Free Republic

President Barack Obama has wisely chosen to ignore bipartisan bleating over the lawful use of his executive authority to address pressing issues long championed by the so-called professional left. He has instead decided to flex his muscle, at long last. He struck a deal with China to reduce greenhouse gases by 30 percent over the coming years, pushed for regulating the Internet as a public utility, raised the minimum wage of workers employed by companies with federal contracts, created gender equity rules for such employees and protected from deportation as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants. Also, his Environmental Protection...

Last month there was a shooting at Florida State University where three students were shot by a mentally disturbed man before the police arrived.  One of the students had a concealed carry permit, but was not allowed to have his defensive firearm with him.  Another witness was a combat veteran who said that he had a clear shot at the attacker, but was also prevented from having his firearm with him by current law. A bill has been filed in the Florida Senate to restore the ability of permit holders to carry their firearms on campus, as they can...

Tia and pistols near Yuma, AZ In Alaska, a couple is not content with teen age girls learning how to shoot .22 rifles and pellet guns.   Not that their is anything wrong with that.  Air rifles and .22 rifles are excellent tools for teaching beginners to shoot, and for target practice and hunting small game.   But this course goes further and involves a wider variety of firearms.   From peninsularclarion.com: In addition to safety, the course includes trigger technique, accuracy practice, shooting from a full range of positions, and a chance to gain experience with a variety of guns. Ted...

H.B. 234  is an 18 page reform of Ohio's firearms laws, though most of the 18 pages are existing law.  The reforms are simple commonsense reforms of provisions of state law that were unduly restrictive and made no sense.  This was reflected by the large vote margins for passage of the bill; 24-6 in the Senate, 69-16 in the House.  The bill now goes to Governor Kasich, who has not indicated if he will sign it or not.   Disarmists are already lobbying the Governor in an attempt to have him veto the bill.  Governor Kasich has 10 days from...

The suspect is accused of confronting a cashier at a Unocal service station located in the 12000 block of Seal Beach Boulevard shortly before noon Friday.

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) -- Topeka Police were forced to use deadly force after a 19 year old suspect, involved in several crimes, refused to put down his weapon. Officers were first called to the 400 block of SW Tyler where a suspect had allegedly strangled a female victim and taking a knife and a gun out of the residence.

The case started back in 2012, when Dale Lee Norman walked down the street with his pistol showing.  He had recently obtained his concealed carry permit, and did not realize that his firearm was completely exposed. He was convicted of the open carry of a firearm.  His case was appealed to the 4th Circuit court of appeals.   The state Advocate General fought very hard to keep the case from being appealed.   The issue went all the way to the State Supreme Court, which ruled for Norman, to allow the 4th Circuit to hear the case. The 4th Circuit has...

“The [Nevada] Secretary of State has certified that the petitions submitted for an anti-gun initiative for the 2016 general election ballot are sufficient,” nraila.org reports. “This initiative was filed with the Secretary of State by the anti-gun ‘Nevadans for Background Checks,’ likely affiliated with ex-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ‘Everytown for Gun Safety’ and seeks to criminalize most private transfers and mandate background checks for nearly all gun transfers in Nevada, with very limited exceptions.” Here’s the official description from the group behind the push . . .

Spotted this while chasing another link. Seems I've seen one of these before, but not as a cased piece. Many detailed pictures, worth a peek but texts are in Russian. Interesting...

This morning my Daughter and her friend were jogging on the bridge today. They came across a 45 caliber Glock in the grass by the sidewalk. It appeared someone tried to toss the gun from a moving car into the marsh, but missed. She saw a policeman writing a traffic ticket and told him what she saw. He asked her to wait while he finished his business. Then he came and interviewed the girls and called the investigators to treat the gun as a crime scene.

Police have arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with Friday’s shooting at an Oregon high school for at-risk students. Police have been searching for a gunman who left three young people hospitalized in what investigators say appears to be a gang-related shooting outside Rosemary Anderson High School in Portland.

