Free Republic

A Rockville gun store owner who said he would sell the nation’s first smart gun — even after a California gun store removed the weapon from its shelves to placate angry gun-rights activists — backed down late Thursday night after enduring a day of protests and death threats. Andy Raymond, the co-owner of Engage Armament, a store known for its custom assault rifles, had said earlier this week that offering the Armatix iP1 handgun was a “really tough decision” after what happened to the Oak Tree Gun Club near Los Angeles. Oak Tree was lambasted by gun owners and National...

Second Amendment absolutists complain that gun control advocates are an out-of-touch elite seeking to destroy the way of life of real men who pack heat. At the National Rifle Association's convention in Indianapolis last weekend, Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre warned his members that their lifestyle was under assault. "I have never seen it on edge the way it is now," he said. "If it's going to be saved, it's in our hands. It's in your hands." There's no better venue than this gathering to experience the pain and joy of gun owners. To those not steeped in guns, the...

Jeremy Gorner, Steve Schmadeke and Steve Mills Tribune reporters Before the 14-year-old girl allegedly fired the shot that killed Endia Martin, the .38-caliber revolver had touched many hands. A south suburban gun shop known for selling weapons later used in crimes in Chicago. A Hyde Park man whose mother did not want the gun in their home. A former Atlanta man now living on the South Side who would appear to be a middleman of sorts in the gun's journey. The paralyzed uncle of the 14-year-old girl who, prosecutors charged, rode a bus to give the gun to his niece...

I don’t believe the Second Amendment was ever intended to support the kind of gun craziness we contend with today, but since it’s always used to ward off any common-sense gun reforms, maybe we ought to just fix the Constitution and be done with it. Yes, I know the odds against that are immense, but maybe we could start by nibbling away at the idea that the Constitution is infallible or that the founders had the answers to everything. They were smart men but neither perfect nor prescient. One of the ways they showed how smart they were, was that...

Have we gone stark raving mad? The question is brought to mind by the new gun law signed last week in Georgia by Gov. Nathan Deal. You might have thought that since the United States couldn't possibly have more permissive firearms laws than it does now, nothing more could be done to coddle the gun lobby and tip the balance of our statutes away from law enforcement. Alas, you would be wrong. The creativity of the National Rifle Association and other organizations devoted to establishing conditions in which every man, woman and child in our nation will have to be...

Guns continue to do a booming business, with the industry making, selling and importing firearms at the highest level in at least a quarter-century, according to a new federal report. The report also reveals the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives inspected fewer than 10% of the roughly 140,000 federal gun dealers in the nation — a seven-year low — as the agency struggles to fulfill its goal of inspecting all dealers every five years. ATF's Firearms Commerce in the United States report, released this week, shows 8.6 million guns were manufactured in the U.S. in 2012, the...

One of the militia groups who joined the effort to “protect” the Bundy family and their ranch from the armed Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rangers admitted they are prepared to use deadly force in self-defense in Nevada or Texas. Several militia groups have joined ranks to provide “protection” to keep the BLM from taking property from the Bundy Ranch, most of which operates on federally owned land. Scott Shaw, co-founder of the Oklahoma Volunteer Militia says he is just an average American who goes to work every day and pays his taxes. He described his militia members as “every-day...

Four years after a Smith & Wesson .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun was used to kill an off-duty Chicago police officer, the Mississippi pawnshop owner who sold the gun in a straw purchase has agreed to concessions that authorities hope will curb similar illegal gun deals. The concession to alert authorities about customers who buy multiple handguns, beyond what is required by law, was reached in a federal lawsuit in Mississippi over the slaying of Officer Thomas Wortham IV, attorneys for the Wortham family said. He was an Army National Guard member who had served in Iraq and who — just days...

In 1999, Kitsap County Prosecuting Attorney Russ Hauge, a Democrat, was prosecuting a legal gun owner for using his gun to defend himself.  Hauge was also a guest instructor on gun laws at the Kitsap Rifle & Revolver Club in Bremerton, Washington.  The gun owner was found innocent of all charges and that did not set well with Hauge who took up two class periods lecturing the students about the case.Hearing what Hauge was saying about the case and gun rights, Marcus Carter, Executive Officer for the gun range, knew that the students did not get the full story.  The...

