Free Republic

When fall ballots land in mailboxes this week, Washington voters will be asked to vote on two opposing gun control initiatives — one calling for expanded background checks, the other keeping the current system of background checks in place. Below, we explore the dueling initiatives, some of Washington's existing rules around gun ownership and what gun laws have meant in other states.

Two years ago, Mother Jones published a "Guide to Mass Shootings in America," which claimed to show that such slayings happen more often now than in the past. The feature, whose data have been updated periodically since it first went up, has been both widely cited and harshly disputed. This week the outlet has published a new analysis claiming that mass shootings occur far more frequently than they did several decades ago and that the rate has tripled since 2011. Whether you buy that depends on whether you buy into the previous piece, because the new article has essentially the...

Florida's 55 Bloomberg Anti-Second Amendment Mayors If your Mayor is on this list, please take a moment to ask why your elected officials are fighting against your right to bear arms. As unlikely as it may seem to those of us who pay attention to Second Amendment issues, there may still be some Florida Mayors Against illegal Guns (MAIG) Mayors who have been mislead by lies fed to them by Bloomberg's anti-gun group. We have the emails sent to Florida Mayors from MAIG claiming that they support the Second Amendment, we even have emails from known anti-gun Police Chiefs and...

On October 15, an armed man wearing a skeleton mask robbed a bank inside a Cincinnati Kroger, and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America responded by calling the robbery "a wake up call to Kroger's leadership to prohibit the open carry of firearms in its stores." Armed robberies are already banned by law, but such laws did not stop the man in the skeleton mask from carrying out his evil deed.

On October 14 feminist speaker Anita Sarkeesian canceled a speaking engagement at Utah State University upon learning that state law forbids the university from banning concealed carry on campus.

It wasn’t about a confrontation between two or more thugs. It wasn’t about a drug deal. It wasn’t even about a holdup. It was about gunmen opening fire on someone because, apparently, the gunmen didn’t approve of the person’s being in the neighborhood at that hour, place and time. No other reasons.

Former US Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) of Arizona began a nine-state tour Tuesday in Maine focusing on the need for tougher gun control measures to protect women and children. Ms. Giffords, who was severely wounded in a 2011 shooting in Tucson, Ariz., that killed six people, has become a key figure in the national gun control campaign. The campaign highlights the increasingly prominent role women have played in both sides in the gun control debate – particularly since the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings in 2012.

The first political ad challenging supporters of Initiative 594, which aims to increase background checks for gun purchases and transfers, has been released by the National Rifle Association. Featuring Seattle gun instructor, blogger and competitive shooter Annette Wachter, the video disputes claims increased checks will lower gun violence. Her meeting with KING 5 at a Bellevue gun range is notable for her pony tail, her designer jeans and leopard print sprinkled on her favorite firearm.

Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg and three other billionaires are bankrolling a controversial gun-control initiative that will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot in Washington State. Even the new owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, Steve Ballmer, has gotten into the act, writing a check for $1 million dollars to help flood the airwaves with anti-gun propaganda. The strategy in Washington relies on big money supplied by a few ultra-rich elites and, if successful, could serve as Bloomberg’s model for tightening the strings on gun owners nationwide. Initiative 594 would not only require background checks for transactions at gun shows and...

The Washington ballot measure that would expand background checks to almost all gun sales in the state continues to hold a strong lead after wealthy proponents have far out-spent opponents.

The NRA is coming, folks. It will have your tax dollars or your submission to its pro-gun agenda — and, by God, maybe it will have both. Don’t believe me? Then take a look at the text of House Bill 1243, which passed the Pennsylvania House this week, and which now sits before the Senate Judiciary Committee waiting passage. Here’s what the bill does: It discourages Pennsylvania cities and municipalities from passing gun laws that are more restrictive than state-level gun laws, or from keeping such laws that are already on the books. Here’s how the bill does that: It...

On Tuesday, five weeks before voters in Washington State will decide whether to require “universal” background checks on firearm transfers, gun control advocate Mark Kelly lied on national television about how many such transactions occur without a background check. Asked by CNN, Kelly said (at 3:30 in the video), “right now 60 percent of all gun sales go–occur–with a background check. Why do we allow the 40 percent, the other 40 percent, to happen?”

For the second time in as many months, Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety has given $1 million to the campaign for Initiative 594 in Washington state. On August 29, Breitbart News reported that Everytown gave its first million to the one-percenters' campaign for gun control. Breitbart News also reported that I-594 would treat all gun sales like retail sales--requiring a background check for both, thus ending private sales. It would, therefore, require the creation of a database of handgun owners (i.e., registration).

A report based on campaign memos on Senate candidate Allison Lundergan Grimes' (D-KY) position on guns shows that her pro-gun statements are canned, that she supports "strengthening background checks," and has an unstated position on "closing the gun show loophole."

Kroger is the latest retailer in the cross-hairs of Moms Demand Action, a stridently anti-gun group funded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. But so far, the Cincinnati, Ohio-based grocery chain has not succumbed to the relentless assault of phone calls, text messages, petitions, emails and social media barbs tossed its way from the pressure group. Costco, Starbucks, Target, Chipotle and Jack in the Box all have capitulated to the Moms’ demands by at least partially changing their policies on guns. The companies all announced they would “ask” or “request” that their customers not carry guns while shopping...

Moms Demand Action has adopted the tactic of attempting to isolate and bully individual companies into accepting their prohibitionist gun control philosophy. Their goal is to accomplish through bullying what they cannot establish through legislation: reducing the number of places that law-abiding citizens can exercise their basic human right to self-defense. The republic’s largest supermarket chain is the latest target of Michael Bloomberg’s fake grassroots gun prohibitionist organization, and the chain has stood tall in defense of the common sense position that private companies best serve their customers by abiding by local, state and federal laws, not writing their own.

Just a few months ago, I was at work as an attorney and the proud father to Christopher Ross Michaels-Martinez, my only son. But after Chris was killed in the mass shooting in Santa Barbara on May 23, 2014, my work suddenly seemed unimportant. I resolved to honor Chris’s life and the lives of so many others who have been killed by preventable gun violence by taking action to address the heartbreaking cycle of gun violence in our communities—and to urge others to join me in the fight. Washington State is on the brink of taking that kind of meaningful...

ABC’s political drama “Scandal” focuses on a Washington DC crisis management firm that serves the White House and the fictional presidential administration. In the second episode of the show’s fourth season, in what is going to be the fictional president’s state of the union address, a school shooting mirroring the Sandy Hook shooting happened. The fictional president used his entire State of the Union address to come out against guns. Here are some quotes:

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly's gun control group--Americans for Responsible Solutions (ARS)--continues to target Republican Congressional candidate Martha McSally (R-AZ-2) as part of their attempt to force the passage of more federal gun control for stalking-related convictions.

Capt. Mark Kelly is a retired Naval pilot and astronaut, and is now a speaker, activist and author. He’s the husband of the former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and has stood by her side throughout her recovery from her shooting in Tucson in January of 2011. We had the pleasure of speaking with Capt. Kelly on Thursday, shortly after he delivered a motivational keynote speech at the New Age/Synnex national conference in Greenville, S.C., which included everything from powerful memories of his wife’s injury to stories about meeting Bono to jokes about all of the extraterrestrials he met in his space...