Free Republic

Second to None: An Evolution on our Right to Bear Arms I signed the waiver. My name in ink meant no turning back. I walked into foreign territory with my goggles and protective ear gear and, amid the loud blasts and shells flying at my feet, I was ready to get my hands on a trigger. Firing a gun for the first time (three guns actually) was memorable not just for the feel, but for the change of heart that led me to the shooting range. A powerful freedom. I’m from New York. I’ve spent hours in Broadway theaters, my...

In the wake of a pair of terrorists slaying a British soldier in the streets of London, talk show host Michael Savage pointed out Wednesday one key difference between the United States and the United Kingdom: Second Amendment rights. “Now what stands between us and what happened in London?” Savage asked. “Guns, guns, guns — only guns, only guns. And this very same gang that wants to flood this country with 50 million, 30 million, 20 million, 11 million — you pick the number, pick it out of a hat — illegal aliens, it’s all amnesty for every one of...

In chapter 1 of the book "Public Opinion", Walter Lippmann writes the following: (page 40) The wireless constantly used the statistics of the intelligence bureau at Verdun, whose chief, Major Cointet, had invented a method of calculating German losses which obviously produced marvelous results. Every fortnight the figures increased a hundred thousand or so. These 300,000, 400,000, 500,000 casualties put out, divided into daily, weekly, monthly losses, repeated in all sorts of ways, produced a striking effect. Our formulae varied little: 'according to prisoners the German losses in the course of the attack have been considerable' ... 'it is proved...

(article photo) In one of the less rational attacks on the NRA to date, the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence's Josh Horwitz used his May 20 column to make the case that the NRA doesn't understand the Constitution or the man who wrote it--James Madison. According to Horwitz, this was proven at the NRA's Annual Meeting in Houston during the first weekend in May. There, speakers gave speeches on what "sounded a lot like vigilantism and anarchy" and very little like the adoration for governmental power that Horwitz claims our Founding Fathers enshrined in the Constitution. To back up his...

Thursday, May 16, 2013 RE: When They Come For Your Guns I enjoyed this Hoss USMC video. Like most things his perspective is well thought out and logical. Dude just makes sense. Here's that video again Here are my thoughts on the video: 1) It should have been titled "IF They Come For Your Guns". Personally gun confiscation is pretty low on my list of concerns. Though if I lived in Kalifornia, New York, Chicago, etc I might feel differently. Simply cannot see that happening in most of the US. Anyway moving on. 2) People are more important than...

The more militant members of the N.R.A. and most of its leaders may be un-American. By “militant” I don’t mean those who wish to protect recreational shooting and hunting; nor do I mean those who, like Justice Antonin Scalia, believe that there is a constitutional right to defend one’s home and family with firearms. These are respectable positions (although I am deeply unpersuaded by the second). I mean those who read the Second Amendment as proclaiming the right of citizens to resist the tyranny of their own government, that is, of the government that issued and ratified the Constitution in...

EUGENE, Ore. -- Dozens of moms spent their Mother's Day marching against gun violence. The 14th annual Million Mom March in Eugene stepped off from EWEB Waterfront Plaza Sunday afternoon. Before the march, Mayor Kitty Piercy and other women spoke about the need for stricter gun laws. Betsy Steffensen helped organize Eugene’s march, and said the event gives moms the power to make a huge change in the world.

The Government has forced Cody Wilson’s company, Defense Distributed, to take down his designs for 3D printed firearms. I can’t say I’m surprised, and if you had read my other article earlier in the week you would understand why: This is a blatant attack on the first amendment. Forget, for a minute, that these plans can be used to create guns. What is the difference between banning these plans from distribution, and banning a book? There are quite a few books out there that could be considered just as dangerous. I downloaded a PDF book on building machine guns last...

Vice President Joseph R. Biden said in a wide-ranging magazine interview that gun-control legislation will pass eventually because several senators who voted against it are experiencing a public backlash. “To use the vernacular, there’s suddenly a lot of senators out there who have seen the Lord,” Mr. Biden told Rolling Stone magazine. “You find out that the senator from New Hampshire [Republican Kelly Ayotte] is in trouble; she voted no. I can name you four senators who called me and said, “Jesus, I guess you were right — maybe we can find some other way of doing this. Can we...

