Free Republic

The recent mass shootings in Connecticut and Colorado have stirred considerable discussion and action about gun laws, as well as boosting firearms sales. A rush to action is often not the wisest move on such a complex subject, for as criminologist Dr. Gary Mauser of Vancouver, British Columbia observes, “gun laws are typically passed during periods of fear and/or political instability,” which leads to “the slippery slope of gun control,” which is based on emotional reactions rather than solid research.Dr. Mauser holds joint U.S. and Canadian citizenship and has taught at Simon Fraser for some 35 years. He has lectured...

Much has been written about the events that occurred in Boston and there is a growing movement in the progressive establishment to finally do something about the serious threat of Islamic terrorism. An unidentified spokesperson for the Democratic Party stated, “For years the conservatives have blocked common sense terrorism control. Since Boston, I believe we have a mandate to finally pass laws that closes some serious loopholes in our immigration system.”

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The union representing New York State Police say they believe the state's stricter gun laws could put law enforcement officers at risk. In an email release on Monday, the New York State Troopers PBA said its 6,000-member group "holds widely shared concerns" about the NY Safe Act. Nonetheless, the union takes exception to some state lawmakers accusing the troopers of failing to enforce the law. "The individual members of this union did not write the terms of the bill nor vote on its passage," the release said. "We urge the citizens of New York state to remember...

In an apparent slip of the tongue, Harry Reid this morning referred to the gun-control bill he brought to the Senate floor as “anti-gun legislation.” “On the anti-gun legislation before the Senate, we are making good progress on the effort to schedule a series of votes on amendments to the anti-gun-violence legislation before the Senate.” Some, however, are questioning whether the Senate minority leader accidentally revealed his true feelings. GOP Sentaor Ted Cruz, a leading opponent of the bill, asked whether Reid’s statement was a ”Freudian slip.” He said in a Tweet:

I see that universal background check activists, who also favor permanent record retention, are trying to are trying to discredit talk that either of the Schumer bills will create a registry. It does not matter how the current Schumer bills read. If purchase records are kept those records constitute a gun owner registry. Period. Schumer and his cohorts may claim that a list of gun buyers is not a registry. Chucky may even put language in his bills forbidding a registry. But you can bet your life the next time some “must pass” bill hits the Senate, either Schumer or...

SEE: Collins,King vote to continue gun debate WASHINGTON — Maine`s two U.S. senators voted with the majority Thursday to move forward with debate on a package of gun-control measures prompted by December's mass shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut. I would love to hear Collins explain to her constituents in Maine, under what part of the federal Constitution have they delegated a power to the federal government to enter Main and regulate the ownership of firearms. I do know Maine’s Declaration of Rights stipulates in crystal clear language that: Section 16. To keep and bear arms. Every citizen has...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Fox News' "Hannity" discussing universal background checks: -snip- "Why is all this focus directed at background checks? The reason is because the Department of Justice has said the only way to implement what they want–universal background checks–is a registry, a federal list of every gun owner in America. And that would be wrong; it'd be unconstitutional."

Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele on Tuesday said he doesn't understand why gun owners fear the registration of their firearms. "I don't get the fear of registration," Steele said on MSNBC. "I don't get the, the concern about trafficking. Are we saying that we want criminals to, you know, make … back-alley sales out of the trunks of their cars?" Steele was part of a panel on MSNBC's "The Daily Rundown," during which former Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) said that responsible gun owners insure their guns, which means they're registered. "I mean, I don't understand," she said. MSNBC...

And so this is how it begins: a man with no criminal record and no mental health issues is told by the state that he must turn in his legally-purchased arms to the state because they somehow accessed his medical records. Reader LC Scotty dropped this admission of tyranny into the comments of today’s earlier post: The NYS SAFE Act is billed as a necessary law to protect the public and keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people. But Hamburg attorney Jim Tresmond says his client was notified by letter that his gun permit was suspended upon...

