Free Republic

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda, have donated $1 million to a Washington state campaign seeking to expand background checks on gun sales, bringing the total amount the campaign has brought in up to nearly $6 million. ... The large donation comes on the heels of fellow Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s $500,000 donation earlier this month. Also last week, venture capitalist Nick Hanauer donated an additional $1 million, bring his total donation to the campaign to nearly $1.4 million.

How many nine-year-old Antonio's need to die in Chicago before the national media will park its satellite trucks in front of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's City Hall and demand answers and action. How many black people, including black children, need to die in Chicago before the national media stops counting civilian casualties in Gaza as a political weapon against Israel and starts counting them in one of our own cities. Overnight in Chicago 10 people were shot. One night. One. How many more until the national media cares enough to look into the root causes of the violence, poverty, despair, terrible...

COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ga. — Deputies confirm a suspect has been arrested in Jacksonville, Florida for the deadly shooting of a 55-year-old man in Columbia County last night. The coroner's office identifies the victim as William Davitte. He was shot and killed at Marvin United Methodist Church on S. Belair Rd near Wheeler Rd. Davitte and his wife, Jennifer Davitte, were turning on the sprinkler system at the church around 10:30 p.m. when the shooting happened, said Columbia County Cpt. Steve Morris. The husband was shot three times and died on the scene. His wife was taken to the hospital with...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political action committee, Independence USA, has purchased $150,833 in television ads in an effort to defeat Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and support his opponent, Milwaukee police Lt. Chris Moews. In response to the news of Bloomberg's ads, Clarke said in a statement: "I trust the voters. The voters can't be bought." The ad buys by Bloomberg's PAC come on top of $400,000 in media ads purchased by the Greater Wisconsin Committee to try to beat Clarke, who is seeking his fourth term in Tuesday's Democratic primary election. Also on Friday, Citizens...

Vice President Joe Biden used the just-announced death of a former White House press secretary James Brady to call for more gun control. Brady was wounded during the 1981 attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, and subsequently became a much-lauded advocate for gun control. ..Edit.. Biden, however, made a big deal about Brady’s post-assassination advocacy, perhaps because’s he needs to rally support from gun-control groups prior to the 2016 nomination race, and ended his statement with a shout-out to a gun-control group.

AUSTIN — Topless women trolled open carry activists in an Austin protest, vowing to keep their shirts off as long as gun rights supporters touted firearms.Come and Take It Texas posted a video Sunday of two women baring their breasts in an attempt to counter the gun group's demonstration on Saturday, calling them "skanky topless libtards." The women carried signs that read, "You realize that everyone thinks you're overcompensating for your teeny tiny 'gun' right?" and "Boobs for peace."According to Raw Story, open carry advocate Tom Jefferson said the women harassed gun advocates: "They followed us into a small coffee...

On July 25 the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit "eliminated the injunction" against the enforcement of Florida's "gun gag" law, which restricts doctors from asking patients if they own a firearm unless asking is necessary to a patient's treatment. According to Law360.com, the 11th Circuit ruled that barring doctors from asking about firearms "doesn't violate the First Amendment." Florida Governor Rick Scott (R) signed the NRA-backed "gun gag" legislation in 2011. Suit was brought against the State of Florida over the law by "the Florida chapters of the American Academies of Pediatrics and American College of...

Massachusetts: This Wednesday, Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans went on Boston Public Radio to discuss how he wanted the anti-gun discretionary provision restored in Senate Bill 2265 so that he could strip law-abiding gun owners of their rights to possess rifles and shotguns in Boston. Completely out of touch with reality, Evans stated: “For the most part, nobody in the city needs a shotgun, nobody needs a rifle, and I don’t know a lot of people who are into hunting who, being lifelong residents, would actually want that who lives in the city, but, especially here in the city I...

For the first time this entire election cycle The New York Times Senate forecast at The Upshot predicts Udall has a greater chance of losing reelection than winning (53%-47%). This is a huge deal, as The Upshot tries to go beyond just the polls and factor in other intangibles about a race, such as, incumbency, fundraising, a state’s past election history among others, who the liberals at the NYT want to win. All those factors in The Upshot model lean heavily Udall’s way. Yet, despite this inherent, built-in advantage, Udall can’t overcome one thing: the people of Colorado feel he...

