Free Republic

AUSTIN, Texas — Austin Police are searching for answers after a man shot himself in the head while in custody and in handcuffs in Downtown Austin Sunday afternoon. It happened in a patrol car, right outside of a busy bar and partially shut down sixth street. Around noon police were called to Barton Creek Mall, where they took the man, possibly a teen, into custody for shoplifting and possession of a controlled substance. Police say he refused to identify himself, and they suspected he may have had warrants, so they arrested him to take him to APD Headquarters for fingerprints....

Anyone that follows Rob Leatham, who is known for his pistol shooting prowess knows about his "the Walk Back Challenge" drill. Basically the drill starts at the 50 yard take a shot with your pistol, if you hit the full size steel target. Proceed to the 100 yard, you keep repeating this drill until you've reached a distance where you miss the target. Normally this is around the 200 to 250 yard range. In this demonstration Larry Vicker using a Glock 20 which shoots a 10mm, the power is between a .357 and 41 Magnum. This pistol is ideal not...

Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport has left at least 5 dead and 13 injured. Not surprisingly, Florida is one of only 6 states with laws that banned carrying guns in the unsecured areas of airports. A move was killed in 2016 to overturn this ban, and the reason for overturning it seems very applicable to today’s events. Time after time these attacks keep occurring at places where civilians aren’t allowed to defend themselves. A Broward County official indicates that the killer, Esteban Santiago, had checked is gun in on his flight and that when he got his baggage he took his gun...

Chicago is a bloody mess. Last year, Chicago had 762 homicides — more than New York and Los Angeles combined. This represents an astounding 57 percent increase from the 2015 murder rate. On Sunday night, CBS’s 60 Minutes rightfully expressed concern about the fall in stops and arrests by police over the last year. Criminals have seemingly become emboldened as a result of the decrease in arrests. The 60 Minutes piece quotes Garry McCarthy — Chicago’s Police Superintendent up until a year ago — as saying that “officers are under attack, that is how they feel.” This isn’t a new...

Congressman Danny Davis is a Democrat representing Illinois's 7th District, which includes some Chicago neighborhoods hardest hit by gun violence. His own grandson was shot and killed last November. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: We hear now from Congressman Danny Davis. He's represented the 7th Congressional District since 1996, but gun violence is not just an abstract concept to him. His 15-year-old grandson Javon was killed in a dispute over borrowed clothing last November, and Congressman Davis delivered the eulogy. He was kind enough to host us in his offices on Capitol Hill. Congressman, thank you so much for speaking with us...

The Anchorage man accused in the mass shooting at a Florida airport Friday did not have ties to a terrorist organization when he was investigated last year, the FBI said at a news conference Saturday in Anchorage. Law enforcement said he had exhibited mental health problems during an incident at the Anchorage FBI office that led local police to take his gun. ... the Anchorage Police Department said it later returned the gun to Esteban Santiago, 26, after the weapon had been logged into evidence for safekeeping. "I want to be clear, during our investigation, we found no known ties...

WASHINGTON – The case of Esteban Santiago, the 26-year-old shooter in the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport massacre, gets stranger by the minute. Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2017/01/who-gave-this-guy-his-gun-back-twice/#tAM5FIZOumo98joZ.99

Image courtesy Mando Martinez Just after midnight on 1 January, 2017, Texas Representative Amando "Mando" Martinez was struck on the head by a bullet or bullet fragment. It seems most likely that it was celebratory gunfire, and a "spent" projectile.  From themonitor.com: The incident, which is being investigated by the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office, reportedly occurred just after midnight Sunday, when Martinez was celebrating the New Year with family and friends outside a residence located north of Weslaco in the 5400 block of Sago. The sheriff said Martinez felt something on top of his head and was rushed to a...

The last time there was a new president elected for the United States, attendance at Rapid City’s annual gun show spiked. This time, attitudes in the community are much more relaxed. “Over the past year, sales and attendance at gun shows has been down a little bit, but that comes after a giant increase we had since 2008. In 2008 and 2012 for this show, we had like 22,000 people come through here in a weekend,” said Lee Rohrer, one of the event organizers and member of the Rapid City Rifle Club.

On January 7–the day after the heinous attack in the Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood international gun-free zone–the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence Tweeted that you can “carry a gun and ammo in a checked bag” when you fly.