BY DAVE KOPEL America's 1st Freedom, March 2013. "WE WILL HAVE to change,” President Obama said recently, referring to Americans needing to do everything possible to ensure that murders like those at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., are never repeated elsewhere. Of course, the National Rifle Association strongly agrees, and has introduced the NRA National School Shield Program in order to develop very specific ideas for how to stop the next evildoer who attempts to murder children at school. President Obama, however, didn’t really seem to mean what he said. His children attend a school safeguarded by armed...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., insists his universal background check measure will reduce crime without infringing on "your ability to borrow your Uncle Willie's hunting rifle or share a gun with your friend at a shooting range." But the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates paint a dark picture of expanding background checks to private purchases, insisting the move inevitably would lead to a national firearms registry. With a registry in place, they say, the stage would be set for the NRA's worst nightmare - gun confiscations. The background check proposal, part of a post-Newtown Senate package facing...

I have been curious regarding how little effort the gun-control crowd has been exerting to prove that mandatory background checks work. There are, after all, six states that require all-private party sales to go through a background check, and ten states that require it for all handgun purchases. If driven to advocate for mandatory checks, you would think the case studies of these sixteen states must have provided plenty of evidence that such laws reduce murder rates, and thus affected your decision. Right? I found this testimony to the U.S. Senate by Dr. Daniel Webster, a public health professor,...

People across the political spectrum, from left to right and back again, seem to revel in perverse delight when comparing the policies of a political foe to those of the Nazis. Sometimes, they will skip the group comparisons and head straight into drawing personal parallels between the individual in question and Adolf Hitler. The practice is so onerous that, in the Dark Ages of the internet (1990), an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation named Mike Godwin coined what has become known as Godwin's Law. It states that, the longer and more involved an argument becomes, the more likely a...

So, are "Background Checks" really "Gun Owner Registrations" When you buy a firearm from a dealer, you submit to a background check, officially known as the The National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. Mandated by the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 and launched by the FBI on November 30, 1998, NICS is used by Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) to immediately determine whether a prospective buyer is eligible to buy firearms or explosives.(1) Like many of you, I was under the impression that NICS checks were not kept as permanent records. Federal law specifically prohibits using NICS...

Anti-freedom politicians have a history of overreaching on guns. They think they can fool the stupid country rubes by picking up a shotgun and asking "can I get me a hunting license here?", the image of Diane Feinstein with her finger inside the trigger guard of an AK47 variant, and various political figures picking up guns just prior to elections. Mayor Bloomberg Bloomberg is attempting to do the same with his 12 million dollar buy of commercials pushing for universal gun registration (also known as Universal Background Checks) in 13 states. Here is one of the advertisements. In the advertisement,...

Feinstein's assault rifle ban has been removed from the Senate gun-control bill. While that is good news, it was recognized from the beginning as a bridge too far. What has survived, and may well become law, all in the spirit of bipartisan compromise, will actually be far worse. The goals of the left have always been shrouded in deception and misrepresentation. Hide your true agenda behind a deceitful argument and then, after grabbing power, do what you really meant to do all along. That is what Hitler, Lenin, Mao, Castro and Obama have all done. By controlling the terms of...

Think about these words from Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown, “I do not think that voter registration should be a barrier to participation in voting,” The leftist Secretary of State is now trying to convince Oregonians that the mere act of having to REGISTER TO VOTE is an impediment to actual voting. It’s an impediment to exercising your franchise, they would have you believe. Brown is calling on the legislature to allow Oregonians to register to vote using their driver‘s licenses–you know, the same driver’s licenses her comrades on the left would like to issue to illegal aliens.

I think we all have a right to a “high five” over Harry Reid’s announcement that the assault weapons ban is going to be dropped from the Democrats’ current legislative package in the Senate. However, it’s far too early to declare victory and go home. Dianne Feinstein has already announced that she’ll try to restore it as a late amendment to other legislation before the session is over. And there are still the matters of the proposed ban on standard capacity magazines, and the “universal background check” remaining before Congress. The latter, of course, has particularly huge loopholes which promise...

Sunday’s Seattle Times has an analysis on the failure of House Bill 1588 — the controversial “universal background check” measure — that gun owners have quickly seen is lacking some key perspectives. The piece, written by Danny Westneat, looks at the switched vote of Walla Walla Rep. Maureen Walsh, a Republican who initially supported the measure. Westneat’s take is that she changed her vote because of pressure from the National Rifle Association, and that it is this sort of effort by the gun lobby that will prevent doing “anything about guns.” According to Westneat, background checks work. He writes: “Last...

