Free Republic

CHICAGO • llinois Gov. Pat Quinn is once again calling for legislation that would ban the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. The Democrat addressed the issue at a news conference on Sunday. He spoke in the Morgan Park neighborhood — a South Side Chicago community that's been affected by gun violence.

The Islamic State extremist group (Isis) has taken control of a vast former chemical weapons facility north-west of Baghdad, where 2,500 degraded chemical rockets filled decades ago with deadly nerve agent sarin or their remnants were stored along with other chemical warfare agents, Iraq has said in a letter circulated at the United Nations. The US played down the threat from the takeover, saying there were no intact chemical weapons and it would be very difficult to use the material for military purposes. Iraq's UN ambassador, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, told the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, in a letter that "armed...

Chicago, IL Houston, TX Population 2.7 million 2.15 million Median HH Income $38,600 $37,000 % African-American 38.9% 24% % Hispanic 29.9% 44% % Asian 5.5% 6% % Non-Hispanic White 28.7% 26% Pretty similar- until you compare the following... Chicago, IL Houston, TX Concealed Carry gun law no yes # of Gun Stores 0 184 - Dedicated gun stores plus 1500 - legal places to buy guns- Walmart, K-mart, sporting goods, etc. Homicides, 2012 1,806 207 Homicides per 100K 38.4 9.6 Avg. January high temperature (F) 31 63 Democrat’s Conclusion: Cold weather from  global warming causes murder. -h/t Kirby-

With all eyes firmly focused on what really matters (the oil refineries), The Telegraph reports that ISIS has over-run a Saddam Hussein-era chemical weapons (CW) complex. The al-Muhanna 'mega-facility', about 60 miles south of Baghdad, gives the jihadists access to disused stores of hundreds of tonnes of potentially deadly poisons including mustard gas and sarin. The US state department is 'concerned' but "do not believe that the complex contains CW materials of military value." However, as a former commander of Britain's chemical weapons regiment warned, "we have seen that ISIS has used chemicals in explosions in Iraq before and has...

The mother of a 12-year-old Connecticut boy has been arrested after police say her son brought a grenade to school for a show-and-tell related to 70th anniversary of D-Day Lisa Miguel, of Stratford, was charged with risk of injury to a minor, reckless endangerment and illegal possession of an explosive. Stratford Academy was placed on lockdown Friday. Students were sent to the back of the school. A bomb squad determined the grenade was a simulator used for training and still had the pin inside.

For the first time in six years, the Justice Department is taking inventory of the guns owned by the various federal agencies and will report that number, as well as the number of agents who "carry guns and have the authority to make arrests."

May 23, 2014 - 05:54 PM Jeff Berwick Wendy McElroy writes: On May 7, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) posted a notice on the government's Federal Business Opportunities site in order to solicit bids on an undisclosed number of submachine guns. The notice read, in part, “The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of Inspector General, located in Washington, DC, pursuant to the authority of FAR Part 13, has a requirement for the commerical [sic] acquisition of submachine guns, .40 Cal. S&W, ambidextrous safety, semi-automatic or 2 shot burts [sic] trigger group, Tritium night sights for front and rear, rails...

Not a lethal weapon I’ve done some fencing and I can tell you that the “weapons” involved are to actual blades as cap guns are to rifles.The most dangerous thing about them is the risk of the tip snapping off and hitting someone. It’s more of a risk in North Dakota where it gets really cold.But zero tolerance insanity has taken over every campus. “The current interpretation of the non-weapon policy in North Dakota State University (NDSU) …understands our fencing equipment as weapons,” says the club’s coach Enrique Alvarez.Alvarez has been fencing since his early teens. He says despite their...

Let’s consider for a moment the consequences of giving seventh-century savages who are hellbent on destroying 21st civilization advanced 21st century weaponry. Ponder that, if you will. How many tens of thousands of jihad attacks must we suffer to face reality? How many millions of non-Muslims and secular Muslims have to die in order for us to face the truth? Advanced weapons to these devout Muslims waging jihad — nuts, I tell ya. The only people we should be arming are the religious minorities in Syria. The Kurds have established an independent state. Arm them. Protect them. What is Obama’s...

