Free Republic

When gun rights advocates point out that the firearms-related murders are “epidemic” in a city with some of America’s strictest gun control laws (Chicago), advocates of civilian disarmament maintain that gun control isn’t the problem. It’s the answer! Well it would be if it weren’t for those meddling kids lax gun laws in surrounding states. But the same token, how do Islamic terrorists in Paris kill dozens of innocents with AKs in an entire country with “common sense gun laws”? “The answer,” dailybeast.com scribe David Axe writes . . .

Gun crime plummets as gun sales rise…

Deb Howard of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America spoke to a packed room at South Church on Sunday afternoon. She was invited by Valerie Fagin, one of the social justice associates of South Church, who introduced Howard. “Since the Newtown (Connecticut) shootings three years ago, I’ve wanted to do something,” Fagin said. The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting occurred on Dec. 14, 2012, in Newtown when 20-year-old Adam Lanza fatally shot 20 children and six adult staff members. “We know what to do, but we’re not getting it done,” said Howard of North Hampton and a mother...

Nov. 16, 2015 | 06:12 PM Norway postpones disarming of police after Paris attacks Agence France Presse OSLO: Norway's police, who were to stop wearing their service weapons this week, will remain armed until December 1 because of the Paris attacks, Norwegian authorities said Monday. The country's 6,000 uniformed officers have been exceptionally authorized to wear their firearms on their belts since November 2014 due to a heightened threat of Islamist attacks. In ordinary circumstances, police keep their firearms locked in their patrol cars. Last week, just hours before the Paris attacks, Norway's police chief had announced they would be...

More modern samizdat art from the new media.  This poster succinctly portrays the disarmist strategy of disarmament by a thousand cuts, or incremental confiscation. The strategy worked in England and Wales (and one could argue, medieval Japan), but it is not working in the United States. The premise is to make guns costly and difficult or impossible to use without severe legal impediments.  This is supposed to lead to reduced levels of gun ownership.  When gun ownership drops to the point where it becomes politically ineffective, then wide scale confiscation becomes possible. Until that point, incremental confiscation is the...

If only France had sensible gun control laws, the Paris attacks of November 13th would not have happened. Okay, everyone knows that isn't true. France has gone way beyond “sensible” gun control laws and has, for all practical purposes, banned civilian ownership of firearms. It didn’t stop last week's surreal carnage—and it won't stop the next attack either. Freelance reporter David Axe explained on the Daily Beast how fully automatic rifles have come to contaminate la République française. He traces them back to the Russian government which he says readily supplied Kalashnikov rifles to its Slavic allies during the Balkan...

Gun sales are at record levels.  In the last six months, gun sales, as reflected by the National Instant Check system, have hit record highs for each of the six months.  It is almost certain that 2015 will be the highest year on record for private gun sales in the United States.  But when national polls ask how many households own guns, the numbers appear to be the same or dropping.  How do we reconcile this seeming contradiction?  The answer is likely in a Zogby Analytic question asked in February of 2015.  From prnewswire.com: QUESTION: "If a national pollster...

Last weekend I took my 9-year-old on a mother-daughter date to Fashion Place Mall. As we sat in the crowded food court enjoying an ice cream, two white men in their early 20s walked by our table, each wearing jeans, a tucked-in T-shirts and a prominently displayed gun in its holster. The men walked slowly and seemed to enjoy the fact that people in the food court were visibly alarmed by their conspicuous exhibition of weapons. My immediate response was fear for my and my daughter's lives. We have all seen the tragedies in the news. We've heard how these...

As France and the rest of the world comes to grips with Friday night's horrific terrorist attacks in and around Paris that claimed at least 129 lives, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is blaming tough gun control laws in France for the dimensions of the tragedy. At a rally in southeast Texas Saturday afternoon, Trump told the crowd "nobody had guns but the bad guys." "You can say what you want, but if they had guns -- if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry -- it would have been a much, much different situation," Trump said,...

The Paris attacks that killed at least 128 people on Saturday night will put renewed pressure on Europe Schengen agreement and threaten the “very essence” of the European way of life, as far-right parties seek to capitalise on the attacks, analysts have warned. With Paris now enduring this second major terror bloodbath in under a year, questions are now being asked about how much longer both Europe’s open border system and vision of a tolerant, multi-cultural society can survive. “With Paris in lockdown and France closing its borders, we can see all too clearly that what is at stake here...

