Free Republic

Well Obama, what do you have to say now? It was on Church Street at Parramatta just after 4pm yesterday. Exclusive footage obtained by 7 News shows 15-year-old Farhad Jabar Khalil Mohammed walking along, dressed in black, waving a gun and shouting at police. The video shows the final moments of this radicalised teenagers. As it all unfolds, just metres away behind a wall, young children play at the Good Start day care centre. Farhad Jabar Khalil Mohammed must have known it was a suicide missions, but what he was doing was worth dying for, was worth killing Curtis Cheng...

(...) Following the on-air shooting of two television reporters in Roanoke, Virginia, she declared: “I feel just great heartache at what happened. I want to reiterate how important it is [that] we not let yet another terrible instance go by without trying to do something more to prevent this terrible killing that is stalking our country.” She added: "We have got to do something about gun violence in America — and I will take it on." She said the same thing back in July, in an obvious shift away from avoiding Second Amendment issues during the presidential campaign to avoid...

When we talk about growing violence in America’s larger cities we frequently focus on New York and Baltimore. (And for good reason, to be honest.) But the nation’s capital has been experiencing its own problems along those lines lately. A rather chilling recounting of some of these “local stories” provides the backdrop for a recent op-ed column in the WaPo by Colbert I. King. I’ll confess that some of the stories of violence and mayhem King is talking about were completely unknown to me, leading the author to compare Washington to “the wild west.” One example is the case where...

The media enthusiastically remind us that it's the first anniversary of the death of Ferguson's Michael Brown, a death that spawned the so-called Black Lives Matter movement. In a September speech at the United Nations, President Barack Obama said, "The world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri -- where a young man was killed, and a community was divided." Never mind that both a grand jury and the federal Department of Justice exonerated the officer who shot and killed Brown. Never mind that neither the physical evidence nor eyewitness testimony corroborated the assertions that Brown...

My town, New York City, enforces rigid gun laws. Police refused to assign me a gun permit. The law doesn't even let me hold a fake gun on TV to demonstrate something. But New York politicians are so eager to vilify gun ownership that they granted an exception to the anti-gun group States United to Prevent Gun Violence. New York allowed States United to set up a fake gun store, where cameras filmed potential gun customers being spoofed by an actor pretending to be a gun-seller. "This a nine-millimeter semi-automatic. It's a very handy gun. It's easy to use," he...

NEW YORK (MYFOXNY) -NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton is warning that a new, disturbing trend of increased violence must be put in check before it’s too late.

BEIJING (AP) -- Often the target of U.S. human rights accusations, China wasted little time returning such charges following the shooting at a historic black church in South Carolina that left nine people dead. Elsewhere around the world, the attack renewed perceptions that Americans have too many guns and have yet to overcome racial tensions. Some said the attack reinforced their reservations about personal security in the U.S. - particularly as a non-white foreigner - while others said they'd still feel safe if they were to visit.

One would think that Catholic priests like Chicago’s Rev. Michael Pfleger, an early supporter of Barack Obama and his push for gun control, would not be bearing false witness against one of his neighbors. Yet there he was standing in front of Chuck’s Gun Shop in suburban Riverdale, Illinois, to blame it, and other legal businesses like it, along with the National Rifle Association, for the murder spree in the gun-controlled progressive worker’s paradise of Chicago. Standing with the camera-shy Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence president Dan Gross in front of the gun shop,...

Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to authorize $60 million in taxpayer money to go to the Centers of Disease Control (CDC) for research on gun violence prevention. The measure, introduced last week, would give $10 million a year “for each of fiscal years 2016 through 2021 for the purpose of conducting or supporting research on firearms safety or gun violence prevention under the Public Health Service Act.” “The epidemic of gun violence in America is not preordained, it is preventable,” Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.) says in a press release. “In the 21st century, we should use research and advances in...

The Dart Center in Phoenix is holding a "workshop for journalists on covering guns and gun violence".  It is funded from a grant by the Michael Bloomber organization, "Everytown for Gun Safety", a gun control front group.  I sent a two emails to the Dart Center contact about the workshop.  I was ignored, so I started digging for myself. One of the things that I found was a draft list of speakers for the workshop.  It was clear that the list is a work in progress, so I decided to assist the Dart Center with some obvious suggestions.   The...

