Free Republic

This afternoon, Governor Dayton told the Minnesota Legislature that he will be signing SF878 into law. This bill contains five key Second Amendment rights provisions: Suppressors legalized Emergency Powers limited Capitol Carry notification rule reformed Interstate Purchase rights clarified Carry Reciprocity standards reformed

A woman testifying for Moms Demand Action has been called on the carpet for misleading the Texas Senate for implying by omission that the tragic killing of her husband by her son resulted from the use of a firearm. In reality, her son killed his father with a pipe wrench and a knife. The fact that her son owned what she called “an arsenal” had no bearing on the murder. Open Carry Texas (OCT) has produced a short video which contrasts the woman’s testimony at the Capitol with newspaper and television reports about the murder, and her son’s trial.

Senator Whitmire, D Houston, during his non-filibuster filibuster. I just watched hours of debate in the Texas Senate on Committee Substitute HB 910.  The Senate Committee had removed the Dutton amendment, that stipulated that the police could not stop you for merely exercising your right to carry openly, and ask for a permit or license.    Here is the amendment: CERTAIN INVESTIGATORY STOPS AND INQUIRIES PROHIBITED.   A peace officer may not make an investigatory stop or other temporary detention to inquire as to whether a person possesses a handgun license solely because the person is carrying a partially or wholly...

Heroic citizens stopping someone from killing a large number of people don’t seem to be considered news worthy. Don’t people want to read about a brave soul risking his life by running towards the sound of gunfire while others run away? Yet, such stories never get national news coverage by the national mainstream media. While accidental gunshots get national coverage, few people have any idea how often concealed handgun permit holders stopping mass killings. The lack of news coverage allows left wing media outlets, such as Mother Jones which should know better, to falsely claim: "In not a single case...

HB 910, the Texas licensed open carry bill, passed the House by 2/3 margins.  The bill went through the Senate State Affairs Committee, where the Dutton amendment was stripped from it.   Now, being debated on the floor of the full Senate, the debate is whether to put the Dutton amendment back in.   The Dutton amendment specifies that peace officers may not detain open carriers simply to ask if they have a license, but must have probable cause to suspect criminal activity, just like they need for any Terry stop.   The amendment is designed to protect open carriers from police...

~snip~ Maddow opened her show with heart-rending footage of the Aurora trial. She highlighted the testimony of Brenton Lowak, whose friend Jessica Ghawi -- a 24-year-old aspiring sports reporter -- died in the shooting. ~snip~ The parents unsuccessfully sued the retailers who made the firearm that killed their daughter. Colorado state law requires that plaintiffs who sue the manufacturers of gun products pay the companies' legal fees if they lose. “That’s not a typo,” Maddow said, adding, “The mother and father of the victim who died in the Aurora mass shooting have just been ordered to pay a quarter-million dollars...

ATLANTA — An Atlanta man held a would-be carjacker at gunpoint until police arrived and arrested the suspect, according to police.

A Georgia man says he has no regrets after he turned the tables on a would-be carjacker and held him on the ground at gunpoint until police arrived. Hashim Fannin said he was pulling into a parking spot at the Family Dollar in northwest Atlanta earlier this month when Edgar Horn, 61, slid into the passenger seat after Mr. Fannin’s doors automatically unlocked, a local ABC affiliate reported. “He told me, ‘You know what this is,’ ” Mr. Fannin recalled. Thats’ when he pulled out his gun on the suspect. “I asked him to get out the car, probably not...

ATLANTA — An East Point man held a would-be carjacker at gunpoint until police arrived and arrested the suspect, according to Atlanta police. -snip- “You were not trying to rob me,” Fannin said to the man on cellphone video of the incident. “Do you just get into random people's cars ... you thought I was your friend … you thought I was your friend ... so you woke up stupid this morning?”

The Attack on Self-DefensePosted By Barry Loberfeld On May 22, 2015 @ 12:24 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 11 Comments [1]Some years back, a public service TV ad depicted patients being told by a doctor that they had a tobacco-related illness: lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, etc. It asked, “If you’re not planning to quit smoking, then what are you planning?” So let me ask: If you’re not planning to use a firearm to defend your home against invasion, what are you planning to do?Modern liberalism has long mocked even the possibility of citizen self-defense: People imagine themselves getting the...

