Free Republic

Dear 1LT Bryan: I'm sitting here in my wheelchair today, mad as hell, trying to control my anger, but without much success. And please understand-I'm not angry with folks like you...or angry about my own personal situation.Many years ago, with the help of my wife Sarah, I was able to cope with the initial bitterness and depression that come with the knowledge that I'm going to spend the rest of my life confined to a wheelchair.Instead, I'm angry at the gun lobby led by the National Rifle Association (NRA), and the dangerous state of "gun politics" in Washington D.C. But...

How do you hit the broad side of a barn in a news report when you can't see the core issues? How did we know the report would be misleading and terribly lacking? As you know, I write for non-gun owners. I furnish analysis and facts more on the issue of liberty and citizen authority than guns themselves. Guns, liberty, and our sovereign authority over officials in this country are inextricable, and I have shown why over the years. The armed citizen is not an opinion concept, it is and always has been a safeguard of our way of life....

An insidious new meme is being propagated following the Pittsburgh slayings--that rhetoric from conservatives, gun rights activists, the "right wing"-- is responsible for Richard Poplawski's alleged fear that Obama was going to take away guns. The first thing we need acknowledge is this is but one more case of the media rushing to judgment before the facts are in. There's a whole lotta speculation going on. As we've noted before, Obama's own words taken from the official White House website reveal his goal of banning an entire class of semiautomatic firearms. His attorney general has revived the call. And he's...

Proof positive that Olby’s not the only MSNBCer who takes his cues from Kos and co-starring NYT JV pundit Charles Blow, last seen wringing his hands over violent rhetoric after calling for GM execs to be flogged a few days before. I can’t decide which part is my favorite, Shuster accusing Glenn Beck of spreading the FEMA camp conspiracy theory when Beck was busy debunking it right around the time this was airing or Shuster feigning outrage at the thought of someone using Nazi comparisons to demonize his political opponents on a network that airs Keith “Captain Fascist” Olbermann at...

A wise old Uncle told me when I was a kid that gun rights were in danger. But being proverbially young and stupid, I ignored him until the Clinton Administration. We all know that the Brady's goal is absolutely no guns in America. Period. That is, except for the criminals. Although this may be attempted by law, we all know that gun carrying criminals will never give up the tools of their trade. Getting caught with a gun is just a cost of doing business with them. In reality, a thug's carrying a gun just enhances their street reputation. It...

Attorney General Eric Holder is using the drug violence in Mexico to "confuse and mislead" Americans in an attempt to reinstate the expired federal assault weapons ban, gun advocates say. Get ready for a gunfight. Holder revealed his intention to reinstate the ban last month while announcing more than 700 arrests in connection with a crackdown on Mexican drug cartels operating in the United States. "As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to re-institute the ban on the sale of assault weapons,"...

Some of the strictest gun control laws are in Germany There is a move to further attempt to crack down on private gun ownership there. This could be hard to do because of the long hunting tradition in the more conservative southern part of the country. Other countries are tightening laws to prevent people from killing each other, but there aren't enough laws yet. Strict gun laws began after WWII, when the police couldn't even carry guns. There are a few ways today to get a permit to own guns in Germany. Just see how easy gun ownership is there....

At a press conference today announcing the drug cartel arrests (in which he had little to no involvement), US AG Holder also suggested that re-instituting a U.S. ban on the sale of assault weapons would help reduce the bloodshed in Mexico, where last year 6,000 people were killed in drug-related violence.

There’s more than one way to take your guns. Besides making them illegal, the president can make them unaffordable. That appears to be the plan. But first, let’s establish the fact that, despite his campaign promises (nearly all of which are proving to be dubious) that he supports the 2nd Amendment, Obama is quite clearly against private, legal ownership of guns. Everyone knows this. When the alien black African Communist was appointed president by the Oedipal WASP liberal Democrats, the level of gun sales surged more than 49%. This is the FBI report on the requested background checks sent in...

I wrote recently about the forcible citizen disarmament lobby's desire to ban .50 caliber rifles. In that piece, I pointed out that if such a ban were ever implemented, the gun prohibitionists would soon discover that a sniper limited to a .499 caliber rifle would not be seriously hampered by the loss of 1/1000th of an inch of bullet diameter, leading, no doubt, to calls for the banning of that caliber as well. Of course, a .498 caliber rifle would not really be noticeably less capable . . . etc. The disarmament lobby considers it bad form for gun rights...

