Free Republic

When it comes to campaign spending on the right to bear arms, the National Rifle Association is almost never outgunned. But in Washington state, where voters soon will decide on one of the most restrictive background check laws in the country, the NRA is up against some of the deepest pockets in the world. And the NRA is getting outspent more than 7-1. “This is a terrible ballot initiative that was dreamed up by people who don’t even live in Washington,” NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen said, “and it’s being financed by Michael Bloomberg of New York and his billionaire pals.”

Americans have a constitutional right to armed self-defense, but they have other choices as well. The University of Colorado, for example, last year offered the students it sought to disarm with statewide legislation other “crime prevention tactics.” Options for female students facing rapists included passive resistance,” biting, and self-degradation. According to one proponent of the bill to ban the lawful carrying of firearms on campuses, such threats are “why we have the whistles.” Along similar lines, NBC’s Today Show recently offered suggestions on how to deal with violent home invaders. Their basic advice: politely defer to the intruder, but if...

The National Rifle Association on Tuesday said it's launching a $1.3 million television ad campaign to promote Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton's bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor, a little over a year after the group ran radio ads defending Pryor's record on guns. The NRA said the 30-second spot will begin running in Little Rock and Jonesboro starting Wednesday and will run for at least four weeks. The ad touts the group's endorsement of Cotton and doesn't mention Pryor. The group is also spending six figures to run radio ads in the state and has been sending direct...

The National Rifle Association has unleashed a multimillion-dollar TV advertising campaign that its longtime leader says is aimed at messaging beyond gun rights and reaching middle-class mothers, minorities and other Americans “who believe our country is off the rails.” The gun lobby’s campaign, launched in the last 10 days, uncharacteristically delves into issues far beyond the Second Amendment to explore the IRS scandal, media elitism and security vulnerabilities, with a call to return “good guys” to power. “This campaign is a gathering of shared values that gives a sense of right and wrong,” NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told...

More Guns, Less Crime: Since Illinois began issuing concealed-carry permits this year, robberies, burglaries, car thefts and, yes, even murder, are down significantly. Last month, when an 86-year-old Crestwood, Ill., man decided to visit his local phone store, he arrived to find a robbery underway. After staying outside to keep others from entering the store, he saw the suspect fleeing through a back door. He pursued the suspect, legal firearm in hand, stopped him, then held him until police arrived to make the arrest. The actions of the unidentified law-abiding citizen were made possible by Illinois becoming the 50th and...

Mike Dickinson, the unhinged Virginia Democrat who once sought the House seat formerly held by Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., issued a tweet Sunday asking God to kill everyone in the NRA with the Ebola virus. The tweet was sent after he issued another message saying he would lead a prayer asking God to murder everyone in the NRA during the debut of his alleged radio program. "Dear god (sic)," he began. "Please use Ebola to infect the @NRA and it's various members. For they are A (sic) true virus and true terrorists in America." He followed that up with another...

Gregory Ferenstein, VentureBeat August 27, 2014Bill Gates is opening up his considerable piggy bank in Silicon Valley’s fight against the National Rifle Association. The Microsoft billionaire donated $1 million to Initiative 594, which will require criminal background checks for firearm sales. Gates joins a long line of high-profile activists in the fighting the powerful gun lobby. Michael Bloomberg’s plans post mayoral duties include large campaigns for gun control. Noted Facebook investor Ron Conway has made gun reform his signature political cause, championing hackathons to prevent gun violence and spearheading a venture project for innovative anti-violence technology. For Gates, this may...

It looks like the NRA is taking the gloves off. No more beating around the bush. The National Rifle Association has released a new video calling out former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg directly.

In the 1950s, with the airwaves filling with the sounds of rock 'n' roll, America was changing into a "transistor" nation. Deciding to capitalize on the popularity of radio, Winchester designated a prototype .308 Model 70 with a built-in radio in 1955. A speaker was set into the right side of the stock with a series of holes — carved in the trademark "W" outline — allowing the sound to be heard. Presented as a glittering show gun, the new Winchester soon proved a hard sell.

The NRA and Tea Party haven't said a word. Can we just conclude that they don't care about black people? On August 5, a man named John Crawford was playing with a toy rifle in an Ohio Wal-Mart. Someone called 911, and police showed up and shot him in the chest. He died. On August 9, a man named Michael Brown was walking in the street in Ferguson, Missouri, when a police officer stopped him. According to the friend that was with him, Brown put his hands up to show that he was unarmed. The officer shot him in the...

The National Rifle Association's top lawyer, who has been instrumental in shaping gun policy in the U.S., was once convicted of murdering a woman in Indiana.... Robert J. Dowlut, general counsel for the NRA, reportedly admitted to police in 1963 that he killed his girlfriend's mother. He was 17 years old at the time. Dowlut reportedly led police to the graveyard where he buried the gun and also copped to attempting to rob a pawnshop the same night as the killing. Bullets from the gun Dowlut unearthed at the graveyard matched those found at the site of Anna Marie Yocum's...

It’s a picture-perfect summer day, bright sun, sparkling skies. And here I am, stuck waiting for another press conference in another stuffy meeting room. Up front stood a bundle of boys and girls, 25 or so, preschoolers in pigtails, strapping youths sporting football jerseys, assembled at the podium, to pose with the politicians and preachers. What’s wrong with this picture? These kids should be in play lots, parks and backyards. They should not be props at a photo op at a West Side church, waiting for the boring adults to make boring their speeches. Perversely, this is the best place...

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a gun control measure eliminating an exemption for certain semiautomatic pistols from California’s unsafe handgun law, Brown’s office announced Friday. Assembly Bill 1964, by Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, is designed to limit the exemption for single-shot pistols from the state’s unsafe handgun roster, excluding semiautomatic pistols altered to not fire in semiautomatic mode. :snip: The measure was one of 15 bills Brown announced signing Friday. In another gun measure, Brown signed legislation requiring local courts to notify the Department of Justice more quickly when actions are taken that would result in a person being prohibited...

Former America's Most Wanted host John Walsh is hosting a new show on CNN on which he vows to keep the push for gun control and the war on the NRA alive. According to The Wrap, Walsh said: I'm the father of a murdered child. I've done nothing but track violence in America since my son was murdered. We have a serious problem with guns in this country... and the NRA solution to arm every grammar-school 80-year-old teacher with a gun is absolutely ludicrous. He claims the NRA has gotten so big and financially powerful through relationships with gun manufacturers...

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...