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 31,672 people died by guns in 2010 (the most recent year for which U.S. figures are available), a staggering number that is orders of magnitude higher than that of comparable Western democracies. What can we do about it? National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre believes he knows: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.” If LaPierre means professionally trained police and military who routinely practice shooting at ranges, this observation would at least be partially true. If he...

Remember when Senators Pat Toomey, Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer formed an unholy alliance during the recent gun battle on Capitol Hill? Remember how their amendment would have encouraged your psychiatrist to turn you in to the FBI’s gun ban list? And you remember how we stopped that provision, because over 40 senators found it to be odious and a violation of the Second Amendment? Well, guess what? Barack Obama has just concluded that “he don’t need no stinkin’ Senate.” Instead, Secretary Kathleen “ObamaCare” Sebelius – and her Department of Health and Human Services – has promulgated regulations which would,...

Vice President Joe Biden has a commandment for pastors, rabbis and nuns: He wants them to tell their flocks that enacting gun control is the moral thing to do. But another vote may have to wait until Congress wraps up work on an immigration overhaul. Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen leaders from various faith communities – Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh, to name a few. Both Biden and the faith leaders encouraged each other not to give up on what has been an arduous and thus far fruitless effort by Biden and President Barack...

Gun homicides have dropped steeply in the United States since their 1993 peak, a pair of reports released Tuesday showed, adding fuel to Congress’ battle over whether to tighten restrictions on firearms. A study released Tuesday by the government’s Bureau of Justice Statistics found that gun-related homicides dropped from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011. That's a 39 percent reduction. Another report by the private Pew Research Center found a similar decline by looking at the rate of gun homicides, which compares the number of killings to the size of the country’s growing population. It found that the number...

A week ago, he noted on his Facebook page that his poll numbers after voting no on Toomey/Manchin put him somewhere south of “pond scum.” Today, this. He won’t face the voters again for five and a half years, but he shares a home state with Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly. They can hurt him by campaigning against him in 2018 more than they can anyone else in the Senate. No wonder he’s looking for ways to flip: Republican Sen. Jeff Flake told CNN he is willing to reverse his opposition to expanding background checks for guns if the Senate...

Attorney General Eric Holder has written to Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (shown), informing him that the Obama administration considers state attempts to protect the Second Amendment “unconstitutional” and that federal agents will “continue to execute their duties,” regardless of state statutes to the contrary. The letter, dated April 26, specifically references a Kansas statute recently signed into law by Brownback that criminalizes any attempt by federal officers or agents to infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of citizens of the Sunflower State. Section 7 of the new law declares: It is unlawful for any official, agent or employee of the...

On Aaron Klein’s weekend show on New York City’s WABC radio, Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Inhofe accused the Obama administration of buying up ammunition at an unprecedented level to bypass the Second Amendment so gun-owners “can’t even buy ammunition because government is purchasing so much.”

Making the rounds on Youtube. The new NRA president Jim Porter makes some off the cuff comments a 2012 speech to the New York Rifle & Pistol Association. He is outspoken about overturning recent gun laws adopted by states after the Newtown massacre, according to the NY Daily News.. He also supports firearms training for all U.S. citizens -- including civilians -- so they're "ready to fight tyranny."

At the National Rifle Association's convention in Houston, TX, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre announced that the NRA has now grown to an unprecedented 5 million active members. He concluded his speech with the theme of all the NRA officers, vowing, “From liberty’s defense, we will never back down. We will never surrender. We will always stand. We will always fight.” Well over 70,000 members of the NRA are assembled in Houston, Texas for its 142nd Annual Meeting—projected to break the all-time record for the nation’s oldest and largest Constitutional rights organization. The convention houses over 300,000 square feet...

Heresy: An Introduction to Combat Riflecraft (The following article is the first in a series that will discuss the Combat Rifle POI as I teach it.) –J.M.) “Shattering illusions, and crushing misconceptions…It’s just what I do.” –Me, to my mother-in-law recently. The purpose of the combat rifle is to allow the combat rifleman to engage and kill, directly or indirectly, armed enemy combatants with precision aimed rifle fire. The rifleman’s ability with his weapon is one of the most fundamental measures of his effectiveness and survivability in combat. If the expects to function effectively in combat, he must be both willing to, and...

