Free Republic

In 1984, the National Rifle Association (NRA) Annual Meeting was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was the first Annual Meeting this correspondent attended. It was characterized by manipulation, lies, and betrayal.In 1984, this correspondent was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin. A masters degree in mining engineering was nearing completion. A life membership in the National Rifle Association had been paid off in installments. When informed the annual meeting would be held in Milwaukee, this correspondent, his brother, and a mutual friend, Jim Blair, made plans to attend.Neal Knox had been booted as head of the Institute for...

U.S. Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-HI) is introducing legislation that would mandate triggers, barrels, and other gun parts be tracked after being sold. Island News reported that Tokuda’s bill, the Gun Hardware Oversight and Shipment Tracking Act (Ghost Act), is designed to track gun parts as a way of helping law enforcement find so-called “ghost guns.” Hawaii News Now noted the legislation “will allow law enforcement to track gun parts coming into the state and who ordered them.” Tokuda said, “Let’s not make it easy for people to buy the parts that they need to make weapons of destruction, endangering law...

A Texas mother has been arrested and charged for allegedly buying ammunition and tactical gear for her son's planned "mass targeted violence" at his middle school, officials said. Ashley Pardo, 33, was arrested on Monday and charged with aiding in commission of terrorism after she allegedly provided ammunition and tactical gear to her son, whose behavior demonstrated plans for a "mass targeted violence" aimed at Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.

Thursday was inauguration day in Venezuela. Hugo Chavez — who has dominated Venezuelan politics one way or another for 14 years — was again sworn in as President. Only this time, the authoritarian populist could not take the oath in person. He departed for cancer surgery in Cuba on Dec. 10, 2012, and has not been seen in public since. This latest surgery is his fourth round of treatment in Cuba. Few expect Chavez to serve out this next six-year presidential term.

Gun lobbyists are expressing dismay with a compromise on silencers included in the fast-tracked budget bill and the GOP’s slow-walking of another demand to stop the taxing and registration of commonly owned AR-15 style pistols. On Monday, the House Ways and Means Committee released its plan, and while it stripped a $200 tax on the sale of silencers, it still required registration and sale approval by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. That angered some gun groups who have been calling for an end to the tax and ATF registration of suppressors, which many consider a hearing safety...

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...

News 12 has obtained exclusive video showing the moments before a lost DoorDash driver was allegedly shot by an elected official in Orange County. The 24-year-old victim is seen on surveillance camera at a residence in Chester holding a plastic bag and his cellphone at approximately 9 p.m. on Friday, while state police say he attempted to find the correct delivery address. “I have DoorDash. My phone is broken. I need some help,” the unidentified DoorDash employee is heard saying during the recording. News 12 traced the dasher’s steps to one of the houses he tried in the Valerie Drive...

If you watched Donald Trump's cabinet meeting on Wednesday, you may have seen Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins hold up a photo of the Maude family of South Dakota. I'd heard a little bit about the fifth-generation ranching family before that, but I decided to learn more because I couldn't believe the story Rollins told about how the Joe Biden administration treated them. It's unbelievable. Or maybe it's not, given all we're learning about the last four years. ... Trump Admin is reversing Biden-era failures in 100 days! The U.S. Gov has dropped charges against the Maude family, victims of...

The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled that a former college football player who was shot by his teammate cannot sue gunmaker Beretta over his injuries. a victory not only for the firearms company, but for common sense as well. In 2018, about four months after Andre Lewis purchased a Beretta APX 9mm handgun, Lewis decided to show it off to his Emporia State University teammate Marquise Johnson while the pair were idling at a stoplight in the town of Emporia. According to the complaint, Lewis wanted to show Johnson that he knew how to properly disassemble the pistol, and apparently...

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. …

Professional sports are all about mom, apple pie and the flag, right? Baseball is our “national pastime,” football is our national religion, basketball is…well…marketing for athletic shoes? And hockey is an advertisement for restorative dentistry? Anyway, these leagues are supposed to be red, white and blue. Apart, that is, from some knee taking and refusing to stand for the National Anthem, buying into the whole “America is systemically racist” thing, supporting trans this and that, and OK, the Budweiser debacle, which is at least sort of associated with them. Sigh. Sports used to be so simple. Players were expected to...

