Free Republic

Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly are calling on Congress to take "immediate action" and pass gun control to protect women in the wake of Elliot Rodger's heinous attacks in Santa Barbara.

WASHINGTON, May 29, 2014 — There are many people looking for someone to blame in the wake of the UCSB shootings last week. It is understandable that with the actual perpetrator being dead, the public is looking for someone to chastise, or to place responsibility upon. For Senator Dianne Feinstein, that someone is the NRA and the entire gun lobby. In a speech made Sunday shortly following the tragic events in California, the longtime anti-gun senator made a few interesting remarks that bear some analysis. The Senator had some questions for the public. “We must ask ourselves if an individual...

The city of Chicago doesn’t want gun shops, within its borders but a federal judge says that’s unconstitutional. So how does the city respond? With an ordinance that allows for shops but signals that strong resistance by imposing smart restrictions on gun shop owners. In other words, the mayor’s office looks to have gotten its ordinance right. Too bad the ordinance, introduced in City Council on Wednesday, will have absolutely no impact on Chicago’s real gun problem: the unceasing flow of illegal weapons into the city. The ordinance monitors gun sales in the city, but almost all illegal weapons recovered...

Guns: The Santa Barbara shooter had legally purchased and registered firearms, and passed prior questioning by the police who saw no danger to himself or others. More gun laws won't stop the next such shooter, either. It is eerie how the mental health of the shooter consistently seems to emerge as a key factor in mass shootings such as the rampage by Elliot Rodger, who killed six and wounded 13 on Friday. The shooter had been in therapy since age 8 and police had been warned by his parents to check him out. Yet few liberals cry for tougher mental...

Everyone should be concerned when an 18-year-old is being held in connection with a shootout on a school playground that left a 10-year-old fighting for her life. Sylvester A. Lewis is expected to be charged Wednesday. He has been arrested 15 times since the age of 12 and was on probation at the time of the Clarke Street Elementary School shooting on May 21. Police are looking for a second suspect, and three other people were taken into custody for aiding a felon. This cannot be the end of the narrative. We have seen this repeated too many times in...

Mayor Rahm Emanuel is proposing a far-reaching ordinance that would keep gun stores out of most parts of the city and require them to videotape every sale to deter customers from buying firearms for crooks. The ordinance is a response to a federal judge’s ruling in January that Chicago’s longtime ban on gun stores was unconstitutional. Emanuel chose not to fight the decision, and the court gave the city six months to approve store restrictions short of a ban. The deadline is July 14. Under the proposed ordinance, special-use zoning would keep gun stores out of 99.5 percent of Chicago,...

In a case that may continue to refine Wisconsin gun law, an appeals court panel on Tuesday is set to hear a Milwaukee man's claim for the return of his gun, which police say was used in a crime, though no one was convicted. Judges may consider both the limits of so-called open carry and the court procedures by which hundreds of gun owners each year seek return of weapons confiscated under a variety of scenarios. Briefs filed in the case explain the situation: Aaron Ols, 37, was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct while armed, but prosecutors amended...

"Enough is enough. She's innocent. She didn't bother nobody." That was Onjuan Guyton's plea as his 10-year-old daughter Sierra Guyton struggled for life after being caught in a crossfire Wednesday evening on the playground of Clarke Street Elementary School. Think about that: A 10-year-old shot on her school playground. What kind of world allows that to happen? We hope Onjuan Guyton's plea of "enough" resonates in the neighborhoods around Sierra's school, and stirs parents, community leaders and young black men to stand up against the violence around them, as columnist James E. Causey urged in his column Friday morning. Without...

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 before the fatal confrontation. Someone at the 14-year-old's side...

You don't have to do racial profiling to use the "broken windows" style of policing, and if too many black youths are being locked up for non-violent crimes, then we need to address that. If an officer stops a young black male for a tail light out and all he finds is a small bag of weed, let it

As concealed carry continues to grow in popularity, grandmothers are getting guns and concealed carry permits so they can protect themselves and their grandchildren. According Fox 8 Cleveland, "More people than ever are now carrying guns," and grandmas comprise "one of the fastest growing groups to get a firearm." Lake County's Sharon Mather spoke about her granddaughter when she explained why she carries a gun: "[It is] not so much for me, but if I want to take my granddaughter to the park or out for a walk or anything, I felt I need something for protection. What if something...

