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When fall ballots land in mailboxes this week, Washington voters will be asked to vote on two opposing gun control initiatives — one calling for expanded background checks, the other keeping the current system of background checks in place. Below, we explore the dueling initiatives, some of Washington's existing rules around gun ownership and what gun laws have meant in other states.

MADISON, Wis. – Leave it to the Dem-heavy City of Milwaukee Election Commission to ban a 78-year-old poll observer for doing her job, a draconian punishment one election official described as nothing short of partisan “intimidation” in the remaining days before Wisconsin’s tightly contested gubernatorial election. Now, the commission’s executive director has turned in Marguerite Ingold to the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office, the same agency that has spent the past four years drag-netting conservatives in secret, politically charged John Doe investigations. The reason, according to Ingold: The election director believed this Muskego great-grandmother could have become “violent and stormed...

It was the most memorable scene from the 1964 Republican National Convention in San Francisco: Nelson Rockefeller standing tall on the speakers’ platform, insistent on having his say—“This is still a free country, ladies and gentlemen”—as conservative yahoos below sent up a roar of hatred to this embodiment of the despised Eastern Establishment who dared denounce extremism. Operatives of the party’s impending presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, aware of the damage the nationally televised scene was doing to his image, frantically tried to quiet the delegates, but to no avail. On His Own Terms By Richard Norton Smith Random House, 842...

As with a few other races around the nation once expected to be locks for the GOP, they find themselves struggling where they shouldn't be. South Dakota's Senate race was supposed to be a shoe-in for the Republicans -- one of three guaranteed pick ups in their quest to gain 6 six Senate seats to capture the majority. West Virginia and Montana, the other two, still seem like sure bets for the GOP, but South Dakota is suddenly iffy. There are many reasons that the contest has shifted into a four-way race that includes former Republican Sen. Larry Pressler, now...

As President Barack Obama heads into the final half of his final term, many of us Americans wonder: Whatever happened to the fresh promise of that cheerfully charismatic optimist who dominated the political stage back in 2008? Some of those who voted for him now say they're sorry they did. Why is the thrill gone? I can think of three big reasons: 1. Public impatience. After six years in office, any president has been seen and heard too many times to satisfy the public's relentless appetite for something fresh and new. 2. An anti-incumbent reflex in news media. The most...

As gun control proponent Gabby Giffords gets more "aggressive" in her push for gun control candidates, at least one of those candidates is distancing herself from the ads Giffords is running. New Hampshire's WMUR 9 ABC reports that though incumbent Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH 1st District) is thoroughly in favor of gun control, the tone of attack in Giffords' new ad is simply too much for her. The video on the outlet's website clearly demonstrates Shea-Porter's desire to move away from being associated with the former representative's ad.

The Supreme Court said Saturday that Texas can use its controversial new voter identification law for the November election. The Supreme Court's order was unsigned, as it typically is in these situations. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented, saying they would have left the district court decision in place. "The greatest threat to public confidence in elections in this case is the prospect of enforcing a purposefully discriminatory law, one that likely imposes an unconstitutional poll tax and risks denying the right to vote to hundreds of thousands of eligible voters," Ginsburg wrote in dissent.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said on Friday that America doesn’t need an Ebola czar, but in fact needs leadership from President Barack Obama—and needs a president who will ban travel to and from Ebola-stricken nations. “We don't need another so-called 'czar'; we need presidential leadership,” Cruz said in response to the president appointing Ron Klain—Vice President Joe Biden’s ex-chief of staff, who was at the center of the 2009 stimulus bill and the Solyndra scandal—as Ebola czar. “This is a public health crisis, and the answer isn't another White House political operative.” Cruz said that instead of a czar, Obama...

Meet Shyanne Roberts, a 10-year-old competitive shooter who is out to prove something: Children with guns don't always mean disaster. "I want to be an inspiration to other kids and be a leader," said the girl. "Kids and guns don't always mean bad things happen." Shyanne competes alongside junior shooters, who are participants younger than 18, and even adults. Last year, she beat out adult women to place second in the Women's Division of the New Jersey Ruger Rimfire Challenge.

This week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected gay-marriage appeals from Indiana, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia and Wisconsin, in essence allowing lower courts to legalize same-sex couples. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an institution that has vigorously opposed gay marriage for some time now, conceded that the political battle over marriage is over. “As far as the civil law is concerned,” the Mormon church admitted, “the courts have spoken.” Actually, nothing is over until God says it’s over. At least, this is my understanding of how religion operates. So though I don’t want to accuse Mormons of being a...

