Free Republic

PHOENIX — A Senate panel agreed Monday that any Arizona adult should be able to carry a concealed weapon without special training or background check. The 4-3 vote would create a major loophole in the existing laws that require those who want to have a hidden weapon to undergo special training. This includes classes on when people can legally use deadly force as well as marksmanship.

Manassas, VA --(AmmoLand.com)- In politics, like baseball, there is a time to bunt and a time to swing for the fence. This year is ripe for home runs. The political climate this year offers a unique opportunity for rights advocates to make major gains – both legislatively and politically. To make those gains we need to pull out all of the stops and go big. The election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts was clear proof that voters are unhappy. Politicians who were already concerned about disgruntled voters are now terrified as they look toward the November elections. Pundits and analysts...

Republican Vaughn Ward declared his candidacy for the 1st Congressional District of Idaho Tuesday in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Boise Tuesday.

David LaTour rolled out of bed on a recent Saturday morning and prepared for a leisurely lunch: Wallet, check. Car keys, check. Springfield XD 9 mm pistol and ammunition, check. Springfield XD 9 mm pistol and ammunition? The Hayward resident is a member of an organization slowly gaining membership in the Bay Area. Open Carry aims to make it possible for Americans in every state to legally carry loaded guns in public. The loosely organized Bay Area chapter is igniting powerful feelings among law enforcement agencies, gun control advocates and ordinary residents.

Washington D.C. had among the strictest handgun bans in the country since the 1970’s yet had one of the nation’s highest violent crime rates. Then the Supreme Court declared the gun ban law unconstitutional in 2008, to the expected objections of the usual liberal/Democrat suspects: I am personally deeply disappointed and quite frankly outraged by today's decision. Today's decision flies in the face of laws that have helped decrease gun violence in the District of Columbia. — Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty On the same day a new report demonstrated a sharp rise in violent crime, a federal court handed down...

Oconee County Sheriff Scott Berry doesn't know if someone breaks the law just by carrying a concealed firearm while talking with friends outside a convenience store. That's because current state law that forbids people with concealed weapons permits from bringing those weapons to public gatherings is too fuzzy, Berry said. "There's no clear definition of what a public gathering is, and the truth is. we're not going to enforce a law that is so poorly written," he said. "It's a serious matter to take someone into custody on the basis of something that is unclear and poorly written." Berry is...

The Second Amendment faces a deci- sive year in 2010. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. has called for new semi-automatic gun bans - despite their decade-long record of fraud and failure, and despite his own Justice Department's failure to fully or even half-heartedly prosecute federal firearm felonies. --snip-- As the court noted in the 2008 ruling that overturned the D.C. ban, "Nowhere else in the Constitution does a 'right' attributed to 'the people' refer to anything other than an individual right." And in that same decision, the court recognized, " ... the inherent right of self-defense has been central...

Bitterwallet posted video of this infomercial-esque product called The Back-Up. It's a $40 shotgun rack that slides between your bed's box spring and mattress - easy access for when you need to blow an intruder's face apart. According to The Back-Up's official website, research shows: If a shotgun is in the corner of a room or under the bed, one must turn their back on a perpetrator to access it The BackUp allows for 2 second accessibility when in need. The Back-Up provides this from a lying position in bed. Just reach 8 inches along the side of the mattress,...

This is by far one of the most amazing and saddest videos (audios) I have ever seen/heard. More than anything else, the following is exhibit A about lawful gun owners in America, particularly those who have used their weapons to defend themselves. Far from the gun-crazed, trigger happy racists the liberal antigun crowd would have you believe, they are really just regular folks who want to go about their business. The remorse in the woman's voice at the end of the video gave me goosebumps. And the dispatcher deserves a medal for being as supportive as she was of this...

