Free Republic

Pastor Vinyard in his Church It appears that the teen burglar did not read the papers.   It is foolish to burgle the house of a "vocal supporter of gun rights", and then attack them in their home.  Tom Vinyard is the senior pastor of Windsor Hills Baptist Church, and has been outspoken in his political beliefs.  From newsok.com: A pastor at a northwest Oklahoma City church who has been a vocal proponent of gun rights has been cleared of wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy at the pastor’s home. (snip)  The pastor arrived home about 3...

“Gabby Giffords came to Oregon on October 21st, 2014. The event was private, but media was allowed in. YouTuber Daylight Disinfectant made his way in and filmed the entire thing…Obama appointed D.A. Amanda Marshall makes fun of “2nd Amendment enthusiasts”, then they start to talk about removing the privacy of folks who have been through the current background check system and turning the records over to the federal government. Multnomah County Commissioner Judy Shiprack then talks about having the state legislature address the “administrative rule” that the Oregon State Police have in effect where they destroy most background check records...

In an earlier column, I looked at the role the abortion issue would play in the 2016 election -- not very much, I concluded -- and promised another column on other cultural issues. Here goes. On anyone's list of cultural issues that have been debated over the last decade, same-sex marriage ranks just behind abortion. And unlike abortion, opinion on same-sex marriage has changed dramatically in recent years. Not long ago, it wasn't a political issue at all. The gifted writers Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Rauch were making an intellectually serious, and interestingly conservative, case for same-sex marriage. But the...

Rights: No longer fearing electoral revenge from the National Rifle Association, an outgoing Democratic Senate pushed to confirm an anti-Second Amendment radical, who thinks guns are a health issue, as the nation's top doc. A Democratic Senate that earlier balked at the nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy to be surgeon general of the U.S. no longer feared the possible electoral consequences of approving him in the wake of November's Republican tsunami. That, along with the GOP's obsession to not be blamed for a government shutdown, gave us a bad budget deal and the Democrats a chance to confirm Murthy. A...

A handful of families impacted by the Sandy Hook school shooting have decided to ease their grief by suing the manufacturer of AR style rifles. Obviously, a little unnecessary litigation is the most effective way to right the wrongs of a madman. According to CNBC: Ten families touched by the Newtown massacre filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against companies that made, distributed and sold the Bushmaster AR-15 rifle that Adam Lanza used to kill 20 children and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary two years ago. The suit argues that the gun is a military assault weapon that never...

Protester rallied at the state Capitol in Olympia to denounce an expanded initiative on gun-purchase background checks that voters widely approved last month. Following a tradition going back to at least the Whiskey Rebellion of the early 1790s, demonstrators gathered here Saturday afternoon at the Capitol to protest the tyranny of what they consider unlawful American government. But instead of decrying a tax on distilled liquor such as Pennsylvanians did just years after the U.S. Constitution was ratified, demonstrators here at the “I Will Not Comply” rally denounced a law expanding gun-purchase background checks that was approved last month...

Support for gun rights has edged up from earlier this year, and marks a substantial shift in attitudes since shortly after the Newtown school shootings, which occurred two years ago this Sunday. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Dec. 3-7 among 1,507 adults, also finds a shift in attitudes about whether gun ownership in this country does more to protect people or put people’s safety at risk. Nearly sixin-ten Americans (57%) say gun ownership does more to protect people from becoming victims of crime, while 38% say it does more to endanger personal safety. In...

Gun-rights supporters are now a majority among Americans, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday that marks a stunning turnaround from two years ago, when the Newtown school shooting had appeared to give gun control advocates the upper hand in the public debate. It’s the highest approval rate in two decades, Pew said, and it’s driven by changing attitudes across nearly all demographic lines, including among black Americans who are increasingly likely to view guns as good for protection, rather than as a public safety danger. According to Pew, 52 percent of the public says it’s more important...

Bad news for Michael Bloomberg: It turns out that Americans really like guns. While most of the focus for Black Friday is on the half-priced TVs, and Victoria Secret sales, a sizeable portion of Americans decided to head to their local gun store and pick up a new firearm. After all, nothing says “Merry Christmas” quite like an AK47 with a red and green bow on it. (Hint, hint, wink, wink.)Black Friday is known for being the biggest domestic shopping day of the year – and the firearm industry doesn’t generally miss out. On a typical day, the National Instant...