Colorado -–(Ammoland.com)- The most dangerous phase in the fight to defeat the gun grabbers’ all-out assault on our Second Amendment freedoms is upon us. I’m talking about the gun grabbers’ “Plan B” alternative – a triple threat designed to sound more “reasonable” to the public than a total gun ban. After I explain why this “Plan B” triple threat is so dangerous, I need you to take IMMEDIATE action and forward this article to every pro-gun person you know and ask them to help fight back as well. The “Plan B” alternative has three components: Fictitious “gun trafficking” legislation, so-called...

"The question that I would pose to the senior senator from California is," said Cruz to Feinstein, "Would she deem it consistent with the Bill of Rights for Congress to engage in the same endeavor that we are contemplating doing with the Second Amendment in the context of the First or Fourth Amendment, namely, would she consider it constitutional for Congress to specify that the First Amendment shall apply only to the following books and shall not apply to the books that Congress has deemed outside the protection of the Bill of Rights?

The main provision of the bill is that any transfer of a firearm, no matter how fleeting, needs to go through an FFL and the transferee needs to have a background check performed through the NICS system. There are some exceptions, but they aren’t very good ones. As one of the provisions designed to “alleviate the fears” of the gun-owning public, it looks like there’s a provision in here that permanently sets the price of all FFL transfer fees to the same amount. That number will be set by the Attorney General, which these days is still Eric Holder. The...

While lawmakers in Olympia wrestle with a state universal background check measure, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today adopted on a 10-8 party line vote a similar measure that faces an uncertain future before the entire Senate. But Sen. Charles Grassley (R- Iowa) warned that this measure could ultimately lead to registration and even confiscation when anti-gunners realize background checks do not prevent violent crimes. In California, guns are already being confiscated from people who may live with someone who has been disqualified under a state law, according to a published report. His warning fell on the deaf ears of...

Days after it appeared that a proposed expansion of the background check had hit a major speed bump in Olympia, a similar proposal before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has also run into trouble as Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has refused to make a deal on the measure because it contains a record-keeping provision. Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, had agreed to negotiate with state lawmakers over so-called “universal background check” legislation, but his conditions included no record-keeping, and more importantly, the state pistol registry would have to be...

Need? We need not justify. When asked what I do for a living I reply: I teach people how to shoot people. I teach people how to shoot people because some people need to be shot – and they need to be shot NOW. I have found that in the long run sugarcoating reality rarely produces good results. Yes, it might make some people “feel” better, but feelings and reality are often polar opposites. Pretending something is what it is not only postpones judgment day, and the longer it’s ignored, the higher the price. Twenty-six years ago I began my...

Citizen disarmament advocate Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) has shown that the cry for universal background checks has always been a subterfuge to move toward universal firearms registration. Senator Coburn (R-OK) has offered a compromise allowing for background checks as long as no records are kept. Such systems are easily implemented and controlled through sting operations. The advantage of such a system is that can not easily be used to construct a universal registration database. Gun registration has historically been the precursor of gun confiscations, either slowly and individually, over time, or in groups during a crises. It appears that the potential...

Poll asks: Are you for or against universal background checks when purchasing a firearm? I am for universal background checks. I am against universal background checks.

Bills are being quietly introduced and voted on soon!

Current Updates here http://danaloeschradio.com/exclusive-... Department of Revenue is working with the Department of Homeland Security to install new hard and software to obtain data on Missouri citizens and transfer this information to DHS and unnamed third parties, says Kinder. Kinder and the Stoddard County Prosceutor today took legal action and held a press conference outlining the infringement on civil liberties as posted by the DoR and DHS. The move by the departments is related to the Real ID. Griffin went to renew his driver's license and was disturbed by how, and with whom, his information was being shared. Kinder and...

The House's top Republican reiterated on Sunday that he will look at any gun control measures passed by the Senate. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he has "made clear if the Senate acts on gun control legislation, the House will consider it." "But we need to look at more than just guns. We need to look at violence in our society. You know, we've got a violent society," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Boehner said lawmakers need to examine how to stop people with mental illnesses from obtaining firearms.

