Free Republic

For years, supporters of open-carry gun laws have pleaded with lawmakers to allow Texans to bear their arms openly in public. With the front-running Republican gubernatorial candidate proposing open carry laws, many supporters believe the time has finally arrived for legislators to approve such a measure. "I think open carry will be the Second Amendment issue this next session, and I do think that we can pass it because the support is just tremendous," said state Rep. George Lavender, R-Texarkana, who introduced open-carry legislation that failed earlier this year. In a speech earlier this month, Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial...

With the passage of Act 746, Arkansas became a constitutional carry state.  However, many people, most prominently Democrat Attorney General McDaniel, have been reluctant to recognize that fact.    Second amendment activist groups have been organizing open carry events around the State to educate the public about their rights under the State and Federal constitutions.   The latest of these open carry walks occurred in Springdale this last Saturday.  The event was attended by about 50 activists, a considerable number for a town of 73,000 people, when you consider that at the height of the anti-second amendment hysteria this year,  the...

Jurors decided on a $2,000 fine Wednesday afternoon for Army Master Sgt. Christopher "C.J." Grisham of Temple, whose case has drawn the attention of gun-rights advocates nationwide. Grisham will not serve any time in jail. Jurors found guilty Grisham Tuesday of interference with the duties of an officer. The offense is a class-B misdemeanor punishable by a fine of no more than $2,000 and a jail sentence of not more than 180 days. Grisham, who plans to appeal the guilty verdict, said he’s relieved he won’t spend time behind bars. "I'm glad I'm not going to be wearing stripes here...

  Figure 10. Violent Crime Rate comparison between general population UCR data and law enforcement population NPMSRP data. Sheriff Johnson in North Carolina reveals his inner authoritarian in this article in the News-Record.com: GRAHAM — Sheriff Terry Johnson advised the Alamance County Board of Commissioners on Monday regarding two recent incidents in which customers paying their taxes carried handguns strapped on their sides into the tax office (snip) Johnson said the county should forbid all firearms from coming into county buildings. Johnson said the county could require the public to enter the Civil Courts Building entrance, where metal detectors...

My thanks to Don Cline, who posted this account on the  AZCDL email list.  From the date on the email, this occurred on 16 November, 2013.  It is clear that Don wants wide distribution. From Don: My wife, her mother, and I drove down to Goodyear, west of Phoenix, to my daughter’s home to celebrate our granddaughter’s first birthday today.  We were early and my wife and her mother wanted to do some shopping at Hobby Lobby.  I dropped them off and went to find a Batteries Plus store and ask some questions about the battery I’m using for...

Moms Demand Action has produced an Internet meme that they believe will further their cause. They posted this picture.  At first glance, it looks a bit intimidating.  That is what it is meant to look like.    The angle and cropping has been done to create an effect.   All photographers do this to some extent.  It is the story that goes with the photograph that makes the tale. Here is another photograph that shows the same group in the same pose, but gives a different take on what was going on: Note the flags and the children posing in front.  Note...

LDD If you were driving south on Green Oaks Boulevard in Arlington on Thursday around 7 p.m., your headlights might have caught a glimpse of a group of people walking along the sidewalk carrying what looked like rifles and shotguns over their shoulders. No, the fading dusk wasn't messing with your vision. Yes, those were really long guns slung across their backs. See Also: - Gun Advocates Have Started Descending on Starbucks En Masse for Some Reason- Starbucks Politely Asks Gun Owners Not to Bring Guns into its Cafes A group called Open Carry Texas was expressing their Second...

When liberal fascists say that they have the right to regulate something, they mean they have the power to ban it.    This has been shown over and over again in  in the field of firearms legislation.  The Texas people, removed the reconstruction  governor by force, after  he refused to abide by election results.  Then they  restored the right to keep and bear arms that had been gutted by the carpet bagger constitution of 1869,  with the new state constitution of 1876.  Unfortunately, they left in a legislative loophole:  "Every citizen shall have the right to keep and bear arms in...

There is anger and frustration tonight as Department of Public Safety officers arrest two members of Open Carry Texas at the capitol. OCT member Amanda Andeen says, "Two of our party members were carrying two pre 1899 black powder replica revolvers, they were holstered the whole time, they were never drawn or displayed rudely by any means." Andeen's boyfriend is one of the men arrested. The group had been attending a Let's Roll America protest at the capitol. DPS spokesperson Tom Vinger said, "The men were openly carrying suspected deadly weapons and were given the opportunity to leave the area,...

Armed Israelis may get a second glance The police Chief in Portland, Maine, Michael Sauschuck, does not like the "bear arms" part of the second amendment, and he and other Portland officials are quite willing to work to chill its exercise. There have been recent cases where police have stopped people who are legally openly carrying guns in the Portland area.  One has become popular on YouTube,  where a well read open carrier civilly schooled the police officer on the limitations of detainment under the Constitution and case law. In December of 2012, an activist was legally carrying an...

