Free Republic

Even though local police departments can object when they believe applicants for concealed carry permits pose a threat to the public, less than 1 percent of the 33,631 applications in Illinois have been challenged, according to figures released Thursday. A state licensing board composed of a former judge, two former prosecutors, three former FBI agents and a psychiatry professor will consider the 236 objections that police have filed since the new concealed carry law took effect this year.

British CNN host Piers Morgan is well known for his vocal anti-gun views. In response to Morgan's views, Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm filed Senate Bill 1473 - the "Piers Morgan Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms Without Infringement Act." The act would permit all law-abiding citizens over the age of 18 to open carry a loaded or unloaded gun without a license in the state of Oklahoma. Guns would still be banned from places designated as "gun free." "The Second Amendment says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, and yet...

Cook County Sheriff’s officials say they’ve filed an objection to a gang leader’s state application to carry a concealed firearm — and they’re opposing hundreds of other applications, too. The high-ranking Latin Kings leader possesses a state firearm owner’s identification card, which allows him to own a gun. He got the card because he doesn’t have any felonies on his record, said authorities, who declined to name him. Under the state’s concealed carry law that took effect this year, an individual must first have a firearm owner’s identification card to apply for a permit. Once an application is filed, local...

A national newspaper chain never intended to create a multi-state database of gun owners with permits allowing them to carry concealed weapons according to its top executive, who told FoxNews.com a "poorly crafted" internal memo erroneously indicated such an idea was being planned. The memo -- sent by a top content editor to various editors at Civitas Media, which owns about 100 newspapers in 11 states, with 1.6 million in total circulation -- laid out a plan for an enterprise project that would use public information requests to establish the database. But Civitas President and CEO Michael Bush, in an...

Abi Maldonado wants to carry a gun because he’s regularly sent to high-crime neighborhoods to fix broken automated teller machines. “The money is insured; I don’t care about the money, I just want to go home, that’s pretty much want it comes down to,” he said. Jay Kinzie wants to be prepared, just in case his martial arts skills aren’t enough to fend off anyone who’d choose to do him harm. “When I think of carrying a firearm, to me, it’s an insurance policy; it’s like a fire extinguisher, a spare tire or a smoke detector,” he said. Retiree Ray...

One of the nation’s largest gun manufacturers won’t sell its newest firearm in California because of a state law that requires firearms to imprint a unique stamp on bullet casings. Smith & Wesson said Thursday it would not sell a semiautomatic pistol in California because of the law, signed in 2007 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and implemented last year. It’s the second big gun manufacturer to pull some of its products out of California in the last several months. The gun companies said the law, which requires each firearm to imprint a so-called “microstamp” on bullet casings, impose unbearable...

My name is Tom Hoefling, and I’m from Lohrville, in Calhoun County. I’m running for governor because I believe that Iowa Republicans deserve to have a choice in the June 3rd primary election, a conservative choice. After all, the word “election” means “choice.” I have a proven track record of more than twenty years of consistently fighting for the bedrock principles upon which republicanism rests, across Iowa, and across the nation. In brief, I support Representative Tom Shaw’s House file 138, which will ban abortion and restore equal protection to all persons in our state. I defend one man-one woman...

As Mayor Rahm Emanuel starts to craft rules on selling guns in Chicago, he's unlikely to find much inspiration in the Chicago area but could look to California to see how far he can go in setting strict standards. Outside of Evanston and Oak Park, towns around here don't have many regulations in place when it comes to gun sales. Locales like Los Angeles have been pushing the envelope in making it hard for gun stores to set up shop within city limits.

We all must thank the nation's media outlets that honored the wishes of the community of Newtown, Conn., and stayed away on the one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in December. The compassion and restraint during the town's time of remembrance was commendable. I hope this can be a starting point for addressing the overwhelming issue of school shootings, which have persisted in this country for far too long. As a school superintendent, there is nothing more frightening to me than the thought of another senseless school shooting. Yet, within the current psychology of our nation, it...

A couple of weeks back, when news appeared of Mr. Obama’s executive order to “expand” so called background checks to confirm the mental health of firearm purchasers, it seemed on the surface to be somewhat innocuous. Making it more difficult for a “mentally unstable” person to obtain a firearm does, on the surface, sound reasonable, does it not? It does until one considers two critically important factors.

