Free Republic

Judge Lawrence VanDyke handles firearms in video dissent/ screen image The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld California’s ban on large-capacity magazines. The en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court (a decision from the court’s entire slate of judges) sided with California’s radical Marxist Attorney General Rob Bonta. In 2023, a federal judge struck down California’s ban on high-capacity gun magazines. US District Judge Roger Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee, in his ruling said, “there is no American tradition of limiting ammunition capacity.” The judge said detachable magazines “solved a problem with historic firearms: running out...

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court took two cases in which non-residents were arrested and prosecuted for possessing firearms and ammunition in Massachusetts. Both cases involved residents of New Hampshire, where the defendants could legally carry firearms without permits. The cases were combined for the Massachusetts Supreme Court. The decisions were rendered on March 11, 2025. The decisions were opposite for the two cases. In the decision for the earlier case, Commonwealth v. Donnell, the Court found the Massachusetts firearm licensing scheme at the time of Donnell’s arrest to be unconstitutional because the law was a “may issue” law that allowed...

A convicted criminal whose prison sentence was commuted by former President Joe Biden is back behind bars. Willie Frank Peterson, 52, was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine in 2023, and was sentenced to six years and three months in jail. His sentence began on Sept. 13, 2023, according to court records obtained by Fox News Digital. Per a Jan. 17 executive grant of clemency, Biden commuted Peterson’s sentence to 20 months, allowing him to leave custody shortly after. But on Monday, Peterson was booked for multiple drug-related offensives in Dothan, Alabama. The Dothan Police Department charged Peterson with two...

The family of an 11-year-old Chicago boy murdered last year by his mother’s ex-boyfriend the day after he was released from prison is suing the state — including the embattled Prisoner Review Board and Illinois Department of Corrections— for negligence. Jayden Perkins, an accomplished young dancer, was stabbed to death last March while his mother, Laterria Smith, sustained “multiple life-threatening stab wounds to her neck, back, and chest while desperately trying to protect her children,” according to one of the lawsuits she filed last week. Smith was pregnant at the time, while her then-5-year-old son witnessed the stabbing. Ahead of...

Representative Dusty Johnson has re-introduced the Traveler’s Gun Rights Act, a bill attending to a Second Amendment issue constraining firearms rights of those who do not use a permanent physical address, such as many active-duty military personnel and those who live and travel via RV. Companion legislation currently in the Senate is being led by Senator Mike Rounds, and both of these gentlemen are representatives of South Dakota, the state I like to call home and one that still represents strong American values and traditions. Johnson’s Traveler’s Gun-Rights Act seeks to correct the firearms purchasing process and strengthen Second Amendment...

LOCKLAND, Ohio — One person has died and another person has been taken into custody after a multi-county police chase ended in a shooting involving police on Interstate 75 in Lockland Wednesday morning. The incident shutdown all northbound lanes near the end of the Lockland split for hours, but the roadway reopened just before 7:40 a.m. It started at 2:45 a.m. West Chester police say a license plate reader flagged the suspect vehicle as stolen. When officers attempted to pull the vehicle over, it fled, leading to a pursuit. Lockland police say they were called to assist in locating multiple...

A SWAT team was called to CIA headquarters in Fairfax County, Virginia, after a man allegedly began shooting a shotgun into the air. The facility is now on lockdown, according to reports. Crime scene negotiators are reportedly on the scene in McLean as of about 10:35am EDT (2:30pm GMT) alongside Fairfax County Police Bomb Squad with the Fairfax County Police, according to DMV News Live. CIA Police is also on the scene and is leading the investigation.

Heavily armed police swarmed CIA headquarters in Virginia on Wednesday after a man with a gun reportedly started making threats outside. The suspect allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it at the building in McLean on Wednesday morning, ABC7 reported, citing a law enforcement official. No shots were fired and no injuries have been reported so far, according to the official.

Interesting things are happening in the Fifth Circuit case involving silencers, USA v Peterson. A three-judge panel ruled that silencers were not “arms” as defined by the text of the Second Amendment. Peterson and his attorneys have asked the case be reheard in an en banc review. The Fifth Circuit has been reasonably diligent in its Second Amendment cases, so an en banc (review by the whole court) has a good chance of reversing the three-judge panel. The Peterson case appears to be seriously considered by the Fifth Circuit. The court has sent a request to the parties involved to...

House Bill 12 (HB 12), recently passed by the New Mexico Senate, proposes significant amendments to the state’s “Extreme Risk Firearm Protection Order Act,” commonly known as the red flag law. While the bill aims to enhance public safety by allowing law enforcement officers to directly petition for firearm seizures and mandating immediate relinquishment upon a judge’s order, it raises substantial constitutional concerns, particularly regarding due process under the Second Amendment.​ A critical issue with HB 12 is its provision for the immediate confiscation of firearms upon the issuance of an Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO), without affording the respondent...

