Free Republic

What's driving gun sales spike? Federal law, women and zombies. BELLEVUE – Karen Manley stood strong in the range Tuesday afternoon, her right hand firmly gripping a handgun. “There had been a rash of home invasions,” said Manley, of Brier. “If anything happens, I could defend myself, my kids, and my home.’ Women are just one factor behind a recent spree of gun sales, locally, and across the nation, according to gun lobbyists. The FBI reported Tuesday that it received 154,873 buyer background check requests on Black Friday, up roughly 20 percent over the same day last year. The requests...

Just a few hours after being re-elected, President Obama encouraged the United States to support new United Nations discussions on a global treaty regulating guns and the gun industry. Supporters of the treaty believe the talks collapsed in July due to the campaign and Obama’s fears that Romney could use it against him. Now that the President has four more years in office, the White House is ready for the discussions to begin again. “While everybody is saying, you know he’s going to compromise. He’s going to get together with the Democrats and the Republicans, he’s going to reach across...

WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association is using President Obama's favorable reference to the assault weapons ban as a pro-Mitt-Romney rallying cry to gun owners in swing states. During Tuesday night's second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., the president "gave law-abiding hunters, gun owners a preview of what to expect in a second Obama administration," said Andrew Arulanandam, NRA's director of public affairs. "He went straight out and supported a gun ban." Responding to an audience question on what he'd do to limit the availability of AK-47s and other military-style weapons, Obama started to give what appeared...

This bill would, commencing July 1, 2013, and with certain exceptions, prohibit any person from importing, making, selling, loaning, transferring, or possessing any conversion kit, as defined, designed solely and exclusively to convert certain firearms with a fixed magazine into firearms with the capacity to accept a detachable magazine and other features making the firearm an assault weapon and would make violations subject to criminal penalties. By creating new crimes, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The United Nations is putting the finishing touches on an Arms Trade Treaty that transcends borders and may even trample our Constitutional right to bear arms. Every indication is that the president will sign it. Like the New Start and Law of the Sea treaties before it, as well as the Kyoto Protocol and Agenda 21, the Arms Trade Treaty being finalized at the U.N. this month is one of those feel-good, can't-we-all-get-along pieces of parchment whose net effect is to accomplish little except to eat away at American sovereignty and freedom.

Dick Morris now on Fox. Morris says the UN Gun Ban Treaty is scheduled to be signed by Obama's U.S. ambassador to the UN on July 27. According to Morris, treaty will be rammed through by the lame duck Senate after the November election if the Democrats are still in charge. A treaty, of course, supercedes the U.S. Constitution. Interesting months ahead.

An analysis of trends in handgun manufacturing for domestic sales since implementation ofthe Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act. By Charles J Blankenship Pennsylvania --(Ammoland.com)- Introduction November 1998 was arguably the high Water mark for federal gun control in the US. It was then the FBI implemented the National Instant Criminal Background Cheek System [NlCS], a key provision ofthe Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993. [Brady Bi11]. The NICS is designed to prevent certain prospective purchasers with criminal backgrounds from obtaining firearms. The Brady Bill may have prevented some handgun violence because of the NICS checks but it did not...

In April, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the National Rifle Association was viewed favorably by 68% of Americans, and unfavorably by 32%. Unlike most polls, the Reuters poll apparently did not allow “unsure” or “undecided” as a choice. In each of the demographics which the poll provided–Republicans, Democrats, independents, whites, and blacks–the NRA was viewed favorably by at least 55%. A 2005 Gallup Poll had found a 60/34 favorable/unfavorable view of the NRA. Previous Gallup results were 52/39 (May 2000), 51/39 (April 2000), 51/40 (April 1999, right after the Columbine High School murders), 42/51 (June 1995), and 55/32 (March 1993)....

Across the river in Illinois, it's that time of year again--time for the push for extremist 'gun control' laws. Right on schedule, three were introduced yesterday. First, we have HB 1294. This bill would ban so-called "assault weapons," .50 caliber rifles and ammunition, and magazines capable of holding 11 or more rounds of ammunition. The ban extends to possessing, buying/selling, and manufacturing--so long to the tax revenue and good jobs provided by companies like Rock River Arms, Armalite, D.S Arms, and probably others. What's more, the law would be confiscatory: Provides that these provisions do not apply to a person...

Its called the open carry law, and its now the law in California - when it comes to handguns. Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill into law that bans 'unloaded handguns in public.' It went on the books on earlier this month. (January 1st.) With the new law, California residents can no longer carry an unloaded handgun in public. Now, Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino wants to expand that ban to rifles. Portantino says he wants another law because some California residents are now showing up in public with unloaded shotguns and rifles. So, he wants another law...