The right of self-defense is a HUMAN RIGHT, not simply an American Right enshrined in the 2A. If someone walked up to a citizen in France and punched them in the nose, that person would have the right to punch back instead of simply taking the beating. If their family was being beaten up would they have to stand there and watch without interceding? Force is to be met with equal force when one or one's family is attacked. This example proves that is so. To do otherwise is repugnant to any citizen of this planet. Yet force is not...

According to the University of Sydney's website gunpolicy.org, gun control in France is categorized as "restrictive." Keep in mind that, unlike in the U.S., France does not have a "right to bear arms" — the right to privately own a gun is not protected by law. In order to purchase a firearm, one must first obtain a hunting or shooting sporting license that requires a psychological evaluation and regular renewal. Semi-automatic rifles that can hold more than three rounds, as well as rifles and handguns with military-grade calibers, require permits. Fully automatic weapons are completely illegal for civilians. If one...

Marine Le Pen, the leader of Front Nationale Party in France, is doing very well in the polls ahead of the country’s 2017 presidential election, and she’s looking into something that will make the citizens of her country much more safe… From Zero Hedge via GP: If there is one ‘winner’ from last night’s terrible events in Paris, it is France’s anti-EU, anti-immigration far-right wing Front Nationale party leader Marine Le Pen. Having already ascended to the lead in yet another poll ahead of France’s 2017 elections, Le Pen came out swinging this morning call for France to “re-arm itself,”...

No gun is a “point-and-shoot” gun. Most women, by nature, are not fighters, and telling someone to just point and shoot is nonsense. For a woman to pull the trigger, when it could end a life, is an emotional and stressful experience. Even the thought of it makes most women shudder. Advice like this leaves her ill equipped and unprepared for what will be required in self-defense.

The recent mass shooting in Oregon has brought the seemingly endless debate on gun control back into the national spotlight. Are we, as some insist, in the midst of a gun violence crisis? Gun control advocates would certainly have you think so. [...] A quick look into the facts reveals an entirely different picture. According to the FBI, in the past two decades, violent crime has been falling almost continuously. In 2013, the number of violent crimes perpetrated was 37 percent lower than it was just two decades earlier. ...

Before my fellow conservatives jump immediately to defend Candidate Carson, I would ask that they read the following short column. Some years ago, I became aware of the extraordinary and remarkable career of Dr. Benjamin Carson via the 2009 movie "Gifted Hands" ,a film in which Cuba Gooding, Jr. portrayed the doctor. I even talked about him to my friend and colleague Laurie Roth who, subsequently, interviewed him on her Radio show. Dr. Carson seemed to be an honorable man, conservative and true to his word. However, since he officially began his campaign for the position of POTUS, something appears...

GREENSBORO, NC –Greensboro police are asking residents to show their commitment to safety by signing a Pledge of Non-violence on Saturday. Police said that anyone 18 years or older can anonymously turn in as many guns as they want at this event.

Donald Trump, speaking at a rally on Saturday in Beaumont, Texas, suggested that fewer people would have been killed had more civilians been armed. "When you look at Paris, toughest gun laws in the world, nobody had guns but the bad guys," he said. "Nobody had guns. And they were just shooting them one by one, and then they broke in and had a big shootout and ultimately killed the terrorists. And I will tell you what--you can say what you want, if they had guns, if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry, it would have...

Donald Trump also wrote about his “pro-choice instincts.” Real-estate mogul and now Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump briefly flirted with the idea of running for president in 2000 as a member of the Reform Party. Trump, who launched his presidential campaign for the Republican nomination Tuesday, published an outline of his positions in a book titled, The America We Deserve.((snip)) On guns: “The Republicans walk the NRA line and refuse even limited restrictions. I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I also support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.”

After the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, President Obama and Democrats in Congress launched a concerted effort to strengthen gun control laws. The centerpiece of their legislative agenda was a proposal that would have closed loopholes in the background check system for purchases online and at gun shows, but other measures - like limiting the size of ammunition magazines and banning military-style semiautomatic assault rifles - were offered as well.