Free Republic

...the [NY police] department was accepting proposals from companies that would link acoustic sensors to cameras that swivel toward spots where shots are fired, ideally capturing the culprit’s image. Such a system was recently deployed in Mount Vernon, in Westchester County; its police department bought audio sensors from ShotSpotter and swiveling cameras from another vendor.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Opponents of the so-called guns in bars and restaurant law won their battle in court Friday. Nine local restaurant owners filed a petition in August asking for a hearing on an injunction to challenge the law. In court on Friday, a judge found the new state law to be unconstitutional due to vagueness. The law, which allows gun carry permit holders to take their weapons into bars and restaurants where alcohol is served, went into effect in July. The law will be put on hold until lawmakers return to session in January. Some lawmakers said they would...

Ann Arbor, Michigan POLL: Should guns be allowed on campus?

Merchant ships need guns to fight pirates. Seven months ago, Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama and held its captain hostage. Pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama again this week but were repulsed because the Maersk Shipping Line put armed guards on its ships. Pirates successfully attacked another unarmed ship on Monday, leaving 28 members of its crew dead. On Tuesday, 36 crew members of a Spanish ship were released only after pirates were paid a $3.3 million ransom. But when the pirates got within 300 yards of the Maersk Alabama, the ship tried evasive maneuvers and its security team successfully...

Yesterday, Somali pirates attacked the commercial cargo ship Maersk Alabama. This time, however, an armed security team successfully thwarted the attackers. Last April, Somali pirates successfully attacked the Alabama, kidnapping ship’s Captain Phillips and holding him hostage until Navy SEAL snipers killed the captors. In 2008, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of the U.S. Navy’s fleet in that area, specifically warned that the Navy “can’t be everywhere” and that “shipping companies have to take responsibility for their own ships.” It appears that after the last near-tragedy, Maersk took the warning seriously. But the story also highlights media bias against self-defense....

I got the following pictures in an e-mail. How would a revolver explode like this?

About an hour ago, the Associated Press reported that the crew of the US-flagged merchant vessel Maersk Alabama repelled a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia.  This is the same ship that was boarded by pirates last April.  At that time, the captain of the ship was taken hostage and was held by pirates in a lifeboat for five days.  The incident ended when US Navy SEAL snipers simultaneously killed all three pirates aboard the lifeboat in a nighttime action.  This time, the pirates never got aboard the ship. What was the difference?  Guns.As the AP report makes abundantly clear,...

<p>The former head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection called Monday for the U.S. to reinstitute the ban on assault weapons and take other measures to rein in the war between Mexico and its drug cartels, saying the violence has the potential to bring down legitimate rule in that country.</p>

FORT BELVOIR, Va. - A Soldier successfully shoulder-fired a "smart" High Explosive Airburst, or HEAB round for the first time Aug. 11 from the XM-25 weapon system at Aberdeen Test Center, Md. The Army plans on purchasing more than 12,500 XM-25 systems starting in 2012, which will be enough to put one in each Infantry squad and Special Forces team, according to officials at Program Executive Office-Soldier. At first glance, the XM-25 looks like something out of a Sci-Fi movie. It features an array of sights, sensors and lasers housed in a Target Acquisition Fire Control unit on top, an...

Obama revives talk of U.N. gun control NRA guests warn international treaty would strip 2nd Amendment rights… This is the one thing they fear Our right to bear arms …. Once they take our guns… well isnt that what Europe did right Before WW2? funny how the new Administration reminds me of the Nazis in the 30’s ctpatriot1970.wordpress.com

He may be an utter failure as a President; a hollow, arrogant, petty, vindictive, malicious, poorly-behaved and ill-spoken, embarassing empty suit of a man, but he's also the world's greatest gun salesman. The UK papers are reporting that sales have nearly tripled for Smith and Wesson, and that the rest of the industry is sharing similar growth. The UK papers say it's because Americans are concerned about growing crime(?), the economy, and terrorism. The real truth is that Americans are buying weapons at a record pace to protect themselves from the government and Mr. Obama.

Smith & Wesson, the famed American gunmaker once owned by Tomkins, the British conglomerate, expects to nearly double its annual sales in the next three to five years as demand for its firearms soars in the recession. It is not alone. All over America demand for firearms and ammunition is rising amid concerns that rising unemployment, which passed 10 per cent this month, will lead inexorably to higher rates of crime. Fears of terrorism have also helped to lift demand, as have concerns among gun owners that the Obama Administration may introduce restrictions on gun ownership and impose additional taxes.

