Free Republic

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that John Lott has changed the national debate on gun control. His rigorous research and prolific pen have exposed the slip-shod analysis of anti-Constitution advocates. I’ve cited his work on several occasions. Lott explained how anti-gun laws facilitated the terrorist attack at Fort Hood. Defender of Liberty Writing after the Tucson shootings, Lott explained the benefits of concealed-carry laws. In the aftermath of the Heller decision, Lott explained how more guns resulted in less crime in DC. Lott explained how gun control made Jamaica a more dangerous country. It’s now time to...

It is often said that guns, particularly assault rifles, are designed for one thing, and one thing only: to kill lots of people. Assault rifles in the United States are failing miserably in this purpose. There are tens of millions of assault rifles in America. Because the definition of an assault rifle has been rather fuzzy, the number can be said to be anywhere from 10 million to 30 million. Of those, the AR-15 type is fairly common with numbers between 5 and 10 million. The FBI murder statistics do not differentiate between types of rifles. There are about 100...

Consumer confidence fell to the lowest levels of 2012 this past week. Most Americans believe that both the economy and their own personal finances are getting worse. Just 25 percent believe the economy is getting better, and only 22 percent say the same about their personal finances. Still, the lows of 2012 aren't nearly as bad as they were in the previous three years. But the trend is discouraging. It looks like yet another year starting with improved outlooks for the economy that fade by summer, and it's clearly taking a toll on the American people. In the summer of...

Rep. Mike Kelly just gained a lot of new fans.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I saw this last night. Congressman Mike Kelly, Pennsylvania Republican, got a standing ovation while he spoke in the House. That doesn't happen. No applause is allowed members of Congress. A president can go in there and, of course, they raise the roof. But the protocol does not permit applause, a standing ovation, or this kind of stuff during session. He got a standing ovation for what he said. There's a visual here that I want you to have while you listen. He holds up a stack of papers. It's 11000 pages of lending requirements, and he's...

An Indiana-based medical equipment manufacturer says it's scrapping plans to open five new plants in the coming years because of a looming tax tied to President Obama's health care overhaul law. Cook Medical claims the tax on medical devices, set to take effect next year, will cost the company roughly $20 million a year, cutting into money that would otherwise go toward expanding into new facilities over the next five years. "This is the equivalent of about a plant a year that we're not going to be able to build," a company spokesman told FoxNews.com. He said the original plan...

Reporter: My question is, is [President Obama] running on the Clinton economy or the Obama economy? Carney: He is running on his record. He is running on a vision for the future and an economic plan that has as one component a fundamental principle that everyone ought to play by the same set of rules and everybody ought to get a fair shot and everyone ought to pay their fair share. ..... Reporter: With unemployment over 8%, GDP slowing down now, the worst in a year, you'd rather talk about those years than... Carney: We're not talking... We're talking about...

Obama's desperate protests that his anti-business rant was taken out of context are betrayed both by that very context and because they are a part of a piece -- just one more component of his war against the American entrepreneurial spirit. He would have us believe that his words "you didn't build that" referred to roads and bridges and not businesses. Given his accompanying statements -- "you didn't get there on your own," etc. -- that is an absurd construction. But even if that's what he meant, why would he have felt compelled to point out that businesses don't succeed...

A whole raft of economic survey information released recently shows a leaky economy is threatening to help sink Obama’s reelection chances this fall. On Thursday, pollster Rasmussen published results of their daily consumer confidence numbers showing the index at its lowest point at any time since the start of 2012.“The Rasmussen Consumer Index,” writes Rasmussen, “which measures consumer confidence on a daily basis, fell another point on Thursday to the lowest level of 2012. At 78.5, confidence is down three points from a week ago, down three points from a month ago and down 11 points from three months ago....

Senate Democrats voted Wednesday to raise taxes on a struggling economy at a time of rising unemployment and slowing economic growth. Dismissing months of statistics showing the economy may be on the cusp of a double-dip recession, Democrats passed the tax bill by a thin 51 to 48 margin to show their support for President Obama's failed economic policies. The Democrats' action represented the triumph of their party's ultra-leftist, class warfare ideology over economic common sense. Two Democrats (James Webb of Virginia and Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut) voted against it. No Republican voted for it. Think for a moment what...

According to Census figures, some 200,000 small businesses disappeared from the rolls between 2008 and 2010. Those businesses were responsible for some three million jobs. The Obama administration claims that they’re moving in the right direction – but the direction of the economy is now reversing itself. Not surprisingly, Gallup finds that business owners are turning on President Obama. The national poll showed a 59-35 disapproval/approval split. Workers are split in favor of Obama, thanks in large part to Obama’s heavy emphasis on class warfare. It is no coincidence that government spending has expanded dramatically during the same period that...