On February 5, 2025, an officer responded to a “suspicious person with a weapon” call near a Jack-in-the-Box located on the 5900 block of Gulf Freeway. The video does not say what department the officer was with. The address is in downtown Houston, so the officer is probably from the Houston Police Department. The officer noticed a young man and started questioning him. The young man stated he had been inside the Jack-in-the-Box watching his brothers sell “waters” outside. A man, with a knife in hand, had rushed at his brothers. The young man said he had pulled out a...

Report Highlights: Federal and state laws allow prosecutors to charge unlicensed civilians with manufacturing, possessing, or transferring 3D-printed firearms. • Unserialized 3D-printed firearms, known as “ghost guns,” are illegal in seven states. • The Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988 and a 2022 ATF rule permit federal prosecution for 3D-printing firearms if certain legal requirements are not met. • Manufacturing 3D-printed firearms is explicitly illegal in Delaware, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and Washington. • Possessing an unregistered, unserialized 3D-printed firearm is prohibited in Connecticut, New York, and Oregon. • Selling or transferring an unserialized 3D-printed firearm is illegal in all 50 states.

LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Video from bodycams and surveillance cameras during a fatal shooting in December at a laundromat was released Thursday on the Lafayette Police Department’s YouTube page. The shooting was reported shortly before 7:40 p.m. Dec. 5 at Lafayette Laundry, 3100 South St. That’s in a strip mall a couple of blocks west of Sagamore Parkway. One of the three people shot, Keith Ford, 35, of Lafayette, died from multiple gunshot wounds in what the Tippecanoe County coroner called a homicide. The shooter, Louis McGlothlin, 73, of Lincoln, Nebraska, died at an Indianapolis hospital from a self-inflicted gunshot...

The 12 gauge shotgun is certainly the most popular gauge selection out on the market and afield. Here is why this utilitarian gauge is so popular today. The 12 gauge shotshell has quite a long timeline. Case in point, John Moses Browning created the Winchester Model 1897 pump action shotgun. This shotgun firing an actual self contained 12 gauge shotshell in either solid brass or cardboard hulls set the world on fire for popularity. The above image is a sampling of what was available way back in history. Pump action shotguns even today are top sellers for the hunting...

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) for February 2025 shows a drop in both Firearm sales and overall background checks. Firearm sales are down about nine percent from 2024. NICS background checks are down about five percent from February 2024. Handgun and “multiple” sales moved up a bit from January to February while long gun and “other” sales dropped a bit. In the graphic below, the lines are for 2024. The bars are for 2025.President Trump has been in his second term in office for over a month. The rapid pace of corrections produced by the Trump administration signals...

Donald Trump has once again made headlines, this time for hiring Christian Craighead, a former SAS soldier celebrated for his heroism during the 2019 Nairobi DusitD2 terror attack. Known as “Obi Wan Nairobi,” Craighead earned global recognition for his decisive actions that saved lives during the al-Shabaab assault. Trump, reportedly disillusioned with the Secret Service after the Butler attack, has opted to pay out-of-pocket for a private security team, with Craighead taking a central role. The Nairobi attack, which unfolded on January 15, 2019, was a coordinated assault by al-Shabaab militants on the DusitD2 hotel complex. The siege lasted over...

You’d never know it from watching television, but civilians stop more active shooters than police and do so with fewer mistakes, according to new research from the Crime Prevention Research Center, where I serve as president. In non-gun-free zones, where civilians are legally able to carry guns, concealed carry permit holders stopped 51.5% of active shootings, compared to 44.6% stopped by police, CPRC found in a deep dive into active shooter scenarios between 2014-2023. Not only do permit holders succeed in stopping active shooters at a higher rate, but law enforcement officers face significantly greater risks when intervening. Our research...

Twin 19-year-old brothers were found shot to death on top of a Georgia mountain a day after missing a flight to Boston to visit friends — and their family is refusing to accept probers’ murder-suicide theory. Qaadir and Naazir Lewis of Lawrenceville disappeared March 7 after missing their 7 a.m. flight, with the teens found dead by a hiker the next day at the summit of Bell Mountain near the North Carolina border. Grieving uncle Rahim Brawner said the teens were inseparable and would never hurt each other, even as the Georgia Bureau of Investigations is treating the case as...

The Iowa Legislature has advanced House Study Bill 262 out of committee by a vote of 17-4. The bill repeals legislative bans on the possession, acquisition, or carrying of handguns or handgun ammunition by adults aged 18-20. Several appellate court decisions have made clear young adults, 18-20 years old, are members of the people who have a right to keep and bear arms protected by the Second Amendment. Iowa falls under the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. On July 16, 2024, a three-judge panel of the Eighth Circuit unanimously confirmed the rights protected...

On March 4, 2025, Governor Ron DeSantis gave his State of the State address to the Florida legislature. In the address, Governor DeSantis vocalized his support for restoring Second Amendment rights. Second Amendment statements start about minute 24 into the speech:The free state of Florida has not exactly led the way on protecting Second Amendment rights. We have some of the more “weak” laws on the country compared to our other states who consider themselves conservative. I would ask you to protect peoples Second Amendment Rights. Look back in instances where legislation may have been passed in recent years, such...