Free Republic

She was briefly decommissioned, and then reactivated for the Korean War, and provided naval gunfire support duties against enemy bunkers, command posts, and artillery positions. Wisconsin earned five battle stars for her World War II service, and one for the Korean War. When she joined the United States Navy reserve fleet – the “Mothball Fleet” – in 1958, it was the first time the United States Navy was without an active battleship since 1895. However, that wasn’t the end of the line for USS Wisconsin. President Ronald Reagan called for a 600-ship U.S. Navy in the 1980s, and as a...

As a result, it is impossible to know exactly how many firearms may have changed hands in March. Critics of the system, including many lawmakers, have argued for a universal background check system that would track every firearm. But clearly it would be impossible even to know where to start as private sales that are legal in many states make it impossible to know who exactly may have purchased a firearm. What is an absolute certainty is that at least two million additional firearms are now in private hands, joining the more than 470 million already owned across the United...

Today, the massive USS Iowa (BB-61) calls the Port of Los Angeles home, where she is a museum ship and serves as a testament to the might of the United States Navy from World War II to the end of the Cold War. The largest and most powerful battleships built for the U.S. Navy, the Iowa-class were also the final battleships that entered service with the Navy. Unlike slower battleships of the era, this class was also designed to travel with a carrier force, and even be able to transit the Panama Canal, enabling the mighty warships to respond to...

A year into a global pandemic has been good for gun sales, but the fear isn’t just Covid-19, warned Wahl. “First of all, the government has scared the people,” Wahl told the Fergus Falls Journal. “Everyone is real afraid they won’t be able to find it so they are stocking up. They walk into stores and buy everything they can see. You’ll find it on the Internet at about four times the normal price.” As first-time buyers rushed to purchase a firearm they also bought ammunition, and the downside for shooters is that it drove up ammunition prices to levels...

Roma was the third Littorio-class battleship, and by all accounts, she was graceful in appearance – a testament to Italian designs – unlike the blocky designs of British or German battleships. She was well-armored, fast-moving, and quite capably armed. Built with a compartmented hull and an ingenious system of bulkheads and expansion cylinders the Roma was in theory as fortified as her namesake – where Rome’s mighty walls fended off attackers for centuries.

Even before the handgun was tossed in the trash, the question is why and how he was able to even own it. Hunter Biden, who was also discharged administratively from the U.S. Navy after testing positive for cocaine, has a history of drug addiction, something his father never tried to hide on the campaign trail. While it could be seen as admirable that Joe stood by Hunter, the question must be asked: How did Hunter “legally” obtain the handgun? Clearly, this is a case of a failure of a background check, or is it? Politico has obtained copies of the...

Instead of calling this an infrastructure plan, the White House calls it “the American Jobs Plan.” This is ironic because the only reason why most unemployed people don’t have jobs today is the lockdowns enforced by mostly Democratic governors. End the lockdowns and there won’t be many unemployed people to take the jobs created by the Biden plan. That should be okay because most of the plan isn’t really necessary. The money for road and bridge repairs isn’t needed because the condition of America’s roads and road bridges has been improving each year without a congressional rescue plan. However, Biden’s...

They are dishonestly attacking the Georgia legislation as a throwback to the Jim Crow era, while simultaneously assailing the Senate filibuster as “racist” as well. Those are two vital elements of the grand plan to ram the federal election-takeover legislation, HR 1, the euphemistically titled “For the People Act,” through Congress. The true intent of the legislation—and the road map to get it to Biden’s desk—is to weaken election security and to cement liberals’ hold on power for decades.

“There’s more first time gun buyers than I ever seen before, I mean, there’s been certain times when political events have caused you know people to think more about guns or a lot of new gun buyers come out but this time has just been on fire with I think in January several million more new gun buyers on the market and I think we just continue to see that,” Smith said. At John Brown’s Armory in Beaver Country, Pennsylvania, it is a similar story. The shop has seen steady sales since the outbreak of the pandemic a year ago,...

Those events truly highlighted the absolute worst in what we are as a nation and they shouldn’t be forgotten. Each even gave us questions on where our society has gone wrong, what role our modern culture of music, movies, video games, and of course guns played in allowing those horrific events to unfold. Yet, the deadliest school massacre in U.S. history has largely been left out of the conversion. Few today even remember the Bath School Massacre, and it is rarely – if ever – even mentioned by the media alongside those other mass killings. The reason is that it...

