Free Republic

Gun control in Britain passed in stages, beginning just after World War I and continuing in a reactionary fashion with increasing strictness through the 1990s. When the final stage arrived in 1997, and virtually all handguns were banned via the Firearms Act, the promise was a reduction in crime and greater safety for the British people. But the result was the emergence of Britain as the "most violent country in Europe." Britain began placing restrictions on gun ownership after World War I with the Firearms Act of 1920. .... The Firearms Act of 1920 did not ban guns. Rather, it...

The Rabbinical Council of America released this resolution two months ago: In response to the terrible proliferation of fatal shootings in the United States that result in part from Americans’ easy access to lethal weapons, a brief yet comprehensive 2014 resolution of the 1000+ members of Rabbinical Council of America addresses gun usage and ownership in the United States from personal, legal, cultural, and religious perspectives. Asserting the Torah’s perspective that war, weaponry, and violence are “necessary evils in our unredeemed world” as well as the Torah’s view that, contrary to some strains of American culture, such matters must be...

An upstate New York lawmaker said the loss of manufacturing jobs in the state last month is due to an anti-gun administration that has ignored pleas from local officials to be involved in the negotiating process. “Remington talks have come to a halt,” said Assemblyman Marc W. Butler (R.-Newport), whose district includes the Village of Ilion, where the Remington Outdoor Company has been located for almost 200 years. “We are losing 105 jobs at the Ilion primary plant,” said Butler. In February he predicted long-term consequences of Remington’s decision to expand to Huntsville, Ala., instead of Ilion, N.Y. The small...

District Judge Ed McLean has denied a motion to change the trial venue for Markus Kaarma, the Missoula man accused of fatally shooting a German exchange student in his garage last April. In a 208-page motion to move the trial, Kaarma’s attorneys argued that local media reports have tainted Missoula’s jury pool by painting Kaarma as a “cold-blooded killer.” Katie Lacny, who filed the motion, argued her 30-year-old client has been held captive in his Grant Creek home and received death threats as the media “aroused sympathies and created a community outcry against” him. “The pretrial publicity has stirred up...

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."