Free Republic

A Marine veteran standing guard outside an Armed Forces Recruiting Center has been told he is no longer welcome and ordered off the property. Matthew Benack took up a sentry post outside the Center in Jacksonville, Fla., in response to the deadly attack on five members of the U.S. military last week in Chattanooga, Tenn., WNCT reported. Police said the vet was within his constitutional rights to have a loaded weapon outside the center as long as the unidentified property owner gave permission.

Gun control advocates insist that tougher gun laws will reduce murder rates, but according to a new report by the Crime Prevention Research Center, just the opposite has been true under President Obama. Since President Obama’s election the number of concealed handgun permits has soared, growing from 4.6 million in 2007 to over 12.8 million this year. Among the findings in our report: -- The number of concealed handgun permits is increasing at an ever- increasing rate. Over the past year, 1.7 million additional new permits have been issued – a 15.4% increase in just one single year. This is the largest...

Abstract: Since President Obama’s election the number of concealed handgun permits has soared, growing from 4.6 million in 2007 to over 12.8 million this year. Among the findings in our report: -- The number of concealed handgun permits is increasing at an ever- increasing rate. Over the past year, 1.7 million additional new permits have been issued – a 15.4% increase in just one single year. This is the largest ever single-year increase in the number of concealed handgun permits. -- 5.2% of the total adult population has a permit. -- Five states now have more than 10% of their...

Happy 4th! Hugh Hewitt posed a question to his listeners this past week, after interviewing Mike Pompeo (sp.?) about terrorism concerns over the holiday. Pompeo said that there was heightened concern that attacks could occur in the US over the July 4 holiday. Hugh's question was: Does this change your plans for the holiday weekend? One would think that the most common answer is: 'I'm concerned and plan to avoid public celebrations.' It had the opposite effect on me. My wife was mildly surprised when I said we should go to a local fireworks display last night. (I'm not usually...

Chicken Express, located at 2 Warnock Springs Rd in Magnolia, Arkansas, is offering a free meal to people who present a concealed handgun license at their location on July 4th, 2015.   From facebook.com: On Saturday July 4th we will be giving a FREE #1 combo to anyone with a Conceal Handgun License. This will be DINE IN ONLY. You must have your License with you! We hope everyone has a happy and safe 4th of July! There have been a number of other businesses that welcome both the open and concealed carry of firearms and offer promotions based on...

The headline is incendiary.  It is meant to be to show the double standard that has been inculcated in this country, and to show that black people are routinely treated fairly under the law.    There is a myth that has been built and supported by the old media that only white people can use guns in self defense.  The mythology erroneously states that if black people use guns in self defense, they will be jailed.  In fact, black people are using guns in self defense more and more, and they are finding that the law applies to them the...

When the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that every state must recognize same sex marriages, they used a basis for judgement that will not easily stop at same sex marriage. In fact, it is a basis for judgement that should offer itself to national reciprocity of concealed carry permits and permit holders. The SCOTUS legalized same sex marriage by finding a right which Justices Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen G. Breyer, and Elena Kagan ruled as beyond a state-by-state prerogative via the 14th Amendment. Crucial in this ruling is the fact that same sex...

If you’re following any of the various media outlets this morning, you’re probably aware that the U.S. Supreme Court has just extended gay marriage to all 50 states. The Supreme Court ruled Friday that same-sex couples have a right to marry nationwide, in a historic decision that invalidates gay marriage bans in more than a dozen states. Gay and lesbian couples already can marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia. The court’s ruling on Friday means the remaining 14 states, in the South and Midwest, will have to stop enforcing their bans on same-sex marriage. The outcome is...

He was a young gunman bent on shooting as many worshippers as possible, but Matthew J. Murray never got as far as Dylann Roof, the suspect in Wednesday’s South Carolina church massacre. Murray had already shot and killed two people in the parking lot when he burst into the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Before he could pull the trigger again, however, the 24-year-old shooter was gunned down by Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard with a concealed-carry permit. That was eight years ago, but even though Ms. Assam was credited for saving as many as 100 lives that...

Requests from more than 16,000 Californians to carry a concealed gun in public are in limbo, pending a final decision in a landmark lawsuit that’s scheduled to be reheard today in a federal courtroom in San Francisco. Some of these requests are in file boxes down the street at the San Francisco Police Department, which saw a spike in applications after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the state’s “good cause” requirement as unconstitutional last year. 70,593 – The number of Californians with an active concealed carry permit. That’s about 0.2 percent of the state population, well below...

