Free Republic

ST. LOUIS • Activists supporting the Black Lives Matter movement temporarily blocked westbound traffic on Highway 40 (Interstate 64) downtown Saturday afternoon as part of a protest to raise the issue of racial inequality. Earlier Saturday, several local groups, including the Organization for Black Struggle and the St. Louis chapter of Hands Up United, had organized a rally at the Old Courthouse. The Old Courthouse, a powerful symbol for activists, is the site where the slave Dred Scott sued for his freedom in the landmark legal case that he eventually lost. Slave auctions also were held on the courthouse steps....

BALLWIN, MO (KTVI)- A police officer is listed in critical, stable condition after being shot during a traffic stop Friday in west St. Louis County. It happened shortly before 11 a.m. in the 300 block of New Ballwin Road, in Ballwin, MO. The officer sustained a wound to the neck. The officer, who works for the Ballwin Police Department, was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Officials say the officer was at the traffic stop and approached the suspect vehicle. As he returned back to his squad car, the suspect exited his vehicle and fired three shots.

An attendee at Busch Stadium in St Louis was shot and mugged in November of 2015.  Justin Hulsey was inspired. He designed a business to make events safer and more convenient for the public. Because the Stadium is a gun free zone, he developed a way to minimize the time that people will be left unarmed. He created a way for them to safely store their self defense tools during the event they are attending. From fox2now.com: Hulsey calls it Mobile Safe Storage. He is outfitting a 22 foot-long step van with armor and security cameras and has hired...

Missouri Senate Majority Floor Leader Mike Kehoe (R-Dist. 6) says he and his GOP colleagues are ready to override Governor Jay Nixon’s (D) veto of permitless carry legislation. Nixon vetoed the legislation, SB 656, on June 27, just over two weeks after defenseless Orlando, Florida, residents demonstrated the dangers unarmed citizens face when targeted by a determined armed attacker. According to The Kansas City Star, House Speaker Todd Richardson (R-Dist. 152) said the House will override the veto if an override attempt prevails in the Senate.

ST. LOUIS (KTVI) – The carjacking suspect wounded in a shootout near Busch Stadium last month has died. (Follow up story from earlier post.)

The Missouri omnibus firearm reform bill, SB 656, has passed the legislature on the last day of the session, May 13, 2016. It includes permitless or “Constitutional” carry. It will now go to Governor Nixon for signature or veto. According to the NRA-ILA, SB 656 has these primary features: Recognize Missourians right to Constitutional/Permitless Carry where open carry is not prohibitedExpand Missouri’s current Stand your Ground lawsExpand Castle Doctrine protections for anyone legally allowed into your home, vehicle, business and propertySpecify that except for credit card fees incurred, no additional fee beyond $100 may be charged to process concealed...

The Missouri House of Representatives passed a “Constitutional Carry” bill Monday, protecting the rights of citizens to carry handguns without a permit. House Bill 1468 — introduced by Representative Eric Burlison — passed by an overwhelming 112-37 vote and will now head to the state Senate.

Tuesday March 15, 2016367 of 2,472 delegates at stake

Thirteen states hold primaries or caucuses over the next two weeks. Of them, Trump is leading polls in nine, according to the RealClearPolitics average, including some of the most important, winner-take-all states. The other states — Hawaii, Maine, Idaho, and Missouri — don't have any recent polls listed on the site. They're also the three states with the fewest delegates to award. And in Maine, Trump has the endorsement of Gov. Paul LePage.

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. (ChurchMilitant.com) - A Missouri state court has ruled in favor of the diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, upholding its right to fire an employee who publicly contracted a so-called gay marriage, as it opposes Church teaching. Before being hired by the diocese as director of social ministries at St. Francis Xavier Parish in 2013, Colleen Simon informed the director of religious education she was a lesbian and was told then that would not bar her from being employed there. But when an article in the Kansas City Star's 816 Magazine broke the story of her so-called marriage to...

ARNOLD, Mo. -- U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt launched his re-election campaign Friday by saying too many regulations are hurting the economy, but he is confident America's better days "are ahead of us." The Republican senator officially began the campaign with a rally at Unico-SGI Manufacturing in Arnold, the first of a 10-stop, two-day tour across the state. Blunt's office says the location was chosen because he helped save the business from what it calls "onerous federal regulations."

