Free Republic

An armed citizen stopped a deadly knife attack with a warning shot.  Under the new law, that went into effect a few days ago, he can be certain that he will not be charged. Specifically, the new bill is the "Threatened Use of Force" bill, which was passed by legislators after scrutiny of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law.   That scrutiny  revealed that prosecutors were using the mandatory sentencing law to pressure people who believed they had acted in self defense, to plead out instead of going to trial.  A wide variety of groups, from the Unified Sportsmen of...

In what may come as a surprise to residents of Colorado Springs and Pueblo, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t think those cities have roads. Bloomberg told Rolling Stone that he was “sorry” about the recalls of two state senators last year over the Democratic state legislature’s gun-control laws, but added that their districts were so “rural” that, “I don’t think there’s roads.” “In Colorado, we got a law passed. The NRA went after two or three state senators in a part of Colorado where I don’t think there’s roads,” said Bloomberg in the interview published online Wednesday....

Between girls hunting big game to feed starving children in Africa to mothers bearing arms and Bibles on social media, America either needs another birth control issue or an exorcist to stop the head spinning of the most illiberal liberals among us. Conservatives are quick to distinguish a Christian supporter of the Second Amendment (in this case, Holly Hobby Lobby) from a jihadist: …[this] “dangerous strand of Christian fundamentalism” is so extraordinarily “dangerous” that it has not only failed to engender any “real violence” but it can’t even bring itself to threaten harm?

“Gun Owners of America [has] blasted the bill as a ‘fake pro-gun bill designed to re-elect endangered anti-gun [Senators] up in 2014 in pro-gun states.’” -- Roll Call, July 9, 2014 Earlier today, the “Harry Reid Preservation Act,” S. 2363, went down to defeat, as pro-gun Senators successfully filibustered the bill by a vote of 56-41. As you know, S. 2363 was a “nothing-burger bill” which existed solely to elect anti-gun Democrats in Red States. This includes Senators like sponsor Kay Hagan (D-NC) -- pluscosponsors such as Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mark Udall (D-CO), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Al...

Jasmine Curry, a mother of five and five months pregnant, lay dead along Chicago’s Dan Ryan expressway Wednesday morning, the latest victim in Chicago’s epidemic of gunfire with a bullet to the head. It was uncommon that she was shot on the expressway, not uncommon that someone from her neighborhood was killed. In fact, Jasmine was not even the first person in her family to be gunned down. The gangland vendettas raged on the South and West Sides of Chicago over the holiday weekend. Thirteen people were killed, another 58 wounded as the bullets flew. Police were fired on and...

Twenty years before he killed a cap on magazine rounds, the Republican entered politics explicitly to fight for an assault-weapons ban and bullet limit. A gun control bill landed on New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s desk on July 2, the same day that two parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, took to the Trenton State House to try to convince him to sign it. When Christie vetoed the bill instead—not even blinking at the pleas from the victims’ families—he sent a message to conservatives and gun-rights groups that he is still a...

Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg scoffed at rural Colorado’s reaction to gun control during an interview with Rolling Stone in this month’s magazine, suggesting that only the parts of the country without even the most basic components of civilization would be opposed to more gun control. Bloomberg was asked about the successful recall races of Democratic State Senators in response to the strict gun control legislation passed in the state. “The NRA went after two or three state Senators in a part of Colorado where I don't think there's roads. It's as far rural as you can get,” he said. ......

"If the mayor’s not going to provide security....get yourself some firearms because you’re going to have to protect yourselves" . John Rivera, president of the Miami-Dade Police Benevolent Association, has warned Florida residents to arm themselves because the police are not coming. Speaking to WSVN News, Rivera said, “If the mayor’s not going to provide security, then my recommendation, as an experienced law enforcement officer for nearly 40 years, is either buy yourself an attack dog, put bars on your windows and doors and get yourself some firearms because you’re going to have to protect yourselves.”

A study released by the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC) shows the murder and violent crime rate has fallen significantly while concealed carry in this country surged 130 percent. According to the CPRC, concealed carry permit holders in the U.S. rose from 4.6 million in 2007 to 11.1 million during the time period of 2007 to 2013. And during that span, as more Americans got permits to carry guns with them for self-defense, the murder rate fell from "5.6 to 4.4 per 100,000." This is a 22 percent drop. "Overall violent crime also fell by 22 percent over that period...