I think we all realize that our open southern border is a real problem. Illegal aliens are raping, murdering, stealing our identities and assaulting our citizenry, not to mention sucking up welfare dollars by the billions and devastating our medical facilities and our economy in general. What do we hear from the media? We need the illegal aliens here, the Mexicans are doing the jobs that Americans won’t do. Well, for once, the media is right. But it’s not picking cabbage or washing dishes that Americans won’t do, Americans have always done that. So what job won’t Americans do? There...

Friday, January 16, 2009 No one, including the Brady Campaign, seriously believes that Barack Obama was elected president because of his support for gun control. But Brady is pretending that it provided Obama the margin of victory in November, and has provided him with a very long list of gun bans and other restrictions that it expects from him in return. If for no other reason, Obama might want to tell Brady "no," because if he were to do their bidding, they would be sure to demand that he do even more. That's demonstrated by Brady's statement that their current...

Almost 10 years after city officials filed a lawsuit against gun makers and local dealerships, a new ruling by the Indiana Supreme Court will allow the case to proceed to trial in Lake County. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence announced Monday the Supreme Court rejected an argument that the gun industry is shielded from liability under federal law for gun sales that are used in criminal activity. The court's ruling allows an appellate court ruling to stand. The case dates back to August 1999, when then Mayor Scott King announced results of an undercover police operation at several...

HR 45, gun licensing act, 1/6/09 To provide for the implementation of a system of licensing for purchasers of certain firearms and for a record of sale system for those firearms, and for other purposes. Sponsor: Rep Rush, Bobby L. [IL-1] (introduced 1/6/2009) Cosponsors (None) Latest Major Action: 1/6/2009 Referred to House committee. Status: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 - Amends the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act to prohibit a person from possessing a firearm unless that person has been issued a firearm license under this...

Storm Warning! Obama Will Attack... Apparently I was wrong in my thinking that the Dems had been burned enough times on the gun issue that they'd wait until at least after the 2010 midterm elections before sticking their toe back into the parana pool. Sources from Washington are telling me that President-Elect Obama may move forward on an Assault Weapons/Magazine Capacity Ban ASAP — maybe as soon as later this January. Jim Shepherd at the SHOOTING WIRE is this morning also reporting similar rumors. This from Jim: Despite the new administration's insistence that jobs and the economy will be the...

Pick up the morning newspaper or turn on the evening newscast and the story that you’re bound to see is that America is facing an economic recession of historic proportions. Consumer spending is down and unemployment is up, but there is one item that Americans are rushing to buy -- guns. Why? Well, as NRA-certified instructor Joel Rosenberg told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “It’s the Obama effect.” Gun sales have skyrocketed ever since it became clear that Barack Obama was going to win the White House and be able to govern with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. The...

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has sued the Interior Department to stop it from eliminating a 25-year-old federal rule restricting loaded guns in national parks. AP WASHINGTON -- An anti-gun group is suing to stop a last-second Bush administration change that would allow Americans to carry concealed, loaded guns in most national parks and wildlife refuges. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence sued the Interior Department in federal court on Tuesday. They want a federal judge to stop the elimination of a 25-year-old federal rule severely restricting loaded guns in national parks...

A week before Minnesota’s firearm deer season I visited my 86-year-old father. He regaled me with an entertaining stream of tales from his 70 years as a deer hunter in the north woods. He lamented his failing eyesight and then rose from his ancient recliner and went to the closet where he keeps his guns. He took out a battered old case and handed it me. “I want you to have this.” I knew what was inside. A Savage model 219 single-shot 30-30 rifle. My father bought it in 1944 for $12. It’s well worn after more than 60 years...

Advocacy group would help Lebanon County fight gun-toting mom LEBANON (PA)- The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence has offered free legal representation to Lebanon County to defend against a $1 million lawsuit brought by Meleanie Hain. Hain is the Lebanon woman who wore a loaded gun on her hip to her 5-year-old daughter's soccer game in September, raising concerns of other parents. Lebanon County Sheriff Michael DeLeo revoked her license to carry a concealed weapon, but his decision was reversed by Lebanon County Court Judge Robert Eby. The case has drawn national attention. Hain sued DeLeo, the sheriff's office...

COOS BAY, Ore.- The shelves at the Coos Bay Bi-Mart looked pretty bare Monday, with the main ammo for hunting practically sold out. And Bi-Mart's not the only retailer in town seeing this trend, it's happening across the board. Employee Dan West says it's not that more people are going out to purchase ammo, it's the same people who already buy ammunition purchasing more than usual. He says people have been buying $200- $600 worth at a time. West says the only thing left is guns, with nothing to fill them. He says customers have been telling him they are...