Free Republic

Bill of Rights Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. Amendment II A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. Amendment III No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor...

But now I believe the comments to be authentic because they perfectly mirror the mentality that made my phone calls to the Senator’s office so memorable. CLICK LINK HERE The blather starts almost from sentence one, message one and continues through sentence last, message last.

In research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice, in which almost 2,000 felons were interviewed, 34% of felons said they had been “scared off, shot at, wounded or captured by an armed victim" and 40% of these criminals admitted that they had been deterred from committing a crime out of fear that the potential victim was armed. Allowing law-abiding people to arm themselves offers more than piece of mind for those individuals -- it pays off for everybody through lower crime rates. Statistics from the FBI’s Uniformed Crime Report of 2007 .....

Earlier this fall, while scanning the merchandise at a state gun show for an antique handgun, longtime gun enthusiast Guy Gorsky took notice of more than the array of potential investment pieces. Based on the attire worn, questions asked and weapons eyed by a group of young men, Gorsky, who attends three or four gun shows a year, had a feeling they were gang members looking to make a quick purchase. “They were only looking at automatic weapons,” says Gorsky, who keeps a variety of handguns and rifles in his Madison home. “I found that the most concerning.” Unlike weapons...

Back in 1994, when the U.S. Congress was debating whether to ban "assault weapons," a talk show host asked Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey, a sponsor of the ban, whether guns cause crime. The host noted that, in Switzerland, all males are issued assault rifles for their militia service and are required to keep them at home, yet little crime exists there. Bradley responded: "My guess is--Swiss are pretty dull--so my guess is that probably didn't happen." Actually, for those who think that target shooting is more fun than golf, Switzerland is anything but "dull." By car or by...

Back door gun registration is being proposed for Wisconsin by Senators Coggs, Taylor and Lassa; Representatives Richards, Staskunas, Turner, Young, Sinicki, Berceau, Colon, Grigsby, Fields, Pasch, Kessler, Zepnick and Toles. SB 367 is yet another attempt to infringe upon lawful gun owners in Wisconsin by making it a crime not to report a lost or stolen gun within 48 hours of discovering the loss or theft. I am not clear how anyone will know if a stolen gun that shows up at a crime scene just 5 hours after it was stolen is your gun or to whom it belongs....

Concealed firearms have their legal place in society, but hidden guns hardly seem appropriate on university campuses. We think it's more than reasonable for the board that oversees Colorado State University to ask that administrators enact a ban on guns to individuals who own concealed-carry permits. The CSU Board of Governors voted 9-0 last week to implement a ban on campuses in Fort Collins and Pueblo, and now college presidents must craft the policy. When enacted next year, CSU will join a long list of other campuses with similar bans. In fact, nearly every public college and university bans student...

MARLOW, Oklahoma – A small force in Stephens County is already under investigation by state and federal authorities but new controversy is brewing as two more Marlow police officers are accused of criminal conduct. One officer has resigned, another is still on the force, but together they join the growing list of Marlow cops accused of corruption. In Stephens County, many share the district attorney's opinion of the Marlow Police department. "I don't completely trust some of the officers at Marlow," said District Attorney Bret Burns. The D.A., who has already asked the FBI and OSBI to investigate the department...

Mayor Bloomberg's "future-crime" vision of American gun control is one where a United States citizen [will be denied gun purchases if] her name was added by a federal bureaucrat to the no-fly list . . . It is also at least foreseeable that under this scheme . . . TSA agents might confiscate guns from the checked baggage of airport travelers.

ST. PETERSBURG — Now that surveillance cameras are watching virtually every store and parking lot, it's increasingly common to see footage of robberies, fights and even shootings. But the disturbing video of a double murder in downtown St. Petersburg is something different. In graphic detail, with eight different cameras and relatively good sound, the video shows the entire August 2008 robbery of Central Food Mart, and the shootings of three men. Even in an era when video has become ubiquitous, prosecutors say this stands out as perhaps the clearest and most complete recording ever of a local murder — and...

