Free Republic

The police department in a St. Louis suburb where a man was shot and killed by a police officer is asking protesters to gather only during daylight. Ferguson has been the site of nightly protests and unrest since 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed during a confrontation with an officer on Saturday. In a news release issued Wednesday, the department asked that all people who assemble to pray or protest do so in “an organized and respectful” manner and disperse well before evening to ensure the safety of participants and the community. “The City of Ferguson mourns the loss of...

As a libertarian, it’s easy for me to get agitated about the theoretical burden of high taxes, wasteful spending, and costly regulation. But even regular people should get upset when they get exposed to specific examples of individuals who are victimized by abusive government. Regarding the particular topic of Second Amendment freedoms and government misbehavior, I know I get very angry when I read about what happened to folks like Adam Meckler and Benjamin Srigley. And now we can add Shaneen Allen to the list. Here’s some of what Glenn Reynolds of the University of Tennessee wrote for USA Today....

I don't think I can even post an excerpt of this story on FR. The gist is that a kook professor is positing on Holmes' show that if an open carry group enters a restaurant, the patrons should (among other things) exit en masse without paying.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's dollars have been defeated again, this time in Wisconsin. Despite Bloomberg dumping $150,000 into the Democrat primary for Milwaukee County Sheriff on behalf of anti-gun Milwaukee Police Lt. Chris Moews with a goal of defeating pro-self defense incumbent Sheriff David Clarke, Clarke was victorious last night. Clarke defeated Moews 52 percent to 48 percent. The race was called Wednesday morning after results were too close to call Tuesday night. Here are Clarke's remarks from last night, before the race was called this morning.

In what looks to be a terrible ruling for Maryland gun owners a federal judge has essentially ruled that guns that were regulated by the state of Maryland last year, including AR-15 and AK style rifles (as well as other magazine fed, semi-auto rifles with certain features), “fall outside Second Amendment protection as dangerous and unusual arms,” according to a 47 page opinion by U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake. The case in question is Kolbe et al v. O’Malley et al which named numerous plaintiffs including the Associated Gun Clubs of Baltimore, Maryland Licensed Firearms Dealers Association, Maryland State...

5 Race Riots in Obama's Post-Racial America by Ben Shapiro 11 Aug 2014 Riots and looting in Ferguson, Missouri, over the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a police officer represent just the latest spate of race-based mass violence to break out in President Obama’s post-racial America. When Obama was elected in 2008, many Americans hoped that racial conflict in the country would calm. Instead, precisely the reverse seems to have occurred. Not all riots across the country have been racial in nature, of course. Occupy Wall Street participated in riots repeatedly in 2011, and May Day protesters rioted in...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's political action committee, Independence USA, has purchased $150,833 in television ads in an effort to defeat Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. and support his opponent, Milwaukee police Lt. Chris Moews. In response to the news of Bloomberg's ads, Clarke said in a statement: "I trust the voters. The voters can't be bought." The ad buys by Bloomberg's PAC come on top of $400,000 in media ads purchased by the Greater Wisconsin Committee to try to beat Clarke, who is seeking his fourth term in Tuesday's Democratic primary election. Also on Friday, Citizens...

A Detroit jury ruled today that Theodore Wafer was guilty of murder in the shooting death of unarmed teenager Renisha McBride on his porch. The jury, which consists of seven men and five women, began its deliberations on Wednesday after nine days of testimony. Wafer, 55, is charged with second degree murder and manslaughter for shooting and killing McBride, 19, last November when the teenager showed up inebriated on his porch at 4:40 a.m. Wafer said he could only make out a figure around his house, said the person pounded on his door and made him fear for his life.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014 Streetlight McCarthy: Concealed Carry Same As Drunken Driving The expert in carrying a firearm while intoxicated speaks: “This is what I said from Day One: More guns is not the solution to gun violence. That’s akin to saying everybody should drive drunk to stop drunken driving. It doesn’t work that way.” So what's giving Chicago Police Supt. McCarthy flashbacks? Something he thinks will be an excuse to restrict Concealed Carry in Illinois. After Wednesday’s meeting at Kennedy-King, McCarthy also disclosed that one of the men shot this week at a North Side nightclub had one of...

Unnamed witness:  "at no time was anyone swept." (rifle pointed at them) Dr. Peter N. Steinmetz is director of the Brain Modeling Laboratory  at Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix.   He is a second amendment advocate who comments on firearms issues on his facebook page.  From his page, commenting on the Navy Yard Shootings in Washington D.C., where the carry of arms by anyone other than government agents is forbidden: Sadly, looks like this may be another case of a mass shooting in an area where all the victims are legally disarmed. He is a passionate supporter of freedom in...