SPRINGFIELD — In small towns Downstate, murders may happen once every 50 to 100 years, if that frequently, and the worst crimes might be a meth lab getting busted or someone driving away from a gasoline pump without paying. Yet, these extremely low-crime pockets of the state are precisely where people appear to be lining up the fastest to apply for state permits to carry concealed handguns, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of concealed-carry applications submitted so far to the Illinois State Police. By contrast, in Cook County, gun owners appear to be moving the slowest to apply for...

A federal judge Tuesday granted the city the six months Mayor Rahm Emanuel said it needs to figure out where to allow gun shops in Chicago. U.S. District Court Judge Edmond Chang said his decision balances the needs of the city to craft regulations with the public’s Second Amendment rights. Pete Patterson, an attorney for gun rights advocates, told Chang the six-month time frame is too long. Patterson said the city acted far more quickly to a court ruling that overturned the statewide ban on carrying concealed weapons in Illinois. But Andrew Worseck, a city Law Department attorney, said that...

Matthew Bracken's 'Enemies Trilogy' will be free to down load to you Amazon's Kindle for one day January 15th. 'Enemies Foreign and Domestic' 'Domestic Enemies' 'Foreign Enemies And Traitors'

It doesn't take long to see that South Dakota is gun country. Rifles rest on racks in pick-ups; hunters fire at everything from ducks to deer to mountain lions; and state lawmakers last year allowed school districts to arm teachers. It's a state that understands firearms and their place in civilization. The state is a natural leader when it comes to making guns and ammunition. Toss in a low tax rate and an overall favorable economy, and state development officials are eager to expand South Dakota's firearm employment base. "The industry fits South Dakota, and South Dakota fits the industry,"...

When Reggie Evans, a cook at George Webb restaurant, was shot and killed on the city's east side, the question on many people's mind was why suspect Delorean Bryson, whom police describe as a "career criminal," was on the streets and how was he able to get a gun. The simple answer is that the criminal justice system is flawed and current laws are not sufficient to keep guns out of the hands of felons. What we need is a larger public health perspective to reduce gun violence. I was in a meeting with Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn recently...

Calling the ATF's tactics appalling, alarming, disturbing and "almost unimaginable," congressional members on Thursday slammed the agency for how it conducted storefront stings across the nation and renewed their demand for answers. The sharply worded letter is the latest salvo from members of Congress to U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director B. Todd Jones regarding the undercover operations. Members of both parties have been demanding answers from the agency and Jones since last January when a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation exposed a series of foul-ups and failures in an ATF sting in Milwaukee dubbed Operation Fearless. Thursday's...

The Illinois State Police said Tuesday that it had completed the initial approval of more than 13,000 concealed carry applications, moving residents a step closer to being able to carry loaded firearms in public. Meanwhile, applications continued to pour in via the State Police’s online registration site. The State Police received 1,089 applications Tuesday, for a total of 15,539. (snip)To ensure that the applications are not denied unjustly, Gov. Pat Quinn has appointed a seven-member panel of federal prosecutors, FBI agents and judges to review objections raised by law enforcement. The board has another 30 days to review the rejected...

I read an article recently, by Brandon Turbeville, about the Executive Actions Obama signed January 3 further limiting our gun rights, and it got me to thinking about the “Axis of Evil” which have now joined forces to disarm us. Although there are plenty of tertiary players, it’s mainly Obamacare, NSA and the American Psychiatric Association (APA) who make up this merry collaboration of oppressors. Although Mr. Turbeville covered the idea of using mental disorders to disarm the population in his article, I wanted to dig deeper and further illustrate how all of the elements are in place now to...

Want to buy a machine gun without a background check? Federal law allows it — for nowby Nancy WatzmanDec. 19, 2013, 11 a.m. An obscure regulation designed to close a gun law loophole that allows some people to avoid background checks when purchasing machine guns and silencers has sparked one of the more unusual gun control debates of the year. That's because those doing the arguing are all gun enthusiasts. Gun control groups have stayed out of this one. The regulation in question — proposed earlier this year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) — has...

Gun Control: Thanks to government regulations, the closing of the last U.S. lead smelter and a push for "green" lead-free ammunition, ammo prices will skyrocket. Does the Second Amendment threaten the environment? Having been stymied by court defeats such as the Supreme Court's deciding that the Second Amendment does indeed confer a right to keep and bear arms on individuals throughout the United States, advocates of a gun-free America and a disarmed citizenry are taking a different approach: Go after the ammunition through regulations that stifle domestic production and force the use of more expensive and eco-friendly substitutes. Expanded regulations...