Free Republic

Seizing on Donald Trump’s suggestion that Hillary Clinton’s bodyguards should disarm and “let’s see what happens to her,” CNN went into full Clinton-campaign mode this morning. Leading the charge was Christi Paul, whom CNN curiously bills as an “anchor” rather than the Clinton surrogate she appears to be. Said Paul to Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord: “let’s say Joe Schmoe out in the audience said something like that. That would be seen, most likely, as a threat of some sort, and he would be hauled away. How is it that Donald Trump gets away with it?“ View the video here.

Donald Trump told supporters at a rally in Miami on Friday that Hillary Clinton’s Secret Service detail should have their firearms taken away, then added — “Let’s see what happens to her.” Speaking about the Second Amendment, he suggested that Clinton wanted to overturn the right to bear arms. “I think her bodyguards should drop all weapons. They should disarm immediately,” Trump told the crowd. “Take their guns away, she doesn’t want guns. Take their — and let’s see what happens to her. Take their guns away.”

On 27 February, 2016, Brett Sanders was arrested while openly carrying a firearm in Texas.  He had refused to show the officers of the Southlake, Texas, Police Department, any identification or a Texas carry permit.  Brett Sanders is an open carry and liberty activist. Link to video on Youtube The legal ability of Texas police officers to demand to see a carry permit of people openly carrying firearms, was hotly debated during the passage of the law that restored the right to openly carry modern pistols in Texas. A clause stating that officers could not demand a permit without...

Donald Trump took aim at Hillary Clinton during a rally in Miami tonight -- suggesting that her bodyguards "should disarm" and asking "let's see what happens to her." Trump has long attacked what he says is Clinton's position on guns and gun control and told supporters in the past that she wants to abolish the Second Amendment. "I think that her bodyguards should drop all weapons," Trump told supporters tonight. "They should disarm right. Right. I think they should disarm immediately. What do you think yes? Yes.

Former Presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio on Thursday highlighted a bill aimed at keeping guns away from suspected terrorists as he fights a tough reelection bid to keep his Senate seat. The legislation, which fails to mention No Fly Lists, would require the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s be notified of any request to transfer a firearm to an individual who was the subject of a federal terrorism investigation within the last 10 years. “This bill would achieve everyone’s goal of making it harder for suspected terrorists to buy guns, and do so without violating the due process and Second...

Earlier this year, Justice Clarence Thomas caused a mild sensation among Court watchers when he asked his first question from the bench in a decade. His question to the government’s counsel was why should it be so easy for a citizen to be deprived of his or her rights under the Second Amendment. (I wrote about the incident and the underlying case here.) That question applies with equal force in a case where state officials have decided to deny gun permits to individuals who have been issued cards enabling them to purchase medical marijuana. Why should the fact that a...

Where Rifled Shotguns Are Needed Or Required In modern America, rifled shotguns are hybrid creatures spawned mainly by regulatory compliance. Several states require them for deer hunting, with the justifications ranging from reduced range for densely populated areas to deliberately limited effectiveness to give deer a fighting chance. Their technical provenance, however, goes back quite a bit further. The first bolt-action rifle adopted by Prussia in late 1840s, the Dreyse "needle gun", used projectiles somewhere between 16 gauge and 20 gauge – a 1-ounce bullet riding a paper sabot at around 1,000 feet per second. As rifle designs improved and...

The five-shot rifle, that’s a standard military rifle; the problem is if you attach a clip to it so it can fire more shells and if you remove the pin so that it becomes an automatic weapon, and those are independent criminal offenses. That’s when they become essentially a weapon of mass destruction. The problem with handguns is probably even worse than the problem of the AR-15. You shouldn’t have anybody who’s on a terrorist watch list be able to buy any gun at all.

According to an article in this week’s Las Vegas Review Journal, the Guinn Center, an independent think tank, took a close look at the Question 1 gun control ballot initiative. The study had this to say about Question 1: [it could] be a challenge to enforce, if not altogether unenforceable, without a firearm registration scheme — especially in rural counties with limited resources; [a] claim made by the measure’s opponents seems to be supported by a 2001 Department of Justice survey of inmates, which found that less than 1 percent of the criminals obtained a gun through an unlicensed sale...

The NRA has been a bi-partisan group, at least since the formation of the NRA-ILA in 1975. The NRA-ILA is the lobbying arm of the NRA.In the last few elections, few Democrats have been endorsed, because few Democrats supported the Second Amendment in any meaningful way.As they say, the NRA did not leave the Democrat Party.  The Democrat Party left the NRA. There are exceptions.  A controversial pick was Harry Reid, Senator (D) from Nevada, who got an A rating from the NRA.  Many have wanted the NRA-ILA to broaden their criteria to issues other than the right to...

