Free Republic

Toronto -- A shootout on a summer evening in July killed a high school graduate and a 10-year-old girl. In August a sniper in an apartment complex shot dead four people, including two police officers, at sunrise. This might sound like a familiar storyline in the United States. But the tragedies have mounted in Canada – these latest respectively in Toronto and Fredericton, New Brunswick – part of what has been dubbed a “summer of the gun” here. Not surprisingly, it has spurred a debate on the increasing role of firearms in Canadian society. But the conversation is taking place...

Recordings and summaries of emergency calls show Washington wildlife officials at first objected to an air rescue of a woman treed by wolves, or help from the Okanogan County sheriff. Washington wildlife managers initially opposed sending a helicopter or a search-and-rescue team to save a woman treed by wolves in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, according to recordings and summaries of emergency calls. ... Notes from a call between DNR dispatcher Jill Jones and a wildlife officer summarized WDFW’s position, and her position, shortly before the helicopter launched. “No helicopter. Federally listed species. 3 WDFW personnel saying so,” according to DNR’s...

RATON, N.M. - A New Mexico man is sharing his story of survival after he was attacked by a bear while walking his dogs. He killed the bear while its jaw was clamped around his leg, and the jaw stayed that way for a while. ... When he saw me, he pinned his ears down and immediately made a big charge at me," said Petrini. That's when the struggle began. "Down the hill, we went again rolling and he had bit me a time or two but he was never able to get on my upper body, so my legs...

A few days back, Kimberley Johnson, a feminist contributor to Huffington Post, came under fire after a social media post questioning why a black man would sport pro-NRA and tea party bumper stickers on his car. “Out on the road the other day I saw an affluent black man driving a BMW with two bumper stickers. One was pro-NRA and the other one was a Tea Party sticker that read, ‘Don’t tread on me.’ This left me very confused.” – Kimberley Johnson on Twitter, July 5, 2018 Now, I believe there are two reasons why Johnson was confused. She’s a...

The deep-pocketed NRA claims it’s going broke and may soon “be unable to exist” — and blames Gov. Andrew Cuomo for its purported poverty, according to a recent court document that’s part of its lawsuit against the state. The pro-gun lobby — which gave a record $21 million to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — said it’s headed to the poorhouse ...

During National Shooting Sports Month, we celebrate the wonderful American tradition of shooting sports. Shooting sports are a terrific reminder of our constitutional liberty and the attendant benefits that accrue to a free people: active friendship within families, between peers, and among communities, and the opportunity for Americans living in small towns and large cities to experience the bounty of America’s great outdoors. Shooting sports help reinforce many of the bedrock values of our people, such as the free exercise of the Second Amendment. Mastery of shooting sports requires rigor, discipline, and training. State and local shooting sports programs—and instruction...

The Aurora police officer who shot and killed an armed homeowner early Monday morning was involved in another deadly shooting in late June. The officer was returned to regular duty while the investigation of whether he was legally justified in using deadly force in the June incident was still ongoing. ... In this week’s incident, police received multiple 911 calls just before 1:30 a.m. Monday reporting a disturbance. Aurora Police Chief Nick Metz, in a written release, said officers encountered “a very chaotic and violent scene,” heard gunfire inside a home at 10609 E. Montview Blvd. and then “encountered an...

STATE CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION -- Article 2, Section 5. “The citizens of this State shall have the right to keep and bear arms, for their common defense.”

I am not fearful of firearms. I believe the Second Amendment was written with purpose and with sensitivity to generational circumstances. But what I am extremely concerned about is who has access to firearms and the devastation firearms are capable of in the wrong hands. Imagine a world in which anyone — including terrorists, convicted felons and domestic abusers — has immediate access to untraceable guns. Now imagine that many of these guns are made entirely of plastic or other materials not recognized by traditional metal detectors. This unmanageable scenario may soon become a reality. In fact, as soon as...

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday that openly carrying a firearm in public is constitutional. The ruling, issued by a three-judge panel, is a rebuttal to Hawaii’s claim that Second Amendment protections only applied to carrying a gun openly in one’s home. Reuters reports that the case was brought by George Young, after Hawaiian official “twice [denied] him a permit to carry a gun outside.” A District Court ruled that the denial did not infringe rights protected by the Second Amendment, but the Ninth Circuit panel disagreed.

