Free Republic

I was in Brussels last week at a meeting of European fieldsports body, The European Federation of Associations for Hunting & Conservation (FACE), of which the Countryside Alliance is an active member. I am honoured to be FACE’s UK Chairman and to represent British sporting interests at the highest level and I can feed back some interesting points from the meeting.

ecurity: A video by Somalia's al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab group warns Minnesota's Mall of America may be a repeat of a 2013 mall attack in Kenya. The Second Amendment may be our best defense against terrorism. The immense Mall of America in Bloomington would indeed make an inviting target for jihadists intent on martyrdom. Its 520 stores, the most of any mall in the world, attracts 40 million people annually and is a global tourist destination. It's as inviting a target and as much of an iconic symbol of Western capitalism and culture as was the World Trade Center on Sept. 11,...

The 16 members of Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy’s Sandy Hook Advisory Commission have completed their report on the December, 2012 murder of 26 children and adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. And as might be expected from a hand-picked group of “healthcare professionals, public safety professionals and academics” their recommendations—offered in a 250 page anti-gun rights treatise—will have little to no effect preventing the next lunatic killing at will in one of Connecticut’s widely publicized Gun Free Zones. “We support the concept of firearm registration,” writes the editorial board of the CT Post, “though that would not...

Now, here’s something you don’t see everyday; a police officer from Ohio doing a routine traffic stop thanked the person he pulled over for having a concealed carry permit. The man, who recorded the traffic stop, was driving 15 miles per hour over the speed limit. According to Ohio law, if you’re approached by law enforcement–and you’re carrying a concealed firearm– you must inform them. “I’m happy to see more people with their CCWs [concealed carry weapons permit], especially with the world becoming the way it is,” said the officer. VIDEO He then issued the man a warning and...

Lt. Governor Dan Patrick was quoted as saying that open carry bills might not come up for a vote this session on Tuesday.  From dallasnews.com:  “Open carry is important, but I don’t think there is support in the Legislature to pass it,” Patrick said. “The votes have not been there.”  Wednesday he reiterated his support for that legislation.  From texastribune.org: After noting that he had referred a bill to committee allowing concealed weapons to be carried on university campuses by those with appropriate licenses, Patrick said in a statement, "Now that [Senate Bill] 11 has support and is moving...

An internal ruling made by the Venezuelan Ministry of Defense, published on Tuesday, January 27, in state newsletter Gaceta Oficial, legalizes the use of lethal weapons by the national armed forces (FANB) against protesters. [snip] Under Venezuelan law, the Defense Ministry does not have the authority to override or ignore the Constitution and the norms contained therein. María Esperanza Hermida, coordinator for enforcement in Venezuelan NGO (Provea) argued that the measure violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), as well as transferring competencies to the military which are the...

Are you starting to forget just how creepy government agencies can be when they decide to spy on average (law abiding) citizens? Well, this should help refocus your distrust of big government. According to AP News:The Drug Enforcement Administration abandoned an internal proposal to use surveillance cameras for photographing vehicle license plates near gun shows in the United States to investigate gun-trafficking, the agency's chief said Wednesday.Um, good… Also: “What the heck?”So the DEA was planning on tracking everyone that went to a gun show? Wow… Nothing like being innocent until proven guilty, right? It might be time to start borrowing...

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, is circulating a petition to have Emily Miller fired, for what they allege is an ethics problem because she’s involved in the gun rights movement. They didn’t like her speech to the Virginia Defense league.

I do not intend to reiterate here just how extraordinarily difficult it is to execute laws that aim to track pieces of unserialized metal. Nor, for that matter, will I attempt to lay out what any earnest attempt to do so would end up doing to privacy rights in the United States. Rather, I want to focus on the grossly unequal manner in which such rules will inevitably be enforced, and to examine also what this does to the notion of equal protection. From my perspective, the startling thing about the Gregory affair is not so much that the powers-that-be...

Full Title - New York Sheriff On Handgun Renewal Permits, ‘Throw Them In The Garbage Because That Is Where They Belong.’ [VIDEO] Fulton County, N.Y. is home to a strong hunting and fishing tradition. Guns are everywhere, but life isn’t easy.Temperatures are often well below zero, and snow piles drift up so high against your home that you have to go to the second floor to be able to look outside a window. Jobs are scarce since the leather industry exited a few decades ago. Taxes are high, and it seems the government solution to the unemployment problem is to...

OLYMPIA — Gun rights supporters rallied on steps of the Washington Capitol on Thursday, admitting they were caught off guard by Initiative 594 while vowing to change and repeal the voter-passed initiative on gun background checks. One legislator, Rep. Matt Shea, R-Spokane Valley, urged outright disobedience of the law, which requires criminal background checks for those purchasing firearms at gun shows and on-line. “We will not comply: We will ask our sheriffs and prosecutors not to comply as well,” said Shea. Shea was a visitor last year to the compound of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who has refused to pay...

A person's moral compass can be determined by how he references free men their right to defend themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUexKY8Blew

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...