Free Republic

In 2011, on November 2nd, The Lincoln City Police Department received a call about a young man displaying a firearm in an Astro van outside of a convenience store. The call lead to the felony stop of an Astro van about 4 hours later.In the van was 58-year-old black pastor who was a double amputee. The officers forced the pastor, Leroy Duffie, to exit the van with his hands held up, after he had told them that he could not do so because of his disability. At gunpoint, Duffie opened his door, and twisted his body in an attempt...

For the last three NRA Annual Meetings, open and concealed carry have been legal and practiced on the premises.  In 2015 it was at Nashville in Tennessee. In 2016, it was at Louisville in Kentucky.  In 2017, it is in Atlanta, Georgia. Today in the press room, there were a few open carriers. From the printing that I noticed here and there, there were a significantly greater number of concealed carriers. I was one of those. The Press room was rather chilly for a Yuma, Arizona resident. I kept my jacket on.  Out on the floor, there were few...

This year, 2017, the NRA Annual Meeting is being held in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center. 80,000 people are expected to attend.  There will be 450,000 square feet of exhibits. As with the past two annual meetings, attendees will be able to carry firearms in accordance with state laws. In Georgia a carry permit is required.Georgia recognizes carry permits from 32 other states. Handgunlaw.us lists the states.Virginia is not listed on the official Georgia.gov page, but I understand that Georgia reciprocity with Virgina has been restored. You are responsible for validating your own information.From handgunlaw.us: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona,...

Texas has very specific requirements for “gun free” zones.  When the legislature passed the shall issue concealed carry permit law, they included specifications for signage if establishments were to ban people form carrying guns on their property.The signs are called 30.06 signs, from the section of the law, and are large, obvious, and in both English and Spanish.When the legislature reformed the law to restore some open carry rights, they expanded the signage requirement to include a separate sign for premises to legally prevent people form openly carrying handguns on their premises. Those signs are 30.07 signs.They are also...

Second Amendment supporters won another victory, this time in Connecticut. On Thursday, 6 April, 2017, HB6200 was defeated. The bill would have required individuals who open carry handguns to present permits to law enforcement on demand. This was the second year that such a bill was stopped. It never made it out of committee. In Connecticut, a resident is not allowed to carry a handgun outside of his home without a permit. Permits are not exactly "shall issue" but are granted to most people who apply. Here is the summation of  the bill, from ct.gov: AN ACT CONCERNING THE PRESENTATION...

There are two accounts recorded of the incident pictured above. It happened on 12 March, in Tyler, Texas.  One account is from the eye witness who captured the video.  Audio is included with the video. On the audio, someone joins the videographer. The videographer explains what has happened. From the audio in the video: He tried to knife em, and rob em, and we had two open carrys, and the open carrys took him down. (snip) And that is what an open carry state is all about.Link to video In Texas, one license is required for both concealed and...

Rejecting arguments by Second Amendment supporters, the Florida Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a longstanding state ban on people openly carrying firearms in public. Justices, in a 4-2 ruling, said the state law "regulates only one manner of bearing arms and does not impair the exercise of the fundamental right to bear arms."

So two idiots sauntered into a police station jacked up with ammo and weapons to test the open-carry law in Dearborn, Michigan. James Baker had body armor on and a semi-automatic pistol strapped to his hip as he slung a short-barreled rifle over his chest and pulled a black ski mask over his head. His buddy, Brandon Vreeland, a fellow open carry advocate, also had on body armor but left his gun in the car, instead bringing along cameras to videotape the encounter that was about to take place. The two men wanted to file a complaint about being pulled...

The Missouri Capitol is restoring security procedures, and metal detectors, that have not been in place at the complex for almost 14 years. As of Tuesday, most visitors to the Missouri Capitol – including journalists and lobbyists – will be subject to security searches and be required to go through metal detectors. The new procedures won’t apply to elected officials. The number of entrances open to the public will be largely limited to those where security equipment and police are present. According to the statement by the Capitol Police, visitors will be barred from bringing in firearms, along with other...

Florida has been flirting with licensed open carry for several legislative sessions. Some of the flirting has become rather provocative, to the point of teasing. Last legislative session, open carry passed the house with large margins, but was blocked in the Senate by Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, a "moderate" Republican committee chair from Miami. Portilla lost his seat in the 2016 election. Some have suggested the Republican leadership was using Portilla to accomplish what they wanted. From a comment by Bob at The Truth About Guns: Miguel Diaz de la Portilla was a Republican for those that...