Mike Wiley won’t fire until he sees the whites of their eyes, but needs you to provide him with the ammo he’ll need to win this campaign

Regular Correspondent W-III wrote to his list about a post by my friends at Western Rifle Shooters Association: If you never read another of my e-mails, if you decide to block everything I send to you in the future as SPAM, if you’re so sick of the stuff I send you want to curse my name, Please, humor me one last time; click on the link below and hear what Judge Andrew Napolitano has to say. [Link] This man is a Patriot. It's infuriating, considering the abuses Napolitano outlines, and then reflecting on how little so many of our countrymen...

Back in late October, I wrote "Brady Campaign hypocrisy," chiding the Brady Campaign--specifially, their Vice President for Law and Policy, Dennis Henigan--for his accusation that the "gun lobby" tries to hide the truth. This accusation positively reeks of hypocrisy, on a couple levels. First, Henigan himself, in arguing on a video clip that the Second Amendment did nothing to protect the individual's right to keep and bear arms, recited the amendment in its entirety--except for the "of the people" part--the very part that poses the biggest problem for the now discredited "collective rights" interpretation of the Second Amendment. Second, when...

Well, so much for the "scrapping the long gun registry is an appalling slap in the face of Canadian public opinion" narrative. A Canadian Press/Harris Decima poll released today finds 46% of Canadians believe abolishing the long gun registry is a good idea, while 41% think it's a bad idea. Sub-populations amongst which more people would prefer to scrap the registry than keep it include NDP voters, Green Party voters, Ontarians, and women. Ouch! The populists-of-convenience who embraced/twisted the hell out of that three-year-old Ipsos poll showing two-thirds of us would prefer to have some kind of gun registration process...

Another sign of the incessant creeping in of eurosocialist attitudes here in the United States thanks to Obama, Pelosi & Reid.

Who stands with you? Republican Chris Christie opposes a womans right to choose. Democrat Jon Corzines fought to protect it. Republican Christie stands with the NRA and opposes banning armor piercing rifles. Jon Corzines a leader in the fight against the gun lobby.

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. --...

Friday, September 25, 2009 Please Stand-Up and Make Your Voices Heard! On Wednesday, September 16, the Abington Heights School District voted 4-3 to eliminate funding for the Abington Heights High School Rifle Team. Unfortunately, the Abington Heights School District is choosing to balance the budget on the backs of tomorrow’s shooters. Rifle teams, such as these, help foster the future of our Second Amendment freedoms, shooting sports, and safe firearms training. The Abington Journal even reported that coaches, team members, and parents were not given advance notice that funding for the team was in jeopardy at the school district’s meeting...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. The...

In the newest issue of the NRA's magazine "America's First Freedom", page 17, there is a blurb about how there is a bill in the Michigan Senate that would "allow" permit holders (students) to legally carry on college campuses. While I applaud any movement to increase gun rights, every time I see the word "allow", I bristle. We HAVE the right to defend ourselves and our loved ones and all this permit crap must be done away with -- and the sooner the better. While "allow" is not specifically used in this article, it has been used in previous magazine...

Neal Knox: The Gun Rights War is a collection of articles from magazines and newspapers that were written by the founder of the Firearms Coalition.

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas — Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison went to a shooting range Friday to remind voters of her support for gun rights by pointing out her plans to weigh in on an upcoming U.S. Supreme Court case. With gunfire popping in the background, Hutchison said she will help lead a bipartisan group from Congress in filing a legal brief urging the court to rule gun ownership is an individual right that applies at the state and local levels, in addition to the federal level. Both Hutchison and Gov. Rick Perry, who are squaring off in the March Republican primary, say...

Does the Second Amendment give one the right to keep and bear arms (even allowing one to invoke that right against the government itself), or is it a freedom only as it concerns the federal government? As Amy Goodman reported on her Democracy Now! program, that question will now be taken up by the United States Supreme Court, and the Court’s decision could have nationwide ramifications. Said Goodman yesterday: The Supreme Court has decided to rule on whether state and local handgun laws violate the Second Amendment right to gun ownership, which it recognized last year, when the Court struck...

