Free Republic

Students all over the state of Michigan may soon be able to carry concealed weapons on campus. Bill 5474, introduced by Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, to the Michigan House of Representatives, would prohibit colleges from banning weapons on campus. Section two of the bill specifically outlines what local units of government and institutions of higher learning would not be able to do if the bill were passed. “A local unit of government or institution of higher education shall not impose special taxation on, enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner the ownership,...

Jacksie King was an elderly grandmother who lived in a small Illinois house on dead-end Gaty Avenue since her youth. At 87, she mostly stayed at home and enjoyed frequent visits from her daughter. Her life changed one December night when an unidentified intruder cut her phone lines, pried the security bars off her window and invaded her home. After severely beating her, the man robbed her house and escaped. The case was never solved. Two months later, King awoke to the sound of an intruder breaking through her storm door at 2 a.m. As before, the bars were pried...

Brady Campaign's Dennis Henigan seems to have problems understanding this document. The Brady Campaign's Dennis Henigan is apparently as unimpressed with the 10th Amendment as he is with the 2nd. This can be seen by his reaction to passage in Tennessee and Montana (and consideration elsewhere) of bills that would exempt firearms, ammunition, and firearm accessories made and sold within the state, from federal gun laws. That reaction is one of fussy disapproval. We know that individuals can defy the law. Can a state legislature defy the law? When it comes to the gun issue, apparently it can.I refer to...

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by New York's Michael Bloomberg, is losing members after the National Rifle Association mounted a campaign against the group. The NRA and various gun proponents contend that the mayors' efforts represent a slippery slope. JACKI LYDEN, host: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by New York's Michael Bloomberg, is losing members after the National Rifle Association mounted a campaign against the group. The NRA and other gun proponents contend that the mayors' efforts represent a slippery slope. WNYC's Arun Venugopal reports. ARUN VENUGOPAL: Pennsylvania has about...

On December 6, 1989, a madman entered a Montreal University, segregated men and women in a classroom, and shot 14 women with a Ruger Mini 14. As the 20th anniversary of the shooting nears, Canadian gun control groups are frantically fighting the demise of the Canadian Long Gun Registry. It is set for a preliminary vote in the House of Commons today. If approved, a second final vote will be needed. The Firearms Registry Act was passed in 1995. Gun owners were required to obtain a permit by 2001. All guns had to be registered by 2003. The cost of...

HOUSTON—A grand jury will decide whether to press charges against a pregnant woman who, police say, shot and killed a burglar. The ordeal began when the unidentified woman saw a group of men allegedly breaking into cars at her apartment complex on Pinemont in northwest Houston late Monday night. When the group moved on to her car, the woman, who is eight-months pregnant, said she fired a shotgun from her balcony. One of the men died, say police. The others fled the scene in a black truck.

Few issues are more personal to soldiers than the question of whether they can trust their rifles. And few rifles in history have generated more controversy over their reliability than the American M-16 assault rifle and its carbine version, the M-4. In recent weeks, a fresh round of complaints about weapon malfunctions in Afghanistan, mentioned in an Army historian’s report that documented small-arms jamming during the fierce battle in Wanat last year, has rekindled the discussion. Are the M-16 and M-4 the best rifles available for American troops? Or are they fussy and punchless and less than ideal for war?...

<p>A woman fatally shot a suspected car burglar Monday night in the parking lot of her northwest Houston apartment complex, police said.</p> <p>The woman told Houston police she shot the man about 9 p.m. after she spotted him breaking into her car parked outside the apartment in the 5900 block of Pinemont at Alabonson.</p>

Proving that you’re never too old to hunt, 90-year-old Delores Wilhelms got her buck for the second straight year. The Wisconsin granny connected on a 9-point buck earlier this month using a crossbow. Last year, after sitting out hunting for years after her husband passed away, Wilhelms’ neighbor, Ron Haessly, helped the woman return to the woods. She was successful in her initial return to the woods taking a buck with her crossbow then as well. The feat earned Wilhelms a write-up in the pages of Outdoor Life. Meanwhile, across the country on Oct. 8, another grandmother, Doris Baumann, who...

