Free Republic

Gun-rights advocates have delivered a one-two punch to the city of Chicago. The first blow came on Jan. 6 when a federal judge ruled the city’s longtime ban on gun stores was unconstitutional. On Thursday, the second blow landed when the judge approved $940,000 in legal fees that the city must pay to the attorneys who challenged the ban. Charles J. Cooper, one of those plaintiffs’ attorneys, charged $975 an hour for his work. Cooper, whose law firm Cooper & Kirk is based in Washington, is also looking for a big payout from the state. He submitted a $618,000 bill...

Summer in Milwaukee is just getting started, and already the violence has been the worst we have seen in years. Children taken out by bullets to the head, murdered in cold blood; their innocence is no longer with us. Hate spills across the streets, destroying everything in its path and killing off what this world needs to be a better place. What happened to coping skills that would kick in when life got rough, was unfair and seemed determined to break our spirits? What happened to valuing another's life even when yours seemed unbearable? What happened to love and compassion...

Tactical Firearms is appealing to the public for help fighting what it claims is a politically motivated problem with its bank. The Katy, Texas, gun store has made a national name for itself by posting snarky political signs – mostly opposing liberal gun-grabbers and Obama – on its outdoor marquee. BizPac Review has reported on several of the good-humored signs in the past, but it seems there’s not a lot to laugh about these days, according to the company’s web site and newsletter. The lengthy plea claims that the bank has called in on a loan that could put the...

DENVER — Colorado sheriffs vowed to appeal Thursday’s ruling by a federal judge upholding the constitutionality of the state’s 2013 gun-control laws limiting ammunition-magazine capacity to 15 rounds and mandating background checks for all gun purchases. Weld County Sheriff John Cooke said at a press conference that while the sheriffs respect the judge’s decision, “we believe that it is plainly wrong on the law and on the facts.” “We will take this case to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and if necessary, to the United States Supreme Court,” said Cooke. Cooke spoke on behalf of the 55 sheriffs who...

Under the gun to satisfy a federal judge, the City Council unanimously agreed Wednesday to allow gun shops, but keep them out of most neighborhoods and require them to videotape every sale to prevent straw purchases. “If it was up to me as the person who helped establish the Brady bill, the five-day waiting period and the assault weapons ban, I wouldn’t take this step,” Mayor Rahm Emanuel said after the 48-to-0 vote. “But given that we’re under court order, we decided we’d take the six months to come up with a way of designing an ordinance that meets the...

Defensive handgun sales began booming following Elliot Rodger's Santa Barbara attacks, and the boom continues as far away as Louisiana.  Gun store owners in Louisiana cite Santa Barbara as the reason for the unprecedented sustained surge in handgun sales they've seen since May 23. And now "sales of compact pistols are growing at double the rate of handguns overall."

DENVER—Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper now says he has regrets about signing last year’s bill limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds, but it’s not too late for him to do something about it. Republicans challenged Hickenlooper to get behind a repeal of the bill after he told county sheriffs that he was sorry for failing to consult with them on the measure; that a staffer promised he would sign the bill if it passed, and that the bill probably wouldn’t accomplish anything. Secretary of State Scott Gessler called on the governor to convene a special session in order to repeal the...

Dan Sajdowitz carries his .40-caliber Walther on his hip because you never know what danger may lie just ahead. His sidearm deters would-be criminals, he believes, although he says he has no proof of that. Sajdowitz, 39, has carried a gun openly and concealed for nearly four years; he has yet to pull his weapon in self-defense. He hopes he never has to, but if he does he will be ready. Sajdowitz let me tag along with him recently as he open carried on the Milwaukee's south side. He told me before we left that I probably would get more...

Reporting from TUCSON— It was a bloody confrontation more than three years ago in the desert brush of Arizona about 11 miles from the border with Mexico. When it was over, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry was dead and two weapons found at the scene would shine a light on a botched gun-tracking operation known as Fast and Furious that became a political headache for the Obama administration. On Wednesday, one of the five men accused of murder in the case was returned to the United States from Mexico, where he was arrested almost two years ago. Lionel...

--http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25990350/hickenlooper-supported-gun-magazine-limit-because-staffer-promise

DENVER — No doubt Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper had hoped the uproar over the gun-control legislation he signed last year would have blown over by now, but he’s since learned that’s not the case. The governor set off a fresh round of outrage at a recent forum in Aspen with county sheriffs who sued over the legislation, first by apologizing for failing to meet with them during the debate, and then by insisting he never spoke to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg about the bills. Unfortunately for Hickenlooper, Complete Colorado ran a story after the Friday forum that included...

