Free Republic

According to The Korea Times, the Obama administration has blocked efforts by the South Korean government to sell over a hundred thousand surplus M1 Garand and Carbine rifles into the United States market. These self-loading were rifles introduced in 1926 and 1941. As rifles, they are especially well-suited to community defense in an emergency, as in the cases of community defense following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Along with AR-15 type rifles, the M1 rifles are the quintessential firearms of responsible citizenship, precisely the type of firearms which civic responsibility organizations such as the Appleseed Project...

If Obama Imposes the U.N. Gun Ban On America, Which Would Dissolve Our Bill Of Rights And Orders Gun Confiscation What Will You Do?The new United Nations Treaty is being designed to disarm citizens of each nation that signs. The treaty will give all governments a free hand to do as they please. It is making headway in Washington D.C. and it is feared that President Obama may very well try to use the treaty to consolidate his power in America. The treaty specifics are now being negotiated and Obama has given the OK For the U.S. to be a...

While perusing a website whose name shall not be mentioned, I came across this article. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Chicago, IL --(Ammoland.com)- The City of Chicago released its roster of “unsafe handguns” that cannot be legally possessed in the City because they cannot be registered with the police as one part of obtaining a license to possess a gun, as required under the City’s new gun laws. But the list is not limited to hand guns as the law is so vague it can be interpreted as to apply to all guns made by a...

As always, gun control proponents say they merely want "reasonable" gun control laws. Yet, when listing the actual laws they favor, they go well beyond what most people would possibly consider "reasonable." Just look at the gun bans in Chicago and Washington, D.C. that local politicians and gun control organizations such as the Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center have fought to protect. Last Friday, just days after the Supreme Court struck down Chicago's handgun ban, Chicago enacted strict new gun control laws. These new restrictions surely do not seem "reasonable" but rather intended to make life as difficult...

Second Amendment: In the "living Constitution" era, the Supreme Court rediscovers original intent and rightly rules that the right to bear arms applies to all Americans just as the rest of the Bill of Rights does. It's hard to conceive how the justices could have decided otherwise. But by the narrowest of margins — 5-4 — they have reaffirmed that keeping and bearing arms is an inalienable and individual right like speech and religion, and that it applies to all individuals as the Founding Fathers intended. Why anyone thinks the Second Amendment does not apply to all Americans is a...

CHICAGO (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) — Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL) released the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the City of Chicago’s handgun ban. Earlier this year, Quigley spearheaded the effort of 55 Members of Congress in filing a “friend of the court” amicus brief, urging the Court to allow Chicago’s handgun ban to stand. Quigley also supports the right of state and local governments to maintain sensible restrictions on gun possession and use. “I am disappointed and disheartened by the Supreme Court’s decision today. When illegal guns flood our streets, precious lives are lost and communities are...

Second Amendment: Chicago is deciding whether to prosecute a great-grandfather and Korean War veteran under its handgun ban. He refused to be a victim, and now there's one less armed thug roaming the streets. What's the problem? If the 80-year-old vet living on the city's West Side didn't have the gun the city said he shouldn't have, he and his 83-year-old wife and 12-year-old great-grandson might have joined those victims of gun violence about whom gun-control advocates constantly chirp. The vet obtained the gun in violation of the city's handgun ban after a prior incident in which the couple was...

The Chicago gun debate finally shows signs of changing. With the Supreme Court’s decision on the city’s gun ban imminent, people might be beginning to understand that gun bans don’t stop criminals from getting guns. At a press conference two weeks ago, Mick Dumke, a reporter from the liberal Chicago Reader, asked Mayor Richard Daley what should have been an obvious question: “Since guns are readily available in Chicago even with a ban in place, do you really think it’s been effective?” Daley’s response wasn’t very helpful. Picking up a very old rifle with a bayonet that had been turned...

Gun Rights: Not happy with interfering in our internal affairs by savaging Arizona's new immigration law, the president of Mexico wants to shred our Second Amendment too. And the mayor of Chicago wants to help. There stood Mexican President Felipe Calderon before Congress, blaming America for the violence on his side of the border and, among other things, the guns that fuel the Mexican drug war that has claimed more than 23,000 Mexican lives since he took office in 2006. Rather than taking responsibility himself, he shoved the blame on America. It would all stop, he implied, if America would...

