Free Republic

The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) numbers show heroin deaths surpassed firearm-related homicides for the first time ever in 2015. The number of heroin deaths was 12,989 and the number of firearm-related homicides was 12,979.

German defense manufacturing company Heckler & Koch will stop providing arms to Turkey. “We only want to deliver to reliable countries, also not countries that are unequivocal democratic, not corrupt, and are part of NATO or close to NATO,” an anonymous employee of the organization told the German newspaper Die Welt. Turkey as a result was removed from the customer list. The change of strategy was justified by the fact that exporting permits to human rights violating countries is difficult or nearly impossible, and also to prevent negative headlines in the media. “The moral criticism of such exports can be...

Hope some freepers can hopefully lend a hand. I am trying to find the best source for gun ownership by state. Is there a reputable source for this that someone can reccomend? Thanks.

A survey done at Yale, based on doctors political party registration, found that there was a significant difference in how Republican and Democrat doctors treated patients who owned guns. From wisconsingazette.com: And Democratic doctors were 66 percent more likely to say they’d urge parents of small children not to store guns in the home — while Republican doctors instead preferred to ask about safe storage of the firearms, concluded the survey, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This was really an eye-opener,” said bioethicist Nancy Berlinger of The Hastings Center, a nonpartisan research institute. She wasn’t...

In September, 2016 continued on its record breaking pace to become the year with the most gun sales ever.  September has maintained the pace from August. Both months broke records, but by a lower percentage than the rest of 2016.  The 2016 NICS checks are far ahead of those for 2015, the previous record holder. In 2015, the total NICS checks for the year were 23,141,970 .  In 2015, through September, they were 15,607,587 1,992,219 checks were done in September, 2016 making 19,872,694 checks done for 2016 so far.  2016 is about two months ahead of the 2015 record. ...

U.S. Gun-Show Customers’ License Plates Come Under Scrutiny Federal agents enlisted local police to scan cars’ plates at shows’ parking lots By Devlin Barrett Oct. 2, 2016 7:35 p.m. ET Federal agents have persuaded police officers to scan license plates to gather information about gun-show customers, government emails show, raising questions about how officials monitor constitutionally protected activity. Emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency crafted a plan in 2010 to use license-plate readers—devices that record the plate numbers of all passing cars—at gun shows in Southern California, including one in...

Plaintiffs-Appellants Defense Distributed and Second Amendment Foundation, Inc. have sued Defendants-Appellees, the United States Department of State, the Secretary of State, the DDTC, and various agency employees (collectively, the “State Department”), seeking to enjoin enforcement of certain laws governing the export of unclassified technical data relating to prohibited munitions. Because the district court concluded that the public interest in national security outweighs Plaintiffs-Appellants’ interest in protecting their constitutional rights, it denied a preliminary injunction, and they timely appealed. We conclude the district court did not abuse its discretion and therefore affirm.

JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri became the latest state to allow residents to carry a concealed weapon without a permit when lawmakers supported the change Wednesday. Tense debate during the legislature's annual veto override session encompassed themes of race and class as lawmakers clashed over whether to override Gov. Jay Nixon's veto of Senate Bill 656. In the days leading up to the session the debate drew national attention, with organizations on both sides of the issues working to influence lawmakers. Another controversial part of the bill is its "stand your ground" provision, which will allow residents to use deadly force...

...We live in a precarious time in the United States of America. Many citizens are concerned about efforts to infringe upon the rights delineated in the Bill of Rights to the United States Constitution. As a constitutional lawyer who spent much of my career defending the fundamental Rights to Life and Religious Freedom, I share their concern. However, one of those Rights is found in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution which reads "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."......

That's right a weapon that was invented in the first century. First Century weapons have to be relics? Not really. Believe it or not, the flame thrower was invented in the First Century. the initial idea for the flame thrower came from the Greeks in the year 1 AD, taking the form of hand-pumped flamethrowers on board their naval ships. Later, the modern flame thrower, or Flamnenwerfer in German, showed up around 1901, and since was used extensively in WWII, Vietnam, and other conflicts. Nowadays, private ownership of flame throwers is not prohibited by federal law, but a few states...

A 31-year-old man found himself running from bullets after a mother found him in her 16-year-old daughter’s bedroom, police say. Valerie Fowler, of Paoli, Okla., shot Brandon Vail twice after she found him and her daughter kissing, according to an affidavit. Vail survived and was taken to a hospital by helicopter, while Fowler was arrested on charges of assault and battery with a deadly weapon. The teen, who was identified in the affidavit as K.P., told police that her boyfriend had been coming over three times a week after her mother left for work at 5:30 a.m.But on Monday morning,...