FBI Director James Comey gave a strong speech today (Oct. 16) explaining why law enforcement should have access to data on encrypted smartphones. But he failed to cite any examples in which such law-enforcement access could have made the difference between life and death.... The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994 mandates that telecommunications companies must give police the ability to listen in on telephone conversations. CALEA covers landlines and cellular carriers, and was expanded in 2004 to cover Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) providers and broadband Internet service providers. For the past few years, the FBI...

The Legacy Lives On! Mark’s Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation “Conservatism is the antidote to tyranny precisely because its principles are the founding principles.” -- Mark Levin in Liberty and Tyranny Welcome to “The Levin Lounge"... Step in and have a virtual FRink.Taking the country by storm, one radio station at a time – and kicking the BUTTS of the competition! Welcome all, to the most FUN LIVE THREAD on FreeRepublic.com! You can call Mark’s show: 1-877-381-3811

HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) - A new poll shows Tom Corbett is closing in on Democratic challenger Tom Wolf in the final weeks before the November election, but the Republican governor still faces a seven-point gap. The Magellan Strategies BR survey commissioned by Keystone Report shows Wolf leads Corbett 49-42 percent

During his first term in office, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker gained a nationwide reputation for his often polarizing yet unapologetically conservative agenda. He feuded with public employees over their collective bargaining rights and was subject to a recall vote because of it. He enacted income tax reductions and oversaw property tax reductions. He signed a controversial law requiring women to get an ultrasound before getting an abortion, and he enacted a controversial voter ID law now tied up in court. Now, Wisconsin voters must decide whether they're up for four more years of the Walker agenda. If they are, political...

Just weeks ago, Democrats in Kansas were salivating over the possibility that Paul Davis would be the next governor in the state and independent Greg Orman would be a new U.S. senator. Not any longer. In fact, rather suddenly, Republicans are thinking they are going to have an enjoyable Nov. 4 night of watching election returns. ThatÂ’s because they now have growing reasons to think Gov. Sam Brownback is going to defeat Davis and win re-election. That would be unfortunate, given just how badly BrownbackÂ’s economic policies have hurt the state. And they are giddy over the reversal in the...

As if Democrats needed anything else to worry about, there is the New Hampshire situation. Former naked Senate person Scott Brown enjoyed being a senator. What’s not to like? You get to work in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body and deliberate until the cows come home. Then he lost a reelection bid to Elizabeth Warren in 2012 and couldn’t be a senator anymore. So he moved to New Hampshire and said, sure, this is good enough, I’ll be a senator from here. New Hampshire is a blue state — redder than some other New England states, sure — and his...

BOSTON, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- Former governor of Massacheusetts and 1988 Democratic nominee for president Michael Dukakis took the stand in Boston to testify on behalf of a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Robel Phillipos stands accused of lying to the FBI and local law enforcement about his actions and wherabouts in the three days following the attack that killed three an injured more than 260 people. "[Phillipos] told me he was questioned for five hours by the FBI," Dukakis testified according to the Boston Globe, adding, "he was so confused he didn't know what he said."

Two years ago, Mother Jones published a "Guide to Mass Shootings in America," which claimed to show that such slayings happen more often now than in the past. The feature, whose data have been updated periodically since it first went up, has been both widely cited and harshly disputed. This week the outlet has published a new analysis claiming that mass shootings occur far more frequently than they did several decades ago and that the rate has tripled since 2011. Whether you buy that depends on whether you buy into the previous piece, because the new article has essentially the...

Florida's 55 Bloomberg Anti-Second Amendment Mayors If your Mayor is on this list, please take a moment to ask why your elected officials are fighting against your right to bear arms. As unlikely as it may seem to those of us who pay attention to Second Amendment issues, there may still be some Florida Mayors Against illegal Guns (MAIG) Mayors who have been mislead by lies fed to them by Bloomberg's anti-gun group. We have the emails sent to Florida Mayors from MAIG claiming that they support the Second Amendment, we even have emails from known anti-gun Police Chiefs and...

A pair of Pennsylvania State Democratic Representatives are alive today because one of them was able to draw and fire his concealed weapon, driving an armed robber away: A Pennsylvania state lawmaker who got into a shootout with a 15-year-old boy who was trying to rob him near the Capitol said Wednesday the experience proves the value of packing a gun. State Rep. Marty Flynn, a former prison guard who is licensed to carry a handgun, said he believes he probably would have been killed if he had not used the Smith & Wesson Bodyguard 380 pistol that he conceals...