The marketing expertise of Moms Demand Action has created a media campaign to demonize the open carry of long guns, especially in Texas.   Shannon Watts, who heads MDA is a longtime professional at creating media campaigns:  She is not just Suzy Homemaker or some low-grade employee at a small company but a heavy Public relations hitter, savvy on the ways of media manipulation and making her clients look good. Basically she “grows” astroturf for a living. Open carry activism in Texas has become so effective that both Governor candidates have endorsed the legalization of the open carry of handguns,...

As I followed the story of the Idaho legislature making the carrying of guns on campus legal for a small subset of students that were highly trained, it was shocking to see how much silly disinformation was published in an attempt to railroad the legislators into voting against the measure.   Everything was thrown at them, from the usual "blood in the streets" fallacies, to smears of adult students as irresponsible drunks, to a highly inventive notion that Idaho campuses would lose funding for nuclear research reactors.  One educator asked when he would be able to shoot students, in a...

This legislation is pretty scary. In Massachusetts you have to have either a License To Carry or a Firearms Identification Card to own a firearm. The H.4121 legislation would make the issuance of both of those items totally discretionary. The police chief can deny your request and simply declare you "unsuitable" for any arbitrary reason. If they can get this to pass, then plan on seeing the same approach attempted in other states. How Massachusetts H.4121 Would Abolish The Second Amendment

Full title: The real reason gun control is failing. Americans are still OK with guns, and until we can change that, Michael Bloomberg's millions won't mean a thing But there is no such thing as a neutral position on guns, because there is no such thing as a neutral gun. Guns have one purpose: to kill things. They are no more neutral than a poison. Guns are not objects, and I doubt we can change the way our country deals with them by thinking of guns as merely potentially dangerous things that need to be regulated, no different than unstable...

A furniture store in Takoma Park, Maryland that calls itself a “Weapons Free Environment” took its policy a bit too far on Independence Day. That’s when a loss prevention officer at IKEA approached Alan Goldberg, who carried a visible, holstered firearm into the store, telling him he would have to leave the premises or place the weapon in his vehicle, according to NBC Washington. The request caught Goldberg off guard: he is Takoma Park’s chief of police, and he was in uniform during his visit.

Photo of Crime Scene It is not often that you read of homicides in Japan that involve firearms.   Firearms are tightly controlled; Japanese are some of the most law abiding people on the planet; and firearms have never been widely available. It is not surprising that when such a homicide occurs, it involves foreigners.  In this case, a Chinese man appears to be the perpetrator and a Chinese woman the victim.   The article assumes that the victim was married to the man, but the police had not identified her.   From japantimes.co: The pair reportedly started to quarrel after entering...

Chicago's police superintendent lashed out at what he called lax state and federal gun laws after a violent Fourth of July weekend that saw more than 60 people shot and nine killed in a city already known for frequent shootings. "There has to come a tipping point where this changes," Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy said Monday of the violence. "The illogical nature of what's happening here -- that government can intercede and prevent this from happening is overwhelming. And I refuse to think otherwise in a great country like America that we can continue to allow this to happen...

On 1 July, 2014, Judge Jon Beetem dismissed the lawsuit against placing the constitutional right to keep and bear arms on the August 6th primary ballot. Other states that have placed similar measures before the public have seen overwhelming support for them, often with majorities over 74%.   Wisconsin passed such a measure in 1998 with 74% of the vote.   Kansas passed their amendment with 88% of the vote in 2010.  Louisiana did the same with 74% of the vote in 2012.    Oklahoma has a similar measure on the ballot for this November.   It seems likely that Democrat Governor Nixon...

Joe Scarborough on Tuesday slammed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s refusal to meet with the parents of the Sandy Hook shooting, calling his defense one of the “stupidest arguments” he’s ever heard. The Republican governor declined to meet with the families of children who were killed in the December 2012 shooting at Connecticut’s Sandy Hook Elementary School, who wanted to discuss gun control legislation. Christie last week vetoed a state bill that would have banned ammunition magazines that held more than ten rounds. The governor said that it would have been “really hypocritical” to meet with the families who wanted...

On July 7, CNN's John King told the Associated Press's Julie Pace that Michael Bloomberg's Everytown for Gun Safety has demonstrated "no influence" in the coming November elections.

Vice president Joe Biden has disparaged gun-rights advocates as “tea baggers,” CNN host John Walsh told reporters today. ... ‘They’re all scared sh*tless of the NRA, aren’t they?’” (said John Walsh) “‘John, every one of them,’” the vice president replied, according to Walsh. “‘Because the NRA will run a tea-bagger against you. . . . They’ll put 5 million bucks against you.’”