Gun Control: The Supreme Court agrees to decide if the Second Amendment applies to all of us, or just Washington, D.C. Why would the Founders put in the Bill of Rights something applying only to a federal enclave? In a 5-4 decision last year written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court overturned a draconian District of Columbia gun ban enacted 32 years ago that barred private ownership of handguns at all. Scalia wrote that an individual's right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted. The court ruled that...

by Debra Medina - Conservative Republican Candidate for Governor of Texas “What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms." -- Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith,1787. ME 6:373, Papers 12:356 In a world moving more and more rapidly towards globalization, perhaps we’d do well to review exactly what insures freedom. What is it that makes one free? What sets a free man apart from one enslaved? The founders would argue insuring a well-armed people was the surest way to defend...

(Corrected) Gun Control: In a case headed for the Supreme Court, a three-judge panel rules Chicago's gun ban constitutional since the 2nd Amendment doesn't apply to states and cities. High court nominee Sonia Sotomayor concurs.Those Pennsylvania townsfolk bitterly clinging to their guns may have been premature in celebrating the decision in D.C. v. Heller that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does indeed guarantee an individual right to keep and bear arms.

The insurgents went to the house looking for Ms Kauser but her father, Noor Hussain, resisted their demands, Rajouri district senior police superintendent Shafqat Watali told the BBC. I had never touched a rifle before this, let alone fired one - but I had seen heroes firing in films Rukhsana Kauser Three gunmen then entered the house and attacked Ms Kauser's parents, while four other militants remained outside. "My parents told me to hide under the bed and then opened the door," Ms Kauser told the BBC. "Without saying anything they [the militants] started beating my parents and my uncle....

Here is a fascinating video report from tonight's Lou Dobbs Show, where Bill Tucker examined the "Montana Firearms Freedom Act," which will take effect in October. The state law says any firearm made in Montana and owned in Montana, and made by a non-Federally-licensed gunmaker, is not subject to Federal regulation. The ATF is already saying they will not recognize the law, and a court challenge is inevitable. A writer of the law said the ATF reaction was anticipated, and he freely admits the law is intended as a "finger in the eye of the Federal Government." . . ....

Rachel Maddow, gun lover? Well, sort of - and with some strings attached, of course. The MSNBC host of the "The Rachel Maddow Show" appeared on Jimmy Fallon's Aug. 31 NBC show and told the host about her first date - at a shooting range. "My first date with my girlfriend Susan was at a shooting range," Maddow said. "That was awesome. It was ladies' day on the range. Her sister is a lifetime NRA member and she was organizing ladies' day on the range at her gun club. So we did it. We shot AR-15s and we threw tomahawks...

A North Carolina felon has regained his right to own guns by a Court. He was convicted of selling Qualuudes in 1979 and had his rights restored in 1987, and believing they included owning guns, bought some for hunting. When a sheriff told him his possession was illegal, he disposed of them. The Court believed the crime was nonviolent. The Court said," Plaintiff, through his uncontested lifelong nonviolence towards other citizens, his thirty years of law abiding conduct since his crime, his seventeen years of responsible, lawful firearm possession between 1987 and 2004, and his assiduous and proactive compliance with...

NEW ORLEANS - Virginia Briand is a grandmother of six, a gourmet cook and an avid gardener. She's also pretty good at target practice. Virginia is among a growing number of women, women over age 50, who are taking their safety seriously. "The bad guys don't just hang out in bad areas. They're coming to your neighborhood so people are starting to accept a lot of personal responsibility." Fire Arms Instructor Michael Jurina Is teaching this concealed carry class at the Shooter's Club in Harahan. "We've gotten a lot older group of people who've become a little worrisome, especially after...