These are the times that make men vomit. Have you seen the latest Gunowners Of America Alert? Mr. Milquetoast himself, Harry Reid, may pass some version of ObamaNationCare because NOT ONE Senate Republican has the brass to stand up and just say NO.....not one more lie....not one more penny... not one more day.... not one more usurpation. What possible power does this pantywaist Reid have over Senators like North Carolina's Richard Burr to silence him into submission? The State that gave the nation Jesse Helms (Senator NO), now has Richard Burr (Senator Go-Along-To-Get-Along).

Submitted by .Sean on November 19, 2009 - 4:24pm The Lafayette County Republican Central Committee is proudly celebrating a new crazy billboard on I-70 near Grain Valley. It calls for citizens to "starve the beast" and "vote out incumbents" -- and if that doesn't work, "PREPARE FOR WAR."

Many of us involved in gun rights advocacy have seen the poster accompanying this column. It was the terrifying dawn of World War II, and the British, fearing German invasion, were ill-prepared to defend their nation. The December 1959 issue of GUNS Magazine is now online, and it tells us the story behind the poster in the feature article "Guns in our bundles for Britain," by William B. Edwards. Here are some of the highlights: "We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them on the landing grounds, we shall fight them in the fields and the streets,...

Last week, the body of Chicago school board president Michael Scott was found in the Chicago River with a single bullet wound in his head. The big story was that this powerful, well-connected public official had, according to the Cook County medical examiner, committed suicide. The less-noticed story was that he did it with an illegal weapon. After all, handgun ownership is not allowed in Chicago, which has one of the strictest gun control laws in the country, and Scott killed himself with a .380-caliber sidearm. Unlike most Chicagoans, Scott could have been a legal handgun owner. Because he had...

Clergy members oppose legislation; gun rights groups endorse it HARRISBURG - Some of Pennsylvania's clergy say a state house bill being considered will increase gun violence and deaths, while supporters contend the bill simply expands your right to self-defense.Dozens of clergy members crowded the steps in the Capitol rotunda Thursday morning to rally against House Bill 40. The group had gathered at the Capitol to watch a House Judicial Committee Public Hearing on the bill.The piece of legislation eliminates the "duty to retreat" if you are confronted by an attacker. It also expands the so-called "castle doctrine." That's a piece...

The lesson from an unsuccessful pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden this week was simple: Guns talk. The Maersk Alabama, the American-flagged ship infamously attacked by pirates in April, was attacked again Monday when Somali pirates opened fire on the ship in an attempt to board it. But the pirates didn't get far this time, after a four-man security team aboard the ship fired back, thwarting the attack. It's the first time a large cargo ship with an armed security team aboard is known to have repelled an attack, says Vice Adm. William Gortney, who commands the Pacific region...

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which considers opposition to draconian gun control laws to be "crackpot," has sent one of their "experts" to Eugene to teach police from multiple agencies about "Hate in America Today- a National Overview of Far Right Domestic Terrorism." You will recall that in the brave new world of Obama, "right wing terrorists" include gun owners, Constitutionalists, military veterans and supporters of limited government.

Readers of this blog know I have long admired from afar the activities of the New Hampshire "Free Staters". One of the best ideas they have had is an emergency communications network dubbed Porcupine 411. Now I learn they want to spread their idea nationwide. God Bless them!

Gun rights supporters are up in arms over a pair of moves the White House made last month to reverse longstanding U.S. policy and begin negotiating a gun control treaty with the United Nations.

Early in the morning of Dec. 5, 1999, off-duty Las Vegas police officer Dennis Devitte was one of the customers at Mr. D's Sportsbar & Grill, at Rainbow and Oakey boulevards, where he and some pals had gone to hear the band Pigs in a Blanket. A little after 1 a.m., three armed robbers charged through the back door with guns drawn and their faces covered with T-shirts or bandanas. "I'd only been in the bar a short time and was talking to friends," Mr. Devitte later told an interviewer for the International Association of Chiefs of Police. "I saw...

