Free Republic

Vice president Joe Biden has disparaged gun-rights advocates as “tea baggers,” CNN host John Walsh told reporters today. ... ‘They’re all scared sh*tless of the NRA, aren’t they?’” (said John Walsh) “‘John, every one of them,’” the vice president replied, according to Walsh. “‘Because the NRA will run a tea-bagger against you. . . . They’ll put 5 million bucks against you.’”

A federal court is ordering the city of Chicago to pay the National Rifle Association nearly $1 million in legal fees.

Senator Elizabeth Warren joined Mayor Thomas M. Menino on Friday to press for stricter gun control and throw her support behind three Senate bills that are expected to be filed next week in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn. “We owe it to our children to start,” Warren said at a news conference at the Parkman House, the city-owned Beacon Hill residence where Menino is convalescing after a lengthy illness. On Dec. 14, a gunman with an assault rifle and two pistols killed 20 first-graders and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Warren said she will...

In a speech to be delivered at the National Consumer Law Center's three-day Consumer Rights Litigation Conference starting today in Washington, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., talks about a myriad of issues including the battle to enact federal gun control legislation and the successes of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren, who took office a year ago in a pricey Senate race against Republican Scott Brown, reiterates her position in the speech that the system is rigged for corporations and big business. But she ads that with common sense solutions, government can be part of the solution rather than another...

Elizabeth Warren rips into GOP, NRA By: Patrick Reis March 14, 2013 09:07 AM EDT Sen. Elizabeth Warren planted a liberal flag on Thursday, pushing the government’s right to regulate as she ripped Republicans, the National Rifle Association and anyone else who would stand in its way. In a wide-ranging speech to the Consumer Federation of America, Warren defended federal regulations as essential for safe consumers and a healthy economy. And at a time when “cutting red tape” is a key plank of Republicans’ plan for economic growth, Warren argued that regulations were a success story in America. “It’s thanks...

Survivors of gun violence and gun control advocates plan to deliver around 2.5 million postcards to elected officials across the country next week to demand political action on the issue. More than 625,000 people signed on to support the postcard campaign, initiated by the pro-gun control groups Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and Everytown for Gun Safety in the days following the May 23 shooting near the University of California Santa Barbara. Beginning Monday, the organizations plan to hand-deliver a postcard to each supporter’s U.S. House representative, two U.S. senators and governor – about 2.5 million postcards...

Before you sigh and repeat the worn old mantra that Alaska’s lone Congressman Don Young, its longest serving republican is unbeatable in this state, don’t discount the potential power of this energetic, smart, savvy young man with considerable Alaska credentials going for him. Forrest Dunbar, a 29-year-old attorney who calls Cordova home, is running as on the democratic ticket to unseat longtime U.S. Rep. Don Young (R) in the November 4th General Election. Dunbar, who has the endorsement of the state’s Democratic Party, introduced himself to local residents at the Resurrect Arts Coffee Shop and Gallery in Seward Thursday, June...

How the NRA Rewrote the Second Amendment The Founders never intended to create an unregulated individual right to a gun. Today, millions believe they did. Here’s how it happened. By MICHAEL WALDMAN May 19, 2014 "A fraud on the American public.” That’s how former Chief Justice Warren Burger described the idea that the Second Amendment gives an unfettered individual right to a gun. When he spoke these words to PBS in 1990, the rock-ribbed conservative appointed by Richard Nixon was expressing the longtime consensus of historians and judges across the political spectrum. Twenty-five years later, Burger’s view seems as quaint...

Remember these sixteen names when they run for office again. The sixteen Republicans who voted to proceed were Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), Susan Collins (Maine). Bob Corker (Tenn.), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Dean Heller (Nev.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), John McCain (Ariz.), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Roger Wicker (Miss.). List courtesy The Hill.com. As reported by RedState yesterday, this bill would allow doctors to add a person’s name to the national database currently used for background checks, and list them as...

I. INTRODUCTIONGod forgive me, but I used to be so anti-gun that I donated to The Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence. I know. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Since that time, IÂ’ve done a complete 180 and become a fervent gun supporter and a proud member of the NRA.This change did not come about because I suddenly became a psychopathic killer, with guns as my weapon of choice. I do kill (spiders, fleas, and ticks) and I do eat dead bodies (cows, pigs, chicken, and fish), but IÂ’m scarcely Hannibal Lecter.Instead, my reversal on guns came about...