In a year of job losses, foreclosures and bag lunches, Americans have spent record-breaking amounts of money on guns and ammunition. The most obvious sign of their demand: empty ammunition shelves. At points during the past year, bullets have been selling faster than factories could make them. Gun owners have bought about 12 billion rounds of ammunition in the past year, industry officials estimate. That's up from 7 billion to 10 billion in a normal year.

What has happened to common sense? According to WGY and Fox News, an Honor Student at upstate New York's Lansingburgh High School, Matthew Whalen, has been suspended for twenty days for having a two-inch pocket knife in a locked kit in his car. Accoding to Fox: Lansingburgh High has a zero-tolerance policy, and when school officials discovered that Whalen kept his knife locked in his car, he says, they suspended him for five days -- and then tacked on an additional 15 after a hearing.

In less than a year the U.S. government has gone from being one of the chief opponents of the proposed UN Small Arms Control Treaty to being a strong supporter. Elections do matter and have consequences. As many predicted, the United States has changed its United Nations Gun Control Treaty position by joining other countries in the UN’s General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament And Peace, with a resolution calling for the drafting of an International Arms Trading Treaty. This Treaty, which will be up for a final UN vote in 2012, will regulate small arms, as well as other...

THERESA JONES had a drug problem and an empty wallet. In 2003, when a neighbor offered her $75 to buy him a gun, she readily agreed, even though the man had a criminal record and couldn't legally buy or possess a gun. After the sale, the neighbor carried off his new Ruger 9 mm pistol. Jones never saw it again. --snip-- Thugs recruit acquaintances with clean records to buy them guns, and women are a growing target. Blinded by love or fueled by financial need, women represent a quarter of about 350 straw buyers arrested in Philadelphia since a multiagency...

Wondering if anyone has recommendations for a handgun for a petite woman (me...5'2", 110lbs). Have used a small semi-automatic years ago, not sure of caliber. FIL worries that I might lack strength for semi-auto; I worry that loading bullets under pressure vs. loading ammo clip would waste precious time. Just curious what the ladies here are using? Going to gun range tonight and I think I will have the opportunity to handle a few different guns. Would like input to maybe weed out some choices that would be inappropriate for my size/needs. Another question: we currently have no handguns in...

I’m putting my money on the notion that there was at least one gay-rights group that didn’t cheer when President Barack Obama signed the most recent “hate crimes” bill last week. That would be the group known as the “Pink Pistols.” They’re the one gay-rights group you can bet Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and virtually every other liberal in the country have absolutely no use for, but more about it later. First, let’s get down to the real nitty gritty about what the new “hate crimes” bill will do, and what it won’t do. If you live in the...

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C.-- Police have made an arrest after a team of robbers invaded a home in Rowan County twice in the same week. Timani Starks and Tiffany Horne have been charged with multiple counts of robbery and Starks is also being charged with attempted murder. Investigators say a home on Corriher Grange Road near Highway 152, was first held up Monday night. NewsChannel 36 spoke exclusively with the Deadmon family after the first home invasion. They told us how the robbers forced them to open the safe at gunpoint. Timani Starks and Tiffany Horne They reported the robbery to...

Both past Attornies General, along with the current Republican nominee for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, have all opposed banning private sales of guns at gun shows while supporting repeal of the Virginia ban on concealed carry in restaurants serving alcohol. But not Democratic AG nominee Steve Shannon – this Northern Virginia lawyer is sticking to his gun control. . . . But what irks gun rights organizers the most is Shannon’s lack of any articulable policy rationale for his positions. “Insisting that we need to fix something that doesn’t exist does not stir gun owners to support candidates” said Philip...

~~Come on in and shoot the breeze~~   Gun Talk Radio   11/01/09~~07:00 CST

Who stands with you? Republican Chris Christie opposes a womans right to choose. Democrat Jon Corzines fought to protect it. Republican Christie stands with the NRA and opposes banning armor piercing rifles. Jon Corzines a leader in the fight against the gun lobby.

An armed bank robbery turns deadly Friday afternoon. It happened Dairyland State Bank in Exeland in Sawyer County around 2:30 p.m. Officers arrested one man near Deer Lake in Sawyer County. A massive search was underway for another suspect that ran into the woods. He’s described as a white man around 6’5’’ and 200 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. The Rusk County sheriff says an officer shot and killed a third man after he stayed in the car and took of south into Rusk County. The chase ended near Bruce where the man was shot. WEAU 13 News...