In any case it is certainly not the job of We, The Abused to walk on eggshells lest we somehow be condemned for our righteous wrath when They, The Abusers are unpunished, unrepentant and unrestrained. If that is the message of Mike Vanderboegh he must be ignored. Miniature Fort Sumters occur around us all every day, from the unprovoked SWAT assault on a completely innocent family based on the undocumented testimony of a “Confidential Informant” CLICK LINK HERE to the unprovoked investigation of a family for “illegal food sales”.CLICK LINK HERE or CLICK LINK HERE They all share the same...

Back in late October, I wrote "Brady Campaign hypocrisy," chiding the Brady Campaign--specifially, their Vice President for Law and Policy, Dennis Henigan--for his accusation that the "gun lobby" tries to hide the truth. This accusation positively reeks of hypocrisy, on a couple levels. First, Henigan himself, in arguing on a video clip that the Second Amendment did nothing to protect the individual's right to keep and bear arms, recited the amendment in its entirety--except for the "of the people" part--the very part that poses the biggest problem for the now discredited "collective rights" interpretation of the Second Amendment. Second, when...

Well, so much for the "scrapping the long gun registry is an appalling slap in the face of Canadian public opinion" narrative. A Canadian Press/Harris Decima poll released today finds 46% of Canadians believe abolishing the long gun registry is a good idea, while 41% think it's a bad idea. Sub-populations amongst which more people would prefer to scrap the registry than keep it include NDP voters, Green Party voters, Ontarians, and women. Ouch! The populists-of-convenience who embraced/twisted the hell out of that three-year-old Ipsos poll showing two-thirds of us would prefer to have some kind of gun registration process...

I’ve always been a history buff at heart and more recently an avid gun enthusiast, but most importantly, a supporter of Second Amendment rights. There’s a difference between just shooting guns and knowing the vast history behind our right to do so. Jesse Trimble The United States, as a country and before it was a country, has had a long history of flags — specifically, flags relating to our independence when we were at war with Great Britain. Many may come to mind, such as the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, also known as the Gadsden flag, which is yellow...

<p>SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) ― A quadriplegic in New Jersey has the right to bear arms even though he can't hold a gun or pull a trigger.</p> <p>A judge ruled Tuesday that James Cap is eligible for a firearms ID, which is required to buy a gun.</p>

A "push in Congress for broader gun rights is threatening to derail Amtrak and stall a transportation spending bill," wrote Walter Alarkon on thehill.com on Oct. 25. "Gun-rights advocates in Congress are pressing appropriators to keep a provision that would let Amtrak passengers check in handguns with their baggage." The provision, which calls for withholding $1.5 billion in Amtrak funding if the policy isn't implemented before April, was inserted into the $68.8 billion Senate transportation and Housing and Urban Development spending bill as an amendment. All 40 Republicans, 27 Democrats and one admitted socialist voted for the amendment, sponsored by...

HOUSTON—A grand jury will decide whether to press charges against a pregnant woman who, police say, shot and killed a burglar. The ordeal began when the unidentified woman saw a group of men allegedly breaking into cars at her apartment complex on Pinemont in northwest Houston late Monday night. When the group moved on to her car, the woman, who is eight-months pregnant, said she fired a shotgun from her balcony. One of the men died, say police. The others fled the scene in a black truck.

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. --...

Based on legislation and case law, the U.S. government's attitude toward increased rights for gun owners has been more favorable in recent years than ever before.In the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use. It was the first Supreme Court case in U.S. history to directly address whether the right to keep and bear arms is a right of individuals in addition to a collective right that applies to state-regulated militias.As a result, additional pleas to increase...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. The...

In the 1920s and 1930s, Jehovah's Witnesses were viewed by many with the same horror and loathing gun owners receive today. So the 1920s and 1930s saw widespread state and local legislation against Jehovah's Witnesses, and though the Bill of Rights guarantees freedom of speech and religion, it took 30 to 40 years of careful litigation--patiently piling up precedents to achieve the overthrow of those laws by the Supreme Court. The relevance of the Witnesses' experience to gun owners is that it will take at least that many years of patient, careful litigation to remove the morass of senseless anti-gun...