Archie Andrews will die taking a bullet for his gay best friend. The famous freckle-faced comic book icon is meeting his demise in Wednesday’s installment of “Life with Archie” when he intervenes in an assassination attempt on Kevin Keller, Archie Comics’ first openly gay character. Andrews’ death, which was first announced in April, will mark the conclusion of the series that focuses on grown-up renditions of Andrews and his Riverdale pals. […] “We wanted to do something that was impactful that would really resonate with the world and bring home just how important Archie is to everyone,” said [Jon] Goldwater,...

(Excerpted) 1. Liberals just want to take away guns, just like Hitler: If I had five bucks for every time I’ve witnessed Godwin’s Law in action, I’d be sitting on the front porch of my vacation home in the Bahamas, looking at my 55′ sportfisher tied up to the dock. Almost every gun nut you deal with will inevitably mention Hitler, because gun nuts have been conditioned by the NRA to point to Nazi Germany as proof that the march to fascism and tyranny involves stricter regulation of guns. Except, there’s this one little fact: In 1938, under Nazi rule,...

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....

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. ......

At least 13 people have been shot in Chicago at the start of the long holiday weekend, including a woman killed as she sat on a porch near Garfield Park and a man slain in front of a hair salon on the South Side, police said. ... The mother of the boy, Andrea Byes, said she is planning to move out of the two-flat where she lives with her children because of the violence, drug sales and loitering on the block. "I'm not surprised something like this happened," said Byes, 40. "It was a matter of time. They're all over...

<p>As state officials across the country grapple with how to prevent mass killings like the ones at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown and near the University of California, Santa Barbara, some are turning to a gun seizure law pioneered in Connecticut 15 years ago.</p>

Beginning in September, Google plans to block firearm, ammunition, and gun accessory ads. According to Google Support's "Dangerous Products or Services" page, the company "[wants] to keep people safe both online and offline, so [they] won't allow the promotion of some products or services that cause damage, harm, or injury." Included in the dangerous products for which ads will be blocked are "Guns & Parts." This covers "functional devices that appear to discharge a projectile at high velocity, whether for sport, self-defense, or combat."

Tactical Firearms is appealing to the public for help fighting what it claims is a politically motivated problem with its bank. The Katy, Texas, gun store has made a national name for itself by posting snarky political signs – mostly opposing liberal gun-grabbers and Obama – on its outdoor marquee. BizPac Review has reported on several of the good-humored signs in the past, but it seems there’s not a lot to laugh about these days, according to the company’s web site and newsletter. The lengthy plea claims that the bank has called in on a loan that could put the...

Here is a truth so fundamental that it should be self-evident: When legitimately constituted state authority stands down in the face of armed threats, the very foundation of the republic is in danger. And yet that is exactly what happened at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch this spring: An alleged criminal defeated the cops, because the forces of lawlessness came at them with guns — then Bureau of Land Management officials further surrendered by removing the government markings from their vehicles to prevent violence against them. What should be judged a watershed in American history instead became a story about one...

President Obama just can't seem to help himself. Over and over again, he makes exaggerated or false claims about guns and crime. Last year Obama kept asserting the bogus numbers such as “40 percent of all gun purchases take place without a background check.” Besides the study being based on a tiny survey it was started before the Federal background check law went into effect. Moreover, the 40 percent figure referred to all transfers, not just sales, and the vast majority of transfers took place within families through gifts and inheritances. Then, for good measure, Obama added an extra 4...

Calling the failure to pass gun-control laws the biggest frustration of his time in office, President Obama on Tuesday said America “should be ashamed” of its gun laws, decried the type of violence seen again Tuesday at an Oregon school, and praised a country that more or less banned all long guns. Speaking to Tumblr founder David Karp, Mr. Obama said the U.S. does not conform to the rest of the “advanced, developed” world when it comes to gun laws, resurrecting his plea for restrictions on the sale of firearms. He also disputed the notion that mental illness is solely...