Free Republic

Like clockwork it has happened. Anytime there is a shooting there is a call for stricter gun control laws. Whether in reaction to the recent shootings in Tulsa, the school shootings in Ohio and California, or the Trayvon Martin case in Florida, more laws on gun use and ownership are seen as the answer for preventing similar incidents from repeating. It’s as though all we need to keep people from killing one another are laws that restrict access to guns or increase punishment for violent crimes. The laws are not the problem, the people who commit the crimes are. Most...

Wisconsin just recently handed out its 100,000th concealed handgun permit, a feat that far exceeded expectations. Early last November when Act 35 took effect, members of the Wisconsin Department of Justice expected to deliver 125,000 permits within the first year. With 100,000 permits printed only six months in, these gun-loving cheeseheads may very well double the projected number. Last year, Wisconsin became the 49th state (beating Illinois) to join the modern era and allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns. With last year's census putting the Wisconsin population at around 5.7 million, that means that about one in every 57...

EARLIER this month, Mitt Romney delivered a speech at the annual National Rifle Association convention, calling for a president “who will stand up for the rights of hunters, sportsmen and those seeking to protect their homes and their families,” presumably with guns. I’d like to remind Mr. Romney that those are distinct groups. Too often — especially during an election year — hunters and N.R.A. members are lumped together as one and the same. I’m a hunter and a sportswoman. I own guns, but not for self-defense. I support gun control laws. I would happily vote to repeal the Stand...

Critics of Florida’s self-defense law object to its recognition of a right to “stand your ground” in public places, which eliminated the duty to retreat from an assailant. Yet many of these critics seem to believe they have a duty to stand their ground and never retreat, using George Zimmerman’s shooting of Trayvon Martin as a weapon to attack Florida’s law, no matter what the evidence shows. The emphasis on the right to stand your ground is puzzling in the context of the Martin case, since Zimmerman’s defense does not seem to rely on it. The 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer,...

Police have yet to charge a black motorist who shot dead a mentally disabled and unarmed "white Hispanic," Daniel Adkins, in a Taco Bell parking lot near Phoenix earlier this month. The two reportedly exchanged words before the shooting that occurred, according to some accounts, after the motorist almost ran over Adkins who then banged his fist on the car's windshield. The April 3 shooting by the 22-year-old black man -- whom police in suburban Laveen have yet to identify -- has gotten little if any coverage by the national media. Nor has President Obama weighed in on the case....

Legislation inspired by Florida’s Trayvon Martin case failed in a Senate committee Tuesday amid concerns that it would cloud state law. Senate Bill 719 by state Sen. Yvonne Dorsey-Colomb, D-Baton Rouge, would have rewritten Louisiana’s justifiable homicide law. Under the change, the law would not apply when the person committing the homicide is the aggressor. “What I don’t want to happen in this state is that we have permission to murder,” Dorsey-Colomb told the state Senate Committee on Judiciary C. Critics of the change complained that the measure would lead to confusion and possibly result in people provoking aggressive behavior...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Louisville Metro Police said a teenager was shot by a homeowner in west Louisville during an attempted break-in. The shooting happened just before 10 a.m. Monday in the 400 block 38th Street. Police are investigating the shooting after the intruder was rushed into surgery at University Hospital. Police said he's expected to be OK. Some homeowners sounded off on whether they thought the shooting was justified. "I feel like he was justified for doing it, right, because he was trying to break in. It's his home, not nobody else's," said neighbor Lerenza Jones. "I'm OK with it....

In the wake of the Trayvon Martin’s death, many on the Left have been blaming Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, a statue passed last year that allows use for the use of deadly force in self-defense (my home state of Georgia passed a similar law a few years ago). They say that the law empowered George Zimmerman to target Martin and claim self-defense. While I have no opinion on Zimmerman’s guilt or innocence in the case at this point — I believe too little is known to jump to conclusions one way or the other, the ire over the “Stand...

First an 8-year-old in Bremerton was nearly killed when a gun in her classmate's backpack went off. Next, kids in Pierce and Snohomish counties were killed by guns left behind in cars. Then the 10-year-old daughter of a Spokane cop shot herself in the leg with his service weapon. All were accidents, all leading to pointless injuries or death to kids. The victims were so young and innocent. It made the past few months the worst run of publicity for guns, and the idea of home gun ownership, in years. Even gun-rights advocates braced for some sort of backlash. Yet...

