Free Republic

This year the GRPC will be action-packed. With over 50 speakers hand-picked from the leadership of the Gun Rights Movement, the topics to be presented promise to have an impact that will help direct the path of our cause for years to come. The GRPC will be held this weekend, September 22, 23 and 24, 2006 at the Renaissance Charlotte Suites Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina ...

Woman Shot During Carjacking 5:56 PM EST, November 17, 2005 News Channel 8 HARTFORD -- A mother was shot this afternoon during a carjacking incident while picking her daughter up at school. This happened around 3:30 p.m. in front of a Seventh Day Adventist school on Woodland Street and Albany Ave. The woman was putting her eight-year-old daughter into the back seat of her car when a man started beating her. The woman put up a fight, and that's when the man pulled out a gun and shot her once in the side. The girl was able to get out...

TALLAHASSEE -- A new chapter in the old debate over gun control is starting to unfold in Florida, and part of the story is tucked away in Shari Kotsch's purse. Kotsch, a Pasco County resident who works from home, decided to apply for a concealed weapons license about six months ago. "My husband and I both signed up for the class," she said, in part because she always felt like an "easy target" in a world that's "going crazy." Now, Kotsch takes her pistol everywhere. Her mother and mother-in-law -- both widows -- now carry, too. Kotsch and her relatives...

Minnesota churches deserve an exemption from a state law requiring them to either post a sign or verbally inform people that concealed handguns aren't allowed on their property, a judge has ruled. Hennepin County District Judge LaJune Thomas Lange granted two Twin Cities churches a temporary injunction Friday, the first legal blow to a 2005 law that was passed after an earlier version stumbled in the courts. "The 2005 Act impermissibly intrudes into the free exercise of religion by arbitrary definitions, which dictate restrictions on the use of church property for worship, childcare, parking and rental space,'' Lange wrote. Her...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tuesday, July 12, 2005 Contact: Spence Jackson, (573) 751-0290 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Governor Signs Bills Benefiting Missouri, Protecting Consumers, Fixing Concealed Carry JEFFERSON CITY – Gov. Matt Blunt today signed several bills that will protect consumers from insurance fraud, provide counties with resources to issue law abiding citizens’ concealed carry permits, promote parental involvement in education, establish a process to resolve disputes between homebuilders and homeowners, protect homebuyers from sexual offenders and make it a crime to harm service dogs. "I am pleased today to sign these important pieces of legislation," Blunt said. "Their impact is broad reaching and...

Police: Manager Shot At Local Car Dealership Gunman Calls 911, Police Say POSTED: 12:13 pm EDT April 28, 2005 UPDATED: 12:30 pm EDT April 28, 2005 DETROIT -- A manager at a local car dealership was shot by an employee on Thursday morning, police said. The shooting took place at about 9:30 a.m. at Jefferson Chevrolet, just east of the Interstate 375 exit in Detroit. Police said the manager and the employee were arguing when at some point the employee pulled out a gun and fired a shot. The manager suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach, police said. (SNIP)---------------------...

A Henrico County resident brought more than complaints about rising real estate taxes to a recent budget public hearing. To the surprise of some in the audience, the speaker was also carrying a gun. "I was beyond appall by the presentation of an armed citizen," Bob Atack, a local developer who attended the April 12 hearing, wrote in a letter to County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett. "As I observed his behavior from the podium, almost within arm's reach [of] the most important elected officials and senior management of our county, it caused me to tremble." Snip…

WARREN - A 62-year-old Howland man arrested while holstering a military-style pistol with Kevlar penetrating bullets is scheduled to make his first court appearance this morning. Jerry Joseph of Valacamp Avenue S.E. is accused of violating Ohio's conceal and carry law during a traffic stop Monday when police say he failed to tell police he had the weapon concealed while he was in a motor vehicle. Joseph is scheduled to be arraigned this morning in Warren Municipal Court on charges of carrying a concealed weapon and improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle. He is free on $5,500 bond....

Does anyone have any recent experience in applying for a CCW permit in Indiana? I've already completed my application, been approved, and am waiting for the permit to arrive in the mail. My question is: how long should I expect to wait? I've heard anything from 10 days to 3 months(!).

House Bill 4042 (2005) Sponsors Fulton Sheen - (primary) Rick Jones , Jacob Hoogendyk , Mike Nofs , Leon Drolet , Daniel Acciavatti , Robert Gosselin , Jack Brandenburg , John Pastor , John Stakoe , Jim Marleau , Kevin Elsenheimer , Rick Shaffer , Dave Hildenbrand , Tonya Schuitmaker , Phil Pavlov , Bruce Caswell , Rich Brown , John Gleason , David Robertson Categories Weapons, licensing ; Weapons, concealed ; Law enforcement, fingerprinting Weapons; licensing; fingerprinting requirement for renewal of concealed weapons permit; eliminate. Amends sec. 5l of 1927 PA 372 (MCL 28.425l). -------------------------- January 27, 2005, Introduced...

