Free Republic

I attended the Gun Rights Policy Conference at O'Hare during the last weekend in September.   After the conference, I visited friends and family in Wisconsin.   Wisconsin has always had legal open carry of firearms, but only recently enforced the law against scofflaw governments in Madison and Milwaukee.   I decided to celebrate Wisconsin's return to the rule of law and the enforcement of constitutional rights by openly carrying on my trip through most of the state. At my first stop to fuel, on I-90 between Milwaukee and Madison, I told the clerk what I was doing, and asked him to...

From Northrup v. City of Toledo Police Div., 2014 WL 4925052 (N.D. Ohio Sept. 30, 2014): On the evening of June 16, 2010, Northrup was walking down a street in his neighborhood, with his wife, daughter, grandson, and their Yorkshire terrier, and a handgun holstered on his right hip, when Alan Rose drove by on a motorcycle. Northrup and Rose did not know each other, but Rose stopped his motorcycle and began telling Northrup that he could not walk around in public while openly carrying a handgun. Northrup and his wife told Rose that open carry of a firearm is...

It is nice to see that more people are noticing the weird threats against peaceful people generated at the Moms Demand Action facebook page. Charles C. W. Cooke writes about it at National Review.com.   I would have been happy to have him use the photograph, with attribution, but perhaps, because the MDA page did not give attribution, he never contacted me. He does a good job of covering the issue.  I would have been happy to give him more background.   From nationalreview.com: Reacting to a photograph of a man standing at a checkout with a handgun holstered upon his...

Don Hosmer Last year, on the way the Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC), I had an unexpected encounter at a diner in central Texas.   I rode my motorcycle to that GRPC.   This year I took my truck to the GRPC in Chicago.   I have friends and family in Wisconsin that I wanted to visit, and some items that would have been less comfortable to carry on a motorcycle.    This year the encounter happened after the conference. I was traveling up I-90/94 when I decided to stop for dinner on the northern edge of the Wisconsin Dells.  Last  year I...

Ohio Carry organized another open carry walk on Saturday, the 13 of September.  This was part of their ongoing effort to educate the public about their constitutional rights in Ohio.  Note the completely different image from what the Bloomberg media campaign is trying to craft for open carriers.  From the morningjournal.com in Vermilion:  In an effort to educate the public and combat stereotypes surrounding gun rights, Ohio Carry’s Northeast and Northwest chapters hosted a joint open carry and firearm education walk in Downtown Vermilion Sept. 13. Ohio Carry, founded in 2012 as a firerm rights, advocacy and education group,...

Today, September 11, the Missouri House Joined the Missouri Senate in overriding Governor Nixon's (D) veto of SB 656.    From wsvn.com: The new regulations, which this time garnered the two-thirds majority needed to override Nixon's veto, take effect in about a month.  Here are the primary reforms that will be enacted with SB0656:  Guarantees the right to posses arms in public housing  Forbids physical restraint or disarmament unless there is an arrest or an articulable and reasonable suspicion of criminal activityMandates that  POST  determine the training standards for school protection officersAllows school districts to designate school protection officersForbids health...

I had read about Moms Demanding Action's strident calling for a boycott of Kroger's over MDA's dislike of the exercise of the second amendment.  I had also read the new media's urging to show support for Kroger's polite reply that the MDA's should mind their own business.   Of course, political manipulation is the MDA's business... and that runs exactly contrary to the limits on government that allow for toleration of others. So I stopped at Fry's and filled up the tank.   I was open carrying, as I usually am in Arizona, especially at this time of year.  Opening day...

Castle Rock, Colorado sits on the urban corridor from Denver to Colorado Springs.  It is primarily a bedroom community to Denver that has had explosive growth in the last 30 years, form 3,921 in 1980 to 51,348 in 2012. In 2003 the Town Council gave the Town Manager, who is appointed by the Council, the authority to ban the open carry of firearms on town property.  In  2014, the Council voted to remove that authority.    The current Town Manager, Mark Stevens, had prohibited open carry on Town property.  What resulted were two initiatives; one to approve of the action...

A man was walking at 1:20 am, Sunday morning, when he was confronted by two black males, one of which pointed a gun at him.   From timesleader.com: “What do you got for me?” one man said to the victim.He told police he grabbed his attacker’s gun with one hand and drew his own firearm. The man does not have a concealed firearms permit, but carries his gun under Pennsylvania’s open carry laws, police said. The robbers fled. On a dark street, the tactical deterrence offered by open carry may not be as effective, essentially making open carry the equivalent...

Last week, Sarah wrote about how the Kroger supermarket chain was responding to Moms Demand Action’s petition to ban open carry in their stores. Kroger spokesman Keith Dailey said, "We know that our customers are passionate on both sides of this issue and we trust them to be responsible in our stores." While it’s from a pro-gun control organization, the Wall Street Journal published a good map from them showing where the open carrying of handguns is legal.

