Free Republic

An anti-gun group is using the shooting rampage Thursday at Fort Hood as an example in its campaign against pending gun rights legislation, drawing accusations of exploitation from a Republican senator. Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina is lashing out against the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, accusing the group of exploiting the deadly rampage to oppose his gun lobby backed bill -- which seeks to protect veterans' rights to gun ownership. In a statement issued Thursday, the group's president, Paul Helmke, said in light of what happened yesterday - a violent attack by an emotionally unstable soldier...

On December 6, 1989, a madman entered a Montreal University, segregated men and women in a classroom, and shot 14 women with a Ruger Mini 14. As the 20th anniversary of the shooting nears, Canadian gun control groups are frantically fighting the demise of the Canadian Long Gun Registry. It is set for a preliminary vote in the House of Commons today. If approved, a second final vote will be needed. The Firearms Registry Act was passed in 1995. Gun owners were required to obtain a permit by 2001. All guns had to be registered by 2003. The cost of...

Both past Attornies General, along with the current Republican nominee for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, have all opposed banning private sales of guns at gun shows while supporting repeal of the Virginia ban on concealed carry in restaurants serving alcohol. But not Democratic AG nominee Steve Shannon – this Northern Virginia lawyer is sticking to his gun control. . . . But what irks gun rights organizers the most is Shannon’s lack of any articulable policy rationale for his positions. “Insisting that we need to fix something that doesn’t exist does not stir gun owners to support candidates” said Philip...

Local gun shop owners say they're seeing an increase in the number of women shoppers right now. The reasons, they say, are many, including the downturn in the economy and violence on the street. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, about 48 percent of people taking their first handgun seminars this year happen to be women. CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports on the growing trend. "It's very dangerous out there. I mean, there's people getting robbed here and there," said Josie Santiago. "It's just for protection."

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. --...

The CDC has been trying to get into the business of gun control for many years. The U.S. House cut off funds to the CDC for that almost 13 years ago after complaints that the CDC was trying to get support from the public for gun control and the appearance of joining hands with gun control groups... The House believed then that the CDC should spend more time on preventing and controlling serious legitimate health issues such as infectious disease. Their mandate may be changing on their own initiative. What actually is infectious now is the public's fast and furious...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. The...

A majority of gun owners think President Obama wants to ban gun sales. A new Gallup poll shows 55 percent of those who own a gun, 53 percent who have a gun in the household, and 41 percent of all Americans believe he will attempt to ban the sale of guns while he is president. This concern is greater among Republicans and people living in the South and Midwest than among Democrats or those living on either coast. It also helps explain the sharp increases in sales of guns and ammunition. There are reports that U.S. bullet-makers are working around...

During my second term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, I received a call from then Speaker Thomas McGee to meet with him regarding legislative matters. He got to the point quickly. "There is a State House Library Board of Trustees comprised of members from various learning institutions and prestigious libraries. Members include the secretary of state or his designee, governor or his designee, director of JFK Library, state librarian and Haverhill library director and other archivists. Two of the seats on that board have been assigned to the Speaker and the Senate President or their designees. I have noticed...

For a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been forbidden by Congress from doing research on gun-control issues. Such piddling hurdles as federal law don't matter to the Obama administration. With a wave of a hand, the CDC has simply redefined gun-control research so the ban no longer applies. They're not researching guns; they're researching alcohol sales and their impact on gun violence, or researching how teens carrying guns affect the rates of non-gun injuries. "These particular grants do not address gun control; rather they deal with the surrounding web of circumstances," wrote National Institutes of Health...

Sales of guns and ammunition soared when Barack Obama became president because of fears that he and the Democratic-controlled Congress would pass anti-gun legislation, and that concern still shows up in a Gallup poll conducted Oct. 1-4. Forty-one percent of Americans believe Obama will try to ban the sale of guns while in office, according to the poll. While Gallup put the question in the framework of a ban on all guns, it notes that "Obama has never said, either on the campaign trail or after taking office, that he intends to push for a ban on the sale of...