Link to video A Kansas member of the gun culture shows how to win the gun culture wars.  A picture of him sitting on his front porch, holding a rifle, was posted on facebook.  The claim was made that he was upset about people parking in front of his house. Kyle could have assumed a defensive posture by refusing to grant an interview.  That method became the norm as media cut and edited interviews to make gun owners look bad.  Refusing to go on camera used to be the prudent action. Many in the gun culture have had experience...

Greg Steube was recently elected to the Florida Senate from the Florida House. In the same 2016 election where Donald Trump won Florida, one of the few Republican losses was Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla of Miami.  Portillia had been the face of opposition to open carry and campus carry in the Florida legislature.  Greg Steube has been a staunch Second Amendment, and open carry, supporter. Steube has been appointed to Portilla's former chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. That was where Portilla stymied open carry and campus carry legislation that had strong support. Stuebe recently introduced open carry...

A primary obstacle to Florida open carry has been removed. The person who was blocking open carry in Florida was Senator Diaz de la Portilla (R) of Miami Dade.  Senator Portilla refused to let the open carry bill out of committee in 2015.  Then he repeated the performance in 2016. The bill had passed the Miami House by an overwhelming margin, and had a large majority support in the Senate. From sun-sentinal.com: And yet he singlehandedly has killed in the Legislature this year bills that would allow concealed carry permit holders to openly carry firearms, to carry them on...

The New York Times produced another hit piece on guns, pushing for some sort of general increase in the current infringements on the Second Amendment.  At Reason.com, Brian Doherty did a good job of taking apart much of the bias and ignorance displayed in the article. The Reason.com article is worth reading, and I recommend it.  A fair amount can be summed up in these two paragraphs.  From the nytimes.com: The findings are dispiriting to anyone hoping for simple legislative fixes to gun violence. In more than half the 130 cases, at least one assailant was already barred by...

James Edming, (screen right) is said to be the only member of the Wisconsin legislature that is a certified firearms instructor. He is a successful businessman who represents Assembly District 87 in the North Central part of the state.  He has deep roots in the area, living on land his grandfather purchased after he came over from Sweden in 1886. James has taught numerous concealed carry courses.  In the picture above, he has no problem standing next to a constituent who is proudly and openly carrying his holstered Glock.Open carry of handguns has always been legal in Wisconsin, but...

Sean Duffy was happy to pose with this constituent who was openly carrying at the Rusk County Republican dinner. The event was in Ladysmith last night, the 8th of October, 2016. Sean told the Wisconsin resident that he felt safer when he had people openly carrying guns around him, because he knew he could trust them. Ladysmith is close to where I was born and raised in Northern Wisconsin.  The Duffy boys went to school in the same high school I did in Hayward.  Sean's father and I went to high school together. It did not surprise me when...

There are riots in Charlotte, North Carolina, sparked by the shooting of an armed black man by a black police officer.A motorist caught by rioters blocking the street, briefly displayed what appears to be a handgun.From dailymail.co.uk: A video of the alarming moment was posted on social media by writer Heather Head in the midst of the chaos.‘White dude drives into crowd of peaceful protesters, draws gun, allowed to drive away alive. With my own eyes. #CharlotteProtest,’ she wrote alongside the shocking clip.The man was surrounded by protesters who were marching against the deadly shooting of black man Keith...

Link to video The President of the Charlotte, North Carolina NAACP, Corine Mack, made statements that should be music to Second Amendment supporters ears.  On CNN, she said that the mere fact that someone had a gun should not be enough to allow police to shoot someone.  From CNN: MACK: At the end of the day, you know, a video may show a different perspective depending on the angle. And so if we don't have many different angles, you may not get the full picture. I think the most important part is the contrast in him having a book...

Link to video The First and Second Amendments protect and reinforce each other. On September 11th, 2015, the protestor in this case, Michael Picard, was legally open carrying a handgun and had a camera running.  The police took the camera, his pistol and pistol permit.  They did not realize the camera was still recording. Charges against Picard were eventually dropped, after he refused a plea bargain.  On September 15th, 2016 the ACLU-CT has filed a civil rights law suit against the three individual police officers.  From acluct.org: HARTFORD — In a complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court...

My Daughter and Son in law, and two grandchildren were going to the Grapefest in Grapevine, Texas, between Dallas and Fort Worth. They graciously invited me to tag along.  Sunday afternoon, 19 September, 2016, was the time that fit with schedules and the kids naps.  The temperature was 97 in Dallas, and I could feel the humidity. I missed my Sun Helmet.  I am heat acclimated, but the kids were not.  We had to walk a couple of blocks to the festival, and the family stopped in some shade to consider options. I notice some sign-age that looked as...