Free Republic

Greetings in Freedom, Ordinarily a County Sheriff's election wouldn't be notable for the larger state. In this case however, I'd like to share what is going on in Milwaukee County because the Sheriff's race here has drastic implications for the entire state and country. Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke rocked the boat here in SE Wisconsin and nationally when he issued public service announcements in 2013 that encouraged people to take responsibility for their own safety including training to use a firearm in self defense. His public service announcements went viral because while self-defense is only common sense, its extremely...

You and I avoid visiting the doctor by eating well. Doctors like Lee Silverman carry concealed in order to care for us when we do need them. Doctors and medical professionals should be allowed to carry concealed. Last week, a psychiatrist named Dr. Lee Silverman technically broke the letter of the law by carrying concealed at work. He courageously saved innocent lives by pulling his trigger on a mad gunman before anyone else scarcely had time to dial 911. On July 24, a 49-year-old patient of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital smuggled a loaded firearm into the Darby, Pennsylvania medical complex. Richard...

Armed Doctor Who Opened Fire on Active Shooter in Hospital Shooting Could Lose His Job July 25 2014 by Dan Cannon Share This Post As we reported yesterday, it would seem that an armed doctor in Pennsylvania prevented a possible mass shooting at the hospital he was working at. The doctor managed to land several chest hits on the suspect after he had shot another person and wounded the doctor. However, despite his heroic, likely life saving acts, the doctor (identified as Lee Silverman), may end up unemployed as gratitude. According to the Employee Code of Conduct for Mercy Health...

A gunman opened fire inside Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Delaware County on Thursday afternoon, killing a female caseworker and grazing a psychiatrist in the head, police said. Officials believe the doctor then drew his own weapon and shot the assailant, hitting him three times and critically injuring him, said Delaware County District Attorney Jack Whelan. The psychiatrist , 52, is expected to recover. Donald Molineux, chief of the nearby Yeadon Police Department, said the doctor "without a doubt saved lives" by firing back.

The Rise of the Anti-Media is a profound academic examination of how the gun culture has been able to triumph in the face of overwhelming opposition from the ruling elite.   This is not a book that is light summer reading.   The issues examined, the research done, and the theory put forward to explain the phenomena, are worthy of serious study.    Information in the book is dense.  Brian Anse Patrick packs a great deal into only 282 pages.  The book captured my attention.  I devoured it in a day, but find myself repeatedly returning for more insight. It helps to...

************************************************************** 3. If you like being insulted, do we have a Virginia gun store for you! ************************************************************** A VCDL member brought to our attention a “No loaded guns” sign on the door of Absolute Outdoors in New Kent. EM Ed Levine sent them an email to confirm that policy. First, let me say that many gun stores have a “no loaded guns” policy. That’s because, unlike pretty much any other public place around, people are actually drawing guns and handling them in a gun store. That said, many stores have a better policy of saying that a person can have...

When school resumes in the fall in the Toppenish School District [near Yakima, WA], some administrators will be armed for an added level of security.

A growing trend in state governments is the reform of antiquated knife laws.  The laws were often passed decades ago.  They have been overtaken by Constitutional law.   Clearly, if firearms are protected under the second amendment, so are knives. Last year, in 2013, Kansas reformed their knife laws, enacting a statewide preemption to prevent local governments from chilling the exercise of second amendment rights for knives.   The law was found to have some ambiguity, so this year, as part of an overall weapons law reform bill, it was made clear that old local laws were repealed, and that it...

A Joliet man is suing Bass Pro Shops for falsely advertising “a worthless class” that failed to meet the required training hours to obtain an Illinois concealed carry permit, according to a lawsuit filed Monday. Ambrose attended the class after seeing an advertisement in October 2013 inside a Bolingbrook Bass Pro Shops called, “Illinois Concealed Carry Permit Class,” the lawsuit said. The classes were such a failure, however, that the Illinois State Police issued a news release April 1 stating that Andel was no longer approved to train Illinois Concealed Carry Curricula and that all of his 327 applicants were...

Even Chicago isn’t hopeless. Just its politicians. In July of 2013, Illinois became the last state in the union to enact a concealed carry law. In January of this year, the state began accepting applications for permits. This week, Chicago police announced that the city’s first quarter murder rate was the lowest since 1958.The first three months of the year saw 6 fewer murders than the same time frame in 2013–a 9 percent drop–and 55 fewer murders than 2012, according to a statement from Chicago Police.There were 90 fewer shootings and 119 fewer shooting victims, drops of 26 and 29...