Last Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) responded to the standoff at Cliven Bundy’s Nevada ranch in very forceful terms. “Those people who hold themselves out to be patriots are not,” Reid said. “They’re nothing more than domestic terrorists,” A day later, Reid appeared alongside his fellow Nevada senator, Republican Dean Heller, for a joint appearance on Las Vegas’ NBC affiliate. They apparently don’t see eye to eye. “What Sen. Reid may call domestic terrorists, I call patriots,” GOP Sen. Dean Heller said during the rare joint appearance on KSNV-TV. “We have a very different view on this.” […]...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will spend $50 million this year to build a nationwide grassroots network on gun control in a direct challenge to the National Rifle Association, The New York Times reported. The new lobbying group, called Everytown for Gun Safety, will encompass other gun control groups funded by Bloomberg, Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, the report said. Bloomberg told the Times the strategy will focus on expanding the background check system for gun buyers at the state and national levels. He made nearly $14 million in federal campaign...

(Reuters) - Two incompatible ballot measures on background checks for gun buyers in Washington state enjoy majority support in a poll released on Tuesday, but the one advancing stricter gun controls is more popular. The competing measures, both slated to be on the ballot in November in the Pacific Northwest state, are the only firearm background check initiatives up for a vote this year in the United States. :snip: Initiative 594 would require all firearm sales, including those at gun shows and conducted online, to be predicated on a background check of the buyer. Initiative 591, however, would disallow background...

ATF Adding More NFA Branch Staff, Reducing Backlog, Re-Designing eForms System. Again.By Nick Leghorn on April 17, 2014 The Truth About Guns TTAG has just received the following email from the ATF about the current status of the National Firearms Act branch, the group responsible for approving the paperwork needed to own fun stuff like silencers and short barreled firearms in the United States. The long and the short of it is that they’ve hired yet more staff and they are finally making a dent in the backlog of paperwork, but it’s going to be a long slog ahead until...

BUNKERVILLE — Cliven Bundy’s fight with the Bureau of Land Management over the federal agency’s roundup of his cattle attracted a diverse group of foot soldiers: fellow ranchers, Las Vegans and militia and patriot groups were among them. Their battle cry is the U.S. Constitution and liberty. They fear the federal government overstepping its bounds at every turn. This concern, in their view, applies to those from all walks of life, be it a rural Southern Nevada rancher or a militia member from northern Montana. Ultimately, the Bundy protest — which was defused Saturday when federal land officials agreed to...

As tensions rose and a standoff ensued between Bureau of Land Management (BLM) agents and Cliven Bundy and his family on April 11th and 12th, one thing was evident: through the Second Amendment, the Founding Fathers guaranteed that Bundy could be armed to protect his life and property. KLAS-TV described a meeting between armed federal agents and armed Bundy family members during one of the highest points of tension. No guns were misused nor were any used offensively. However, guns were present because of our Founding Fathers' forethought. We do not have guns for the purposes of sporting or hunting--although...

The rural Nevada showdown between federal government officials and militia members protecting rancher Cliven Bundy has evolved into a battle of government “tyranny,” with many newly arriving militiamen rolling in to draw a line in the dirt about 70 miles northeast of Las Vegas. ... “This is a better education than being in school! I’m glad I brought you. I’m a good mom,” Ilona Ence, a 49-year-old mother from St. George and Bundy relative who brought her four teenage children to the ranch, told the Las Vegas Sun. “They’re learning about the Constitution.” Ence’s teenage sons posted up a sign...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The state Senate has passed a bill to allow Tennesseans to openly carry guns without a state-issued permit.

Dan Zimmerman at The Truth About Guns asks Could Connecticut Gun Laws Spark Another Waco?There’s been a lot of discussion among members of the Armed Intelligentsia lately about how Connecticut’s finest might proceed if they decide to confiscate unregistered guns from the state’s 100,000 or more newly-minted felons. The level of concern is evidenced by daily long comment threads, speculative posts by people who are not members of law enforcement, and even a couple of contributed opinions from the LEO community. The rational consensus seems to be that if the gun-grab order were given, cops would pinch a registration scofflaw...

L SPRINGFIELD — After a state conservation officer ticketed the National Rifle Association’s Illinois lobbyist last December for breaking a hunting law, the gun-rights advocate dutifully paid his $120 fine. But Todd Vandermyde, one of Springfield’s most powerful and effective lobbyists, didn’t stop there. A month later, he worked with one legislator to rewrite the law he broke. And not long after that, he enlisted help from House Minority Leader Jim Durkin, R-Western Springs, to carry legislation that, at least initially, would have greatly restrained the authority of Department of Natural Resources police officers to venture onto private property. “I...

John Ambrose hoped to be among the first people in Illinois licensed to carry a concealed gun when the state’s new law took effect this year. Instead, Ambrose, 38, of Joliet said he learned Monday that his application had been denied because he took a class in Bolingbrook that didn’t meet state requirements from an instructor who’s had his right to teach revoked. Ambrose said although some students had voiced concerns about the part of the class to be taught online, the teacher told them the training met state standards. “I kind of feel like a fool,” he said. Illinois...