Arkansas continues to move toward recognition of constitutional carry.  ACT 746 changed the law in Arkansas so that carrying weapons is only illegal with the purpose to attempt to unlawfully employ the handgun, knife, or club as a weapon against another person.  The  Arkansas AG Dustin McDaniel has written an opinion that open carry of firearms is not legal in the state, but does not quote any law to show where it is illegal.  He simply claims that Act 746 does not make open carry legal.    A successful open carry march was held in Fort Smith on August 25th....

 At first I thought the Mom from Moms Demand Action was just being a bitch. When I asked her politely if we could talk for a moment she point blank refused. Tersely. Aggressively. She wouldn’t even tell me her name. This after spending twenty-minutes hanging around with an Al-Jezeera reporter at the back of the crowd at the Alamo gun rights rally, and another ten minutes answering questions on camera for a nationwide TV audience. Checking her dilated pupils and remembering her extremely stilted performance in front of the camera, I backed off . . .When she unknowingly dropped a...

I have come to expect the New York Times to denigrate America's gun culture and the second amendment at every opportunity.      It is interesting that they fail to note that Texas is one of only six states that have banned the open carry of handguns.    This small and shrinking minority of states (Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Mississippi recently changed their laws to recognize the constitutional right of open carry), which consists of California, Texas, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina, and New York, does include the state where the New York Times is located. Map courtesy of opencarry.org There are strong legislative challenges...

While hundreds of people crammed into the plaza in from of the Alamo to celebrate and promote gun rights, the gun control advocacy organization “Moms Demand Action” held their own rally at a bar a mile down the road. Why did they hold it at a bar? Well…In Texas, if a restaurant makes more then 51% of its revenue from the sale of alcohol, it is a felony to carry a concealed handgun there. Despite styling themselves as “supporters of the second amendment” (as is being reported on NPR), they disagree with that whole “keep and bear” part.As usual, I...

The Web cam at the link shows the open carry event going on now. There is a pretty good crowd, by my browser is only showing an image about every half a second, I would say. Here is the link: Alamo Open Carry Live Web Cam Link I can hear some noise in the background, but I cannot make out the words. Lots of Gadsten flags and a "Come and Take It" Gonzales flag. The crowd looks well over a thousand to me. It extends beyond the frame of the camera. Dean Weingarten Link to Gun Watch

JURIST Guest Columnist M. Reed Martz of Freeland Martz, PLLC discusses recent court decisions concerning a Mississippi legislative measure aimed at clairifying state gun possession laws... On July 1, 2013, Mississippi was set to clear up any ambiguity as to whether its Constitution of 1890 and statutes allowed the open (unconcealed) carry of a firearm or other deadly weapon without a permit. That was the plan, at least, until Hinds County District Attorney Robert Shuler Smith and other Hinds County law enforcement officers, as well as several state Representatives who twice voted in favor of the bill, obtained a temporary...

JURIST Guest Columnist John Frazer argues that the Mississippi legislature's amended definition of a "concealed" weapon is not unduly confusing or vague... A recent decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court may finally have laid to rest the state's status as home to one of the nation's most rigidly interpreted concealed weapons laws, as well as ending one of the oddest recent episodes of gun-related litigation in the US. At the beginning of 2013, Mississippi—like most states—prohibited the carrying of handguns and certain other weapons concealed without a permit. However, unlike any other state's "concealed" carry statute, Mississippi's statute prohibited carrying...

"Katy bar the door if I’m wrong." Interesting information on San Antonio Police Department preparations for the 19 October event. I will be heading to San Antonio on Thursday and expect to arrive there early Friday afternoon for the Come and Take It San Antonio rally. I received the communication below from a reader and it reveals some interesting information on the police preparations on the part of SAPD. It also reveals the Achilles' Heel of their plans. In any case, I'm going. Hope to see you there. (And for anyone who's not going but wishes they could, let...

tl;dr: Sued Corvallis PD officer in federal court for unlawful detainment, won. This post has been on my mind for some time, and finally I feel that I can share it with you all, as the dismissal of the case was filed today. As you may or may not remember, on October 26, 2011 (ironically the 10th anniversary of the U.S. PATRIOT Act being signed into law) I was illegally detained by Corvallis PD while I was checking my mail. At the time I didn't say much about it because I didn't want my version of the events to be...

200 responsible gun owners showed up to an “open carry” barbecue held in Riverside Park, Michigan over the weekend and were encouraged to attend the event while openly carrying their firearms. Astoundingly, nobody was killed. The event, attended by law-abiding gun owners, was designed to raise awareness that the police and criminals are not the only groups of people who carry guns in this country. ”We’re trying to show people there’s a third group, ordinary everyday good people,” said Phillip Hofmeister, president of Michigan Open Carry.