As the U.S. Supreme Court makes its stately way into the new term, a case over the horizon promises to hit the 20,000 gun control laws in this country with the impact of a 9mm round. The prep work came last year in District of Columbia vs. Heller. A narrow 5-4 majority struck down the gun control law in the nation's capital, and for the moment settled an argument over just what the Second Amendment to the Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, actually means. The Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of...

As noted in “British gun control: Coming soon to a country near you? ” seven countries, led by the United Kingdom, are attempting to revive U.N. efforts to restrict imports and exports of small arms. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the United States would reverse Bush administration opposition to international small arms control, potentially paving the way for the British-led effort, which calls for a vote by the U.N. General Assembly by year’s end. The U.S. would support the “Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty” as long as it was conducted under rules of “consensus decision-making,” interpreted...

So, how did YOU shoot today? Getting ready for when TSHTF (The Sh!t hits the fan) and had another great time. I took my friend Ray with me, he's the one with all the hair and we popped off an even 600!! rounds of 9mm personal protection. My focus today was to work on target acquisition and then trying to squeeze off five controlled shots fairly quickly. See pics below to see the best two sets. Then, I worked on strong hand/strong eye, see the black target for one of those sets. Felt REAL good to put holes in that...

Thank Obama (lyrics) If you can't find a job Thank Obama If you can't pay the rent Thank Obama If you have to ‘poligize for the good ole USA Don't thank Bush, or Dick Cheney, Thank Obama If you're fraid of getting nuked Thank Obama If you can't afford to drive Thank Obama If they take away your guns And make you watch Karl Marx re-runs Don't thank Bush, or Dick Cheney Thank Obama Obama wants to dictate what you put in your belly Obama wants to tell you what to see on your telly He wants to be your...

Its been predicted for a long time that if anti- gun groups can't get your guns, then they will go after your ammunition. Governor Arnold Swartzenegger has done exactly that in signing a new law regulating ammunition sales. The ostensible goal is to track the bullets used in crimes. Criminals will find another way to get their bullets. It will be where they get their guns...on the street. This is another gun law that will only affect the honest individual. The Governor said just the week before that he would veto the new ammunition law, thus preventing organized opposition to...

USA TODAY IS TAKING A POLL ON 2ND AMENDMENT - GUN CONTROL Obama's new Attorney General, Eric Holder, has already said this is one of his major issues. This takes literally 2 clicks to complete. Please vote on this gun issue question with USA Today. It will only take a few seconds of your time. Then pass the link on to all the interested friends you know. Hopefully these results will be published later this month. This upcoming year will become critical for gun owners with the Supreme Court accepting the District of Columbia case against the right for individuals...

Sacramento, CA – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation that will help law enforcement officials track down and apprehend armed criminals and other prohibited persons. AB 962 by Assembly Member Kevin DeLeon (D-Los Angeles) had the support of law enforcement officials from across the state and was modeled after successful city ordinances, including the cities of Sacramento and Los Angeles. AB 962 was the Brady Campaign´s top priority bill in this year´s legislature. The law requires maintenance of purchaser records by handgun ammunition vendors. Local law enforcement can use these records to find illegal guns. "The purchase records will...

Forty-four percent favor stricter laws on firearm sales PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup finds a new low of 44% of Americans saying the laws covering firearm sales should be made more strict. That is down 5 points in the last year and 34 points from the high of 78% recorded the first time the question was asked, in 1990.Today, Americans are as likely to say the laws governing gun sales should be kept as they are now (43%) as to say they should be made more strict. Until this year, Gallup had always found a significantly higher percentage advocating stricter laws....

Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said. Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said. more at http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/10/gun-toting_soccer_mom_is_shot.html

Michael Bloomberg hired undercover investigators who traveled to 7 gun shows in Tennessee, Ohio, and Nevada to secretly videotape firearm purchases. Bloomberg says that the sales were illegal. These investigators had audio recorders in their watches and video cameras in their caps. They would negotiate a gun purchase and tell the seller that they likely couldn't pass the instant check. The guns were sold anyway in 19 of 30 purchase attempts. 11 sellers knew the current state of the law. He also complains that these states have not closed the "Gun Show Loophole." Occasional gun sellers can sell guns. Even...

