Free Republic

America's leading gun maker is raising its targets. Smith & Wesson (SWHC) shares soared 13% Wednesday as the company announced that firearm orders are picking up again. Sales in recent weeks have been better than expected. The company now forecasts sales of between $175 million to $179 million for the quarter. That's up 8% from its projection just six weeks ago and will help boost the company's earnings as well.

My war was the Cold War.  I spent a good chunk of my career helping to develop weapons to counter the communist threat.  A chunk of our intelligence effort was spent attempting to determine what was going on inside of the Soviet Union, who might succeed who in the leadership, and what it might mean. Watching the NRA and trying to determine what is happening in its internal politics is much like that.  There are the public pronouncements, that tell us some of what happened, after the fact.  While the NRA elections can have a significant effect on select...

LEE CO., GA Authorities say a woman was accidentally shot by her son-in-law while he was trying to shoot an armadillo. The incident had a lot of people scratching their heads- even law enforcement. "Just the circumstances, just all the way around, the whole situation was unusual," said Investigator Bill Smith with the Lee county Sheriff's Office. The shooting happened Sunday night on Gosa Road. Lee County Sheriff's deputies said 54-year-old Larry McElroy was outside when he fired his 9 mm pistol at the armadillo. The bullet killed the animal, but also ricocheted off of it, hit a fence, went...

This is an estimate of the money that police departments spend to respond to and investigate gun-related crimes. It includes police salaries, benefits, and equipment, as well as overhead costs to the police department. Miller based this calculation on the amount of time police spent on initial response and follow-up (based on this sample survey) and the amount of money police departments spend on average per officer (including fringe benefits, equipment, supervision, etc.) using data from the 2006 Census of Governments

Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) is set to reintroduce legislation this week that would provide a $2,000 tax credit to people who chose to turn in an assault weapon to law enforcement. According to the Support Assault Firearm Elimination and Education of our (SAFER) Streets Act, the term ‘specified assault weapon’ that people could turn in for the tax credit includes a long list of pistols, rifles and shotguns including:

I arrived at the NRA Annual Meeting in Nashville late on Thursday, the 9th of April, so I was able to get to the press room only a little after they opened on Friday morning.  Mike Vanderboegh was there.  I had met Mike a couple of years ago.  He looked and acted a lot healthier than he had in Houston in 2013, and he did not have to use a wheel chair.  He is someone who I have admired ever since I learned of his activities and the Sipsey Street Irregulars a few years ago.  I do not count...

The US Congress will have a say on a nuclear deal with Iran, under a new agreement reached with the White House. President Barack Obama withdrew his opposition to a bipartisan bill that was unanimously passed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The bill means the administration must immediately send text of a final deal to Congress. An outline agreement on the future shape of Iran's nuclear programme was reached after marathon talks in April. The US, Iran, and four other nations have set a deadline of 30 June to finalise a deal which would ease western sanctions in exchange...

.......“This community has to face the reality that the gun laws that this state has put forward over the last few years – as proud as it makes the governor and legislature feel – has resulted in more guns on the streets of the City of Milwaukee,” Barrett said. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke said that the gun laws Barrett referenced actually deal with concealed carry permits. “There is zero evidence that concealed carry permits [have] led to an increase in guns on the streets,” Clarke said.

Mike Miller knows his way around guns. So the training course required to get a concealed-carry permit in Kansas seemed to him, at first anyway, like a time-wasting technicality. A box to check off on a form. But that cocky skepticism vanished during an eight-hour class that dwelled far less on shooting skills than on the weighty legalities and liabilities that come with firing a deadly weapon. Questions like: When does justifiable homicide cross the line to murder? What are the legal limits of self-defense? “It’s a giant responsibility,” said Miller, a publicist at the Kansas Department of Wildlife and...

The NRA announced Grover Norquist’s re-election to the NRA Board of Directors on April 11 — but on Tuesday, the organization confirmed that Norquist has “voluntarily suspended” himself from NRA board activities. Breitbart News spoke with an NRA spokesman who said that Norquist has indeed distanced himself from the board. The spokesman confirmed that “Grover Norquist has voluntarily suspended activities with the NRA Board of Directors as he awaits the outcome of an investigation into allegations against him.” Breitbart News has previously reported that those allegations were leveled by Glenn Beck and Center for Security Policy president Frank Gaffney, both...

