Free Republic

The Biden-era ATF rule restricting pistol braces was vacated Thursday after President Donald Trump's Department of Justice agreed to drop its appeal in a federal lawsuit, delivering a major victory to gun-rights advocates, Breitbart reported. The move marks a significant reversal in federal firearms regulation and concludes a lengthy legal battle over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' 2023 rule that reclassified AR-pistols with braces as short-barreled rifles under the National Firearms Act. "This afternoon, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and the federal government agreed to a joint dismissal of the government's appeal in our Mock v. Bondi lawsuit,...

Unsympathetic defendants make for bad precedents. This is what happened in the Rahimi case, where the Supreme Court opened the door a crack, allowing judges to believe they can create more exceptions to Second Amendment rights. Rahimi is cited as the reason for the upholding of the Gun Free School Zone Act in the Fifth Circuit. On January 29, 2023, 25-year-old Ahmed Adballa Allam had been living and traveling around the United States in his father’s Toyota RAV4 since July of 2022. He had purchased an AR-15 type rifle in Pennsylvania on the way to California. He had traveled to...

His administration, which is avowedly committed to protecting Second Amendment rights, nevertheless is defending that restriction against the FPC's challenge, saying it "serves legitimate objectives" and "only modestly burdens the right to keep and bear arms." That argument sounds suspiciously like the sort of "interest balancing" that the Supreme Court emphatically rejected in Bruen. When a gun restriction affects conduct covered by "the Second Amendment's plain text," the Court said in that case, the government has the burden of demonstrating that it is "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." That test typically requires identifying historical analogs that...

Pennsylvania emergency call system is experiencing periodic disruptions on Friday because of problems with the state’s 911 connection vendor, according to the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA). The issue was first noticed around 2 p.m. by the state’s Next Generation 911 provider, PEMA director Randy Padfield said at a Friday news conference. “The system continues to have some intermittent connectivity issues at this point in time that they’re still trying to troubleshoot,” Padfield said, although as of recently “it seemed like a majority of the calls were being delivered.” If callers can’t connect to 911, PEMA advises them to bypass...

Before I wrote about Second Amendment stuff most of the time, I wrote a lot about education. From Title IX abuse to woke administrators and teachers, I covered a lot. AdvertisementThen I came here and started writing about this, which is at least as important as reforming our educational system.Yet I always knew there would be some opportunities to return to talking about colleges. After all, they're notoriously anti-gun, too, as we see from a situation in Maine.A Christian student in a class apparently talked previously about finding Jesus. So far, so good, apparently.Yet the student wanted to talk about...

Police arrested 39 people in connection with the Chicago Pride Parade and its aftermath between Sunday evening and early Monday, including five individuals who were illegally carrying firearms, according to the Chicago Police Department. One man charged with weapon possession was allegedly carrying two guns. Of the 39 arrested, 13 individuals, including two juveniles, were charged with felonies, while 21 face misdemeanor charges, and one person received citations, a police spokesperson said. Charges were still pending against four people as of midday Monday.

President Trump is energetically pushing to pass his One Big Beautiful Bill. On June 3, 2025, the White House published 50 Wins in the One Big Beautiful Bill.The One Big Beautiful Bill does not do everything that needs to be done. It does not cut spending as much as needed, because the Republican majorities in the House and Senate are extremely thin. However, the One Big Beautiful Bill has many excellent policy changes. The policy decisions become law with the One Big Beautiful Bill, beyond Presidential Executive Orders, so they carry more weight and cannot be reversed by a change...

In 1970, the State of Florida passed sweeping emergency measures laws which conferred enormous powers to Sheriffs and Municipal officials (Mayors and Chiefs of Police). The law was meant to contain and prevent riots and the widespread breakdown of the rule of law. The officials could declare an emergency under the “imminent threat of violence”, which gave broad discretion. The emergency could only be in effect for 72 hours, after which time the county commission or the city council would be required to approve any extension of the emergency.There were many riots during the Vietnam era, particularly at universities.Part of...

📍 Where & When: Announced on June 3, 2025, with plans to go public soon.GrabAGun will allow customers to purchase firearms online, though federal law requires the weapons to be picked up from authorized and licensed dealers, where standard background checks will be conducted. However, accessories such as scopes and ammunition can be shipped directly to consumers’

The Missouri Legislature had once again killed a bill to restore the ability to legally exercise rights protected by the Second Amendment on public transportation. Senator Schnelting has been promoting these bills for years. They make progress, then they are killed by inaction. From mo.gov: On April 10, HB328 passed the House, 106 to 45. HB328 was sent to the Senate. On April 22, the Senate Transportation, Infrastructure and Public Safety committee held a hearing on the bill. On April 24, an “SCS” (Senate Committee Substitute) was passed. No other action was taken on the bill before the Senate adjourned...