Current laws should be changed to allow concealed carry (CCW) permit holders to be armed in gun-free zones (GFZ). Two scenarios to consider: First, you have a CCW license and are out for a normal day. You find yourself in a GFZ. Therefore, you don’t have your gun as current law prohibits it. A shooting breaks out. Without your gun, what do you do? Do you flee or hide? Being unarmed, your options are limited. The outcome for you and fellow citizens may be completely out of your control. Although law enforcement in our nation is outstanding and officers are...

If Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, it is likely that your Second Amendment rights will mean nothing. The constitutional protections we have depended on for years have failed when the liberals control a court; and it is likely that Hillary will redefine all courts. The liberals’ successful record of civil asset forfeitures provides a fine example of how they can get around the constitutional protections provided by the Fifth and Second Amendments. In many civil asset forfeiture cases, the citizen has not been found guilty of any crime, but the government swoops in to seize—pardon me, to force the forfeiture...

Veto Gunmageddon is a group of volunteers dedicated to overturning the recent draconian gun laws passed by the California legislature and signed by Governor Jerry Brown. We are gun owners from all over California who watched with disbelief as the California Legislature bypassed normal procedure to pass strict and clearly unconstitutional gun laws. We have come together and formed “VETO GUNMAGEDDON, CITIZENS OF CALIFORNIA WHO ARE OPPOSED TO PROPOSITION 63, ASSEMBLY BILLS 1135, 1511, 1695, 857 AND SENATE BILLS 880, 1235 AND 1446.  FPPC#1387279”. We are 100% volunteer, and our primary focus is to exercise the people’s veto (a referendum) to...

"It frustrates me that so many of my peers and professors have reacted so negatively. "I did not grow up around guns. "In fact, I was raised by a single mother who despised guns, in Carrollton, Texas, a relatively peaceful suburb of Dallas. "In grad school, my views evolved. I began to learn more about the prevalence of campus sexual assault in America, and I would sometimes leave class at 10 p.m., only to later hear about an assault on campus that night. I was sick of feeling like a potential victim. I had always been an advocate for providing...

I posted an advert on Armslist for the last firearm I own. These are tough times for me, I am unemployed and had no reserve fund. Thankfully, I just consummated the sale so now I can rest easy financially. I got a message: "I live in TN but work on GA. .....Would you be willing to sell it to me? Also, can you take pictures and send them to me? Thanks." Well THAT would break the law! My response: "I'm afraid not. .....but the law in Georgia (and perhaps federally) is that in order to sell a firearm in a...

Police: Man shot by Chicago cop answering call of someone threatening suicide Megan Crepeau Contact Reporter Chicago Tribune A Chicago police officer shot a man in the leg in Calumet Heights on the South Side early Sunday after getting a call from someone threatening suicide, authorities said. Just before 1:10 a.m., a person called 911 saying he was in a second-floor apartment in the 1800 block of East 87th Street and was going to kill himself, a source said. The caller said he had a 9mm handgun, according to the source. About 1:15 a.m., police arrived to assist with the...

House GOP to Promote Muslim Brotherhood, Gun Control Agenda this Week Daniel Horowitz | July 05, 2016 In case you thought congressional Republicans would be infused with a fresh sense of constitutionalism, patriotism, and moral clarity on the heels of this Independence Day weekend, think again. House Republicans will continue their dyslexic response to Orlando by validating the Left’s entire premise regarding homeland security and guns. Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas (A, 97%) conducted a hearing which revealed that the Department of Homeland Security, at the behest of Muslim Brotherhood organizations, is deleting critical counter-terrorism research that would have...

Once again the American people are being inundated with the fallacy that more restrictive gun control legislation is necessary to protect us and keep us safe. As usual, liberals are doing all they can to take our guns in order to protect us from us, or rather them from the Constitution. We hear that it’s “for the children,” a standard and thoroughly fraudulent claim by the left to divide the country on the 2nd Amendment. The left champion narratives about “assault rifles” and “weapons of war” to instill fear in those who know nothing of firearms. A week ago, congressional...

The FDA is stockpiling military weapons — and it’s not alone AMERICA’S GUN CULTURE has been a subject of intense interest and controversy for years, with concerns frequently raised about shadowy militias, paramilitary extremists, and unstable zealots in possession of alarming quantities of explosives and firearms. Amid the current din over assault weapons and body armor, consider one domestic organization’s fearsome arsenal of military-style equipment. In the space of eight years, the group amassed a stockpile of pistols, shotguns, and semiautomatic rifles, along with ample supplies of ammunition, liquid explosives, gun scopes, and suppressors. In its cache as well are...