Republican politicians often claim they’ll slash back the jungles of red tape, in the form of regulations, that are strangling small businesses and making it difficult for American business to compete with imports. But that’s all they say, as the details are, by design, often tedious, boring, nonsensical and political. But here’s a comprehensible example of a rule change made by one senator that is making it hard for U.S. manufacturers to compete in foreign markets.

Hawaii’s new law requires current and future gun owners to register in the FBI’s “Rap Back” system. The FBI calls it their Next Generation Identification Program, which is currently used to track the actions of people who are part of ongoing criminal investigations. If someone enrolled in the database has contact with law enforcement, an alert is issued through the FBI. Now the program will be used to track the actions of all law-abiding gun owners in Hawaii—and not just residents. SB 2954 requires law enforcement to request a “Rap Back” on anyone requesting a firearm license or registering a...

<p>With shootings a weekly occurrence in Melbourne and crime up, Justice Minister Michael Keenan announced plans to allow those with illegal guns to turn them in without compensation.</p> <p>The island continent with a population of around 24 million held a nationwide gun buyback in 1996 following a mass killing known as the Port Arthur massacre, where a gunman murdered 35 people and injured 24. The measure led to severe restrictions on firearms including an outright ban on most semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns. During the enactment of the law, the government bought back nearly 700,000 guns at a cost of $500 million, but whether or not it had a positive affect is still up for debate.</p>

Without leaving your Head out in the Open Guns that shoot around corners are more than grist for the mill of an old Bugs Bunny plot in a Saturday morning cartoon. They’re real, and were first used, with limited success, by the German army in World War II. The weapon in question was the STG44 Krummlauf, a variant of the standard STG44 assault rifle. Why on earth would you want to shoot around a corner? The better question is why on earth wouldn’t you? It’s a lot safer than standing out in broad daylight where the enemy can take shots...

Late on Wednesday night, the Missouri legislature voted to overturn Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of bill SB 656 and allow Missourians to carry concealed weapons without a permit. This is known as "Constitutional carry." Missouri is now the 11th state to have a Constitutional carry law on the books.

I often open carry, especially in the summer when the temperatures make concealed carry a bit more cumbersome.  I was open carrying at this Yuma, Arizona gas station when a man approached me. He asked if Arizona were an open carry state.  I said that it was, and went on to explain that most states were.  He said he was from Colorado, where open carry was forbidden in some cities.  Yes, I said, the Colorado Supreme Court had made a weird decision that Denver could ignore state law.  He said the city of Aurora also prohibited open carry in...

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri became the latest state to allow residents to carry a concealed weapon without a permit when lawmakers supported the change Wednesday. Tense debate during the legislature's annual veto override session encompassed themes of race and class as lawmakers clashed over whether to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of Senate Bill 656. In the days leading up to the session the debate drew national attention, with organizations on both sides of the issues working to influence lawmakers. Another controversial part of the bill is its "stand your ground" provision, which will allow residents to use deadly force...

JEFFERSON CITY — Senate Republicans on Wednesday twice used some muscle to pass bills over Gov. Jay Nixon’s objections, approving controversial gun and voter identification bills in the annual veto session. A motion to shut off debate, rare anytime in the state Senate, had been used only once in September veto sessions since they were initiated in 1974. That was in 2014, when lawmakers approved a 72-hour waiting period to obtain an abortion. On Wednesday, it was used on both the gun measure and the voter identification bill. The Missouri House also passed both bills. The gun measure eliminates the...

Currently, the majority of rifles designed for long range hunting these days appear similar to that of military grade weapons in size, weight, and their configuration. These large rifles tend to feature tactical stocks, bipods, larger scopes, and tapered barrels. The majority of these rifles seem to have been configured directly from the factory to utilize .308 Winchester, a powerful round, but one that makes the hunter question whether or not such a cartridge is useful when it comes to tackling big game at long ranges. Long Range Believe it or not, the term "long range" actually means many different...

Missouri’s Republican-led Legislature took the first step Wednesday toward overriding a veto of a voter photo ID requirement as it met in a short session to also consider a measure significantly relaxing the state’s gun laws. The sweeping guns legislation would allow most adults to carry concealed weapons without needing a permit while also expanding people’s right to defend themselves both in public and private places. The elections law change would require people to show a government-issued photo ID at the polls, if voters also approve a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot. Both measures passed earlier this year...