INDIANAPOLIS — Standing in a small booth surrounded by displays for rifles, pistols, holsters and other firearm accouterments, the Rev. Kenn Blanchard signed copies of his book “Black Man With a Gun: Reloaded.” Amid the sea of thousands of white faces that descended on this city for the National Rifle Association convention in late April, Mr. Blanchard, an N.R.A. member since 1991, offered his reasoning for why he was one of the few black visitors. “We still culturally have a fear that we’re going to be that lone guy out, and you don’t want to be the lone guy out,”...

Are people who assert their Second Amendment rights by bringing rifles and shotguns into stores and restaurants "weird" and "scary?" At least one staff member at the National Rifle Association (NRA) thought so, and he expressed that view in an online commentary that the organization felt compelled to retract last week after it caused an uproar among gun-rights advocates. To some extent, the episode reflects divisions among Second Amendment activists, many of whom view the NRA, despite its reputation for adamantly resisting gun control, as insufficiently zealous. But the brouhaha also highlights a shift in American attitudes regarding the public...

The gun lovers who preach that arming American citizens to stop even more violence always ignore the fact that Wayne LaPierre was wrong. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president, infamously said after a gunman in 2012 killed 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Conn. Yet looked what happened Thursday. According to police, a student building monitor named Jon Meis used pepper spray to subdue a shooter who had already killed one student and wounded a couple others at Seattle...

On May 30th, in a 1400+ word essay, an unnamed NRA-ILA writer ignited a firestorm against Second Amendment supporters in the opposition media.  In a few badly chosen words near the end of the essay, the unnamed staffer gave the opposition priceless ammunition to smear open carriers.    This should be a lesson to everyone to choose their words carefully.   I do not know if editorial control was exercised.   It is clear that the word choices were emotionally loaded and welcomed by those who desire a disarmed population. In other words, the unnamed writer pulled a Zumbo. Here are the...

The NRA’s strong statement reprimanding a few people for carrying long guns into restaurants was bound to get media attention. Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action and much of the media quickly jumped in and described various restaurants as “asking customers to leave their guns at home.” But their assertions couldn’t be more misleading. The headline at USA Today saying “No Guns Inside” or at MSNBC and Huffington Post saying “No-Gun Policies” are simply wrong. A big deal has been made of Starbucks, Jack in the Box, Chipotle, Wendy's, Applebee's, Chili’s and Sonic’s supposed bans on guns, with Bloomberg’s groups declaring “victory.”...

The National Rifle Association has issued a strongly-worded criticism of a fellow gun rights group, calling its practice of so-called "open carry" demonstrations "downright scary." The criticisms of Open Carry Texas were noted in an unsigned post published Friday on the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action page. Open Carry Texas members have become known for gathering in public places, mostly notably restaurants, carrying large, high-powered rifles. Most recently, Sonic, Chipotle, and Chili's joined Starbucks, Wendy's, Jack in the Box, and Applebee's in banning firearms from their premises after protests by Open Carry Texas. "Let’s not mince words," the post on...

The last couple of months have been rough for proponents of open-carry gun laws. No fewer than seven restaurant chains have taken a stand against firearms being brought to their businesses, after activists in Texas conducted provocative demonstrations in which they toted semi-automatic rifles into various eateries. Texas law allows rifles (though not handguns) to be carried on display in public, but some patrons and employees were unnerved and angered by the demonstrations, and a national group advocating for reforms, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, pressured the companies using social media campaigns. After Mother Jones published videos...

On May 29, Salon magazine published a profile piece on Richard Martinez, father of Christopher Michael-Martinez, asserting that the elder Martinez "should scare the s#*+ out of the NRA." Martinez's son was among the three persons Elliot Rodger shot to death on May 23, after savagely stabbing three persons to death earlier in the evening. On May 24, Martinez blamed his son's death on "craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA." And according to Salon, the NRA has "finally" met its match and "Martinez should have them shaking" because he offers "a direct rebuttal to the LaPierres and Palins in this...

Guns: The Santa Barbara shooter had legally purchased and registered firearms, and passed prior questioning by the police who saw no danger to himself or others. More gun laws won't stop the next such shooter, either. It is eerie how the mental health of the shooter consistently seems to emerge as a key factor in mass shootings such as the rampage by Elliot Rodger, who killed six and wounded 13 on Friday. The shooter had been in therapy since age 8 and police had been warned by his parents to check him out. Yet few liberals cry for tougher mental...

Does the United States need stricter gun control laws? POLL IS LOCATED BOTTOM RIGHT VOTE NO