The Casper City Council has pulled the trigger on a proposed ordinance prohibiting carrying firearms in local government meetings, setting up a showdown with gun rights advocates. “The proposal we have, is that weapons, open carry weapons, be banned from government meetings,” said Casper Police Chief Chris Walsh to the council at its work session last week, adding later, “This just mirrors what was already set in place in state statute for concealed weapons.” The issue arose after last year’s legislature removed the requirement for a permit to carry a concealed weapon, though still prohibiting concealed guns at governmental meetings...

Virginia gun-rights group plans protests at two local universities Do you think guns should be banned from college campuses? Yes No It depends where the campus is located

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Georgia: Macon City Council Wants to Ban Your Guns   Monday, September 12, 2011   A blatant act of disregard for Georgia’s Constitution and its statewide firearms preemption law is underway, driven by Macon City Councilman Virgil Watkins.The Macon City Council Public Safety Committee is scheduled to meet this Thursday, September 15, at 4:00 p.m. to discuss a city-wide gun ban, based on language from a Cook County, Illinois proposed gun ban.  The proposed ordinance would ban the future sale and ownership of all semi-automatic firearms outlined in the ordinance and...

Officers accused of inaction as looting mobs go wild Cameron leads calls for more robust policing Top Yard commander: 'We need to do more for London' All able-bodied officers and special constables called in Plastic bullets would be used for first time 'if deemed necessary' Shopkeepers joined an increasing chorus of voices today demanding to know what the police were doing as swathes of London descended into chaos last night. Business owners accused police of adopting a softly-softly approach which left their shops and businesses vulnerable to attack by baying mobs. While police were criticised in some quarters for being...

Arizona gun-rights activists can rest easy. The possibility that Jared Lee Loughner’s insane rampage might lead to a successful assault on the Grand Canyon State’s libertarian gun laws is no where near the realm of possibility. As a matter of fact, the knee-jerk attempts to take advantage of the tragedy, to chip away at the solidly entrenched Arizona gun laws, came and went so quickly that most people hardly noticed. The smoke from Loughner’s Glock pistol had barely dissipated when the anti-Second Amendment crowd began seizing the moment to attack Arizona’s gun laws, at the same time lamenting the fact...

Cultists now in charge Gene Lyons Some years ago, I reported on a self-defense/gun-safety class mainly for women at Rice University. There had been several forcible rapes on the Houston, Texas, campus. Students had armed themselves. The instructor was an Army ROTC officer. A Vietnam combat veteran, he found the prospect of undergraduates packing heat unsettling, but reasoned that if they were arming themselves anyway, some training was better than none. Unlike many entrepreneurs teaching concealed-carry classes from sea to shining sea, he urged students to leave their guns at home. He stressed that he couldn’t turn them into infantry...

Reported by: Kelly Dudzik The Bryant police chief wants to ban people from firing BB and pellet guns, and using bows and arrows, in city limits. The chief tells FOX16 he got this idea when someone complained about a man shooting a Canadian goose with an arrow. Hurting a Canadian goose is already against federal law, but Chief Tony Coffman says he needs city council to pass a law in Bryant so no people get hurt. "It could go through a window, strike a kid or an adult, or put an eye out," says Coffman. Coffman says his proposed ban...

Medical journals are not always the objective, purely scientific publications we might think that they are. Their editors have increasingly strayed into politics at the expense of scientific accuracy. For example, the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has over the last few months published a number of extremely biased and poorly done studies on gun control. One of the articles, written by Garen Wintemute, Anthony Braga, and David Kennedy, makes the case for extending background checks to the private transfers of guns, arguing that “perhaps the principal reason for the well-documented failure of the Brady Act to lower rates...

Yesterday's wild shooting spree at the University of Texas fortunately ended without anyone being hurt before the gunman shot himself. Naturally, the incident has yet again raised the question over gun bans, such as the ban currently in effect at the University of Texas. Do they actually do more harm than good? Gun bans as the solution to gun violence has popped up again, covering different areas. It would have been nice if such bans had stopped criminals from using guns. But, alas, the results are invariably the same, whether the ban is put in place for college campuses, cities,...

The following is the opening paragraph in favor of rules that would outlaw lead in bullets & sinkers. This is directly from the EPA web site. "As provided in the Toxic Substances Control Act (“TSCA”), Petitioners American Bird Conservancy, Association of Avian Veterinarians, Center for Biological Diversity, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Project Gutpile request that the EPA adopt regulations prohibiting the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of lead shot, lead bullets, lead fishing sinkers, and other lead-containing fishing gear, pursuant to TSCA (15 U.S.C. § 2605(a)(2)(A)(i)). Such regulations are needed to protect vulnerable wildlife species from the...