A controversial bill aimed at expanding background checks in exchange for major concessions to gun owners in Washington State could be in trouble, not because of opposition from gun rights groups, or legislative liberals, but because of resistance from the law enforcement administrators' lobby to one of the key provisions. Alan Gottlieb with the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, both pilloried and praised within the firearms community recently, told Examiner late Friday that the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) is opposed to a tenet of the proposed substitute House Bill 1588 that...

Registration by any other name is still unconstitutional The focus in Washington is slowly shifting from legislation banning certain semi-auto firearms and standard capacity magazines to proposals for “universal background checks” – just as we had warned it would. Politicians know that America’s gun owners are beside themselves in opposition to gun and magazine bans. They’ve watched as fearful shoppers have cleared the nation’s entire supply of AR and AK type rifles in just a couple of weeks, leaving manufacturers and importers 8 to 12 months deep in backorders. The politicians remember what happened after the ban was passed in...

A majority of Americans voted for President Barack Obama, despite having to stand in lines for hours in many locations. The president’s agenda, agreed to by most of America, is to limit ammo clips to 10 rounds, eliminate the further sale of assault weapons and require background checks on gun purchases, whether at a gun show or a sporting goods store — a simple concept, agreed on by most Americans, gun owners or not. What the NRA, the star salesman for the weapons manufacturers, hears is that we want to take away everybody’s guns and leave them defenseless. This is...

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley wants state lawmakers to consider passing legislation that would require residents to obtain a license before purchasing a handgun. Such a law would be an impediment to a constitutional guarantee for which there is no such requirement. I find it interesting that liberals attack the requirement that a person needs to show identification in order to vote, but they will put multiple restrictions on people who have a right to keep and bear arms as set down in the Constitution.Unlike the Second Amendment, there is no absolute right to vote. Consider the 26th Amendment that was...

Minnesota has a Democratic governor, two Democratic senators, and Democrats control both houses of its Legislature. So it may have come as no surprise when President Obama went there earlier this week to rally support for his proposals to reduce gun violence. But even in the politically blue state, there's considerable resistance to placing further restrictions on gun ownership. During his visit to a Minneapolis police facility Monday, Obama urged Minnesotans to find common ground in curbing gun violence. "We don't have to agree on everything to agree it's time to do something," he said. "That's my main message here...

What is "Closing The Gunshow Loophole" ? At the top of the list of changes to gun transaction restrictions the left has bleated on for years is what they have deceptively labelled "Closing The Gunshow Loophole". On it's face, it would seem they are referring to firearms transactions that occur at gunshows between private parties not involving an NICS background check. When you listen carefully, though, you also hear the Progressive explanations include firearms transactions that occur at other venues such as flea markets. Every now and then, if you listen really closely, the liberal will let slip that the...

If a ban can't pass the Senate, it certainly won't pass in the House. Consider the assault weapons ban a dead issue, while the ammunition limit is alive and well. Wall Street Journal: Senate Democratic leaders expect a gun bill to move to the Senate floor that includes most of the proposals backed by President Barack Obama, with the notable exception of a ban on military-style, semiautomatic weapons, a top aide to Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said.The bill would likely seek to limit the capacity of ammunition magazines; expand background checks to include sales at gun shows and...

Every day for the past 22 years, California's background checks have stopped about a dozen felons, mentally ill people and others from buying guns. When prospective gun buyers stride into California gun stores such as Ron Kennedy's Canyon Sports in Martinez, they must swipe their driver's licenses or state IDs. That sets off a review process that runs their names not only through the same FBI criminal database other states use but also almost 20 other sources, from mental health records to DMV data. It's a check more rigorous than any other state's. California is also one of only two...

Illinois Senator Richard Durbin’s exchange Wednesday with National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre defined the disconnect anti-gun Democrats have with the reality of so-called “universal background checks” and why they won’t stop criminals from obtaining firearms. As quoted in the Seattle Times, and shown in this video, Durbin became engaged in a frustrating debate with LaPierre. The NRA executive told the Senate Judiciary Committee that “My problem with background checks is that you’re never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks.” “You’ll create an enormous federal bureaucracy, unfunded, hitting all the little people in the...