A man San Marcos police said was shot after breaking into a home on Oscar Smith Drive armed with a BB gun, is in stable condition today at University Medical Center Brackenridge, police Commander Penny Dunn said. Police released no names involved in the shooting as they continued their investigation, Dunn said. No charges have been filed in the case, she said. Officers were first called at 9:50 p.m. Wednesday from someone reporting a break-in in progress at the back door of a home in the 700 block of Oscar Smith Drive, Dunn said. One of three people in the...

ELK, Wash. - The owner of a miniature horse says he was forced to shoot and kill three pit bulls that were mauling his animal. Thursday, the horse's owner told the Pend Oreille County Sheriff's Office the three dogs had come onto this property, off Juanita Lane and started attacking his horse. The man fired several warning shots to try and scare the dogs and when the warning shots did not work, the man turned his aim to the dogs, shooting all three. Two of the dogs died on the scene and the third ran off only to die later...

A Seattle police officer was shot to death and another officer was wounded late Saturday night while conducting a traffic stop in the city's Central District neighborhood. The officer who died was a veteran of the department, and the woman who was wounded is a student officer in training, Assistant Chief Jim Pugel said

OSSIPEE, N.H. – A New Hampshire deer hunter has accidentally shot himself in the right hand while trying to lift his loaded rifle into a tree stand using a rope tied around the weapon. A state conservation officer says a branch or stick apparently got stuck in the trigger of Robert Lapointe's .50-caliber muzzleloader, setting it off at around 1:45 p.m. Saturday. ... ..Lapointe is expected to survive, but "shouldn't have been doing what he did."

“There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That’s one firearm for every 12 people on the planet. The only question is: how do we arm the other 11?” said the gun-running protagonist in the 2005 Nicolas Cage film Lord of War.  The filmmakers based that character in part on real-life weapons dealer Viktor Bout, a former Soviet officer turned arms merchant on the black market. But was he just a businessman seeking a quick profit, or is there more to the story? The New American has previously reported on Bout’s ties to Russian intelligence, as well as his...

'How a Cambridge-educated botanist fought a three-year war against 4,000 Japanese troops'

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Orlando police said that intruders broke into a home Friday night and gunshots were exchanged, putting the entire neighborhood on edge. The home invasion happened on Mary Church Court at Prince Hall Boulevard in the Richmond Estates neighborhood, police said. Officers with the Orlando Police Department cleared the scene at about 11 p.m. Investigators took pictures of where stray bullets hit the side of homes nearby. Several officers looked through the trash of one home on Mary Church Court. Police said that just before 8 p.m., three armed men pulled up to the home, the homeowner saw...

A New Jersy appeals court has concludedthat Americans have no Second Amendment right to buy a handgun

The economic crisis combined with the election of a potentially anti-gun liberal to the White House acted as a big stimulus for the gunmakers. But it seems that all that happened was that gun demand got pulled forward, because now sales are totally falling off a cliff. A reader sends along some recent numbers from Ruger (RGR).If you look at the bottom line -- firearm sales -- it only looks like there was a slight sequential dip. But ignore that. The number to look at is orders received in 3Q, which were down 80%. Due to their backlog, actual firearms...

Many obsessive riflemen “know” a lot of things about the insides of their barrels. They know they must break-in barrels and that any bore only slightly smudged by the passage of bullets will shoot less accurately compared with a barrel as clean as Aunt Josie’s kitchen floor. First, let’s examine “proper” barrel break-in. According to just about everybody, this is accomplished by firing one shot, cleaning the barrel of all powder and copper fouling, firing another shot, cleaning, etc. Advice on how long to continue this tedious routine varies from 10 to 30 rounds. The procedure supposedly smooths the bore,...

THEODORE, Alabama - An Irvington woman is arrested in connection with two robberies in broad daylight. Mobile police say 40-year-old Terry Guidry tried to rob the M&D Coin Laundry on Bellingrath Road in Theodore Thursday morning. But when she pulled out a knife, the owner of the laundromat pulled out her gun and Guidry ran. She did the same thing about two hours later. According to the Sheriff's Office, Guidry robbed the Dollar General on Irvington/Bayou La Batre Highway. But this time, she got away with some cash. The Sheriff's Office received an anonymous tip about Guidry around 4:30 p.m....