(IStockPhoto) A federal appeals court on September 24 will hear a high-profile gun rights case that's a leading candidate to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is likely to decide whether the Second Amendment's guarantee of a right to "keep and bear arms" restricts only the federal government -- the current state of affairs -- or whether it can be used to strike down intrusive state and local laws too. A three-judge panel ruled that the Second Amendment does apply to the states. But now a larger Ninth Circuit panel will rehear...

Highlights Enthusiasts Agree: Guns and HUMMERs go together Dealer says “It’s been a huge success.” Watch video: http://www.cardealerreviews.org/?p=116792

<p>MSNBC is having an on air meltdown over a man their camera crew videotaped openly carrying a handgun at an anti-Obama protest in Portsmouth, New Hampshire this morning near where Barack Obama will be holding a town hall meeting later today.</p>

iHandgun is an ultra realistic gun simulator application for iPhone and iPod touch. When you pull back the slide, it makes a clicking sound. Touching the trigger results a gunshot sound, gun fire, smoke from the muzzle, and even an ejected cartridge! It's of course reloadable. Change magazine and shoot as many times as you want.

The several states are lining up to reclaim their sovereignty and telling the federal government to butt out. This is being done in myriad ways but all are related in that most claim that the Tenth Amendment protects the states from federal tyranny. States are passing resolutions, memorials and two states have passed laws and they intend to apply those laws for their citizens. The two states are Montana and Tennessee. It was expected that at some point these laws would be challenged and it appears actions to do such has begun. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and...

Thanks to peace-loving, gun control liberals in LA County, it is now more likely than ever that the streets of LA with remain covered in the blood of the innocent.

(IsraelNN.com) Starting in late July, a group of Israeli combat veterans will be holding a training camp in New York to teach advanced self-defense techniques to Jews in U.S. communities. An increasing number of American Jews have expressed interest in the program following a wave of anti-Semitic incidents worldwide over the past year, organizers report. The group calls itself Kitat Konenut New York – a reference to the “rapid response teams” active throughout Judea and Samaria. Rapid response teams in Israel, comprised of local civilians who are IDF veterans, have often been the first on the scene of terrorist attacks...

As reported last night by a smirking and evidently pleased Amy Goodman, the far-left host of Democracy Now!, the Senate, in a very close vote, failed Tuesday to pass an amendment designed to allow individuals with concealed carry permits in their home states to travel with those weapons across state lines. By defeating the measure, introduced by Republican Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the Senate has sent a clear message to those law-abiding citizens already vetted in their home states with regard to responsible gun ownership: If you travel or move across state lines, forget about protecting yourselves and...

Memo to the millions of American citizens who have managed to qualify for government permits to carry firearms: you are "potential criminals," and you are "a threat to our citizens' safety and well-being," even though you have passed criminal background checks and satisfied state firearms proficiency standards. That according to New Jersey governor Jon Corzine (D), who apparently thinks that the path to re-election later this year is paved by trampling the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

The Obama administration is raising the stakes in a fight over states' rights and firearm ownership by arguing that new pro-gun laws in Montana and Tennessee are invalid. In the last few months, a grass-roots, federalist revolt against Washington, D.C. has begun to spread through states that are home to politically active gun owners. Montana and Tennessee have enacted state laws saying that federal rules do not apply to firearms manufactured entirely within the state, and similar bills are pending in Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, and South Carolina. Yet the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives now claims that...

A line was drawn in the sand last week - a response by the Federal Government to the State of Tennessee and their assertion of sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Part of a series of moves by states seeking to utilize the Tenth Amendment as a limit on Federal Power, the Tennessee State Senate approved Senate Bill 1610, the Tennesse Firearms Freedom Act, by a vote of 22-7. It previously passed the House by a vote of 87-1. The law states that “federal laws and regulations do not apply to personal firearms, firearm accessories, or ammunition...

