Free Republic

It used to be that the gun grabbers desperately attempted to keep a thin veneer of plausible deniability on their ultimate goal of Confiscation. After all, you can’t very well sucker people into the government controlling their private property with Intergalactic Background Checks and registration if it’s known that those are but a pretext for confiscation later on. But now out of frustration at the lack of ‘progress’ in destroying out rights they have dropped the mask and are now calling for full on repeal of the second amendment, gun bans and outright confiscation. To be sure they still try...

Here's Why Shares of Gunmaker Smith & Wesson Are Jumping by Robert Hackett January 5, 2016, 8:58 AM EST The stock is up 6% premarket. Gunmaker Smith & Wesson SWHC 12.11% is projecting an incredible start to 2016, which sent shares up more than 6% in premarket trading. The company raised its revenue and earnings guidance for the current quarter and fiscal year, based on strong sales at recent gun shows as well as an uptick in year-end FBI background checks, an indicator that potential customers are looking to obtain gun licenses. Smith & Wesson now expects sales between $175...

Delivering on its promise to deliver "common sense" gun control, the Obama administration on Monday finalized a rule that enables health care providers to report the names of mentally ill patients to an FBI firearms background check system. The action was one of a series of steps that President Barack Obama had called for in January 2013 in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings to curb gun violence, but the rule was not published until today. While the 1993 Brady law prohibits gun ownership by individuals who have been involuntarily committed, found incompetent to stand trial or otherwise deemed...

As 2015 drew to a close, the Obama Administration reached new highs in the number of regulations issued by the Executive branch. For the year, over 81,000 pages of new rules made their way into the Federal Register. This marked the third time in seven years—also a record—that the Administration added more than 80,000 pages of new regs. While those concerned with the Constitution's separation of powers voiced some discomfort with this tide of legislation through executive fiat, Congress, for the most part did little to try to thwart it. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell excused his chamber's inaction saying...

In an effort to discipline its inhabitants into respecting transgender preferences, the New York City Commission on Human Rights updated the City's discrimination rules to incorporate a $250,000 fine for failure to use an individual's desired gender-based pronoun when addressing that person either orally or in writing. The new rule is more complex than simply using cues from the way a person is dressed to guess whether to refer to that person as "he" or "she." A whole panoply of possible pronouns is covered by the ordinance. These include he/him/his, she/her/hers, as well as others such as they/them/theirs and ze/hir....

Tensions over the treatment of two cattle ranchers in Oregon escalated into an armed standoff over the weekend when members of a rightwing militia occupied a wildlife refuge and threatened a confrontation with federal authorities. Ammon Bundy, the son of the Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who was at the heart of a notorious showdown over cattle grazing rights last year, was among at least a dozen heavily armed men who seized the headquarters of the Malheur wildlife refuge on Saturday afternoon and said they would stay indefinitely. They occupied the building after an earlier peaceful protest over the treatment of...

A group of militiamen on Saturday occupied the headquarters of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon in support of two brothers who are slated to report to prison on Monday on arson charges - and the protesters don't plan on leaving any time soon, saying it's 'kill or be killed' time. Militia members claimed to have as many as 150 supporters with them at the Malheur National Wildlife refuge building in Princeton, which is federal property managed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service that was closed for the holiday weekend. They later rescinded the number and said they would...

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President Obama has said he will take unilateral action to tackle the problem of gun violence in the US. In his first weekly address of 2016, Mr Obama said he would meet Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss actions he could take. He said he was using his executive powers as president because the US Congress has failed to address the problem. Analysts say there will be a backlash from gun activists and Republicans. But Mr Obama told Americans that he had received too many letters from parents, and teachers, and children, to sit around and do nothing. "We know...

Preventing SHTF through civil disobedience with guns. "To arms! The enemy is coming!" When a force that is planing an invasion hears these words shouted from the watchtowers, they know they've been found out and are forced to retreat and change plans. This is the power of words as weapons. "I know what you're doing" puts doubt in the wrongdoer and takes away their advantage. Is there any doubt the leftist administration wants SHTF? Is there any doubt who the real insurgents are in this country? It has become painfully obvious that this administration's agenda is the disarmament and invasion...