Under fire from the Milwaukee Police Department for selling guns used in crimes, the owner of Badger Guns boasted last week he has a close working relationship with his local police department in West Milwaukee. "West Milwaukee knows what we do," Adam Allan told Milwaukee aldermen during a hearing on gun laws. "We always are having felons taken out of there." Data from the West Milwaukee Police Department tells a different story. So does the village's police chief. Police calls to the store dropped sharply beginning in 2007, the year Allan took over the store, according to a Journal Sentinel...

When the city's top cop and county's top prosecutor want to open the door for a concealed-carry gun law in Wisconsin, it seems the writing may be on the wall. Police Chief Edward Flynn and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm told a City Hall committee last week that allowing concealed-carry permits in Wisconsin could ultimately make things safer for everyone. Specifically, they said, if the state issued such permits under a tough eligibility process and coupled that with more stringent background checks for all gun purchases, the number of illegally sold weapons could be cut across the board. The...

Two powerful Milwaukee leaders on Wednesday floated the idea of allowing concealed-carry gun permits in Wisconsin as part of a larger package of gun law reforms - marking a departure with Mayor Tom Barrett on the hot issue. Police Chief Edward Flynn and District Attorney John Chisholm said allowing concealed-carry weapon permits must be coupled with other changes such as requiring background checks on all gun purchases in Wisconsin. Currently, only federally licensed gun stores have to do such checks in the state. Allowing concealed-carry permits has long been a top priority for gun-rights advocates. Conversely, gun-control advocates have pushed...

Forty-four percent favor stricter laws on firearm sales PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup finds a new low of 44% of Americans saying the laws covering firearm sales should be made more strict. That is down 5 points in the last year and 34 points from the high of 78% recorded the first time the question was asked, in 1990.Today, Americans are as likely to say the laws governing gun sales should be kept as they are now (43%) as to say they should be made more strict. Until this year, Gallup had always found a significantly higher percentage advocating stricter laws....

We reported recently that the California Legislature passed AB 962. This bill would require anyone buying pistol ammo to provide drivers’ license #, address, and a thumbprint. And, because AB 962 requires all pistol ammo sales to be “face to face”, the law would effectively ban mail-order ammo sales in California. While AB 962 targets pistol ammo sales, it could also apply to any type of rifle ammo that has been used in pistols (including single-shots). That would include 22LR, 22 rimfire magnum, .223 Rem, 6BR, 30-30, .308 Winchester, and more. Opposition Efforts Gain Strength Right now, unless CA Governor...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, has joined the bipartisan Second Amendment Task Force (SATF). Members of this group act as a unified and proactive force to promote legislation that protects the Second Amendment and to fight legislation that poses a threat to citizens’ Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. "Now, more than ever before, it will be necessary to maintain a vigilant eye against real efforts to disarm the American people," said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. "Montanans sent me to Washington, D.C. to represent them. And as their...

To begin know it is said amongst the knowledgeable North Carolina is sprinkled with a number of “sweet spots” where a fellow can stand in an open field and box the compass in four opposite directions (North,East,South and West) for a few hundred yards and find himself under four conflicting sets of hunting regulations........... The leading (current) contender for complete Alice-In-Wonderland-Mad-Hatter “the law is ours to know and yours to find out” bureaucracy is DUPLIN COUNTY.......

A good example of just how treacherous modern hunting has become. Regulation trumps common sense and everyone is guilty until proven innocent. Two fathers and their sons went hunting in Brinnon on Saturday, but after legally downing an elk with a muzzleloading rifle, they found themselves staring down the barrels of guns pointed at them by uniformed officers of the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe. "The whole thing was handled way wrong," said Don Phipps, who shot the elk. "I've never had anyone pull a gun on me in my whole life. I didn't understand it."

Our friend the Welshman from The Liberty Sphere has an excellent analysis of the Chicago 2nd Amendment Incorporation Case. The comments section offers some further intriguing thoughts. Stop by and add your two cents. Tantalizing Excerpt: Rationality, it would seem, would dictate that it is a no-brainer that the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights automatically extend to all of the state and local governments. What good is free speech or a free press, for example, if the Constitution is meant only to restrict Congress from encroaching on those rights but leaves state and local governments with the power...

