats have latched onto a claim by the head of the National Institute of Health that budget cuts to medical research have prevented the NIH from developing a vaccine for the deadly virus. On the other side, several have suggested the...

Soon we'll see ads about how she's an avid hunter.

The possibility of infection during and after a defensive gun use has long been a matter of concern.   On the positive side, guns give you some "stand off" distance; they are effective without coming into direct contact with the attacker.  On the negative side, if you have to shoot someone, there will be lots of blood and other bodily fluids, so the chances of infection become much higher. I write this from the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, where my first grandchild was born in the same hospital complex that treated the first U.S. Ebola patient, Thomas Duncan, from Liberia.  He...

On October 14 feminist speaker Anita Sarkeesian canceled a speaking engagement at Utah State University upon learning that state law forbids the university from banning concealed carry on campus.

......a poetic plea from an 8-year-old boy. His message was broadcast inside a community center in Newark on Saturday afternoon, but his words were interrupted by gunshots. “Violence came as I was talking,” Nyeeam Hudson said. During Nyeeam’s plea for peace, a young man was shot and killed outside.

<p>The day begins as we converge in North Texas to once again celebrate the life of Texas Cowboy in the fashion he would want us to have fun together.</p>

Two Democratic lawmakers in Pennsylvania traded gunfire with a would-be robber Tuesday night near the state capitol in Harrisburg. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Rep. Marty Flynn of Luzerne and Rep. Ryan Bizzarro of Erie were heading home from dinner at around 11 p.m. when a man approached them. The assailant “pointed a gun first at Flynn and then at Bizzarro and demanded their wallets,” The Inquirer reports. A second man was reportedly issuing instructions to the gunman from across the street. According to the state’s Democratic Caucus, Flynn, a former corrections officer, pulled out his own weapon and “exchanged...

The 34-year-old homeless man accused of a vicious attack on two park rangers yesterday in the Boston Common was ordered held on $1 million cash bail today. Bodio Hutchinson pleaded innocent to numerous assault charges in the 4:36 p.m. alleged slashing that prosecutor Lynn Feigenbaum said left both rangers with five stab wounds each.

The mother of a 17-year-old boy was charged Wednesday with allowing him to take a loaded handgun to school. Leah Wilcken, 41, faces four misdemeanor counts, each carrying a potential penalty of a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, the city attorney's office said. Prosecutors said that in May, the woman's 17-year-old son brought a loaded .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun and a spare magazine containing seven bullets to Will Rogers High School in Van Nuys. "He was in a dispute with another student and had made posting on social media" calling on the student to meet him in the school...

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania state legislator exchanged gunfire with a would-be robber near the state Capitol in Harrisburg, city police said Wednesday. Rep. Marty Flynn and another lawmaker were walking to their residence after a late dinner with other legislators when two males accosted them and demanded their wallets just before 11 p.m. Tuesday, police said. Flynn is a former Lackawanna County prison guard who is licensed to carry a handgun. He drew his pistol and fired during the attempted holdup. At least one of the two would-be robbers was armed, police said, but neither Flynn nor the...

No Ammo is Available for the .442 Rimfire Tranter shown Bluffing with a gun often works.   Most criminals do not wish to be shot; they run away.   But sometimes, the criminal is drugged, crazy, or  determined, and they "call" the bluff, often with direct, aggressive action.  It is then that you need a few skills to keep from being hurt or killed.   First, do not allow the criminal to get close (within five feet) of you.   Inside that distance, it is very hard to stop a determined person who has the advantage of action over reaction....

For nearly 30 years, soldiers heard an unforgettable sound coming from a weapon firing from behind the rubble in Stalingrad. Or echoing in the frozen hills of the Korean Peninsula during human-wave attacks. Or even rattling the jungles of Vietnam during firefights with the Viet Cong. BRRAP-PAP-PAP-PAP-PAP-PAP-PAP-PAP-PAP! Before the AK-47 became the symbol of Soviet armed forces, there was the “burp gun”—officially, the PPSh-41. It’s an ugly gun that makes an ugly sound during extended fire. Looks aside, the burp gun sure did work.