Gun Control: The Supreme Court agrees to decide if the Second Amendment applies to all of us, or just Washington, D.C. Why would the Founders put in the Bill of Rights something applying only to a federal enclave? In a 5-4 decision last year written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court overturned a draconian District of Columbia gun ban enacted 32 years ago that barred private ownership of handguns at all. Scalia wrote that an individual's right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted. The court ruled that...

In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. ~snip~ “This study helps resolve the long-standing debate about whether guns are protective or perilous,” notes study author Charles C. Branas, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology. “Will possessing a firearm always safeguard against harm or will it promote a false sense of security?” What Penn researchers found was alarming – almost five Philadelphians were shot every day over the course of the study and about 1 of these...

Charles Babington of the Associated Press reported yesterday about the Senate Democratic leadership's latest sleazy maneuver to pass the anti-gun health care bill. And this is contemptible even by their admittedly low standards: White House and Democratic officials are quietly talking with key senators, hoping to craft a thread-the-needle strategy on health care with little or no help from Republicans. The officials are asking a handful of moderate Democrats to do something that might be hard to explain to voters: Cast a Senate vote that could be interpreted as favoring a bill that the lawmakers ultimately plan to oppose on...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to decide whether strict local and state gun control laws violate the Second Amendment, ensuring another high-profile battle over the rights of gun owners. The court said it will review a lower court ruling that upheld a handgun ban in Chicago. Gun rights supporters challenged gun laws in Chicago and some suburbs immediately following the high court's decision in June 2008 that struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia, a federal enclave. The new case tests whether last year's ruling applies as well to local and state laws. The 7th...

Sometimes the National Rifle Association needs to know when it’s time to lighten up. It pains us to say that, because the NRA has fought hard to keep the state and federal governments from denying responsible, law-abiding Americans from possessing and enjoying guns. But the organization jerked the trigger recently when it targeted Easthampton Mayor Michael A. Tautznik and other Western Massachusetts mayors because they had the temerity to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national organization that works to deny irresponsible and criminal citizens from getting their hands on guns. It would take the logical skills of Aristotle to...

The UN General Assembly has been in session, and if typical of them, nasty things are probably in store for American gun owners as a result. The Citizen's Committee For The Right To Keep and Bear Arms (CCKRBA), in a recent mailing, said that The UN is still actively pursuing the guns you own, and the ones you want to buy. Don't count out associated non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as The International Network On Small Arms (IANSA.) IANSA's Rebecca Peters was largely responsible for the disarming of Australians and the associated increase in violent crimes there as a result of...

When the Supreme Court struck down Washington, D.C.’s city-wide gun ban as unconstitutional in the D.C. v. Heller decision of June 2008, it seemed axiomatic that similar gun bans around the country would crumble under the weight of unconstitutionality as well. However, more than a year after the Heller decision, the D.C. city council is making it as difficult as possible to get a gun permit in the nation’s capital, Chicago’s Mayor Daley is fighting to keep his city’s total handgun ban in place, and other mayors, like Seattle’s Greg Nickels, threaten to institute gun bans every time a newsworthy...

Associated Press press story, please go to link.

Video Presentation Use the comment section on each of the videos if you have an opinion. THE SECOND - The Legislation. Under STORIES. Propaganda piece for the Brady bunch and CCAGV. Note reference to upcoming legislation. On the DATA page you may have to Right Click to open.

If you live/vote in California, and have not yet contacted the Governor about this wrong-headed bill (AB962), please do so right away! The bill is now on his desk for action. I received this below in email from Cabela's today... (...and had previously received a similar warning from the NRA, and several other sources, on the same topic. I hope you have, too, but if not, here it is.) If you know of others who would be similarly concerned, please also alert them to this, soonest. (If you want more information, just type AB962 into your favorite search engine, to...