SAN JUAN — Federal authorities arrested a 38-year-old man on felony weapons charges at a house where investigators said he manufactured scores of grenades and performed occult ceremonies with human bones. Ruben Ambrosio Fonseca Jr. had his initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Thursday after undercover agents posing as drug cartel members purchased 183 grenades from him that he allegedly manufactured at a San Juan house, law enforcement officials said. Federal agents and the San Juan police SWAT team raided the property Wednesday morning, finding weapons, firearms and a blood-stained altar alongside human and animal bones in the backyard....

Chalk up another bull's-eye for the Marine Corps. On Friday, Camp Pendleton is celebrating a big win over the Army, a traditional military rival. Shooters from the Southern California base's School of Infantry have returned home with the top prize in the ninth annual U.S. Army Sniper Competition that took place Oct. 14-22 at Fort Benning, Ga.

On September 24, former state Representative Beverly Masek was sentenced in federal court for conspiracy to commit bribery at the federal courthouse in Anchorage. Masek admitted to accepting about $4,000 in bribes from Bill Allen, the former CEO of Veco. She also admitted to introducing legislation that would raise oil taxes, then pulling her bill after wringing a cash payment out of Allen—a bit of arm-twisting on a man who was famous for dumping cash into Alaska politics long before an FBI undercover investigation began to uncover Juneau’s Corrupt Bastards Club. U.S. District Judge Ralph Beistline gave Masek, a Republican...

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A Des Moines girl was suspended after school officials said she violated their weapons policy. Jazmine Martin, 12, brought an empty shotgun shell to school on Monday, a souvenir from a summer vacation to South Dakota. The shell was empty and had the word "blank" written on the front. "We went to South Dakota and went to the Circle B Ranch," said Chenoa Martin, Jazmine's mother. "There's a show of the old West -- a stampede. Had a gun shoot-out and stuff like that. When they fire their rifles, they do it into the crowd. It...

UNLV REBEL YELL 2009 click image to enlarge To capture the essence of a classic Socratic quandary, imagine this scenario: You know that the right thing to do is to return your friend’s gun to him or her if you have taken it. But should you return it if you know that person is mentally unstable and would use it against others? I’m betting that most people would say no, and with good reason. Even though the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, in reality, not everyone has the right to gun ownership – the background check is...

Police Probe Shot Fired at Home of CNN's Lou Dobbs Thursday , October 29, 2009 By Joshua Rhett Miller A gunshot was fired at the New Jersey home of CNN's Lou Dobbs after a series of threatening phone calls earlier this month, the host told listeners on his nationally syndicated radio show. Dobbs, a fervent proponent of U.S. border enforcement, told listeners of "The Lou Dobbs Show" on Monday that the incident is part of an ongoing assault against anyone who opposes amnesty or leniency toward illegal immigrants.

Vermont State Rep. Fred Maslack has read the Second Amendment to the U.S.. Constitution as well as Vermont 's own Constitution very carefully, and his strict interpretation of these documents is popping some eyeballs in New England and elsewhere. Maslack recently proposed a bill to register non-gun-owners and require them to pay a $500 fee to the state. Thus Vermont would become the first state to require a permit for the luxury of going about unarmed and assess a fee of $500 for the privilege of not owning a gun. Maslack read the "militia" phrase of the Second Amendment as...

FBI: Gunshots Hit US Rep. DeFazio's Office Windows October 30, 2009 EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- Three shots fired at a federal courthouse in Oregon late Wednesday or early Thursday hit windows in U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio's office, while a fourth shot hit a wall above the office, the FBI said. No one was in the second-floor office at the time, and the Democratic congressman's staffers in Eugene found the damage when they arrived for work Thursday morning. Investigators believe the shots were fired between 9:30 p.m. Wednesday and 7 a.m. Thursday, FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said, adding they're not...