 The group "Students for Concealed Carry on Campus" is organizing a call to have campus carry added to the open carry bill, HB 910 now being debated in the Texas Senate.    Their proposal would attach the Senate version of campus carry, SB11 to the bill.  They have 20 Senators that they are asking people to email.  From their facebook page: Please send an email to these twenty members of the Texas Senate, telling them you want to see House Bill 910 (open carry) amended to include Senator Birdwell’s campus carry language. You don’t have to email each member individually;...

So this Waco thing has caught my interest, mostly because of all the dumb things being said about it. I’m no expert and have no direct connection to the Waco Biker shootout, nor do I have access to anything more than media reports. However, based on my experience as a patrolman, assistant active shooter instructor and soldier I’ve made a few observations and educated guesses about what happened. 1) I predict we’ll soon learn most or all of the dead bikers were shot by police officers I base this on a couple things, but the biggest one is a...

Gun Owners of America, the radical gun group that bills itself as far to the right of the NRA, announced in an email to its members yesterday that it will be holding a series of “tele-town hall meetings” with Republican presidential candidates in order to vet the candidates on their gun-law orthodoxy. The “first of several” calls, to be held next week, will feature Sen. Ted Cruz, a favorite of GOA’s executive director Larry Pratt. In response, People For the American Way President Michael Keegan released the following statement: “Pandering to Larry Pratt – who believes President Obama is trying...

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On my way to the NRA annual meeting, I passed through Lordburg, New Mexico on I-10. It is a convenient place to fuel the truck and myself, so I pulled into a truck stop to grab a sandwich. Open carry is protected by the New Mexico Constitution. I was carrying a Glock 17 (9mm for those who have not kept up with Glock nomenclature). The young woman behind the counter had a streak of purple hair, multiple piercings, a sizable tattoo on her right forearm, and was friendly, courteous, helpful, efficient and pleasant to speak with. I could not ask...

An Arlington strip mall off Lee Highway in the Cherrydale community has everything from restaurants to salons to a frame shop.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Starting Thursday, the armed security guard at Panera Bread Co. across from Vanderbilt University will no longer be carrying a firearm. According to the manager at the 21st Avenue location, the decision comes after multiple patrons complained to corporate that the armed security agent was violating the company’s own gun policy and making them uncomfortable. One of those who complained was Lillian Hallstrand, a long-time customer of the Panera on 21st. The Director of Stewardship and Vocational Planning at Vanderbilt’s divinity school told news 2 coming to the restaurant in recent months has been unsettling since...

For years, I was what we lefties in Texas refer to as, "A bright blue dot in a big red state." I believe in recycling, social services, a woman's right to choose, and immigration. I spent a lot of time defending these things around my red friends, and bemoaning this defense around my fellow blue dots. And then I bought a gun, and everything changed. I was shamed by the blue dots and consoled by the red. I turned purple. When my fellow blue dots found out I owned a gun, they were shocked. Gape-mouthed and stunned to speechlessness, they...

Two popular bills that would reform antiquated knife laws in Texas are being bottled up by a Democrat legislator.   Both bills have bipartisan support, and passed the House unanimously.  One bill adds knives to the preemption law for the state, so that localities cannot pass insane knife laws that turn a person carrying a pocket knife into a criminal by walking from one side of a street to another, without any notice.  These bills are enforced very selectively to "get" people that the police cannot arrest for other crimes. One correspondent from Texas, reported a conversation with a San...

If you’re out in public, minding your own business and breaking no law, you shouldn’t have to fear being arrested, handcuffed, and tossed into a squad car. But if you are so treated, can you sue the officer for damages? That is the substance of an Ohio case recently decided by the Sixth Circuit, where a man had been arrested for legally carrying a gun. The court’s ruling in favor of the plaintiff is good news not just for gun owners, but all other Americans who might now be spared arrest, humiliation, or worse. Here’s what happened. Shawn Northrup and...