DELAWARE, OH - As a growing number of mayors in Ohio and around the country resign from Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control group, new evidence suggests some of their names have been added to the member list and used to promote Bloomberg's political agenda without their knowledge or permission. "Mayor Robert Shiner" (Mentor, OH) was listed in a letter from MAIG to Congress in June 2009 opposing reforms to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE), as well as in a full page advertisement opposing nationwide reciprocity of concealed handgun licenses....

What don’t you understand about gun control? When thinking about this subject, two words come to mind that relate to our condition or position on the subject of gun control. Some of us fall into one category, and others may slip into the other. Unfortunately, most of what we think of and how we behave as the average American certainly falls into one of these categories. I believe that we are very fortunate to live in the best of times, in the best country and finest society that has ever existed since time began. But I also believe that it’s...

Annie Le was a Yale University PhD student who was recently found dead in a campus building, found the same day she was supposed to get married. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549765,00.html Several months before her untimely death, she wrote an article about avoiding/dealing with crime on the campus after interviewing the Chief of police in town. http://bbs.yale.edu/images/B10_1.pdf In this piece, several tips are given by the Chief, but none could realistically help someone Annie Le's size (4' 11" and 90 pounds) against an attacker. Simply unrealistic. Once again, the officials ignore the elephant in the room; namely, that guns are often the best...

K. Weapons and explosives The possession or use of explosives, incendiary materials, or weapons (weapons include, but are not limited to, guns, firearms, shotguns, rifles, air rifles, paintball and pellet guns, BB guns, Tasers, and knives) by any Yale student, which is absolutely prohibited on campus, in areas surrounding the campus, or in off-campus housing. Students participating in club sports or in any other recreational or sporting activities involving the use of firearms must adhere to this prohibition and to the protocols established by the University with respect to the possession, use, storage, and transportation of any firearms (see Club...

It seems that in many people, a lifetime of bombardment by anti-gun messages and sentiment leads to a sort of suspension of reality when considering gun issues. The indoctrination into the gun control agenda requires a leap of faith and a refusal to consider the issue in any depth beyond parroting back emotion based arguments. An article in a student-run blog I read this morning clearly demonstrates the level of psychological denial required to accept those arguments at face value. This article raved about another student article being given a new "award" from the Austin Chronicle for "Best Way to...

Chapter titled "Guns, God and More" - pp. 219-222. Sunstein states his view that the 2nd Amendment does not guarantee an individual right to keep and bear arms.

Just like federal gun control schemes, federal health control schemes can be attacked on constitutional grounds. There are two lines of attack. First, federal action can be attacked as violating individual rights. Federal gun control schemes have been successfully attacked as violating the individual right to keep and bear arms. In District of Columbia v. Heller the U.S. Supreme Court struck down DC's handgun ban and inflexible trigger lock law. Subsequently at least two federal judges have that under the Second Amendment, "federal laws depriving persons who are merely accused of certain crimes of the right to legal possession of...

A weapons plank in a raft of G-20 Summit legislation moving through Pittsburgh City Council drew fire from gun rights advocates yesterday, prompting the National Rifle Association to consider yanking its 2011 annual meeting from the city. The proposed ordinance would allow police to cite people for carrying a variety of items, from rotten eggs to 37 types of guns, if police perceive an intent to defy their orders. "This is the inevitable encroachment of government in areas where they've been proscribed from doing that," said Kim Stolfer, legislative committee chairman for the Allegheny County Sportsmen's League. His group will...

Many media outlets have misfired about guns. Countless newspapers and television networks -- from CBS to MSNBC -- have misreported that conservative protesters are threatening President Obama with guns at public events. It hasn't happened. In Portsmouth, N.H., a man carrying a gun, William Kostric, joined an Aug. 11 health care protest. This was blocks away and hours before Mr. Obama's town-hall meeting in that city. Mr. Kostric was given permission to be on church property where the protest occurred and was not at the place the president visited. What most of the coverage left out was that Mr. Kostric...