,/img> First Lady, daughters, and mother spent week touring London, England; Milan, Venice, and Vicenza, Italy (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on August 5, 2015, it obtained flight expense records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force revealing that Michelle Obama’s June 2015 trip to the United Kingdom and Italy, accompanied by her daughters and mother, cost the taxpayers $240,495.67 in flight expenses alone. The records were released in response to a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request filed on June 22, 2015. According to the Air Force documents, the flights to London, England; and Milan, Venice,...

Football players at the University of Massachusetts should go on strike. They should refuse to show up for practice or play in any more games this season until their demands are met. Their complaint is that they just can't win any football games. The team so far this season is 1-8, last year it was 3-9, the year before it was 1-11, the same as it was in 2012. So if the new president of UMass can't do anything about it, then he ought to resign, and the football players should refuse to play anymore games until he does so,...

The Pentagon has responded to a globally-released ‘Kill List’, asking law enforcement to give extra protection for military personnel whose personal information was released,News Channel 10 reports. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports the Pentagon spent the weekend notifying the soldiers who appeared on the list, and urged city police departments and military police to increase patrol in the neighborhoods where the targeted live. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) published the list days ago, a report that contained names, photos, and home addresses of U.S. Armed Forces personnel, causing alarm in cities potentially at high-risk....

The Missouri State Supreme Court has upheld Amendment 5, which provides increased protection of the right to keep and bear arms in the State.  From stlpublicradio.org: Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat running for governor in 2016, has stuck by Amendment 5 as well -- despite heat he has taken from fellow Democrats, including St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce. In her own statement, Joyce said her office was closely reviewing the Supreme Court's decision. "We remain very hopeful that we will retain our abilities to hold gun offenders accountable to ensure the safety of all citizens in...

 Link to Video: Would you shoot a suspect who claims to have a gun?  That is the decision that Pharmacist Pete Spallito faced on Tuesday, the 9th of June, in Kansas City, Missouri.   In the video, Spallito is confronted with a masked woman who demands all the Oxycontin in the store.   She said that she had a gun in the bag that she was carrying, and placed the bag on the counter.   From kctv5.com: Pete Spalitto described Tuesday's events to KCTV5. He said that after the woman confronted his employee that the employee turned to him. The woman then...

The St. Louis Zoo has asked for, and Judge Joan Moriarty has issued, a temporary restraining order barring a Second Amendment activist from visiting the Zoo while armed.  From Fox2now.com: ST. LOUIS (AP) – A judge is barring a gun-rights advocate from entering the St. Louis Zoo with a gun as he pledged to do this weekend.St. Louis Circuit Judge Joan Moriarty issued a temporary restraining order against 56-year-old Jeffry Smith of Cincinnati. It’s in effect until a hearing June 22.Smith planned to go armed to the St. Louis Zoo on Saturday afternoon to test the legality of the...

   A St. Louis Judge has ruled that Missouri's tough new protection of the right to keep and bear arms is not just a paper tiger.  In the first ruling of its kind, the court ruled that a person cannot be prohibited from the right to keep and bear arms under Missouri statutes, for a non-violent felony.  From stltoday.com: St. Louis Circuit Judge Robert Dierker ruled that the Missouri law prohibiting felons from possessing guns is unconstitutional as applied in the case of Raymond Robinson, in part because it fails to differentiate between violent and non-violent felons.The amendment declares...

     In St. Louis, Missouri, before Ferguson, the police arrested an 18-year-old on gun and drug charges.   An officer turned off the dashcam video of the event, and because of that, the prosecutor dropped all charges. Link to video Here: From kfor.com:  Police drop gun charge because of video. Police say they found marijuana and a loaded handgun in Bufford’s pocket. The police report says an officer noticed it before the tazing and announced, “He has a gun.” The report continues, “In an attempt to prevent (Bufford) from reaching the weapon, (an officer) administered one foot strike.” Schwartz said,...

HARTSBURG, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) invites women to get a hands-on outdoor-skills lesson in basic handgun shooting at one of two upcoming free classes being held at Ammo Alley on the following dates: Jan. 27, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. with registration required by Jan. 23 Feb. 24, 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. with registration required by Feb. 21