In a rare victory for common sense in the gun debate, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that the federal ban on "straw" purchases can be enforced even if the person who eventually gets the gun is legally allowed to have one. The 5-4 decision was written by Justice Elena Kagan. Justice Anthony Kennedy, a frequent swing vote, voted with the majority. Kagan found that any other reading of the statute, which prevents someone from buying a gun for someone else, would gut the federal law. The case involved a Virginia man who bought a Glockhandgun for his uncle who...

Stopping gun violence is complicated. Requiring routine background checks before all gun purchases is not. A check to see if a person can legally purchase a gun is quick and simple. Licensed gun sellers in Wisconsin routinely and responsibly screen buyers to stop more than 1,000 criminals annually from buying weapons. Yet a glaring loophole allows many gun sellers at gun shows and online to skip this sensible safeguard. That’s wrong and can’t be justified. Yet it continues — sometimes with deadly consequences — because too many politicians lack the courage to do the right thing. The National Rifle Association...

We should be ashamed of the shooting after shooting on our streets and in our schools. We should be ashamed that Congress sits on its hands and does nothing to curb the slaughter. Eighteen months ago, 20 children were murdered in a grade school in Connecticut — and nothing was done to expand background checks or limit weapons clips. Since then, there have been 74 shootings at schools — the latest this week in Oregon left two dead and one wounded — and still nothing is done. And that's just schools; that doesn't count the shootings in theaters, temples, churches...

So much for the argument that having more people armed in public places will result in fewer gun deaths. One of the three killed recently by a Las Vegas couple, Jerad and Amanda Miller, was an armed civilian, Joseph Wilcox. Two police officers who were killed, Igor Soldo and Alyn Beck, were ambushed while having lunch. Seated in a booth, they had no chance to defend themselves, according to witnesses. Wilcox, 31, was inside a Walmart when the Millers entered firing and ordering everyone to evacuate. Wilcox, who carried a gun, decided to confront the shooter, apparently unaware that Amanda...

SEATTLE — The man charged with killing one student and wounding two others at a small Seattle college last week had stopped taking his medications because he "wanted to feel the hate," and he detailed his plans in a handwritten journal for two weeks before the attack, a prosecutor said Tuesday. "I just want people to die, and I'm gonna die with them!" Aaron Ybarra wrote the day of the shooting, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said. Satterberg released new details of the allegations as he filed charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault against Ybarra, 26. Satterberg is...

Long before Gakirah Barnes was murdered in a hail of bullets on the South Side, her mother had heard the unsettling, persistent rumors about her. Her 17-year-old daughter — the same 5-foot-3, 128 pound girl once seen as shy at school — was known for something almost unheard of on the streets of Chicago. There are teenage girls who are accomplices in gang murders. There are girls who hide gang guns for their boyfriends. But Barnes was believed to be a “hitta” — a female assassin for a faction of the Gangster Disciples, law enforcement sources say.

A DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) "special report" shows that "firearm-related" homicides fell by 39 percent between 1993 and 2011. It also showed that violent crime--or "nonfatal firearm-related violent victimization against persons aged 12 or older"--declined by 70% over the same time period. The BJS report was released in May 2013, but was under-reported amid the push for new gun control laws. The information in it is detrimental to many of the gun control arguments which were being propounded at the time.

A Vermont gun importer is blaming the White House for its laying off of 41 workers because the government blocked its plan to bring nearly $30 million worth of antique, American-made military rifles home from South Korea... Century International Arms to re-import the World War II-era M1 Garand rifles .. This importation was denied despite our explaining that the denial would harm the company and pointing out that there is no rational, gun-control reason to block the importation of these historic, 70-year-old firearms ... the South Korean government had been given preliminary approval for the deal last year and the...

A gunman is still at large after fatally shooting three RCMP officers and injuring two others in Moncton, N.B., Wednesday evening. Police are advising people in the Moncton Coliseum area and Pinehurst subdivision to stay inside as they hunt for the shooter. “At this precise moment we are still actively looking for the shooter and he may be still in the Pinehurst subdivision of Moncton,” Const. Damien Theriault told reporters late Wednesday night. Theriault also urged residents not to divulge the location of police officers during the manhunt. Codiac RCMP said they are looking for 24-year-old Justin Bourque of Moncton....