Cultural myths have always held that the left is better at comedy than the right, at least according to the left. But circular logic aside, the results of the past few years speak for themselves. The left can’t meme, and it’s falling behind in comedic talent. Case in point would be a comparison of the sheer genius of the folks of the Babylon Bee and the hapless, out-of-touch, and unfunny skits of Saturday Night Live. The first video from the Babylon Bee is of a leftist (we’re using that term instead of the other “L” word) going back in time...

So what’s happening to the bill in the Ways and Means committee? We’d guess it’s realpolitik. It sounds like Cox and Rep. Kustoff have recognized that they have a snowball’s chance in Hell of passing the bill delisting suppressors and rather than throwing their hands up and saying, ‘Oh well, we gave it the old college try,’ they’ve decided to take a big step in the right direction.A tax stamp has cost $200 since it was enacted as part of the NFA in 1934. While inflation has whittled the real value of that away over the decades, it’s still not...

Does the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms apply to fully automatic machine guns? The US District Court for the Western District of Tennessee is poised to rule on the matter. Jaquan Bridges pleaded guilty to possessing a machine gun after engaging in a 2023 shootout with police officers on a Tennessee highway. Courthouse News reported that Bridges “was arrested with a Glock .40 caliber pistol with an attachment that converted the handgun into a machine gun, but fought to dismiss the charge on constitutional grounds.” He claimed the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State...

The Biden administration authorized federal law enforcement four years ago to target Americans engaged in "concerning non-criminal behavior" in the name of fighting domestic terrorism, with a specific eye on those serving in the military, owning firearms, or spreading what officials considered to be "xenophobic" disinformation, according to newly declassified documents. The stunning breadth of the mandate was disclosed when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently released a fully unredacted version of the prior administration’s "Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism." The June 2021 memo exposed for the first time the law enforcement and intelligence framework that led...

The Trump administration removed a memorial from the main atrium of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for victims of gun violence that was put in place under the Biden administration. As you can imagine, the move has tightened the jaws of folks on the anti-gunner left, which praised how the prior administration weaponized the agency against responsible gun owners. From The Washington Post:

Gun control groups don't like it when life is peaceful. They may say they want a reduction in so-called gun violence, but they also can't raise money when people aren't freaking out about that so-called gun violence. With that in mind, it shouldn't be surprising that they're willing to misrepresent the facts.

Saying that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has “betrayed the trust” of Lone Star State gun owners, a Texas gun rights group is asking President Donald Trump not to endorse the longtime senator for re-election. The organization Texas Gun Rights (TGR) last week penned a letter to President Trump in which it aired its grievances over what it believes to be Sen. Cornyn’s lack of support for the Second Amendment. “Dear President Trump, We, the members and supporters of Texas Gun Rights, write to you as dedicated defenders of the Second Amendment,” the letter stated. “We urge you in the strongest...

California Democrats are pushing legislation to require background checks for gun barrel purchases, effectively taking the “ghost gun” regulatory push to its logical conclusion. The bill, Senate Bill 704, is sponsored by state Sen. Jesse Arreguín (D). SB 704 singles out firearm barrels among the many other parts of firearm, requiring a background check for any replacement barrel or aftermarket barrel upgrade purchase. […] Moreover, SB 704 specifically outlines how the costs of performing background checks for barrels must be handled, making clear that the legislation literally creates “a new crime,” albeit a misdemeanor, in the state California. …

The Arkansas legislature is making an improvement to the state constitution’s right to keep and bear arms language to the ballot for the next election. Here is the current Arkansas Constitution Article 2, § 5: Right to Bear ArmsThe citizens of this State shall have the right to keep and bear arms, for their common defense.The current language is problematic because it only mentions “common defense” and does not specifically mention individual rights, although individual rights are implied. Arkansas became a Constitutional Carry state on April 4th, 2013. On April 12, 2023, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee signed SB480 into law,...

On April 10, 2025, the Missouri House of Representatives passed gun law reform bill HB 328. The bill is essentially the same as Senate Bill SB 77, put forward by Senator Schnelting. The bills remove the ban on carrying weapons aboard most public transportation for people with concealed carry permits. Similar bills were filed in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024.In 2022, the Senate leadership killed the bill due to a lack of attention. The 2024 version of the bill, HB 1708, did not pass the House. The bill has an excellent chance of passing if it can be brought to...