As people on both sides of the debate regarding open carry—the practice of carrying firearms in plain view—have been turning up the heat, more companies are being forced to take a side. Gun-rights advocates see the practice as a way to normalize gun ownership and deter crime, while gun-control activists believe carrying guns in stores and restaurants is disruptive to the public and encourages violence. Recently, Target, Starbucks and Chipotle have asked their patrons not to bring their guns. After petitions by gun-control groups such as Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Kroger said it would uphold local...

In a previous article, I mentioned that I was doing a favor by moving a lady and her possessions across the country.   The trip became a bit more memorable near the end.   In the last hundred miles before the drop off point, I was informed that a prominent outlaw motorcycle gang  had found out that she had been in Arizona, and now knew that she was moving back to the Midwest.   I was told that she had been instrumental in putting one of the officers of the group in prison for a few years.   I was assured that...

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 20, 2014-- Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) today reported second quarter Adjusted earnings per share1 of $0.78, a decrease of 20.6 percent from $0.98 per share in 2013, and GAAP earnings per share of $0.37. In addition to operating results, second quarter GAAP earnings per share reflect: Net pre-tax data breach expenses of $111 million, or (11) cents per share2; Pre-tax early debt retirement losses of $285 million, or (27) cents per share2; Pre-tax impairment losses on undeveloped U.S. land of $16 million, or (1) cent per share, and; A (1)-cent impact related to the reduction of the beneficial interest...

Kroger (KR +0.18%) is the latest retailing chain to be dragged into the battle over gun rights.The anti-open carry advocacy group Moms Demand Action has issued a statement calling on the grocery company to ban openly-carried firearms in its stores.

I was on a mission of mercy.   A close friend needed a lady and her goods to be transported cross country.   I found myself hauling a good sized trailer on I-40, looking for a gas station with easy in and out.  I stopped at Meteor Crater rest stop to give everyone a break. As I came out of the facility, I asked a gentleman who was uniformed as staff, where the next truck stop was, because I was hauling a good sized trailer.  He graciously told me that there was one at exit 255, about 20 miles further east....

A Texas gun rights advocacy group plans to hold a walk Saturday in Houston's historically African-American Fifth Ward. Members of Open Carry Texas told Local 2 Investigates that they plan to walk through Fifth Ward neighborhoods to educate people on their Second Amendment rights. "If they come with their weapons, I'm quite sure they'll be a lot of us with weapons also," said community activist Quannel X. After hearing Quanell X's statements, Open Carry Texas member David Amad defended the group's decision to hold the event in the Fifth Ward and said the organization's motivations are being prematurely misjudged. "We've...

Open carriers with rifles; neither hunters nor protesters, but private purchasers at a "buy back" event Most law enforcement officers do not interact with people openly carrying riles and shotguns, or long guns, as they are collectively called.  That has been changing in recent years as more and more members of the gun culture have exercised their first and second amendment rights by openly carrying long guns.  The movement has taken off in Texas, where the open carry of modern pistols is banned in public places.   Texas is one of only six states that bans the open carry of...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political action committee, Independence USA, has purchased $150,833 in television ads in an effort to defeat Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and support his opponent, Milwaukee police Lt. Chris Moews. In response to the news of Bloomberg's ads, Clarke said in a statement: "I trust the voters. The voters can't be bought." The ad buys by Bloomberg's PAC come on top of $400,000 in media ads purchased by the Greater Wisconsin Committee to try to beat Clarke, who is seeking his fourth term in Tuesday's Democratic primary election. Also on Friday, Citizens...

The officer on the left pointed his rifle at Mr. Polster, who had broken no laws and had not threatened anyone. Bill Polster is a second amendment advocate and constitutionalist who has been educating people about their rights to openly carry weapons for years. A few weeks ago , Calumet County  Sheriff had said that he would enforce a county ban on guns in county parks, even though the State preemption law invalidated it.   Polster carried in the park, and had a rifle pointed at him by a deputy.   All parties remained calm, and fortunately the deputy did not...

Arizonan with Rifle slung at local treat shop A controversial arrest in Phoenix, where police arrested a prominent local research doctor who was protesting, with a rifle slung on his shoulder, at the unsecured airport Starbucks, prompted this exchange between Mark Curtis, a 12News anchor and Marc Victor, the victims attorney. The exchange occurs in the video from 1:55 to 2:22: Mark Curtis, anchor, 12News: "Someones carrying a gun, and they're with their children, and they see a man walk into a Starbucks with a rifle on his shoulder.  What would stop them from blowing your client away? Marc...