Several senior House Democrats warned that passing a bill from Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) requiring a full audit of the Federal Reserve Board's monetary policy decisions will allow Congress greater leverage to put political pressure on these decisions, which they said would cause serious problems in the U.S. and global financial markets. The Federal Reserve Transparency Act, H.R. 459, was expected to come up for a vote Wednesday, and seemed poised for passage given its 270 co-sponsors, including nearly four dozen Democrats. Nonetheless, many Democrats used the Tuesday floor debate to warn about the chances that Congress might use the...

When asked whether the House Republicans would permit or not permit funding for Obamacare in whatever legislation is enacted to fund the government after Sept. 30--when the current funding legislation runs out--House Speaker John Boehner responded that "our goal would be to make sure the government is funded," thus indicating that House Republicans do plan to fund implementation of Obamacare past Sept. 30. Unless a special provision is put into the bill to fund the government past Sept. 30 that expressly prohibits funding specifically for the Obamacare regulation that requires health-care plans to cover, without cost-sharing, sterilizations, artificial contraceptives and...

Former Newsweek editor Howard Fineman appeared on Monday's Hardball to smear the Republican Party as "xenophobic" and "nativist." Fineman lamented that Mitt Romney doesn't have the courage to take on the base, a group he mocked as being "afraid of the world." Fineman is now the editorial director for the liberal Huffington Post, an outlet in sync with his own left-wing views. Matthews and the journalist discussed Huma Abedin, an aide to Hillary Clinton who Congresswoman Michele Bachmann connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Asked why Romney won't take on people like Bachmann, Fineman assailed that the presumptive GOP nominee has...

WASHINGTON, July 23 (KUNA) -- US voters put Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney ahead of President Barack Obama in managing the nation's economy, cutting the federal budget deficit and job-creating, according to a poll release Monday. The national Gallup/USA today poll found that more than 63 percent of voters surveyed believed Romney's business background would enable him to make good decisions on the nation's economic woes, versus 29 percent who disagreed. However, Obama scored a significant advantaged over his republican contender as the more likable candidate, by a vote of 2-1. By double digits, those surveyed say the president better...

On Monday's CBS This Morning, Norah O'Donnell glossed over President Barack Obama's record of supporting gun control when she claimed that "Mitt Romney, in some ways, has been more for gun control than Barack Obama...He signed, as governor...a law, to ban assault weapons, and he only just recently joined the NRA." O'Donnell also played up that the President has apparently "disappointed gun control advocates." [audio available here; video below the jump] In an unsigned 2009 report, the correspondent's own network actually acknowledged that Obama supported gun control as an Illinois state senator, a U.S. senator, and as a presidential candidate...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Dianne Feinstein says the nation needs to have a "sane" discussion on gun control and ban military-style assault weapons. But the California Democrat acknowledges that probably won't happen before the November election. Feinstein tells "Fox News Sunday" that "people haven't rallied" in years because of the power and reach of the gun lobby, and that with the election looming, "it's a bad time to embrace a new subject."

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) talks to PJM about his new bill to counter provisions that could "tax religiously affiliated schools, hospitals, universities and soup kitchens right out of existence." Before the House repealed ObamaCare once more last week, another bill was introduced to stop the Department of Health and Human Services from charging religious institutions steep fines for noncompliance with the mandate to provide birth control without an insurance co-payment. Under President Obama’s healthcare law, the HHS can levy $100 per employee, per day against institutions that won’t comply with the mandate. Therefore, religious employers with hundreds of employees could...

During an interview with CBS's Charlie Rose that aired on Monday morning, President Obama said his proudest achievement over the past three and a half years is stabilizing the economy, not his signature health care reform law. “My proudest achievement is actually stabilizing the economy to avert a great depression, because if I don’t do that nothing else matters,” Obama said. “And the central question becomes building on what we've done. Where do we go from here?” ....

Americans cut their spending at retail businesses for a third straight month, as a weak job market has made consumers more cautious. Retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June from May, the Commerce Department said Monday. Consumers spent less on autos, furniture, appliances, on building and garden supplies and at department stores. The drop in sales followed declines in the previous two months. Retail sales haven't fallen for three straight months since the fall of 2008, at the height of the financial crisis. Some of the weakness in recent months reflects falling gas prices. But even excluding sales at gas...