As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., will oversee any legislation on gun control that makes its way to the Senate floor. At the first in a series of congressional hearings on the issue Wednesday, his line of questioning suggested that expanded background checks and closing the so-called gun show loophole will be top priorities — and perhaps the only ones that stand a chance in the full Senate. Displaying his background as a Vermont prosecutor, Leahy confronted National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre on whether he had changed his support for mandatory instant criminal background checks...

--IMAGE HERE-- When defending draconian gun laws in DC, Illinois, and New York, Democrats are quick to point out that states should be free to adapt their laws to their specific needs despite any pesky constitutional amendments or civil rights. President Obama himself made this argument yesterday when he said that “the reality of guns in urban areas [is] very different from the reality of guns in rural areas.” But apparently they only want states to be able to set their own laws when those laws coincide with their own anti-civil-rights agenda. California Senator Barbara Boxer has introduced Senate Bill...

Both supporters and critics of the federal background check system for gun buyers say the system is flawed. Supporters argue the system is filled with holes and impeded by a lack of cooperation from state governments, while critics warn that even if the system were perfected it would in no way reduce gun violence. Now politicians and those with a stake in the outcome are looking for ways to improve the vetting process for Americans who want to purchase firearms.

An idea I've been kicking around for a while.... Suppose there were a coordinated effort -- for registered Republicans to dump their current registration during a specific time frame -- let's say the month of February. Enough to get noticed -- by Boehner, by McConnell, by the conservative pundits (both the legit ones and the phonies). Do you think maybe THEN they'd get the message that we've reached the final straw of them not representing us? Change to Independent, change to Conservative -- even change to Democrat, to start screwing up *their* primaries for a change. This is a step...

A reader, John, took the trouble to post the following comments, so I will take the trouble to post a reply. Johns comments are numbered and lettered. My reply will be below Johns comments and not numbered or lettered. John said... 1. Gun control does not mean gun bans. No one is coming to take your gun so please keep your paranoid fantasies out of this. One counterexample disproves this argument. I have several. Canada, May, 2010. The RCMP confiscated firearms that were formerly legal.California gun ban 1997.Australia, 1996. Owners of Semi-automatic rifles and shotguns are required to turn them...

Well that didn’t take long. The Commander in Chief’s gun controlling zeal has evidently already reached into the military ranks. According to a report received from the wife of an active duty lieutenant (not pictured above) who is stationed in Indiana, the Army intends to register the firearms owned not only by servicemen and -women, but by their spouses and children as well . . . To protect the careers of those involved, no names or base locations can be used here. Suffice it to say, though, that a gun rights organization with which I’m associated received a rather frantic...

Imagine a vast registry that details every legal gun owner in the country, along with information about all of their firearms. Now imagine the gun lobby not making a fuss about it. That’s what has happened in Germany, where a new gun database went into service at the beginning of the year. Until recently, some records were kept on index cards across what used to be 551 separate local registries. Now, law enforcement officials can sit down at their computers and scroll through lists of owners and their guns in seconds. Hunting is popular in Germany, and gun manufacturers are...

Karl Denninger just posted this YouTube video, in which he contrasts your odds to die in a genocide versus your odds to die in a mass-shooting. RESIST Young man with well concealed gunfacing fearlessly the Obama régime.

The Empire Strikes Back: Round two of the effort to cynically use the Sandy Hook tragedy to deprive Illinoisans of their constitutional right to bear arms.... HB0132: http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/fulltext.asp?DocName=&SessionId=85&GA=98&DocTypeId=HB&DocNum=132&GAID=12&LegID=68539&SpecSess=&Session= The legislation appears to deny the use of most modern firearms, ammo mags over ten rounds, makes it harder to quickly access your weapon in your home and car, appears to also negate the recent case law that allowed glove compartment storage, and makes it easier to lose your FOID card if you don’t play their game. There does appear to be some sort of grandfathering, but only if you slobber and...

The latest liberal code is to push for "universal background checks". I will set aside the fact that the whole idea of preventing criminals from buying guns, rather than preventing them from possessing guns, is a failed paradigm that should be abandoned. Let us examine what is being proposed as "universal background checks". It sounds as if, when you want to sell a gun, you go to the internet, put in the person who wants to buy the gun's drivers license to see if they are on a prohibited list. If they are not, sell them the gun. Of course,...