The open carry activists did not win the open carry victory in Texas because of public opinion, at least not on the superficial and transitory image of public opinion that is usually measured.   It was won because the activists developed means and methods to communicate around the elite establishment, grew their own organizations and vision, and exerted raw political power to bend the government to their will. They had several advantages.   The facts were on their side;  the Constitution is on their side; and the culture is on their side.  Against them were the big government elites, big media,...

The robbery and shooting took place at 10:30 PM on Friday night just as the couple was leaving the Shell's restaurant at 2101 East Fowler Avenue. From Tampa Bay, Florida (CBS-TV Channel 10 News): ". . . According to Tampa Police Department, the two suspects approached the victims with a gun drawn while the victims were leaving the Shells restaurant. The suspects then robbed the man and woman. As the woman turned to run, the suspect aimed his gun in her direction. "The other victim, who had a Concealed Carry permit, drew his weapon and shot the suspect in the...

The woman, in her mid-30s, pulled into an Exxon station about 6 p.m. along FM 2100 and Saddle Creek Farms Drive. She was in the driver’s seat when a man suddenly got into the passenger side. He pulled out a knife and demanded her cash, Harris County sheriff’s deputies said. The woman agreed and reached over to her purse. But instead of money, she pulled out a pistol. “She shoots him one time in the left shoulder,” Deputy Thomas Gilliland said. The man fled, running north along FM 2100. He collapsed about a quarter-mile away.

A recent carjacking attempt was stopped cold by a black woman.   A black woman armed with a .357 Sig Sauer pistol and training.    Only a few years ago, this would have been a highly unlikely event.  Michigan passed a shall issue concealed carry law in 2001.  Detroit's city government was initially hostile to the idea, but by 2010, five city council members had permits.  After  Detroit declared bankruptcy, emergency manager Kevin Orr appointed Chief Craig in July of 2013, freeing him from dependence on the Mayor and City Council, unlike most large city police chiefs.  Chief Craig has been...

In a USA today column, journalist John Boyle experimented with carrying a concealed weapon.   It expanded his horizons, as stepping outside of comfortable self-limits often does.  From usatoday.com: For my part, I don't see myself continuing to walk into Subway or go grocery shopping with a loaded .25-caliber pistol in my front pocket, or my .357 magnum on my hip. It just seems like it would lead to way more problems than it would solve. I'm glad to have the permit, should I ever feel the need to carry frequently, but for now, I think I'm going to stick...

Over the course of the last half-century, the media has botched its coverage of numerous high profile crimes. Sometimes, the reporting is intentionally inaccurate because the reporter is interested in advancing a certain worldview, rather than simply reporting the news. Among the worst examples of this is the now 51-year-old story of the rape and murder of Kitty Genovese. You’ve probably heard the story before. Genovese was returning from her job as a bartender in the middle of a March night in Queens, New York, in 1964. A man named Winston Moseley who had raped and killed other women attacked...

On Monday, a federal judge struck down DC’s concealed carry law, calling the requirement for applicants to show “a good reason to fear injury to his or her person, which shall at a minimum require a showing of a special need for self protection distinguishable from the general community” as unconstitutional. Applicants had to document threats to their personal safety as well. Judge Frederick Scullin, who also struck down DC’s ban on carrying firearms outside of one’s home last summer, issued a preliminary injunction after two Florida residents sued over the DC’s onerous statute.

In two opinions issued today, 18 May, 2015, Judge Scullin essentially ended the Palmer v. D.C. case by refusing to issue a contempt citation against the D.C. government.  But, in another ruling on the new D.C. law, Judge Scullin issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of particular sections of the D.C. permit to carry law.   Those sections of the law are the ones that allow the police chief to turn down permits if they do not have "good reason" for them.  Here are the last paragraphs of the opinion: ORDERS that Defendants, their officers, agents, servants, employees,...

Governor Deal signed the gun law reform bill, HB 492(pdf), into law on Tuesday the 12th of May, 2015.  The law is one of a multitude of gun law reforms sweeping the nation since President Obama took office.    Some laws, such as the  constitutional carry law passed in Kansas this year, offer sweeping restoration of second amendment rights that have been slowly infringed on over the last century.  Others offer more incremental change. HB 492 is one of the latter.  It cleans up some language from previous bills, and makes some small improvements.  From georgiacarry.org: 1) Clarifies that government...

A 27-year-old man was fatally wounded in the parking lot of an Orem grocery store Saturday morning when he was shot by a man with concealed weapons permit who was attempting to stop the man from carjacking a woman's SUV.