A Texas company is set to release blueprints for making a plastic gun with a 3-D printer — a development Sen. Chuck Schumer called “stomach-churning” Sunday. Defense Distributed, a collective of gun access advocates headed by self-described “free-market anarchist” Cody Wilson, has announced it made such an untraceable gun with the new plastic-making technology. The nonprofit Texas group intends to post blueprints for “The Liberator” (pictured) online this week. The Liberator may look like a toy, but “this gun can fire regular bullets,” Schumer said, calling for legislation outlawing the technology’s weapons potential. “Security checkpoints, background checks and gun regulations...

The Austin American-Statesman reports: “On a day when the nation’s strongest Second Amendment lobby group was gathered in Houston, the Texas House on Saturday tentatively approved a dozen pro-gun bills — including a highly controversial measure that would legalize concealed weapons in buildings on college campuses. Another bill would thwart enforcement of new federal gun restrictions in Texas, a move intended to target firearms laws proposed by the Obama administration. Saturday’s votes were on a wide array of legislation that would provide state training for new school marshals to protect students from shooting attacks, exempt concealed weapons licensees living in...

The Obama administration is on a collision course with the state of Kansas over a new law that claims to nullify federal gun controls. Attorney General Eric Holder has threatened litigation against Kansas over the law in what could the opening salvo of a blockbuster legal battle with national ramifications. “This is definitely a case that could make it to the Supreme Court,” Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Friday afternoon. “There is nothing symbolic about this law.” Kobach, a former constitutional law professor, helped craft the statute, which bars the federal government from regulating guns and ammunition manufactured...

Gun control advocates are in hysterics, using frenzied, emotional attacks against Senators who opposed gun control last month in hopes of changing the momentum. This explains why Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has been targeted in New Hampshire, and it's why Gabby Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly have been targeting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) in Kentucky. Staunch gun control supporters saw Sandy Hook Elementary as their opportunity to secure more gun laws, but now they see that opportunity fading away....

HBO host Bill Maher had MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell as one of his guests on “Real Time” Friday night, and the two were adamant that the Second Amendment cannot protect against tyranny (and that such a conversation shouldn’t even really be happening in this age). After pointing out the poll where 44% of Republicans said an armed revolution might be necessary in order to protect liberties in the next few years, compared to 18% of Democrats, Maher said: “Can we get to, first of all, how ridiculous it is for people to think that the Second Amendment protects them from tyranny....

The Hill reports that Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback just signed into law a statute that "bars the federal government from regulating guns and ammunition manufactured and stored within Kansas state lines." Moreover, the new law makes it a felony for federal authorities to attempt to enforce federal gun control laws, treaties, or rules related to firearms within Kansas state lines. Federal agents would not be arrested but will be prosecuted on "a complaint-and-summons basis." Naturally, U.S. Attorney general Eric Holder is furious. Already he has sent a letter to Brownback promising, “The United States will take all appropriate action, including...

The public face of the National Rifle Association is imploring members to never surrender their weapons in the wake of recent gun control efforts in Congress that he said will "destroy us and every ounce of our freedom." Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre spoke in Houston during the organization's annual member meeting, which is part of the yearly convention. LaPierre told several thousand people that the "political and media elites" have tried to use December's shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school and other recent mass shootings "to blame us, to shame us, to compromise our freedom for their agenda."...

Kelly has thrown down the gauntlet to Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s combative chief executive, on the opening day of the gun lobby’s annual convention in Houston, Texas. Writing in the Houston Chronicle, he accuses LaPierre and the rest of the NRA’s leadership of turning their back on the traditional values of the association in a simple drive for profit.

“I now agree that it’s fruitless to give the benefit of the doubt to people who are so obviously corrupt, so clearly malevolent, so bent on hurting innocent people for their own sick gain,” Aurora Sentinel editor Dave Perry wrote in an April 25 editorial. “No more due process in the clear-cut case of insidious terrorism. “When the facts are so clearly before all Americans, for the whole world to see, why bother with this country’s odious and cumbersome system of justice?” he asked. “Send the guilty monsters directly to Guantanamo Bay for all eternity and let them rot in...

President Obama took a moment yesterday in Mexico to "editorialize just for a second about gun control," as he said at a joint press conference with his Mexican counterpart.