Attorney General Eric Holder is retreating on his commitment to pursue a controversial gun-control measure. Holder’s statements, recently delivered to senators in writing, clearly indicate the Obama administration is in no rush to reinstate the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. In response to written questions from Senate Judiciary Committee members, Holder adopted a much different tone on the ban than he did in February, when he said, “As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the...

Early in the morning of Dec. 5, 1999, off-duty Las Vegas police officer Dennis Devitte was one of the customers at Mr. D's Sportsbar & Grill, at Rainbow and Oakey boulevards, where he and some pals had gone to hear the band Pigs in a Blanket. A little after 1 a.m., three armed robbers charged through the back door with guns drawn and their faces covered with T-shirts or bandanas. "I'd only been in the bar a short time and was talking to friends," Mr. Devitte later told an interviewer for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "I saw...

Ex-soldier faces jail for handing in gun Thursday, November 12, 2009, 10:30 A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon. In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: "I...

As a parent of five children, I understand the responsibility I have for each of them. I am responsible for their health and welfare and everything that goes with it. I am responsible for good decision making that keeps them from danger. Which is why I find it repulsive that a father who not only allowed his eight year old son to handle an Uzi, but paid for the child's opportunity to fire it, would sue the gun fair where the child fatally wounded himself: According to the 32-page lawsuit, on Oct. 28, 2008, Charles Bizilj purchased the opportunity for...

The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.

Just like an unprincipled, self-interested, tin-eared politician, Mayor Richard Daley decided to use the massacre at Fort Hood to flog his prosaic anti-gun message in Chicago. When asked if Islam had anything at all to do with the Fort Hood massacre and if Muslims might expect some sort of backlash or anti-Islamic movement because of Nidal Hasan's evil act of terror, Daley replied: "Every day in society people are getting killed, unfortunately. America loves guns, we love guns to a point that we see the devastation on a daily basis. You don't blame a group, you don't blame a society......

Nothing would be more fitting then to discuss Veterans and the second amendment on this Veterans day, because without Veterans fighting for our freedoms across the world, there would be no second amendment right, and there would be no Constitutional rights. Congressman Dennis Rehberg (R - Montana) introduced the Veterans Heritage Firearms Act of 2009 on January ninth, the purpose of the legislation is to create a 90-day amnesty period which will allow for Veterans, and their families to register old firearms, which then can be kept in the family or donated to private museums, the law relates to firearms...

Time after time, public murder sprees occur in "gun-free zones" - public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The list is long, including massacres at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School along with many less deadly attacks. Last week's slaughter at Fort Hood Army base in Texas was no different - except that one man bears responsibility for the ugly reality that the men and women charged with defending America were deliberately left defenseless when a terrorist opened fire.

Junior Daley, current mayor of Chicago blames Ft. Hood’s massacre on “America’s love of guns”. Ahhh … Junior, it was a gun that ended the massacre. It works better than a hay rake. IDIOT! If guns are so bad, why do all Chitown’s cops wear one?

At Fort Hood “more guns” assuredly were “the solution to gun violence.” Pfc. Marquest Smith dove under a desk. A.P. reports that “he lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.” Neither Smith nor the other victims of Hasan’s assault had guns because soldiers on military bases within the United States generally are not

The Mayor of Chicago, whose our city is dealing day in and day out with violent crime, and not long ago lost the 2016 summer olympics bid, says that the recent Fort Hood masacre is to be blamed on guns. Does the Mayor honestly believe that a civilian ban on guns would have stopped this crazy Jihadist. Does the Mayor honestly think that a ban on possession would stop AQ from instructing and recruiting extremists to their cause in this country? It hasn’t stopped the drug lords from tearing up his city. Before you watch the video, read this from...

In Peter Kings Monday Morning Quarterback column he says this in 10 e. : "My heart goes out to the victims of the Fort Hood and Orlando shootings and their loved ones. Senseless, senseless incidents. I will not go quietly into the night on this one. America needs to do something about idiots with handguns. How many more Fort Hoods and Orlandos do there have to be before our political leaders have the guts to severely restrict access to murderous weapons?"