CNN and talk radio host Lou Dobbs, a strong proponent of U.S. border enforcement, told his radio audience a gunshot was fired into his home after a series of threatening phone calls . "Three weeks ago this morning a shot was fired into my house, my wife was standing there," he said on his nationally syndicated radio show Monday. "This follows weeks and weeks of threatening phone calls." "This shot was fired with my wife not 15 feet away." ........

Lou Dobbs tonight on CNN gives details to Wolf Blitzer of the shot(s) fired at his home..It was after months of threatening phone calls because of his position on illegal immigration....(Video from CNN)

<p>A New Jersey appeals court has concluded that Americans have no Second Amendment right to buy a handgun.</p> <p>In a case decided last week, the superior court upheld a state law saying that nobody may possess "any handgun" without obtaining law enforcement approval and permission in advance.</p>

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 NRA Sues Seattle Over Illegal Gun Ban Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Fairfax, Va. - Today, the National Rifle Association filed a complaint in the Superior Court of Washington State against the City of Seattle, asking the court to enjoin and declare invalid a recently enacted parks and recreation administrative policy that prohibits firearms in parks, community centers and other city-owned buildings. Other plaintiffs in the case include state correctional officers and private citizens. “NRA members are outraged that the City of Seattle has ignored and defied state law and an opinion of...

USPS spokesperson Joanne Vito told the Examiner.com that 39 CFR 232.1(l) “applies to anyone coming into a Post Office or a Postal facility. The regulation prohibiting the possession of firearms or other weapons applies to all real property under the charge and control of the Postal Service. . . . Both open and concealed possession are prohibited, so storage of a weapon on a car parked in a lot that is under the charge and control of the Postal Service would be prohibited.” . . . Philip Van Cleave, President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League . . . said...

A 22-year-old man was jailed early Tuesday morning on charges he shot another man after the two strangers exchanged a series of hostile text messages. Scott Allen Elder faces an aggravated assault charge in the 2:30 a.m. shooting of Brian Matison, 24, at a CVS parking lot on Edgewater Street, near Montgomery Crossroad, said Veda Lamar Nichols, Savannah-Chatham police spokeswoman. Matison was in serious condition at Memorial University Medical Center by midday Tuesday, Nichols said. Elder and Matison had argued through phone calls and text messages after a misdialed number, Nichols said. The pair arranged to meet at the CVS...

Dalhart, Texas - A Dalhart teenager is in the hospital after accidentally shooting himself with what police say was a stolen gun. Officers say it all started with a home burglary on Osceola Tuesday afternoon. They believe several weapons were taken. When police received a call a 16-year-old had been shot in the face, they say they figured out he was one of two teenagers who had stolen those weapons. They say the gun accidentally went off when he was handling it. Those stolen weapons have been recovered. The other teenager beleived to be involved, a 17 year old boy,...

Thank you for this informative email (JPFO alert 10/26/09). Now I have a question to ask you. Are you aware that the BATFE has for several years been aggressively offering eTrace to local law enforcement agencies? They have the agency sign a memorandum of agreement and then the agency can run traces on any firearm they wish. The catch is that the agency has to agree to run a trace on ALL CRIME GUNS. The MOU defines a CRIME GUN as: "The parties agree that a 'crime gun' is defined as "any firearm that is illegally possessed, used in a...

That’s the title of a new article in the Columbia Law Review (the link is just to an abstract, since no PDF is available). The law review asked me whether I could write a commentary for its online supplement (the Sidebar), and I did, here, under the title The First and Second Amendments; the author’s response to my response is here. Here’s the text of my article (for the footnotes, see the version I link to above): I. The Supposed Analogy to Obscenity Analogies between the First Amendment and the Second (and comparable state constitutional protections) are over 200 years...

A patient in a psychiatric center near the Massachusetts General Hospital stabbed his doctor this afternoon before being shot dead by an off-duty security guard, police said. maeda_28shooting_met4.jpg(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff) The physician is in stable condition, Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said at a press conference this afternoon as he described a chaotic scene. A relative said the victim was Dr. Astrid Desrosiers, a Massachusetts General Hospital psychiatrist who worked at the center. Isabellie Desrosiers, Desrosiers' sister-in-law, said she had been told by Desrosiers' sister that Astrid had been shot. Police identified the patient late this afternoon as 37-year-old Jay...