Free Republic

Amongst all the chaos in Seattle during Friday’s May Day riot, a man was seen walking through the crowd wearing a tactical vest with an SKS rifle slung over his shoulder. Identified as Shayne Butts, he tells reporters “I’m here to ensure peoples’ civil rights get respected, just the basics, First Amendment right to peacefully assemble, to free speech… I don’t like communism, but these people have a right to free speech.” He says the chamber was empty, but there were rounds in the magazines.

We’re not saying these are necessarily the best posts or even the most popular, but they did receive the most page views in April. So in case you missed it, here are the most visited posts of April. Feel free to express your discontent below. We’ll file your comments appropriately.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) final report on death statistics for 2013 shows there were 35,369 deaths from motor vehicle accidents versus 505 deaths from the accidental discharge of firearms. That is not a typo—35,369 versus 505. Americans are 70 times more likely to die in a vehicle accident than by the accidental discharge of a firearm. Yet Michael Bloomberg, Moms Demand Action, and Everytown for Gun Safety have not uttered a peep about Ford, Dodge, or Toyota control. They are utterly consumed with a new gun control push framed around accidental firearm deaths.

Police are accusing a man of shooting the grandfather of a boy who bullied his daughter. According to Suffolk County Police, Anthony Franklin was upset that his 5-year-old daughter had her hair pulled by another student on a bus ride to school. On Tuesday, Franklin went to the North Amityville home of the boy he believed was involved and got into a fight with the grandfather of the boy. During the altercation, Franklin pulled out a gun and shot McWilliams twice, said Suffolk police. Franklin, 28, of North Amityville, was charged with second-degree assault. The suspect's fiance says this entire...

Gun control advocates introduced a bill in April that only gun control supporters could love. Connecticut Democrat Rep. Rosa DeLauro is so serious about getting so-called assault weapons off the street that she is offering $2,000 tax credits for each gun that people turning in limit one per year. According to her, assault weapons are not about hunting, or even self-defense. There is no reason on earth, other than to kill as many people as possible in as short a time as possible, that anyone needs a gun designed for a battlefield. She believes that offering $2,000 a gun will...

Hillary Clinton is no stranger to gun control. When she announced her run for the presidency two weeks ago I posted a little round-up of all the comments she has made on the record about her desire for things like mandatory registration, assault weapons bans, and that gun owners are potential terrorists. It seems that she is taking things a step further now, as her campaign has hired the Minnesota state director of the Michael Bloomberg funded gun control group “Everytown for Gun Safety” to manage her Minnesota campaign.

The majority of the art was collected by Gloria Giffords, former Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords mother, who says she hopes people will see the art as an inspiration.

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of speaking at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meetings in Nashville, Tennessee. During my speech, I made it clear that I am extremely pro-Second Amendment and that I would never allow anyone to tamper with that right. I understand that the Second Amendment is vitally important. Why do we have the Second Amendment? Our founders recognized that if our nation were ever invaded, we would be a much more formidable group of people and could help repel outside forces if the citizenry had the ability to aid the military. That seems...

This past Saturday Bloomberg’s Everytown representative, Ted Alcorn, insisted that he would not appear simultaneously with John Lott (the author of More Guns, Less Crime (University of Chicago Press) and the president of the Crime Prevention Research Center) on C-SPAN. Alcorn would only appear after Lott's segment was finished. Here is John Lott's discussion of Bloomberg's gun control advocates unwillingness to ever debate http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4535462 Here is Bloomberg’s Research Director’s explanation for why his organization won't ever debate. http://www.c-span.org/video/standalone/?c4535518 Acorn's explanation for why Bloomberg's groups refuse to debate is pretty embarrassing. Hopefully, these clips will get a lot of attention and...

The Phillips were not just grieving parents when they brought suit against Lucky Gunner, Sportsman's Guide, and the other defendants. They were paid employees of the Brady Campaign!