It has been clear for decades that those who wish to restore Second Amendment rights have the facts on their side. Note this comment by NOFAN in Crosscut, an apparently left-leaning publication in Washington State. What is obvious is something that I have observed repeatedly: If an honest person looks at the facts about "gun control" they either become neutral or pro-Second Amendment. A person cannot be anti-Second Amendment, informed, and honest, all at the same time, unless they become an honest totalitarian, which is self-defeating and therefore, inconsequential. Of course, as George Orwell noted, statists are particularly good at...

Signs at a gun-control rally in Washington, D.C., January 26, 2013.The gun-control debate is one of the most dishonest arguments we have in American politics. It is dishonest in its particulars, of course, but it is in an important sense dishonest in general: The United States does not suffer from an inflated rate of homicides perpetrated with guns; it suffers from an inflated rate of homicides. The argument about gun control is at its root a way to put conservatives on the defensive about liberal failures, from schools that do not teach to police departments that do not police and...

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, noting that Vice President Joe Biden reportedly plans to revive a legislative push for gun control, challenged him to a debate about policy responses to gun violence.

On Monday, May 6, the current National Rifle Association president, David Keene, will step down after completing his two-year term, and the new president, Jim Porter, will step up to the role. The new president is certainly not new to the NRA. James W. Porter II, known to friends and family as “Jim,” has been a long-time board member of the NRA, recently serving two years as second vice president and two years as first vice president before becoming eligible for the position as president, which is a voluntary and unpaid position. Porter will be the first ever second generation...

After the defeat of the Manchin-Toomey background-check bill, and the subsequent demonization of the Senate, Senators Manchin and Toomey are reportedly back at work on bipartisan legislation addressing gun control. John R. Lott, author of the new book At the Brink, who has been researching gun policy for decades, talks about the state of the debate with National Review Online’s Kathryn Jean Lopez. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Gabby Giffords has accused the Senate of being in the grips of the gun lobby. Is there another explanation for the defeat of the Manchin-Toomey bill? JOHN R. LOTT: Yes, there is. The politicians...

"Most of the guns used to commit violence here in Mexico come from the United States," President Obama said during a speech at Mexico's Anthropology Museum. "I think many of you know that in America, our Constitution guarantees our individual right to bear arms. And as president, I swore an oath to uphold that right, and I always will.""But at the same time, as I’ve said in the United States, I will continue to do everything in my power to pass common-sense reforms that keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. That can save lives here...

About Us Resources Send Tips Donate RSS CNSNews.TV On the Spot On the Scene The Schein OTJ Golden Hookah Poll: 29% of Registered Voters Believe Armed Revolution Might Be Necessary in Next Few Years May 2, 2013 By Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr. Subscribe to Gregory Gwyn-Williams, Jr. RSS Twenty-nine percent of registered voters think that an armed revolution might be necessary in the next few years in order to protect liberties, according to a Public Mind poll by Fairleigh Dickinson University. The poll, which surveyed 863 registered voters and had a margin of error of +/-3.4, focused on both gun control...

A new law in Kansas that criminalizes the enforcement of federal gun controls in the state is unconstitutional, Attorney General Eric H. Holder said. “In purporting to override federal law and to criminalize the official acts of federal officers, [the law] directly conflicts with federal law and is therefore unconstitutional,” Mr. Holder wrote to Gov. Sam Brownback in a letter dated April 26. “Federal officers who are responsible for enforcing federal laws and regulations in order to maintain public safety cannot be forced to choose between the risk of a criminal prosecution by a state and the continued performance of...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Alabama Legislature is telling the federal government and others to back off on gun control. The Senate passed legislation Tuesday declaring that “All federal acts, laws, orders, rules or regulations regarding firearms are a violation of the Second Amendment.” It also says federal laws in violation of the Second Amendment shall be considered null and void in Alabama. The vote was 24-6. The sponsor, Republican Sen. Paul Sanford of Huntsville, said the bill resulted from hundreds of emails and calls he received from his north Alabama constituents concerned that Congress might enact new gun regulations or...

Democratic leaders are wooing staunchly pro-gun candidates to run in pivotal Senate races at the same time they are discussing a strategy for bringing gun control legislation back up for debate. The two-pronged effort has prompted Republicans to accuse the Senate Democratic leadership of hypocrisy, but Democrats say it is simply smart politics. The question is whether two of the Democrats’ most promising potential candidates in Montana and South Dakota will pay a price for the leadership’s political maneuverings in Washington. Or will recruiting candidates who do not support President Obama’s gun control agenda have any effect on Democratic fundraising...