Calguns Foundation: Court denies requests by California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

Gun Control: To some, concern over a U.N. Arms Trade Treaty set to take effect Dec. 24 is much ado about nothing. But a president unconstrained by Congress or the Constitution may try to impose severe limits on gun rights. All treaties must be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate, and that's not about to happen in the case of the unratified Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), particularly after the 2014 election that gave the GOP Senate control. The same, of course, could have been said about the Kyoto Protocol and other climate change deals that mandate that governments tie their...

"Own a gun in Missouri? Legally? With a concealed carry license? Well, congratulations are in order, because you can open carry that gun all you want, seemingly anywhere, and nobody -- not St. Louis mayor Francis Slay, state legislators or the cops -- will stop you. That's the takeaway from Saturday's open carry demonstration through Citygarden and the Gateway Arch, which attracted around 50 local and out-of-state activists to the heart of downtown St. Louis. Participants wore holstered pistols or carried long rifles slung over the shoulder, drawing both stares from passing tourists and the ire of the city's mayor."

Conventional wisdom holds that firearms are the preserve of conservative white men. You would never know this at my local shooting range, which happens to be in a majority African-American area, and has a clientele that reflects that fact. There, as a white man, I’m often in the minority; just one more guy who likes to fire weapons — another person to chat to and share stories with. It is, I’d venture, how things should be. By rights, the Second Amendment should serve as a totem of African-Americans’ full citizenship and enfranchisement. For centuries, firearms have been indispensable to black...

This isn’t the sort of breaking news, horror show healine which generally makes the rounds when talking about kids and guns, but it’s a nice story which deserves a little more visibility. An “iReport” feature on CNN describes the education and competitive record of ten year old target shooter Shyanne Roberts of New Jersey. Meet Shyanne Roberts, a 10-year-old competitive shooter who is out to prove something: Children with guns don’t always mean disaster.“I want to be an inspiration to other kids and be a leader,” said the girl. “Kids and guns don’t always mean bad things happen.”The Franklinville, New...

Video cameras? Yes please! Give me one. Maybe two or three. I am absolutely a HUGE proponent of law enforcement using in-car and body mounted cameras. Some ask why I feel so strongly about the subject, and to them I offer the following personal anecdote. I have personally benefited greatly from the video obtained by a digital video camera, the in-car camera system in my patrol car. A number of years ago, I was involved in an incident where, as I arrived at the scene of a call, I came under fire by a suspect armed with a rifle. I...

While Brian Aitken’s The Blue Tent Sky: How The Left’s War On Guns Cost Me My Son And My Freedom is written is an unassuming and accessible way, it is by no means an ‘easy read.’ In fact, it will likely be the most difficult book you’ll ever read.Brian Aitken is a man who was forced into a tragedy thought inconceivable in the United States — being stripped of his family and his freedom all for owning a gun in New Jersey. When Brian was pulled over in 2009 he had not committed any crimes, the guns he would...

I know this won’t be shocking, but we have some additional proof that the gaggle of anti-gun groups spread throughout the nation don’t generally have a firm grip on the civilian nature of our democratic republic. The pro-gun sheriff of Wicomico County in Maryland (yeah… there’s a pro-gun sheriff in Maryland) is under fire from anti-gunners after a comment he made about protecting the Second Amendment rights of Wicomico citizens. According to Delmarvanow.com, Sheriff Mike Lewis is on record explaining that Federal curbs to the Second Amendment will not be tolerated in his county:"As long as I'm the sheriff in this county,...

Gun ranges are frequently targeted by left-wing activists in the government, and sadly, one is finally about to be wrongly shut down. This is alarming, because it marks the beginning of a slippery slope leading to forcing other gun ranges out of business. This will ultimately lead to a lack of reputable places for people to learn how to defend themselves with firearms, and a major step backwards for the Second Amendment after years of withstanding progressive attacks.The Kitsap Rifle and Revolver Club in Washington state has been targeted for nearly 20 years now by left-wing activists in government. I...

Via 90 Miles, Venezuela Launches Disarmament Program. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is launching a nationwide initiative to encourage civilians to surrender their weapons, in an urgent attempt to stem the tide of violence in his country, which has the second-highest murder rate in the world. What they really meant to say: Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is launching a nationwide initiative to encourage civilians to surrender their weapons because his communist policies have failed and the people are starting to notice. He must double-down with the tyranny and, to do so, must first disarm his victims. History is full of examples:...

The Islamic State has issued a global call to lone wolves. One could be standing behind you on the bus, walking next you at the mall or sitting in the next cubicle. In the age of the Islamic State and solo terrorism, gun-free zones are simply an invitation for a terrorist attack. In Moore, Okla., the life-saving value of the Second Amendment was proved once again. It may be our secret weapon in the ongoing war against terrorism.