The proliferation of federal agencies with armed agents is one of the most worrisome aspects of the growth in government. Just last summer the EPA carried out an armed raid on a mine in Alaska to enforce the Clean Water Act — a bit of government intimidation that residents say was totally unnecessary:

The grievous shooting at Fort Hood Wednesday claimed three innocent lives and left 16 wounded—the deaths occurred in a gun-free zone due to former president Clinton’s 1993 policy to disarm soldiers on military bases. The attack at Fort Hood lasted 15 minutes before military police arrived and exchanged fire with the shooter who then shot himself, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Only the most out-of-touch radical would try to disarm soldiers,” Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) noted in a press release. He urged House members Thursday to repeal the ban and support his “Safe Military Bases Act.” This is the...

TOKYO (AP) — Japan relaxed a decades-old ban on military-related exports Tuesday in a bid to expand joint arms development with allies and equipment sales to Southeast Asia and elsewhere. The new guidelines endorsed Tuesday by the Cabinet are part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's push to bolster national security amid China's military expansion and North Korea's nuclear threat. Abe has said Japan needs to play a larger role in international peacekeeping and defense cooperation. His government is pushing to allow Japan to defend allies, such as the U.S., if they are under attack, by re-interpreting the war-renouncing Article 9...

Since the sensationalized reports in American mass media of the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting, the earlier movie theater killing in Aurora, Colorado and the rampage at the Navy Yard in Washington D.C., there has been a renewed focus on passing new legislation making acquiring a firearm more difficult and building a bureaucratic paper trail on citizens purchasing them. So far none of it has gotten any traction, but we're only another sensationalized event away from a new salvo against gun owners. The rationale for the proposed hindrances of average citizens and their lawful rights to own firearms is that some...

A series of 16th-century manuscripts that have been making waves on the Internet look like a Monty Python version of the Renaissance: They show cats outfitted with flaming backpacks, attacking castles and villages. But the illustrations are legit. They're intended to show how cats and birds could in theory be used to set fire to a besieged city, according to a University of Pennsylvania scholar. Mitch Fraas, scholar in residence at the University of Pennsylvania—the university digitized the manuscripts last year—says that the drawings are from artillery manuals and are accompanied by notes explaining how to use animals as incendiary...

As the crisis continues, both demand and prices for weapons have gone up. We speak to their version of the NRA “Can you imagine snipers shooting people in Times Square? You must imagine that to understand how we feel.” That’s the hypothetical posed to us by George Uchaykin, the 44-year-old head of the Ukrainian Gun Owners Association. Given the current political chaos in Ukraine and the events leading up to it, Uchaykin and his cohorts are pushing for new laws on gun control that would allow citizens to carry handguns to defend themselves. Ukrainian Arms Dealer 01 George Uchaykin (Facebook)...

Five people were stabbed to death Friday morning at a market in the capital of Hunan Province in central China. Local media report that several Uighur “naan peddlers” suddenly went on a knifing rampage after a disagreement among food stall owners escalated into violence.

According to Swedish defense contractor Saab, the U.S. Army is planning to issue recoilless rifles broadly to regular units for the first time in more than 30 years. The decision reflects the service’s combat experience in Afghanistan. The ground combat branch had previously made a small purchase of recoilless rifles in 2012, but just for units in Afghanistan. All light infantry units may now receive them.

The White House appeared to double down on its policy of engagement with Iran following Wednesday's dramatic pre-dawn high seas capture of an Iranian missile cache destined for Hamas by Israeli naval commandos. Senior administration officials worked quickly to prevent the raid from undermining public confidence in President Obama's continued belief that Iran is a trustworthy and reliable negotiating partner, even going so far as to claim credit for the raid themselves. Several dozen advanced medium range missiles were found hidden under false bottoms of phony shipping containers on board the Panamanian flagged "Klos-C" frigate seized in a dramatic pre...

The United States intelligence services and military worked with Israel to track the Iranian ship carrying missiles to Gaza, which was apprehended Wednesday, according to AFP. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Washington started to work with Israel through intelligence and military channels and at the national security advisor level as soon as it knew the shipment was on the move. President Barack Obama also directed the US military to work out contingencies in case it became necessary to intercept the vessel, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One. "Throughout this time our intelligence and military...