Anti-gun rhetoric has been a fact of my life as long as I can remember. As a new mom, I even tried keeping toy guns out of the house, because I had bought into some of the myths surrounding gun ownership, such as: 1) Accidental gun deaths are bound to happen with a gun in the house. 2) A gun-free home will keep kids safe from guns. 3) If kids play with toy guns, they will grow up to be violent. All of those are nonsense, of course, but as a mom, all I wanted was for my children to...

Gov. Rick Perry’s opposition to Obama administration policies and his support for the Second Amendment were the primary messages of the Texan’s recent remarks to a National Rifle Association meeting in St. Louis. But before getting serious, Perry loosened up and cracked a few jokes — a couple about his failed bid for the Republican presidential nomination and one that hearkened back to the now nearly legendary day in February 2010 when a jogging Perry shot a coyote that was threatening his dog, as he later told it. That incident prompted gun manufacturer Sturm, Ruger & Co. to produce a...

On April 24, 1885, the legendary female sharpshooter, Annie Oakley (Phoebe Ann Mosey), was hired by Nate Salsbury to perform in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. She could perform a wide range of tricks with a rifle, such as shooting cigarettes out of people’s mouths. Shooting was a way of life for Oakley, as she grew up hunting and providing food for herself and six siblings. Her father died at a young age and her mother had difficulty taking care of the family, so Oakley had to be independent. Oakley was the first woman to be hired as a trick...

“Mexican federal prosecutors will press charges against the U.S. trucker who may have accidentally crossed into Juárez with 268,000 rounds of ammunition last week, a source familiar with the investigation said Monday,” the El Paso Times reports today. The driver, who took a wrong turn and ended up on the Bridge of the Americas, and who was reportedly told by an officer that the only way to turn around was to cross the Mexican border, “could face between four and 15 years in prison if charged with possession, and between 10 and 25 years if charged with introduction.” This is...

Call them what you will: “Stand Your Ground” or “Castle Doctrine” laws. Mayor Bloomberg and members of Congress, speaking on the House floor, go so far as to label them “shoot first” laws. This is a gross exaggeration — a slander, in fact, against legislation designed to reform a flaw in our treatment of self-defense. Earlier statutes affirmatively required potential victims to retreat as much as possible before using deadly force to protect themselves, sometimes putting their lives in jeopardy. The supposedly infamous laws passed in Florida and elsewhere, in contrast, use a “reasonable person” standard for determining when it...

Senator Lousenburg (D. NJ) has filed the “Turn Tail and Run” (TTR) bill in the U.S. Senate which, if passed, would preempt ALL State “Stand Your Ground” (SYG) laws. The new bill would impose a national duty to retreat at all times when one encounters a criminal threat or is about to become a victim of violent crime.

I was driving today and thinking of the insanity of laws which disallow the ownership of a firearm to felons, yet does NOT disallow Congresscritters from serving in Congress. One can do much more damage as a Congressperson than a person holding a firearm. Someone should grab this issue and use this against them. Push a law forward. If gun owners are going to be held to certain standards, why not those who hold the highest office in the land? /.rant off

I think I like the BLACKHAWK! Leather Speed Classic Holster on Amazon for the price.

Troy High senior Sean Michael Combs, 18, was arrested Friday in downtown Birmingham after he was found carrying a loaded M1 Garand rifle. It was a warm Friday night in April, and Troy High School senior Sean Michael Combs was enthusiastic about the rifle he received a month earlier as a gift for his 18th birthday, so he decided to carry it with him when he headed to downtown Birmingham with a friend. Combs' choice to carry the M1 Garand slung over his shoulder resulted in his arrest by Birmingham Police – an experience his close friend Lia Grabowski calls...

Woolrich, a 182-year-old clothing company, describes its new chino pants as an elegant and sturdy fashion statement, with a clean profile and fabric that provides comfort and flexibility. And they are great for hiding a handgun. The company has added a second pocket behind the traditional front pocket for a weapon. Or, for those who prefer to pack their gun in a holster, it can be tucked inside the stretchable waistband. The back pockets are also designed to help hide accessories, like a knife and a flashlight. The chinos, which cost $65, are not for commandos, but rather, the company...

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