We are not better than that, and this is who we are. We’re fighting back, no matter how much and how shrilly the Fredocons complain. We’re Normal Americans and we’re done being the guests of honor at the liberals’ witch burnings.Case in point, one James Gunn. He’s a tiresome lefty jerk who jumped on Twitter to cheer Rosanne’s recent defenestration by the SJW mob. Except it turns out he had a whole bunch of icky tweets from a decade ago lurking on the Interwebs, and some conservatives dug them up. Oops. He just had his pointy head stuck on a...

When convicted bank robber Luis Marty Narvaez walked into the Far East Side Madison branch of Chase Bank on the morning of March 1, 24-year-old Charles Daehling was just weeks into his position as an armed, undercover security guard working without a state license and under contract to an unlicensed and now-defunct Nebraska security firm. Narvaez’s head and face were covered with a black cap and black mask as he briskly stepped to a window where a teller was already helping a customer, stuck a bag under the window and demanded money but never displayed a weapon, according to a...

Saying he “can’t think of a worse crime for someone to commit” in a city besieged by violence, a federal judge on Wednesday sentenced an Arkansas man to more than seven years in federal prison for selling military-style semi-automatic rifles and other guns to a felon in Chicago. In handing down the 87-month sentence, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman told Klint Kelley that his actions undoubtedly contributed to the city’s “intolerable level of gun violence,” even though the guns he trafficked weren’t directly connected to a shooting. As more than a dozen of Kelley’s relatives and supporters — most of...

Police in New Jersey have officially crossed the [thin blue] line and literally attempted to confiscate guns from an army veteran without a warrant. But it didn’t go as planned, because Leonard Cottrell Jr. refused to comply with the orders of the cops. Eventually, all gun confiscation will be carried out by the police; who of “don’t make the laws, they just enforce them,” and Cottrell found this out the hard way. After serving two tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom overseas, Cottrell found himself at end of the state’s tyrannical oppression and gun elimination scheme.

'Why do teachers have to die protecting their students? Why can't we live protecting our students?' In the weeks and months since the school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Santa Fe, Texas, the debate over whether teachers should be able to carry firearms in schools has received a great deal of attention. A number of states have allowed teachers to carry firearms in schools for years and provide some insight into how such programs work in practice and what motivates teachers who want to be armed. In Colorado, local school districts have the authority to but are not required to...

DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO — A man went on a wild ride after stealing a vehicle, shooting at passing vehicles as he drove, and then ended up at a camp ground to continue his crime spree. He wasn’t prepared for what he was about to encounter, but the other person was. The suspect, a 29-year-old male, drove the stolen vehicle into the Pike National Forest, shooting at passing vehicles. He ultimately stopped the vehicle at a Devil’s Head Campground and approached an unsuspecting camper with a rifle, which began a confrontation. As the confrontation ensued the rifle was pointed at the...

"I thank God that the one waitress had a concealed carry and pulled out her gun. I shudder to think what might have happened had she not been able to do that. What this guy would've done," Donovan said. Another worker, who pulled out a gun and pointed it at the man to get him away from the victim, has quit

FASTER Colorado's active shooter training for teachers. Last week I went through the training many of the teachers who are authorized to carry a gun in Colorado schools go through. In the wake of the devastating school shootings in Parkland, Fla., and Santa Fe, Tex., many different solutions have been proposed for how to stop or at least curb the violence inflicted by active shooters. Among the most prominent solutions—thanks in large part to President Trump's advocacy—is arming teachers. Most, however, don't understand how arming teachers works in person or that a number of states already allow certain teachers to...

Gun sales have remained strong during the Trump era. Through the end of May, 2018 is trending to be the second highest year on record. The NICS checks through May of 2018 are 97% of those of 2016. Political writers and gun industry writers, and those who are both, have speculated that politics have been the major driver of guns sales for the last decade. The latest Rassmussen poll shows evidence of a deeper reason people would fear to be disarmed. From rasmussenreports.com: Thirty-one percent (31%) of Likely U.S. Voters say it’s likely that the United States will experience...

<p>After her graduation photos with an AR-10 rifle went viral, Kent State graduate Kaitlin Bennett received countless death threats online from leftists. While many of these threats have come from incensed, anonymous liberals from all over the country, this past weekend Bennett received a much more credible one from just across a restaurant booth.</p>