Australia instituted these strict laws following the April 1996 mass shooting at Port Arthur, in which gunman Martin Bryant took the lives of thirty-five people using an AR-10 semi-automatic rifle. Bryant’s motivation was reportedly based on the failure to buy a bed and breakfast property but also to become “notorious.” The shooting outraged the nation, and soon Australia introduced comprehensive gun control. It was led by then Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who had only taken office six weeks earlier at the head of a center-right coalition. Howard came to the decision that firearms were simply too easy to obtain...

If it passes the Senate and is signed into law by President Biden, it would result in new background check requirements for all gun transfers conducted by private parties. As it currently stands, unlicensed or “private sellers” are not required to conduct a background check for transfers on firearms, and this includes sales made at gun shows – which has resulted in opponents of such transactions calling this the “gun show loophole,” and additionally have argued this is how many criminals obtain their firearms. All licensed dealers, including those who sell at gun shows, are in fact required to conduct...

One factor could be that just as law-abiding citizens went through legal channels to acquire firearms last year and into 2021, so too have criminals. It could be that criminals fear an armed law-abiding population and are responding in kind. It is also important to note that year-over-year crime rates have been on the decline in recent decades even if 2020 reversed those numbers. At the same time, firearms sales have steadily increased. As a result, it is simply unlikely that the record number of legal firearms sales attributed to the increase in crime. Rather it just seemed criminals kept...

In most cases, you’ll want to focus on either a shotgun or a pistol. Shotguns, especially pump-action shotguns, are generally easy to use, point well, and mostly handle by feel. However, shotguns can be heavier and come with a good amount of recoil. If this is a problem, you might want to go with a handgun instead. No matter what type of firearm you choose, from a revolver to a rifle, you should remember to prioritize two things: recoil and reliability. A gun with lighter recoil is often better for older shooters. Although it may seem counterintuitive, a heavier, larger...

The Air Force recently retired the first 17 of their B-1B bombers, a Cold War-era bomber that was originally designed to penetrate Soviet air defense at low altitudes. Though the bomber’s low and fast flight profile was made moot by Soviet look-down radars before it even entered production, the bomber was nonetheless manufactured as no viable alternative existed to replaces some of the United States other aging bombers. Oddly enough, the B-1B Lancer bomber enjoyed a renaissance of sorts during the conflict in Afghanistan as a rapid-response close air support platform, able to aid troops on the ground at a...

Our neighbor to the north doesn’t have a “Second Amendment,” so there is little that gun owners can do if Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passes his sweeping gun reform legislation. Not only would it ban the ownership of so-called “assault-style” firearms such as AR-15s, but it could allow municipalities to even ban handguns – all handguns regardless of age. In a press conference earlier this month, the Liberal Party PM said he would move forward with a buyback program in the coming months, but also said that the legislation would empower municipalities to restrict storage and transportation of handguns...

This week our neighbors to the north could soon see their right to own firearms greatly reduced, as Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called upon Canada’s federal government to launch a long-promised buyback program for “assault-style” firearms including AR-15s.

Sometime late last year, the U.S. Navy tested one of Northrop Grumman’s remotely piloted helicopters for use as an anti-submarine warfare platform, USNI News reported. During the evaluation, the Fire Scout drone dropped miniaturized sonobuoys into the water, essentially small acoustic devices that listen for enemy movement underwater.

“For some of the heavyweight departments, the big guys, it’s not that big of a deal budget-wise,” El Portal Police Department Chief David Magnusson, told the CBS News local affiliate in Miami. “But for someone in the bantamweight department, such as us, it is a big deal.” The issue is more than just hitting departments financially. The shortage of ammunition has limited many police officers from taking part in state-mandated range training.

The aircraft is actually an example of trying to focus too much on proven designs and common parts. While it incorporated the most powerful inline engine available at the time – an Allison V-3420, which provided 2,885 horsepower – and featured a design that utilized many components from other aircraft to help expedite production, flight tests revealed unsatisfactory performance.