In a lengthy essay titled “The President’s Role in Advancing Criminal Justice Reform,” Obama urged the country to “take commonsense steps to reduce gun violence” while celebrating the executive orders he has enacted. “We also need to do everything we can to keep our children and communities safe from gun violence,” Obama said. “Addressing the country after mass shootings has been one of the most frustrating and disheartening responsibilities of being president–and it’s something I’ve had to do far too often.” “The names of so many places that should be remembered for their great contributions and strong communities–places like Tucson,...

FULL TITLE: Pictured in handcuffs: Fort Lauderdale military vet and ISIS obsessive is led to his cell after it's revealed he had gone AWOL several times during service and was investigated for child porn The suspected gunman who authorities believe shot dead five people and injured six after opening fire in Fort Lauderdale International airport had gone AWOL several times while serving in the military and was investigated for child pornography, authorities have said. Esteban Santiago, a 26-year-old Iraq war veteran, was taken into custody and was pictured in handcuffs Saturday as police led him to the Broward County Main...

Authorities believe the suspect in Friday's deadly attack retrieved his a handgun from checked luggage before firing indiscriminately on the baggage claim area at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International airport. Transportation Security Administration rules allow travelers to pack unloaded firearms in checked luggage, so long as passengers declare their weapons to the airline while checking in, and they are packed in a locked, hard-sided container.

South Dakota had a Total of 96,227 concealed carry permits active at the end of November, 2016. From kelo.com: PIERRE, SD (KELO AM) Permits issued for concealed carry firearms reached an all-time high in South Dakota in 2016. Secretary of State Shantel Krebs says there were 30,029 concealed carry permits issued, nearly 4,000 more than the previous record in 2013. The total regular, renewed, and enhanced permits issued up to at the end of November, in 2016, were 27,877.  That indicates that 2,848 permits were issued or renewed in December of 2016. The capjournal.com notes that  3,879 were issued...

(CNSNews.com) – “Self-defense can be an important crime deterrent,”says a new report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The $10 million study was commissioned by President Barack Obama as part of 23 executive orders he signed in January. “Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was ‘used’ by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies,” the CDC study, entitled “Priorities For Research to Reduce the...

<p>A mass shooting at Florida's Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport Friday left five dead and dozens wounded, and the suspect apparently kept the gun used in the attack in his checked luggage.</p> <p>The TSA allows passengers to carry firearm while traveling through US airports, but strict rules govern how passengers are supposed to handle them.</p>

Gun control advocates keep claiming that they don't want to ban guns — they only want reasonable regulations. But their actions keep saying otherwise. Gun control advocates expressed "concern" after Philadelphia Eagles rookie quarterback Carson Wentz bought each of his offensive linemen a very expensive personalized Beretta shotgun for Christmas this year. If they believe in gun ownership, why should it bother them that law-abiding adults have shotguns? Right before Christmas, President Obama finalized new rules requiring 4.2 million Social Security recipients who have trouble managing their finances to undergo background checks before buying guns. But just because someone can't...

Official: Airport shooting suspect could be 'home-grown violent extremist' Suspect identified as Esteban Santiago By Jeff Tavss - Executive Producer Posted: 4:15 PM, January 06, 2017 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Within hours of a shooting that left 5 dead and many injured at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, details emerged about the alleged suspect. Sen. Bill Nelson was first to identify the suspect as Esteban Santiago, 26. Santiago was apprehended without a fight and suffered no injuries. The FBI and Broward Sheriff's Office are interrogating Santiago at the airport and trying to determine his motives. A former member of the military,...

Law enforcement said he was found with an active military ID and is an American citizen, born in New Jersey. Previous known addresses include Penuelas, Puerto Rico and Anchorage, Alaska. They add that in November 2016, he walked into an FBI office in Anchorage claiming that he was being forced to fight for ISIS. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital. In 2011 or 2012, he was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations for child porn. Three weapons and a computer were seized, but there was not enough evidence to prosecute, according to law enforcement sources.

Yet another shooting at yet another gun-free zone occurred today. At this moment 5 people were murdered and another 8 injured. The tragedy today at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is all the more disappointing because just this last year legislators tried to change Florida’s ban on concealed carry at airports to avoid today’s type of event. Florida Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby warned last year the legislation was needed because airport terminals “could become more of a target” for terrorists and criminals. Florida is one of on six states that ban people being able to carry guns at airports. While...