Free Republic

A 52-year-old woman with a permit to carry a handgun in Florida could face up to 10 years in prison after being arrested in Jersey City while attempting to board a ferry to Ellis Island while carrying a gun, authorities said. Elizabeth J. Griffith, of Daytona Beach, was arrested by U.S. Park Police on July 14 and charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. She is scheduled to appear in Hudson County Superior Court on Aug. 12, Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Gene Rubino said today.

The meaning of an individual animal Among the reasons not to feel outraged about the killing of Cecil the lion are these two: he had a human name and he was a well-known tourist attraction. I say ‘tourist attraction’ instead of 'beloved lion’ because that hackneyed phrase seems to me a concept empty of meaning. How can a lion be wild and be 'beloved’ by people who saw him once from a safari jeep? You don’t earn the right to 'love’ a lion that way. Cecil was a wild lion who was habituated to humans, collared for a biology study,...

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) – A new Illinois law aimed at helping people recover stolen items, could wind up putting a dent in illegal gun sales. The law prohibits pawn shops from taking in items that have the serial numbers altered or removed and requires them to keep items in their stores for at least seven days. Oak Park Senator Don Harmon says the targets of the law were things like lawn mowers, bicycles and snow blowers, but he’s okay with it if it impacts firearms.

A University of Cincinnati police officer was indicted Wednesday on a murder charge in the shooting of 43-year-old Samuel Dubose, an unarmed black man, during a routine traffic stop. In conjunction with the indictment, Hamilton County prosecutor Joseph T. Deters released a video of the shooting from the body camera of the shooting officer, Ray Tensing. “This is the most asinine act I’ve ever seen a police officer make,” said Deters during a news conference. “It’s an absolute tragedy in 2015 that anyone would behave in this manner. It was senseless. He lost his temper because Mr. Dubose wouldn’t get...

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to ban the possession of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Mayor Eric Garcetti has already said he would sign the ordinance, which according to the council, will close a loophole in state law already banning the sale and manufacture of such magazines. Anyone who owns the magazines will have 60 days to remove them from the city or turn them over to the Los Angeles Police Department for destruction, transfer or sale. Supporters of the measure believe it will help law enforcement officials prevent mass shootings in the city.

Daylen Brickley, a baby from the US state of New Hampshire, is the proud owner of a lifetime permit to hunt and fish - the first license holder under a new program. His fishing license is valid, but he will need to complete a hunter safety course before receiving that permit. His mother, Erica Brickley, is not concerned about his future training. The whole family was raised around hunting and fishing, "so I figure he'll kind of get in the swing of things". "It was only natural to kind of keep it going," she told the New Hampshire Union Leader.

Gun silencer sales are on fire. The number of registered silencers surged 38% from last year to 792,282 in February 2015, according to the most recent figures from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. There were 571,750 licenses in March 2014. "It's getting to be more mainstream," said Josh Waldron, CEO of SilencerCo, which makes and sells silencers.

Linky only.

A federal court Tuesday rejected a request for rehearing over Florida’s law prohibiting health care workers from asking about their patient’s firearms, lifting a long-standing injunction. A Miami U.S. District Court in what became known popularly as the “Docs vs. Glocks” case blocked the Firearm Owners’ Privacy Act, signed into law by Gov. Rick Scott (R) after passage by the state legislature in 2011. This sent the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, which last July handed down a 2-1 ruling reversing the lower court after finding, “the Act is a valid regulation...

A man from the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee was arrested this week after police said he drove into the District with a pickup full of weapons and a propane tank, then asked an officer for directions to the White House. The 59-year-old man, identified as Steve Randall Oney of Sevierville, Tenn., told police he was moving and had stopped in the District for an overnight visit. Police said he pulled his truck over on Independence Avenue, got out and asked an officer, “Where’s the White House?” ~snip~ According to the court document, the officer saw a propane tank in back...

When you watch the news after the latest big shooting, there's a good chance you'll come across John Lott. The 57-year-old economist has made more than 100 media appearances over the past two years, from friendly conversations on Fox News to heated debates on MSNBC and CNN. After nine churchgoers were gunned down in Charleston, South Carolina, he went on Sean Hannity's show and criticized President Obama for spreading "clearly false" information about gun violence. Following the recent mass shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee, his op-ed asking "Why should we make it easy for killers to attack our military?" was among...