Whatever significance is attached to Chicago’s failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics, it is of small importance to the rest of the country. More far-reaching and frightening is the Supreme Court’s decision to take up a case challenging the city’s ban on handgun ownership in the court’s new term, which begins this week. The case is best considered a preview of coming attractions. The gun lobby, if it wins in the Supreme Court, is prepared to challenge every gun control law enacted at any level of government. It will usher in a scary season of assault on the common...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it would decide whether state and local gun control laws may be challenged under the Second Amendment. The court also agreed to hear nine other cases from among those that had piled up over its summer break, including one concerning the constitutionality of an antiterrorism law that is a favorite tool of federal prosecutors. The Second Amendment case, McDonald v. Chicago, No. 08-1521, addresses a question that was left open last year when the court decided that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own firearms rather than a collective...

Some of the readers here have received a response from Holden Thorp, the UNC Chancellor who canned a gun-owning professor for stating in an email he was prepared to defend himself in response to political enemies posting hateful fliers with his home address.

Gun Control: The Supreme Court agrees to decide if the Second Amendment applies to all of us, or just Washington, D.C. Why would the Founders put in the Bill of Rights something applying only to a federal enclave? In a 5-4 decision last year written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court overturned a draconian District of Columbia gun ban enacted 32 years ago that barred private ownership of handguns at all. Scalia wrote that an individual's right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted. The court ruled that...

The question of boys and hunting keeps coming up at our house, and again the other day when the boys walked off the soccer field after a game. "Can we have a dog?" asked one of my eighth-graders. The other twin loves to play with dogs, too. He's kind with them and calm, and dogs and little kids like him. For now, though, he refuses to do what is necessary. "I'm not going out with a bag and pick up the you-know-what. It's not happening. Not gonna do it," he declares, and in this, we believe him. But his brother...

Apparently the population of stupid children and even dumber parents has grown so large in North Carolina it is now necessary to ban the retail sale of novelty cigarette lighters. EVERY novelty cigarette lighter that resembles a cartoon character,toy,gun,watch, musical instrument, vehicle, animal, food or beverage, or SIMILAR articles( Heaven only knows what THAT means!) is banned for retail sale. So that clever .50 Caliber Cartridge you keep on your desk to light cigars? Gone baby, gone.

Officer, 44, shot in arm while serving search warrant on north side; police arrest 6 in house; top officials seek tougher laws to keep guns from felons Another Milwaukee police officer was shot Wednesday morning - the fourth this year - and hours later city leaders announced a drive for tougher gun laws in Wisconsin to keep firearms away from felons. The 44-year-old officer was shot in the left arm while trying to serve a search warrant at a house in the 3200 block of N. 12th St., police said. The 17-year veteran was in good condition at Froedtert Hospital...

(Corrected) Gun Control: In a case headed for the Supreme Court, a three-judge panel rules Chicago's gun ban constitutional since the 2nd Amendment doesn't apply to states and cities. High court nominee Sonia Sotomayor concurs.Those Pennsylvania townsfolk bitterly clinging to their guns may have been premature in celebrating the decision in D.C. v. Heller that the 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution does indeed guarantee an individual right to keep and bear arms.

* Last year, when the Supreme Court struck down a ban on handguns in Washington, D.C., some municipalities saw the writing on the wall and repealed similar laws. Chicago, however, chose to fight. On Wednesday, the court set up the final battle by agreeing to decide whether the city's ordinance violates the Second Amendment to the Constitution. For those who favor strict regulation of handguns, that development is not good news. It opens the way for the court to invalidate a 26-year-oldban on weapons that are often used in murders and other crimes.

LONDON– A campaign warning girls not to stash or carry guns for their boyfriends was launched by London police Wednesday. The hard-hitting adverts, which are aimed at 15 to 19-year-olds of African and African Caribbean heritage, are designed to combat a worrying growth in the number of young women being arrested and convicted of possessing weapons. "This year's campaign has been designed to tackle an emerging and concerning trend," "Sadly, young women have always been involved in carrying and storing firearms," said Claudia Webbe, chairman of Trident's Independent Advisory Group. "We are deeply concerned, however, that this involvement seems to...