FAIRFAX, VA --(AmmoLand.com)– The National Rifle Association and MetaMedia Training International have won a CINE Golden Eagle Award for the Personal Protection Outside The Home DVD in the Business- Safety, Training, and Employee Development category. The training-oriented DVD is based on NRA’s Basic Personal Protection Outside The Home Course, developed by NRA’s Education & Training Division and taught to the public by NRA Certified Instructors. “We focus on educating the public about responsible handling and ownership of firearms. Our nationally-recognized firearms training programs, coupled with MetaMedia’s skill and experience in producing high-quality training videos, make the Personal Protection Outside the...

A "push in Congress for broader gun rights is threatening to derail Amtrak and stall a transportation spending bill," wrote Walter Alarkon on thehill.com on Oct. 25. "Gun-rights advocates in Congress are pressing appropriators to keep a provision that would let Amtrak passengers check in handguns with their baggage." The provision, which calls for withholding $1.5 billion in Amtrak funding if the policy isn't implemented before April, was inserted into the $68.8 billion Senate transportation and Housing and Urban Development spending bill as an amendment. All 40 Republicans, 27 Democrats and one admitted socialist voted for the amendment, sponsored by...

Years before Jason Rodriguez allegedly opened fire in a former employer's office Friday, he scared people with his spiral into erratic behavior. "He was a very, very angry man," said his former mother-in-law, America Holloway. She recalled Jason Rodriguez saying that "nobody liked him" at Reynolds, Smith and Hills Inc., an architectural-engineering firm in downtown Orlando where he worked as a draftsman until he was fired more than two years ago. In the past three or four years, 40-year-old Jason Samuel Rodriguez struggled with divorce, mental-health treatment, debt, underemployment, personal bankruptcy, and -- according to those who know him --...

(AP Photo/ Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences ) In the wake of yesterday's carnage at Fort Hood, the media is scrambling to find answers about the reported shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, and his motives. While they're all asking basically the same questions, here are some they're not asking. From Lt. Gen. Robert Cone: Cone said in a press conference Thursday night that "there was no indication" that the weapons used in the shootings were military weapons. Soldiers at the post do not carry weapons unless they are doing training exercises or something of that nature, he said....

Out of the carnage committed by a lone gunman armed with two handguns at Fort Hood on Thursday, there was one refreshing moment of total candor, if not downright common sense. An observation to a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram by Staff Sgt. Jacob Dorisca of Dallas suggests why it is that many people consider the Army to be run by sergeants, and rightly so. According to the newspaper, “Dorisca wondered whether the slayings would lead Fort Hood’s commanding general to rethink the policy of requiring soldiers to remain unarmed while on post.” What occurred at Fort Hood is...

Disturbing new details surfaced yesterday about the deranged Fort Hood gunman and his methodical mass murder plot, which survivors say began with him screaming "Allahu akbar," before he fired more than 100 rounds at his fellow soldiers. The mystery of how Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, failed to draw concern from military brass before the attack -- despite trying to leave the Army for months, denouncing the war on terror and saying he was "a Muslim first and an American second" -- deepened as families prepared to bury his 13 victims. Some of the 23 people still hospitalized...

A record setting 12 billion rounds of ammunition have been bought by Americans in the last 12 month That's up two to five billion over a normal year. With a U.S. population estimated at 305 million at the beginning of 2009, the ammo sales in the last year amount to almost two 20 round boxes for every man, woman, and child in America... There are a lot of reasons why ammunition sales are high. Some are economic reasons, and some are government related. In addition to two wars going on, there's target shooting, hunting, and Law Enforcement use where department's...

"Managing unauthorized access to firearms, particularly KIDS. Just some basic tips about securing firearms so that only YOU have access to them. Not a comprehensive safety video" A few easy to apply common sense tips to secure your firearms from little ones and ideas on dealing with their curiosity about guns.

Students all over the state of Michigan may soon be able to carry concealed weapons on campus. Bill 5474, introduced by Wayne Schmidt, R-Traverse City, to the Michigan House of Representatives, would prohibit colleges from banning weapons on campus. Section two of the bill specifically outlines what local units of government and institutions of higher learning would not be able to do if the bill were passed. “A local unit of government or institution of higher education shall not impose special taxation on, enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner the ownership,...

A New Jersy appeals court has concludedthat Americans have no Second Amendment right to buy a handgun

UNLV REBEL YELL 2009 click image to enlarge To capture the essence of a classic Socratic quandary, imagine this scenario: You know that the right thing to do is to return your friend’s gun to him or her if you have taken it. But should you return it if you know that person is mentally unstable and would use it against others? I’m betting that most people would say no, and with good reason. Even though the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, in reality, not everyone has the right to gun ownership – the background check is...