Milwaukee Ald. Ashanti Hamilton got to the heart of the matter at a community meeting on the north side Monday when he said, "We all have a role to play in the condition of the city. Ninety percent of the work doesn't cost money. It's a change in the mind-set of the people who live right here." Of course, a few more police on the streets also can help. Hamilton spoke at a meeting of the Black Male Achievement Advisory Committee, but that meeting — with more than 100 people in attendance — turned into a community forum on violence...

When L.C. Stevenson Sr. heard police would by paying money for firearms on Saturday, he figured it was time to finally get rid of the small handgun he had inherited many years ago from his mother. "It's a hand-me-down gun," Stevenson said. "Never used it. Never shot it. I don't need a gun in my house anyway." Stevenson took the gun to Tabernacle Community Baptist Chuch on Milwaukee's north side, where police, who had set up a gun buyback station in the parking lot, gave him a check card worth $100. Stevenson was among scores of people who showed up...

In case you’re wondering, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has some gift-giving advice: Give them an AR-15. In a tweet, she wrote: “Innovation found only in the USA! You know, an AR-15 makes a great gift — what more says, “I love you”? Eh, you …” and then she included a link to her new Sportsman Channel show, “Amazing America with Sarah Palin,” airing Thursdays at 8 p.m. Predictably perhaps, social media took to trouncing her tweet. Someone with the handle Monkey Bear Dinosaur wrote: “@SarahPalinUSA You are a terrible person.” Jeff Mandell wrote, The Blaze found: “@SarahPalinUSA you’re a...

Blake Randall Wardell, 25, was congregating with friends in a house’s garage in the wee hours of the morning when he donned a bulletproof vest. Then Wardell asked his 18-year-old friend Taylor Ann Kelly to shoot him, according to the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office in South Carolina. Kelly complied. But the small-caliber bullet hit above the kevlar portion of the vest and then went into Wardell’s heart, killing him, Anderson County Deputy Coroner Don McCown told WYFF-TV in Greenville. CPR was being attempted on Wardell when authorities arrived at the scene about 2:40 a.m; EMS personnel confirmed Wardell was dead.

A May 7th solicitation by the U.S. Department of Agriculture seeks "the commercial acquisition of submachine guns [in] .40 Cal. S&W." According to the solicitation, the Dept. of Agriculture wants the guns to have an "ambidextrous safety, semiautomatic or 2 round [bursts] trigger group, Tritium night sights front and rear, rails for attachment of flashlight (front under fore group) and scope (top rear), stock collapsible or folding," and a "30 rd. capacity" magazine. They also want the submachine guns to have a "sling," be "lightweight," and have an "oversized trigger guard for gloved operation."

Chicago Police found two guns and more than 160 rounds of live ammunition hidden in a Gresham neighborhood garbage can Tuesday on the South Side. Tactical officers patrolling the Gresham District were flagged down by a person who told them the firearms were stashed in a trash can in a nearby alleyway, according to a police statement. The officers found a rifle, shotgun, scope and the rounds of ammunition inside a plastic trash bag, police said. “This is an important example of how members of the commu

A little noticed and virtually unreported April 15 notice posted in the Federal Register suggests the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives intends expanding the multiple rifle sale requirement currently imposed on four border states (Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas) to all states. Titled “Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed eCollection eComments Requested; Report of Multiple Sale or Other Disposition of Certain Rifles,” and assigned OMB Number 1140–0100, the 60-day notice abstract declares “The purpose of this information collection is to require Federal Firearms Licensees to report multiple sales or other dispositions whenever the licensee sells or otherwise disposes...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Straphangers are on alert after police said a suspect attacked a man with a hammer at a Brooklyn subway station. And as CBS 2’s John Slattery reported exclusively, police believe the attacker has done it at least twice before – on one occasion at the very same subway station. A pregnant woman was among the other victims

History, politics and law are all tangled up in contemporary court interpretations and public understanding of the Second Amendment, and politics is the greater part of the mix these days. Last week, I wrote that we’ve so misread the amendment that maybe we ought to get rid of it. That’s certainly not on the horizon, but the idea drew a strong response and suggested to me that a review of the amendment’s history might be helpful. (Some of the responses also reinforced my belief there are many people who should not be allowed anywhere near a gun. What does racist...