PORT ALLEN, LA (WAFB) - A mother is counting her blessings after her ten-year-old son defended himself and his younger sister against three people who broke into their apartment. Late Tuesday, West Baton Rouge Parish sheriff's deputies received a call to a Port Allen apartment complex after several shots rang out from inside one of the apartments. "You are out here trying to work and for someone to come and do that and invade your home is very hard," the children's mother said. She asked to not be identified. Deputies say Dean Favron and Roderick Porter knocked several times on...

LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- Some businesswomen who work in a Florida area hit hard with crime are arming themselves and taking matters into their own hands. Lake Worth business owner Mayra Ramirez has been practicing at the Palm Beach Shooting Range in Lake Worth for months. "I was always against guns but from watching the news and seeing so many things happen, I figured it was time to get one," Ramirez said. Ramirez is arming herself because she's fed up with the crime around her business. A week ago a man was shot just steps away from her storefront. "At...

FROM:Dr. Michael S. Brown of Vancouver, WA TOPIC:"NEGROES WITH GUNS" 12/29/01 12:22:27 The year was 1957. Monroe, North Carolina, was a rigidly segregated town where all levels of white society and government were dedicated to preserving the racial status quo. Blacks who dared to speak out were subject to brutal, sadistic violence. It was common practice for convoys of Ku Klux Klan members to drive through black neighborhoods shooting in all directions. A black physician who owned a nice brick house on a main road was a frequent target of racist anger. In the summer of 1957, a Klan...

The twin questions of whether Americans have the constitutional right to keep and bear arms, and precisely what Judge Sonia Sotomayor thinks of that proposition, have surfaced this week during her U.S. Senate confirmation hearings. Both questions are timely. In two separate cases before the 2nd Circuit, Sotomayor took a narrow view of the Second Amendment right of self-defense, and her more recent decision is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court later this year. That case is called Maloney v. Rice, and it addresses whether the Second Amendment can be invoked to strike down restrictive laws against...

Here's the full audio of Governor Palin and Ted Nugent. Excellent!

Fairbanks, AK - Governor Palin has signed House Bill 201 into law. The bill, sponsored by Representative Craig Johnson, changes the expiration date of a concealed handgun permit from five years from the date of issue to the person's birthday. “The right to own guns & use them responsibly is something I and many other Alaskans cherish,” Governor Palin said. “We have to be vigilant to protect the rights of individual Alaskans to own & use guns. I appreciate the work of our legislature in standing up for the Constitution.”

Fairbanks, AK - Governor Palin has signed House Bill 201 into law. The bill, sponsored by Representative Craig Johnson, changes the expiration date of a concealed handgun permit from five years from the date of issue to the person's birthday. “The right to own guns & use them responsibly is something I and many other Alaskans cherish,” Governor Palin said. “We have to be vigilant to protect the rights of individual Alaskans to own & use guns. I appreciate the work of our legislature in standing up for the Constitution.”

Several of the students had a knee-jerk reaction when gun-rights advocate Clark Aposhian blasted his first pistol round into a target Thursday. But it was physical, not ideological. These students from around America were in Salt Lake City to learn and test their beliefs, not to dismiss opposing views. Roughly 40 Jewish high schoolers traveling the country are hearing from experts on opposing sides of the nation's most politically charged issues. Aposhian was the National Rifle Association's face for the day after the group's stop in Colorado to hear from a gun-control advocate whose child died in the Columbine school...

FAIRBANKS — Gov. Sarah Palin is planning to talk gun rights with local radio personality Michael Dukes today and will sign several pieces of Second Amendment-related legislation in Fairbanks. Palin unexpectedly resigned a week ago, saying she will transfer power to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell on July 26 in Fairbanks. Since her announcement, Palin has traveled to remote Alaska communities, offering TV interviews to national networks near Bristol Bay, signing a bill in McGrath and meeting with constituents in Kotzebue. On Wednesday, Palin’s communication director Dave Murrow said he expects the governor to continue her travels. “She’s stacking up opportunities...