Two suspects are in custody after Springdale Police said they robbed C & S Gun and Pawn shop at gun-point Saturday morning (Dec. 6). According to police, the owner of the shop shot one of the suspects. Police said 25-year-old Marcus Gould and 20-year-old Leon Roberson are in custody after attempting to rob the store carrying semi-automatic pistols. They said the owner, Shirley Cornett, pulled out her .38 revolver and shot Gould in the arm as he was jumping over the counter towards her husband, Clint.

In a small percentage of cases, a victim disarms an attacker.  The attacker usually runs off.  In one case, they even asked for the gun back!   My experience is that disarms by victims are considerably more common than disarms by attackers.   It is not hard to understand why.  The victim has a lot more to gain from a disarm; the attacker a lot more to lose if he continues the fight.   Sometimes the victim turns the gun on the attacker, as happen in this case in Chicago.   It happened in the 6600 block of South State Street, one of...

In Timothy Carney's Dec. 9 article, the Washington Examiner senior political columnist makes the case that the conventional wisdom is wrong when it comes to why white Southerners have fled the Democratic Party. It's not because of the GOP's very successful Southern Strategy, which played up the racial fears and prejudices of white Southerners in response to an increasingly empowered black population. For Carney, the South no longer has a white Democrat in the U.S. Senate for two reasons and two reasons alone: the Democratic Party is hostile to guns and God, two things that every Southerner hold dear. Carney...

3 shot outside of high school in Portland. 3 victims, no fatalities yet. Shooter is being hunted by police. May be gang shooting.

After years as a successful wedding photographer, Hillary Maybery decided to challenge herself to something new and tackle the fashion industry, but while searching for a teen model, her journey took an unexpected turn that eventually chipped away at her preconceived notions about hunters, which she once viewed as “barbaric, blood thirsty, gun lovers.” Maybery was intrigued when she came across photos of 15-year-old Harlee and her father, Bryan, standing over a massive 12-point elk, Harlee’s first, which she had dropped from about 350 yards away with a clean shot to the shoulder.

Pew Poll: Americans not duped by gun control deceit A Pew Research poll released Dec. 10 shows 52 percent of participants support the protection of gun rights while 46 percent support gun control, marking the first time two decades that Pew has found more support for gun rights than gun control. According to Pew, support for gun rights has been steadily rising since January 2013, when 45 percent supported protections. During that time period, support for gun control also fell from 51 percent to its current 46 percent.

Boehner and GOP elite are playing checkers while Obama and his comrades in the Democratic National Communist party are playing chess. So Let me explain to you all what is going to happen in the next few months. First of all, when the time arrives to ‘defund’ homeland security it will FAIL. The socialists will all scream in unison about national security and suddenly be worried about terrorism and disease entering the country. [And anything bad that does happen will be blamed on the GOP naturally] They will be everywhere talking up this now found appreciation for Homeland security and...

One of two concealed gun permit holders involved in a rolling shootout down Milwaukee streets and freeways last year was turned down Thursday when he asked a judge to order the return of the gun seized after the incident. Roy Anthony Scott told police he was merely trying to escape from Eric Adamany, 29, and fired in self-defense. Scott was never charged in the June 2013 shootout. Adamany was, and his case of recklessly endangering safety is pending. Scott, also 29, was charged in September 2013 with being party to the crime of armed robbery at an auto-parts store three...

The Chart above is said to have been produced by michellawyers.com.  This is a screen shot of the pdf file.   I appreciate the work that went into producing this chart, especially as the timing is subject to change "for good cause" by the En Banc Coordinator at every step of the process.    I do not know if Judge Sidney Runyan Thomas is still the En Banc Coordinator.  The chart is said to have been produced in 2010, four years ago. Now that a Judge in the Ninth Circuit has called for the an En Banc review, sua sponte, this...