          “We know that for even law-abiding folks who own guns, the rates of suicide and mortality are substantially higher. So while just perceived to be a crime thing, we think there is a wide benefit to limiting the number of guns in the city.” – Bill Barnes, aide to Supervisor Chris Daly (1)With this erroneous claim to bolster them, San Francisco supervisors kicked off a campaign to get voters to approve a city-wide handgun ban to take effect in 2006. What they are ignoring, besides statistical data, is history.Gun Ownership and Murder Rates Mr. Barnes used the term “mortality.”...

FOP SHOULD NOW ENDORSE NATIONAL CCW FOR PRIVATE CITIZENS, SAYS CCRKBA Based on the Fraternal Order of Police support for national concealed carry for working and retired police officers as "a deterrent to crime and terrorism," the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) today called on the FOP to support national concealed carry for armed private citizens. CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron noted, "We all know that even retired policemen can't always be there when they are needed to prevent or stop a crime, but the likelihood of legal intervention increases when you add several...

Conceal/carry law shot down Minnesota's conceal and carry gun law was declared unconstitutional today by a Ramsey County District judge. Ruling in a lawsuit brought by several churches, Judge John Finley wrote in his decision that it was unconstitutional for the 2002 Legislature to bundle the conceal and carry gun language with an unrelated bill.

Four States Holding to 'No Issue' Handgun Laws 6/28/2004 Feature Story by Dick Dahl With the recent passage of a "shall issue" handgun law in Ohio, the number of states that have eased restrictions on concealed gun carrying has risen to 35. But in the face of this onslaught, four heartland states are holding fast to their long-time laws that prohibit the carrying of concealed guns by people other than police officers. Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and Wisconsin thus far have withstood the gun lobby's efforts to enact shall-issue laws. (They're commonly called "shall issue" laws because they say that the...

Our quiet rise in handguns Web-posted Jun 27, 2004 By KORIE WILKINS Of The Daily Oakland Press Three years ago, a heated debate was raging about Michigan's plan to make it easier to get concealed weapons permits. One side said more guns would make society safer from violent crime while the other said making concealed weapons permits easier to obtain was surely a recipe for disaster. Three years later, neither prediction has come true. Law enforcement officers and local officials say Michigan's streets are no safer - or more dangerous - than they were three years ago when the law...

I used to support gun control, meaning civilian disarmament.  There was no reason, the rationale went, for a private citizen to own a gun.  The only ones who wanted guns had small genitalia, were paranoid crazies, and criminals.         All this was assumed, without any empirical or statistical research to base it upon.  Due to the influence of one of my clients who is a person of great honor, I began to research the issue of gun control on my own.  Having been a college boy who loved library research, I knew how to ferret out fact from fiction.  It...

YOUNGSTOWN — Sure, Ohio now has a concealed-carry law, but once you get a license, your hidden holstered gun may not be welcome everywhere you want to go. Like spring flowers, signs that prohibit firearms are popping up everywhere. Businesses, including The Vindicator, that don't want employees, visitors or customers to enter armed are posting warning signs. Violators face a misdemeanor charge. The concealed-carry law takes effect Thursday. That day, sheriffs' departments will begin processing applications, and licenses are expected to be ready within 45 days. So, sometime in May, licensed Ohioans will be out and about with their guns....

Some Daily Oakland Press readers had mixed emotions last week when we reported a Farmington Hills woman had frightened away would-be robbers because she was legally carrying a gun. They praised us for printing the story, but wished we'd put it on the front page. It may be the first such local story we've printed or known of - and that was because the chief of police there wisely brought it to public attention. The successful threat of a weapon in the hands of a potential crime victim is an event that rarely becomes public. This surely was not the...

A measure allowing Kansans to carry concealed weapons went to the full Senate after being endorsed today by the Federal and State Affairs Committee on a 5-4 vote. Several attempts to broaden the list of places where concealed guns would remain forbidden failed on similar votes. The most significant change from a version of the bill passed by the House is that the attorney general's office would issue permits, rather than the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. KBI officials have taken no position on the concept of concealed weapons but have said the agency did not want to become a licensing...

Sheriff issues first permits for conceal-carry By Linda Redeffer ~ Southeast Missourian Cape Girardeau County Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones was the first person in the county to apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon under the county's newly approved conceal-carry law. Jones was one of four who went through the process Wednesday. For the first couple of weeks, Sheriff John Jordan said, his office will process applications at a rate of one an hour and by appointment. Between Wednesday and next Tuesday, Jordan has scheduled 34 applications for the permit. A few of those appointments are for married...