In the debate over the right to keep and bear arms and the secondary question of the utility of being armed, some social scientists have attempted to show that the presence of guns makes people more aggressive.  This claimed "weapons effect" has been discredited.  The best summation of the failure to show such an effect, in my opinion, was this article published in The Volokh Conspiracy in 2011.  Here is a small excerpt: Thus, EMA v. Brown rejects the “violent video game effect” studies for failing to demonstrate a compelling state interest. Indeed, EMA suggests that the studies do...

I was shocked to read the news that Nathaniel Sam Shapiro’s play “The Erlkings,” written from the perspective of the two Columbine HS killers, is set to open off Broadway at the Beckett Theatre this month. I heard he’d written the play several years ago, but thought it was too appalling to ever make it to the stage, let alone to the nation’s leading theater district. On April 20, 1999, the Columbine killers shot and killed my father, Dave, and 12 innocent students. I acknowledge — and would even go so far as to say admire — the playwright’s aim...

Former senior political advisor for President Obama David Axelrod woke up this morning dismayed by the amount of anxiety in America about Ebola.

".....She also warned of a rise in the use of long guns: “There will be a proliferation of these guns," she said. "If these guns fall into the wrong hands, you get 20 dead kids like you did at Newtown."

I blogged about the controversy over this resolution a couple of weeks ago; Rabbi Elli Fischer, drafter of the resolution, was kind enough to send this response — my apologies for the delay posting it: In light of the response of a dozen rabbis to a Rabbinical Council of America resolution on gun violence in America in several media, including the Volokh Conspiracy, I would like to clarify a few things about that resolution. 1) In the interests of full disclosure: I was chairman of the RCA Resolutions Committee that drafted the resolution in question. I do not speak for...

Chicago Liberals have decided to do what they do best: kill businesses and ban firearms simultaneously. The new gun laws proposed by the city of Chicago are being described (by admitted leftists) as the “smartest in the Nation.” Needless to say: They’re pretty dumb. A Federal Judge demanded earlier this year that the city develop an actionable plan to allow gun sales within city limits. Of course, not all (or any) of the city council members seem on board. Ald. Water Burnett Jr said of the gun stores, “I don’t think we want these kinds of things in our communities...

One person was killed and four others injured after a man opened fire at an overnight party early Sunday in East Hollywood to celebrate the upcoming Black Entertainment Television Awards. The assailant was a lone gunman who is still at large, said Officer Drake Madison of the Los Angeles Police Department. The shooting occurred at 5:17 a.m., when the gunman fired several rounds, Madison said. Ambulances transported three victims to a local hospital, where one died. The two others arranged their own hospital transportation. Investigators have not released information about the victims. The coroner’s office said early Sunday that it...

KENT, Ohio - According to school officials, reports of a shot fired near Bowman Hall on the Kent State main campus. Kent police are assisting Kent State police officers on the scene. According to Executive Director of University Media Relations Eric Mansfield, the suspect is a black male wearing basketball shorts, carrying a silver handgun. Officials are asking everyone to avoid the area. Seek shelter until further notice. This FlashAlert, emergency text messages, was sent to all students: "Kent Main Campus: Report of a shot fired near Bowman Hall. Officers in area. Stay away from area. If in area, Shelter...

The label "gun violence" has become epidemic in the debate about firearms law and the second amendment.  "Gun Violence" is a propaganda metric designed to win the debate in public discourse about the second amendment.  It accomplishes this by defining the terms in a way favorable to gun prohibition efforts.   Here is a example to illustrate this, using hospitals. No one favors people dieing in hospitals.  Why would anyone want someone to die in a hospital?  Therefore, we can create a legislative solution to hospital deaths.   We can prevent nearly all hospital deaths with a simple law.  All we...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (CBSDC) – Accelerated aging and a greater likelihood of suffering from an age-related illness at a younger age are two consequences being linked to African-American men who have experienced high-levels of racism throughout their lives. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that African-American men who reported high levels of racial discrimination, or who have internalized anti-black attitudes, have an increased risk of premature death and chronic disease than white people. Previous research has documented African-Americans’ shorter life expectancy and greater risk of chronic diseases, but this new study is the first to...