Last week, after a federal judge ruled that Utah's governor had the power to block state funds to Planned Parenthood, it seemed to be a step forward for the pro-life movement in the state. Unfortunately, the effort came to a crashing halt on Wednesday. A federal appeals court issued a temporary injunction putting the brakes on the state's effort to deny $275,000 in state Medicaid contracts. "We are thrilled with [the] decision, which will allow our trusted health care providers and educators to continue serving the thousands of Utahns who depend on us as the appeals process proceeds," Karrie Galloway, CEO of the...

Marc Kohn spent nearly $40,000 and 400 hours building a hockey rink behind his house in rural Poolesville, Md., a winter twist on “Field of Dreams.” He longed for his childhood days in Boston, skating on neighborhood ponds for hours. And he wanted to honor his stepdaughter Melanie Osborne, a lifelong hockey fan who recently died. Kohn, 51, called his backyard project Mel’s Rink, hung her name in Christmas lights and invited town residents to play. Since opening two weeks ago, dozens of kids and adults have zipped around the synthetic ice for free.

San Diego police officer Browder killed a man who initially he said was unarmed. After viewing this video, he changed his story and claimed the man was holding a knife, which he wasn't.

Every group (and especially an empire) needs its good or evil spokesperson, leader, or figurehead to focus upon: the embodiment of the particular group or nation. The size of the group is irrelevant: there simply must be a leader that exemplifies the characteristics of the group. History is replete with great leaders, however, benevolence and goodness are not necessarily a leader's qualities. For every good leader, it seems there are a plethora of those who are self-serving, power-hungry despots whose aims are either not for the people or (the other end of the spectrum) against the people. To be...

Duncan used the deaths of young people to make an emotional case for gun control. "Sixteen thousand. In my first six years as secretary of education, that's the number of young people who were killed across our country," Duncan said, choking up. "That's an average of seven a day. That's a devastating loss." He went on to tell stories of students he met with who didn't think they would live until adulthood.

WSJ: White House Used NSA to Spy on Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, Members of Congress, American Jewish Groups Dec. 30, 2015 7:23am Sharona Schwartz Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the target of National Security Agency eavesdropping which also netted the private conversations of members of U.S. Congress and American Jewish groups, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. The alleged spying took place despite a promise two years ago by President Barack Obama -- after it was revealed that the NSA had listened in on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone calls -- that the U.S. "will not monitor the communications of...

On Monday, the Associated Press reported that "Sweet Cakes by Melissa" owners Melissa and Aaron Klein paid their state-ordered damages to a lesbian couple with check totaling $136,927.07 - but that isn't the whole story. According to Fox News writer Todd Starnes, who spoke with Melissa Klein a few weeks before Christmas, Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries confiscated all of the money in her checking and savings accounts, including one that had money set aside for her church tithe. They totaled nearly $7,000.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon bakery owners who denied service to a same-sex couple have paid $135,000 in state-ordered damages — after refusing to do so for nearly six months. The Bureau of Labor and Industries says Aaron Klein, co-owner of the Portland-area bakery, dropped off a check Monday for $136,927.07. That includes accrued interest. Klein also paid $7,000 earlier this month.

A growing number of state organizations seek to remedy what they consider negligent policies and shoddy oversight of public land on the part of federal agencies. Under the umbrella name Transfer of Public Lands, the movement offers a solution to the problem that is simple in concept: transfer ownership and management of public lands administered by federal agencies to equivalent state agencies. These agencies, being accountable to governors, state legislators and citizens, will manage the public lands in a more conscientious, cost-effective way. ... Unlike states east of the Continental Divide, public lands in Western states such as Washington and...

Groups question keeping Four Corners Power Plant open for 25 more years. A coalition of environmental groups has filed a notice of intent to sue the Office of Surface Mining, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and others over a July decision to allow the Four Corners Power Plant to operate through 2041. A coalition of environmental groups announced earlier this week its intent to take legal action against several federal agencies for extending operations at the Four Corners Power Plant and Navajo Mine just outside Farmington. On Dec. 21, San Juan Citizen Alliance, among other regional and national conservation groups,...