On Thursday, Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico, where prohibitive gun laws prevent good people from having firearms for protection against criminals and governments of dubious legitimacy (historically the norm in Mexico), encouraged Congress to reinstate the federal "assault weapon" ban. With a warning seemingly designed to appeal to those who believe that speaking out against the Obama Administration's policies are one step short of sedition or worse, Calderon said, "[I]f you do not regulate the sale of these weapons in the right way, nothing guarantees that criminals here in the United States with access to the same power of...

In a speech to a joint session of Congress, Calderon described efforts to fight organized crime in Mexico, where 23,000 people have been killed in drug violence since he came to power in late 2006 and launched an army offensive. Washington is also aiding Mexico's battle against drug gangs with a 2007 pledge of $1.4 billion for equipment and police training to help fight the cartels that ship some $40 billion worth of illegal drugs north each year. "There is one issue where Mexico needs your cooperation. And that is stopping the flow of assault weapons and other deadly arms...

Within the next five weeks the United States Supreme Court will rule on a challenge to Chicago's 28-year-old ban on handguns. It's believed the court will rule that the law is unconstitutional. ABC 7's Paul Meincke talked with Mayor Richard Daley about what the city might do next. Conventional wisdom is that the handgun ban will not pass constitutional muster. Mindful of that, the city has been -- for some time now -- formulating plans on what it does next. The mayor says there are plans in place still being refined. But a strong hint of what Chicago will do...

Starbucks Coffee shops recently told liberalnazis and socialist moon bats throughout America to blow it out their noses when confronted over not banning firearms in its stores. Gun control activists have quietly been going door to door in major city businesses demanding that they make their stores gun free. Those that do not comply face threats of boycotts and harassment buy the gun grabbing haters. This is an easy task in liberal cities or concerning companies run by leftists such as those in California. California Pizza Kitchen and Peet's Coffee and Tea are two companies that have changed their rules...

The Supremes are considering another 2nd amendment case which might have far reaching consequences (in a good way) on this particular battle front. George Will has a good column this week which takes a look at the history of the fight and what the implications of McDonald v Chicago might be. It probably will result in a routine ruling that extends a 2008 decision and renders dubious many state and local gun-control laws. What could — but, judging from the justices’ remarks during oral argument, probably will not — make the ruling momentous would be the court deciding that the...

I am dismayed that the City of Chicago's ban on handguns may be overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. The second amendment to the Bill of Rights reads as follows: 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. The amendment talks about a well-regulated militia and thus, it would seem that the right to bear arms is directly related to a militia. In other words, those serving in a militia - or in the present - a branch of the Armed...

Otis McDonald, 76, stands before the Supreme Court, which Tuesday heard arguments in his suit to overturn Chicago's handgun ban Gun Rights: Otis McDonald, 76, an Army vet who lives in a high-crime area of Chicago, thinks the Constitution gives him the right to bear arms to protect himself and his wife as he protected his country. We think so too. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on behalf of four Chicago residents led by homeowner McDonald, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Illinois State Rifle Association to overturn Chicago's three-decade-old ban on owning handguns. In a 5-4...

In the 2008 “Heller” decision, the Supreme Court struck down Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban and gunlock requirements. Unsurprisingly, gun control advocates predicted disaster. They were wrong. What actually happened in our nation’s capital after the Heller decision ought to be remembered tomorrow as the Supreme Court hears a similar constitutional challenge to the Chicago handgun ban. When the Heller case was decided, Washington’s Mayor Adrian Fenty warned: "More handguns in the District of Columbia will only lead to more handgun violence." Knowing that Chicago's gun laws would soon face a similar legal challenge, Mayor Richard Daley was particularly vocal. The...

The Colorado State University Board of Governors voted unanimously Tuesday to place students at both of its campuses in harm’s way with a sweeping weapons ban law-abiding citizens will obey and criminals will ignore. Larimer County Sheriff James Alderden, outraged by the ban, told The Gazette’s opinion department he will undermine it in the interest of student safety. CSU-Fort Collins Police Chief Wendy Rich-Goldsmith, a relative newcomer to the campus, supports the ban. “I have told the CSU police chief I will not support this in any way,” Sheriff Alderden told The Gazette. “If anyone with one of my permits...

Senator wants to ban semi-automatic weapons      By HEATHER BOSCH KIRO Radio  Expect to hear a lot about gun control when the legislature reconvenes in January. Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles is among those who want to ban the sale of military-style, semi-automatic weapons. "These are guns that I don't see have any function in our society." Kohl-Welles said she was prompted to act after the murder of Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton. "He was believed to be killed by a semi-automatic assault weapon. Of course, we also had the killing of several other police officers not by assault weapons....