17 year old pulls a gun on a 32 year old man in an armed robbery attempt. 32 year old victim has a MCPL (Michigan Concealed Pistol License) and responds accordingly. 17 year old thug gets the surprise of his life as he ends up critically injured. See The Link Above for the Complete Story

Great Britain has long been held as the shining example of what can be accomplished via gun control. Handgun ownership is all but unheard of and rifles and shotguns are tightly controlled and citizens require a "good reason" to be issued a permit to own one. Historically, self-defense has not been considered a good enough reason. Now, the Daily Mail reports that while law abiding citizens have been nearly universally disarmed, the criminals have not and flaunt their power. According to the Mail, "the level of violent crime in Britain has risen by 70 per cent. Gun crime is up...

California Legislature to Consider Anti-Gun Bills Very Soon Please Contact Your State Legislators Immediately! As we have reported, there are two very serious anti-gun bills pending action in Sacramento. These bills could be heard as early as Thursday so it is critical that your contact your legislators in opposition. Assembly Bill 962 is currently awaiting action in the Senate. Sponsored by Assembly Member Kevin De Leon (D-45), AB962 would make it a crime to privately transfer more than 50 rounds of ammunition per month, even between family and friends, unless you are registered as a “handgun ammunition vendor” in the...

It's called the Ammunition Accountability Act (AAA). You've got to love the name. It sounds so noble. But remember the great gun writer, Mel Tappan's, universal rule of law: "The nobler the language, the more nefarious the purpose of any legal instrument."

In the often heard cry, "Its a return to the Wild West," the Rev. Jackson has blasted the open carry of firearms in states where it is legal at places where public officials are present. Several people carried firearms, including a shoulder slung AR 15 in the open at a non-secure area where Obama was speaking recently. The good reverend, in a statement to an Arkansas TV station yesterday, said that the people who had guns, "...were responding to calls by a right-wing radio host who sought to organize people with guns near the president to make a political point."...

President Obama's call for the Senate to ratify a hemispheric small-firearms treaty dominated his last visit to Mexico, but in the four months since, both the treaty pledge and the drug violence that prompted it have dropped off the radar - a victim of Congress' full schedule and gun politics. That means on Sunday Mr. Obama will go with an empty hand to Mexico, which blames the U.S. for many of the weapons used by drug cartels that have violently thwarted a crackdown by Mexican authorities. Both Mexican and Canadian officials bring to the meeting concerns that the U.S. is...

North Carolina State Senator R.C. Soles, 74, the longest-serving lawmaker in the General Assembly, shot a home invader as he tried to break into his home Sunday. He shot 22-year-old Thomas Kyle Blackburn in the leg as Blackburn and another man allegedly tried to break down his door. They apparently were both legal clients of the senator. The Senator, who has made a career of being against gun rights for you and me, didn't hesitate to defend himself with his own gun when he believed he was in immediate danger, and was the victim of a crime against himself. In...

Critic: Officials in capital city still not getting 2nd The District of Columbia, where government restrictions prompted the landmark Heller decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court found individuals have a right to be armed, still doesn't understand the Second Amendment, according to a new lawsuit.

In Portsmouth, New Hampshire recently, a man carried a handgun a few blocks away from the site where President Obama was scheduled to hold a town hall a couple of hours later. Was it a danger or not? The man carrying the gun, William Kostric, even had permission to have the gun on private church property while he was protesting Obama's appearance. Everybody from the New York Times to USA Today to CBS News expressed their outrage, interpreting it as a hot head threatening the president and linking it to militias and conservative talk radio. A prominent liberal radio talk...

This time, he didn't catch a pass. In a surprise move, former Giants superstar Plaxico Burress pleaded guilty today to attempted gun possession -- agreeing to a two-year prison term rather than face a guaranteed higher sentence if convicted at trial. VACCARO: PLAXICO RECEIVED THE EVERY-MAN TREATMENT The time behind bars -- which will work out to 20 months with good behavior -- is his penance for accidently shooting himself in the thigh with his own Glock at a crowded Midtown nightclub last November.