After all those straight white men, we are overdue a woman in the Oval Office. More than one, in fact … Two things happened the past week that got me thinking about representation – about the importance of seeing ourselves outside of ourselves. The first thing was Hillary Clinton announcing her bid for the 2016 presidency. The second thing was NRA president Wayne LaPierre declaring, in regard to Obama and Clinton, that: “Eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough.” As far as Hillary goes, she has already been think-pieced to death (a journalist friend suggested I title this...

An appeals court ruled Tuesday that Wal-Mart investors don’t have a right to try to stop the company from selling rifles or any other product those shareholders may think is socially destructive. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled for the Arkansas-based retailer, reversing a district court ruling in November that would have let the company’s investors influence the store’s policy on high-capacity sporting-rifle sales.

AUSTIN Two of the legislative session’s highest-profile bills were temporarily derailed by technical glitches Tuesday — one to allow Texans to openly carry holstered handguns and the other to limit local restrictions on hydraulic fracturing. Opponents of both measures say any delay gives them hope that they can kill the bills. But supporters dismiss that as wishful thinking, saying this is not even close to a death sentence for the proposals. “It’s just delaying the inevitable,” said Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth. “I think both will still pass, according to the mood of the floor.” Both bills were sent back...

YAKIMA, Wash. — A 32-year-old man who was shopping with at least three children at a Yakima Wal-Mart was the victim of an unprovoked assault when a stranger picked up a metal tee-ball bat and struck him, according to Yakima police. The victim was not injured, but he did have a concealed weapons permit, which he immediately put to use, police said.A store security officer reported hearing a man in the sporting goods department yelling “Get on the ground!” and found one man pointing a pistol at another, who was lying on the floor.Police arrived a short time later and...

Three people are recovering from being shot after a routine traffic stop turned into a bizarre cop-car hijacking and police chase this morning. The incident started around 9 a.m. when a Miami police officer stopped a cab driver for speeding near NE 79th Street and Fourth Avenue. During the stop, the cab driver got out of the car with an assault rifle and began shooting according to NBC Miami. "The offender attempted to murder our law enforcement brother," reads a statement from Fraternal Order of the Police president Javier Ortiz. "Our officer returned fire and a good samaritan provided cover...

The two groups, bolstered by a $50 million philanthropic injection from Michael Bloomberg, focused their attention on Kroger following a spate of lobbying victories. .... Kroger (market cap: $37 billion) wouldn’t budge, however. That August, the Ohio-based 2,625-store grocery giant — the country’s second largest general retailer, behind Walmart — released a statement saying it would “follow state and local laws” on open carry. The following month, Everytown and Moms Demand Action upped the ante against Kroger, launching the umbrella group’s first ever large-scale corporate campaign, with an advertising spend of six figures.

Police from several agencies are trying to piece together a shooting and chase on Tuesday morning that began in Miami, ended in North Miami, and left two people injured, including someone who may have been an innocent bystander. By 10 a.m., it was still all confusing as Miami police cordoned off several sections along 79th Street from Northwest Sixth Avenue to Northeast Fourth Avenue. According to sources, an officer was trying to pull over a car near a Valero gas station on 79th Street just off Interstate 95, when a man emerged from the car with an assault rifle and...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)“When it comes to Constitutional rights, what matters is what the Bill of Rights says. It doesn’t matter what might be popular at the moment,” said presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz about voting against an expanded background check measure in April 2013. Cruz discussed his decision with Guns.com at the 2015 National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Nashville this past weekend, shortly after the Texas congressman spoke at a crowded convention center about gun rights. The legislation, often referred to as the Manchin-Toomey bill — introduced by Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. Pat Toomey — aimed to expand...

Nothing – and we mean nothing – chaps Shannon Watts’ backside more than being ignored. As recently as last month, Kroger, the Cincinnati-based food giant, once again told MDA to go peddle their anti-2A papers somewhere else.

Country star Tim McGraw will be headlining a benefit concert against gun violence in Hartford in July. McGraw's tour mates, Billy Currington and Chase Bryant will also perform.