"More than 500 officers smashed their way into thousands of safety-deposit boxes to retrieve guns, drugs and millions of pounds of criminal assets. At least, that's what was supposed to happen. Adrian Levy and Cathy Scott-Clark investigate" Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1222777/The-raid-rocked-Met-Why-gun-drugs-op-6-717-safety-deposit-boxes-cost-taxpayer-fortune.html#ixzz0VDacv0T6

FORT WORTH, Texas Smugglers with a Mexican drug cartel targeted last week by federal authorities used homes and business parking lots in Fort Worth and Cleburne, Texas, to stash and trade weapons bound for the border, according to federal court documents. Five acres surrounded by barbed wire in Cleburne and a south Fort Worth restaurant parking lot were among the locations where guns were exchanged, investigators said. Smugglers transporting weapons on Interstate 35W used two-way radios to watch for law enforcement tails. Those are among the details included in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court by the Bureau...

A Des Moines girl was suspended after school officials said she violated their weapons policy. Jazmine Martin, 12, brought an empty shotgun shell to school on Monday, a souvenir from a summer vacation to South Dakota. The shell was empty and had the word "blank" written on the front.

Note: The following text is a quote: Queens Man and Accomplice Charged with Attempting to Provide Material Support to Hizballah Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the FBI, announced the filing of an indictment yesterday charging Patrick Nayyar and Conrad Stanisclaus Mulholland with attempting to provide material support to Hizballah, a designated foreign terrorist organization. The indictment also charges Nayyar with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition. On Sept. 24, 2009, Nayyar, a 46-year-old citizen of India who had...

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. --...

I recently wrote an article for Shotgun News making the argument that while open carry of firearms is legal in many American cities, it may not be particularly wise. Open carry in a number of states is not just legal, but protected by the state constitution. But just because something is legal, even constitutionally protected, doesn’t mean that it is wise. Carrying a gun openly in a city can — and does — offend people who might not have a strong opinion one way or the other about gun control. Boise, Idaho, is about as pro-gun as any big city...

One of the people, a great-grandmother, reached into her purse on the floor, pulled out a .357-caliber Magnum pistol and shot Winston once in the chest.

Obama declares swine flu emergency 9 mins ago WASHINGTON (AFP) – President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a "national emergency," the White House said Saturday, as the United States reels from millions of cases of infection and over 1,000 deaths.

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...

For a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been forbidden by Congress from doing research on gun-control issues. Such piddling hurdles as federal law don't matter to the Obama administration. With a wave of a hand, the CDC has simply redefined gun-control research so the ban no longer applies. They're not researching guns; they're researching alcohol sales and their impact on gun violence, or researching how teens carrying guns affect the rates of non-gun injuries. "These particular grants do not address gun control; rather they deal with the surrounding web of circumstances," wrote National Institutes of Health...

BOSTON - A pharmacy college graduate conspired with two other men on a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq, prosecutors said Wednesday. But their plans — in which the men used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps — were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said. Tarek Mehanna worked with the men from 2001 to May 2008 on the...

Ohio has joined with several other states, including Montana and Tennessee, in asserting independence from federal gun laws with the introduction of House Bill 315. This bill, sponsored by Representatives Morgan and Martin, would make all guns manufactured wholly within the state of Ohio exempt from federal gun regulations provided sales are within state boundaries. The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, and Explosives has claimed that they have the authority through the right to regulate interstate commerce because even exclusive intrastate sales of guns have an effect on gun sales nationwide. With two states already having passed similar bills, and...

ShotSpotter sensors were slated to be installed on electrical poles in a one-square-mile area in a north Oak Cliff neighborhood. The sensors work by picking up the sonic waves emitted by gunshots, triangulating the location of the gunfire and notifying 911 operators to send police.

Jews and Guns Posted By Robert J. Avrech On October 19, 2009 @ 6:43 am In Military, Politics | An Ethiopian Jewish [1] woman soldier takes aim. Both men and women serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. Thus, there is a weapon in almost every Israeli home. Before our son Ariel Chaim [2] ZT”L passed away, age twenty-two, in 2003, we spent a good deal of time discussing the Second Amendment, the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Ariel was amazed that so many American Jews—overwhelmingly liberal and secular—aligned themselves with the advocates of gun control, in reality a movement...

Hundreds of armed people filled a Hudson park Saturday afternoon as part of an anti-tax and pro-second amendment rally.