What you say on 911 is recorded.  It can and will be used against you in a court of law.  My friend and publisher of numerous books on gun laws, Alan Korwin, says that in the vast majority of cases where people involved in self defense scenarios end up in serious legal difficulties, it is what they said on 911 that got them into trouble.  He expounds on this in his book "After You Shoot".   In a recent case in Florida, both male participants made errors.  One is dead and one has been charged.         I...

ORLANDO, Fla., - A Florida gun store that proclaimed itself a Muslim-free zone was sued on Wednesday in federal court by the state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations on the grounds that the restriction is discriminatory. The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale accuses Florida Gun Supply of Inverness of violating the federal public accommodations law and seeks an injunction to stop the discrimination, according to the complaint.

As I read the reports of the killing of the famous Hwange National Park lion, Cecil, by an American client, hunting with a licensed professional hunter, I anticipated a rerun of the Musango Bull incident of a couple of years back. The bull elephant was another rock star of an attraction - in the Matusadona national park. He too was radio collared and he was shot by a sport hunter outside the park. There was within days the anticipated media frenzy over both the Bull and Cecil, but it turned out the two cases were markedly different. One element that...

A 25-year-old Steelton man who was shot during a home invasion early Monday shot and killed his assailant, Steelton police say. "We believe it was self-defense," said Steelton police Chief John King, who said no charges have been filed in the shooting, which occurred in the 300 block of Lincoln Street. King said they don't know the identity of the man who was killed nor his accomplice. The pair encountered the residents of the home – the 25-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman – as they were arriving home just before midnight, King said. "The two suspects approached them at...

Dr Walter Palmer is a dentist in the human happiness business. His website, at the River Bluff Dental clinic in Minnesota, says he ‘strives to create dazzling smiles’. For 27 years this self-anointed kindly man has showered his patients with extraordinary care and comfort, ensuring they leave his surgery immeasurably more self-confident than when they entered. His official photograph on the website exudes almost Saintly virtue; Palmer’s own gleaming dentures shining beatifically beneath his warm, bespectacled, twinkling eyes. But there’s another side to Dr Palmer. A side he alludes to right at the very end of a Q&A on the...

Defying sharp warnings from gun rights groups, Los Angeles thrust itself into the national debate over gun control Tuesday, as city lawmakers voted unanimously to ban the possession of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds.. Such magazines have been “the common thread” in almost all the mass shootings that have devastated the country, from Newtown to Virginia Tech to Columbine, said Juliet Leftwich, legal director for the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Backers of the plan said it was a small but meaningful step to minimize the bloodshed, by forcing attackers to at least interrupt their rampages...

HARRISBURG — A Delaware man was killed with his own gun after a botched attempt to invade a Steelton home. The fatal shooting started as a John Doe case, with the victims saying they did not know the man or his accomplice, Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick said Tuesday afternoon. While the coroner's office has since identified the man killed in the incident, Hetrick said he is withholding the name to allow the man's wife to discuss the death with the couple's young children in Wilmington. Hetrick described him as "a black male that is not really from this area"...

If Piers Morgan isn't the dumbest person on the planet, this tweet puts him in the top two: A ‘math’ test for you, America: If NOBODY had a gun, how many people would be shot dead? If EVERYBODY had a gun, same question. See? — Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) July 27, 2015 It doesn't go well for him.This is one of those questions liberals always think is debate ending, but what really happens is they reveal just how absolutely brain-dead they really are. Let humour the man for a moment. If "NOBODY" had a gun how many people would be shot?...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A Hillview man has been arrested after he shot down a drone flying over his property -- but he's not making any apologies for it. It happened Sunday night at a home on Earlywood Way, just south of the intersection between Smith Lane and Mud Lane in Bullitt County, according to an arrest report. Hillview Police say they were called to the home of 47-year-old William H. Merideth after someone complained about a firearm. When they arrived, police say Merideth told them he had shot down a drone that was flying over his house. The drone...