On July 9, 2013, a bill to recognize Illinois gun owners’ right to carry concealed firearms was passed by both chambers of the state Legislature. Illinois became the last state in the nation to allow public possession of concealed guns. Gun control advocates warned that high-crime areas, like Chicago, would only see more violence if residents were allowed to carry guns in public. In reality, the opposite may be happening. On Tuesday, the Chicago Police Department announced that the city experienced its lowest murder rate since 1958 in the first quarter of 2014. There were 6 fewer murders than the...

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm announced Wednesday that Jeremy Rossetto will not be charged in connection with the March 12 shooting death of two teens who were hitting him with a souvenir baseball bat. The district attorney's office reviewed the police investigation, interviewed witnesses and viewed witness cellphone video before concluding that Rossetto shot the teens in self defense.

Photograph by Jocely Augustino taken 9-18-2004 One of the last times people would want to be disarmed is during a widespread emergency, where responders are spread thinly and people may be forced to move from the safety of their home and neighborhood. In order to protect second amendment rights during emergencies, a bill is in the Florida legislature to prevent firearms from being confiscated from people who are not committing any crimes.   Such legislation has been passed in numerous other states.   It became popular after police and other government forces illegally confiscated numerous firearms in the chaos after Hurricane...

In a brilliant bit of second amendment promotion, members of Wisconsin Carry went door to door in a bad part of Milwaukee, offering free training required to obtain the Wisconsin concealed carry license.  The south side of town does not have a good reputation, and it has a high crime rate.   Milwaukee has 10 percent of Wisconsin residents and 60 percent of Wisconsin murders. Wisconsin Carry has been giving free classes so that people can obtain the Wisconsin permit since 2009.   The Wisconsin shall issue law went into effect in November of 2011.  Wisconsin exceeded 200,000 permit holders in...

Another story crosses our desk, courtesy of Rationality Rebooted. I’ve gone through a few reports of this story and it’s still not clear why Kevin Mclaughlin went into the Dollar General in Orrville, Alabama last week, but it certainly wasn’t to find a good deal on tube socks. He began shouting and waving a gun around, herding customers and an employee into a back room. Things were looking bad, but that’s when he ran into Marlo Ellis. One person is dead after a customer at the Dollar General in Orrville began shouting and waving his gun in the air.Dallas County...

Numbers provided by state police officials show that of the tens of thousands of applications submitted so far, nearly 270 have been ultimately denied because of concerns raised by local police. That number represents a tiny fraction of the nearly 14,000 active permits in the state. Some law enforcement officials, namely Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, had expressed concern that they wouldn't have the proper resources to cross-check all of the names on the application list. But a spokesman for the Illinois Police Association says they haven't heard any grumbling from local agencies since the program began.

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Last week, in a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a restriction on carrying concealed handguns. The court held that carrying a handgun “outside the home for the lawful purpose of self-defense, though subject to traditional restrictions, constitutes ‘bear[ing] Arms’ within the meaning of the Second Amendment.” The question of whether the Second Amendment right to bear arms extends to the public is contentious. The 7th Circuit agrees with the 9th Circuit that carrying a gun outside the home is protected by the Constitution, but other courts (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Circuits) are unsettled on...

At least one law enforcement agency in California is changing the way it grants concealed carry permits as a direct result of Peruta v. San Diego. The Orange County Sheriff’s department is dropped the “good cause” requirement yesterday, and is adopting a policy that sounds a lot more like a voluntary “shall issue” process (my bold below): The Orange County sheriff loosened requirements Wednesday for obtaining a concealed-weapons permit in light of a recent federal appellate court decision that deemed many urban counties in California to be overly restrictive in saying who can and can’t carry a concealed weapon.

Star-Ledger slams legal meddling with concealed-carry law New Jersey's biggest newspaper isn't happy about Wyoming's attempt to meddle in its gun laws. It seems Wyoming is leading a coalition of 19 states supporting a man's Supreme Court challenge to New Jersey's concealed-carry law, and the Star-Ledger think the least populated state in the union should "butt out." States "have broad powers to set gun policy, and in ours, a strong majority supports strict laws," the paper says in a blistering editorial, explaining that most people in the state don't want to worry that "the guy they’re fighting with over a...