On July 25 Breitbart News reported that Massachusetts police chiefs wanted "sole discretion" over who can purchase a long gun, be it a rifle or a shotgun. On August 1 state lawmakers passed a bill that gives police chiefs such discretion. According to Reuters, police chiefs already had final say on would-be handgun purchasers, and the new law would extend that by providing them with "the authority to turn down a resident's request to buy a rifle or shotgun." House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D) commented on the law: "We seek not to be the safest state in the nation but...

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS ILLINOIS TO ALLOW GUN CONTROL RECRUITERS AT CRIME PREVENTION EVENT We just got word that the Arlington Heights Park District will allow the BLOOMBERG MOMS to set up a recruitment booth at the National Night Out event. National Night Out is supposed to be a non-partisan, non-political public service event that informs citizens on how not to become a victim of crime. Arlington Heights has now turned National Night Out into a GUN CONTROL event by allowing the Moms' recruiters to have a booth at the event. Of course, no pro-gun organizations will be allowed to have a...

Police: Gunman and victim in Loop shooting 'had been friends for years' By Marwa Eltagouri, Alexandra Chachkevitch and Meredith Rodriguez, Tribune reporters Less than a week after Tony DeFrances learned that he was being demoted as part of a downsizing of his company, authorities said he walked into his boss’s office Thursday morning for a one-on-one. Apparently upset about his demotion, DeFrances, armed with a gun, confronted CEO Steven LaVoie, a longtime colleague and friend at the supply technology firm ArrowStream in the Loop, police said. At some point, DeFrances, 60, and LaVoie, 54, struggled over the gun. LaVoie was...

As a pediatrician, I have one, straightforward professional obligation: to safeguard and support the health and wellbeing of my patients. In my case, those patients are children, but you could change the age range of the people coming into the office and apply that statement to any medical provider. Asking about guns in the house is no exception. When I ask parents if there are firearms in the home, and if so how they are secured, it is for the sole purpose of keeping their children safe. Physicians in Florida are being threatened with a law that, if enacted, will...

The National Rifle Association's top lawyer, who has been instrumental in shaping gun policy in the U.S., was once convicted of murdering a woman in Indiana.... Robert J. Dowlut, general counsel for the NRA, reportedly admitted to police in 1963 that he killed his girlfriend's mother. He was 17 years old at the time. Dowlut reportedly led police to the graveyard where he buried the gun and also copped to attempting to rob a pawnshop the same night as the killing. Bullets from the gun Dowlut unearthed at the graveyard matched those found at the site of Anna Marie Yocum's...

MDA Anti Gun Moms Protest TOPLESS Against Texas Open Carry Group Published on Tuesday, July 29, 2014 Texas --(Ammoland.com)- On Sunday July 26th 2014, CATI (Come and Take It) conducted a walk through downtown Austin to raise awareness for the current restrictions on gun rights in Texas. This walk is done monthly, and today’s walk was led by Thomas Jefferson from their Austin Chapter. Anti-gun protestors decided to crash the event and protest the protest, accept they conducted their protest TOPLESS! The walk began on Congress in downtown Austin near the Capitol, and the ladies followed CATI’s members throughout of...

Alexander Herzen, an 18th century writer from Russia, once quipped, “There is nothing in the world more stubborn than a corpse: you can hit it, you can knock it to pieces, but you cannot convince it.” Today, such a description could apply to unconstitutional gun control laws, which received what should have been a death sentence in 2008 with the Heller decision, only to languish on despite being knocked to pieces in court in the half dozen years since that seminal decision. In Heller, one of the most important rulings for liberty in recent American history, attorney Alan Gura successfully...

A man with a concealed carry permit shot at an armed robbery suspect who was running from a cell phone store in Crestwood, prompting an officer who was also chasing the suspect to take cover, police said. The man with the permit told police he was about to step inside an AT&T store at 4756 W. Cal-Sag Road around noon Saturday when he noticed the store was being robbed, Crestwood police said in a statement. The man said he stayed outside to prevent anyone from entering, police said. After he saw the suspect leaving through a back door, he entered...

Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland, Ohio, has "beefed up security measures" after four students were robbed in one of the university's commons "in broad daylight" this past weekend. The CWRU online student handbook clearly "prohibits the possession of firearms" on campus. According to Cleveland.com, the students were studying in CWRU's Wade Commons around 4:30 in the afternoon, when "three men, with hooded sweatshirts tied around their face and red bandanas, came into the RedCats room, pulled out a silver handgun and demanded belongings." On June 10, a woman walking on campus in front of the business school building...

According to Emily Miller, the famous investigative reporter, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson emailed her this message in reaction to the District Court finding that the constitutional rights of Americans did not stop at the District borders: "Because of the District's unique national security concerns, the right to carry a firearm in public must be more heavily restricted than any place else in the nation. Four U.S. presidents have been assassinated by gunfire, and at least five others have been shot at, including Ronald Regan who was seriously wounded in 1981. Neither the Secret Service nor the Capitol Police...