While the left is frequently up in arms about the about the Koch brother’s money funding political and campaign projects, there is no shortage of big leftist corporate and foundation money floating around hot political issues. Both the Joyce Foundation and Google are established players in the anti-second amendment movement as well as other progressive political causes. The Joyce Foundation has injected large chucks of money into the anti-gun movement, including Mayor’s Against Gun Control and the Violence Prevention Center. (Aside: Who was on the Board of the Joyce Foundation? None other than President Barack Obama who keeps assuring us...

Russian President Vladimir Putin “opposes gun sales for self defense,” UPI reported yesterday. "I do not support the idea of free arms distribution in Russia," the report quotes from comments the federation head of state made to a Russian television station. "It is dangerous to artificially stimulate this process." Putin’s remarks were in response to a shooting in Belogrod on Monday by a convicted criminal who allegedly stole his gamekeeper father’s rifle and opened fire outside a hunting store that had refused to sell him ammunition, killing six people, including two girls. That was done in spite of Russia’s gun...

Republicans want to limit the number of bullets federal agencies can purchase so American gun owners can buy more.

Per Megan Kelly. Group of lawmakers charging this. Details pending.

One of the senators behind this month’s failed gun control legislation says he’s “absolutely” bringing it back. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin said on “Fox News Sunday” he plans to re-introduce a bill to require gun buyers to undergo criminal and mental health background checks for all online and gun show sales. Manchin said he would urge Senate opponents to “read the bill and tell me what you don’t like.” He acknowledged that there was confusion about what was in the failed bill, and said the new version would have to be stripped down and simplified. Manchin said talk that...

If you ever doubted the inability of the federal government to protect you from harm, events of the past few weeks should have been a clincher. While Congress was dithering about a background-check-for-gun-buyers bill, President Obama was out on the hustings — in full campaign mode — trying to gin up support for it. Listening to the president, you could easily be misled into thinking that the bill before Congress would actually have prevented the multiple shootings at Newtown, Connecticut, and other shooting tragedies. In fact, none of the bills being considered in Congress would have prevented a single mass...

<p>The Democrats scoff when we remind them that the second amendment was intended by the founders for the people to defend against government tyranny.</p> <p>"What? Are we tyrannical?," They innocently exclaim.</p> <p>And the answer is yes.</p> <p>When you elect an admitted Marxist to the presidency who claims the constitution (that he is supposed to uphold) is a flawed document and pledges to "transform America" by importing European spread-the-wealth around Marxism to ensure "economic justice," that is tyranny!</p>

(GunNews.com) — Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has initiated a rulemaking process “to remove unnecessary legal barriers” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule that may prevent states from reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which is the database that houses information on individuals prohibited by law from possessing firearms. This is one of the 23 executive actions the President announced in January. “Through the public comment process, we will use the data and information provided by states, health providers, patient advocates and others to determine how...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was glum after background checks went down April 17. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) A week after gun legislation suffered a stinging defeat in the Senate, an uncomfortable realization has settled over the Capitol that it will likely take another mass shooting or similar tragedy to reignite momentum for gun control. President Obama called last week’s vote “round one.” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., pledged that it was “just the beginning.” But gun-control advocates, both inside and outside of Congress, have identified no immediate path forward to alter a political landscape that left them five...

A common trope of many Second Amendment advocates is to urge more vigorous enforcement of existing federal gun control laws, as the alternative to enacting additional laws. Rhetorically, that’s very effective. But as a policy matter, it is not always a good idea. Consider legislation recently considered by the Senate: The Manchin-Toomey amendment was supported by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), although the group later dropped its support for reasons unrelated to the issues raised in this post. Section 102(3) of Manchin-Toomey was the finding that “Congress believes the Department of Justice should...

A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Final Rule published today in the Federal Register and a news release issued Friday by the Department of Health and Human Services, followed up with a notice to be published tomorrow, are two developments all but ignored by the mainstream press even though Vice President Joe Biden announced last week that the administration would be using executive orders to advance “gun control” goals following a Senate battle that could not muster the votes to do so legislatively. The Importation of Defense Articles and Defense Services -- U.S. Munitions Import List references executive...