A sheriff in Georgia is praising the actions of an armed homeowner who stopped a would-be intruder from gaining access to a child's bedroom, while also issuing a warning to other criminals in the county. Butts County Sheriff Gary Long says a man named Abdul Aquil is in custody in connection with the break-in, and is lucky to be alive after his encounter with the armed citizen. Aquil allegedly first tried to gain entry to the home through a bedroom window with a child on the other side, but the child's father heard the commotion and interrupted the burglar as...

In 2022, Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell wrote a piece in Newsweek titled, “President Biden Does Not Want to Take Your Guns Away.” He accused Republicans of spreading fear. “No one is coming for your guns,” he wrote. “We respect the Second Amendment,” he added. He made it sound like the debate was over.But in 2025, a declassified document proved Swalwell was wrong—and possibly knew it.On April 16, 2025, then-Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified the Strategic Implementation Plan for Countering Domestic Terrorism. This multi-agency plan had been quietly signed and put into motion by the Biden administration back in...

The 2nd Amendment died in Colorado on a sunny spring afternoon in Denver, and Democrats murdered it. Yesterday, so-called "moderate" Democrat Gov. Jared Polis put his signature on SB 25-003 — perhaps the most convoluted and restrictive gun control law anywhere in the nation. But don't you worry — Democrats are gunning next for the 1st Amendment. Polis said at the signing, "This legislation builds on our commitment to improve public safety, reduce gun violence, uphold our freedom." I say, "Oh fer cryin' out loud, it will do none of those things and everybody knows it." Polis spent months putting...

A Walmart employee in Newton County, Georgia, shot and killed one person inside the store and another person at a residence early Friday morning. The Associated Press noted that the shooting inside the store occurred at 1:30 a.m., leaving an employee dead and another employee wounded. The gunman then went to a nearby residence and killed another person. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that the individual killed in the home was a Walmart employee, too. The violence started when one employee left the store, retrieved a gun from his vehicle and came back inside. He was captured just across the Georgia...

Agun discharged Thursday inside the backpack of a 9-year-old in Maryland while the student was in school, following a similar incident days earlier in Virginia. The incident occurred in southern Maryland, at Billingsley Elementary School, according to a Washington NBC News affiliate. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/gun-goes-off-in-childs-bag-in-maryland-school-days-after-similar-gunfire-in-virginia/3889130/ A school resource officer and teacher said they recovered the gun right after it went off. The Charles County Sheriff's Office is investigating the situation. Three days earlier, a handgun went off in a third-grader's backpack at a school in Virginia. https://justthenews.com/government/local/gun-goes-third-graders-backpack-school-virginia

Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed into law one of the most restrictive gun regulations ever adopted in Colorado. Senate Bill 3 bans the manufacture and drastically restricts the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms in Colorado. It’s aimed at reducing the carnage that can be inflicted during a mass shooting. “I really think this will make Colorado safer,” Polis said before signing the bill in his office at the Colorado Capitol. Here’s how the measure will work. What it would do Starting in August 2026, the manufacture, sale and purchase of certain semiautomatic firearms that can accept detachable ammunition magazines...

Judge Eduardo Ramos, the U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, has issued an Opinion & Order that a ban on stun guns is constitutional. A New York State law prohibits the private possession of stun guns and tasers; a New York City law prohibits the possession and selling of stun guns. Judge Ramos has ruled these laws do not infringe on rights protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.The case is Calce v. City of New York, filed in October of 2021. Ramos’ court is the first court to conclude that stun guns...

Early on the morning of Oct. 28, 1925, Kate heard gunshots in the direction of the pond on her land. It was not an unusual incident, as duck hunters often frequented the area near the pond, despite the “No Hunting” signs Kate had staked around the pond on posts. Kate’s common practice was to saddle her horse and pack her .22 rifle after the gunshots ceased, and ride to the pond to collect the dead fowl left behind by the hunters. This day was no different. After Kate saddled her horse and packed her rifle, Ernie, who was then 3,...

Everytown for Gun Safety is also trying to swing the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The radical anti-gun rights group is spending $600,000 on an advertisement targeting former attorney general and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel—a staunch defender of the Second Amendment. Guess who backs them? Mega donor Michael Bloomberg. WI, please, I need you to go out and vote. We cannot afford to lose two house seats.