As the rioting grew fiercer in Baltimore following the funeral of Freddy Grey on Monday, the Obama administration issued statements vowing to end the violence. (snip) The readout also noted that Obama had spoken with Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. “The President highlighted the Administration’s commitment to provide assistance as needed and will continue to receive updates on the situation from Attorney General Lynch and White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett,” the White House explained, adding that Jarrett had spoken with Maryland Governor Larry Hogan earlier in the day. Jarrett also spoke with Democratic Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, from Baltimore,...

A challenge to Texas voter identification law will be heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Tuesday. A three judge panel that includes two Democratic appointees will hear the case. One of the judges is a federal district court judge from the Eastern District of Texas who is sitting by designation. The case is Marc Veasey, et al., Texas Association of Hispanic County Judges and County Commissioners v. Greg Abbott et al. (cause no. 14-41127). Breitbart Texas reported that on October 11, 2014, U. S. District Court Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos, a President Obama...

The University of Maryland, Baltimore and numerous downtown businesses closed early Monday, citing concerns about potentially violent activity in the area. Lexington Market, a city courthouse and businesses including T. Rowe Price and Venable LLP said police warned them of large gatherings and protests downtown. According to widely circulated flier, a high school "purge" was to take place at 3 p.m., starting at Mondawmin and ending downtown. Such memes have been known to circulate regularly, but today's has led to bolstered police presence around the city. The flier includes an image of protesters smashing the windshield of a police car...

Here’s an article, in where Dr. John R. Lott Jr., eviscerates Harvard Professor David Hemenway’s survey of cherry picked authors. That of course lead to the conclusion that guns are bad. It’s what these people do. No matter real credible research, and the longstanding Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is an obvious social utility of the people. I wonder why gun prohibitionists think the Second Amendment was created to begin with. It’s in the Bill of Rights. Even still, they love to refer to guns as if being deprived of arms, is some sort of benefit.

In September, Breitbart News reported that the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence joined with Sandy and Lonnie Phillips in suing Lucky Gunner and other firearm-related stores for selling ammunition and other supplies to alleged Aurora theater gunman, James Holmes. Holmes allegedly opened fire on movies-goers watching The Dark Knight Rises on July 20, 2012. In late March, Senior District Judge Richard Matsch threw out the suit and held that Lucky Gunner and the others “are entitled to an award of reasonable attorney fees and costs.”

My response was, “Always carry one in the chamber, not having one in does not compute with me.” My reason for saying this is easy, that is how I train. SFC Scarborough responded by stating that he does not feel safe with a round in the chamber, but that is how he trains. Now my thoughts are really trying to make sense of this, but then again, training prepares you for a serious encounter… right?

From C-SPAN: “John Lott talked about the new study put out by Pew Research Center which finds that support for gun rights have increased and, for the first time, protecting gun rights is more important than controlling ownership.” Lott was originally supposed to be on for an hour to discuss these issues with Ted Alcorn, the research director for Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown. But he would not appear at the same time and insisted that he be allowed to appear after me. This is from the end of Lott’s appearance on C-SPAN.

BELVIDERE—A Warren County family is suing the state's Division of Child Protection and Permanency for alleged unconstitutional home intrusion and civil rights violations. Christopher Zimmer and his wife Nicole, of Belvidere, filed a civil rights complaint in United States District Court in Trenton yesterday against DCP&P, a DCP&P supervisor and one of its case workers for an alleged "unlawful and unconstitutional home intrusion of their home." "I won't forget that morning for a long, long time," said Mr. Zimmer, thinking back to a Tuesday morning in January that began with a caseworker pounding on their door. .... Mr. Zimmer said...

The union looking to organize workers at Boeing's South Carolina plant has put its plans in a holding pattern, claiming workers are so opposed to signing up that they chased labor leaders off their porches at gunpoint. The North Charleston plant, which opened in the right-to-work state four years ago and builds fuselages for 747s and 787s, employs about 7,500 workers. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had been trying to build support for a vote this week on unionizing 3,175 production and maintenance workers, but called off the vote days before it was to happen.

Gun-control groups are gearing up for a Hillary Clinton campaign for president, saying the White House hopeful could prove a gigantic boon for their own policy devices. “As Hillary runs for president, she has a tremendous opportunity to educate the American public about how effective background checks are and the need to finish the job,” said Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, to the Hill.