Free Republic

The use of handguns as a defense against bears has been shown to be effective 98% of the time. In this study, all cases that can be documented, where a handgun was fired in defense against a bear, are included. This is done by design to guard against selection bias. All cases cite the source for the case information. Unlike other attempts to put a number on how effective handguns, long guns, or bear spray are in defending against bears, every case is described to readers so they can come to their own conclusions. Readers may disregard any incidents at...

News 5 has learned more about a deadly shooting that happened at a May Day celebration in the quiet community of Stockton. About 1,000 people attended a May Day event Saturday night in an open field on Upper Bryant’s Landing Road, according to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office. “According to witnesses, the event was peaceful until an argument took place, which led to at least one subject shooting multiple rounds into the large crowd,” a BCSO spokesperson said. Eighteen people were shot, three of whom died from their injuries, according to the BCSO. “We do believe that there may have...

On Monday, a 63-year-old female mail carrier was robbed at gunpoint by two thugs while delivering mail in Dublin, California. Surveillance video of the incident shows the carrier, who has worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 33 years, delivering mail in a quiet residential neighborhood around 4:30 p.m. when suddenly a masked man emerges behind her. A second masked individual follows closely behind. Suddenly, a masked man comes up behind the mail carrier, followed by a second person who is also masked and the two masked men pull a gun. KTVC reports: “Somebody came up behind me and ‘boom,’...

ATLANTA — Three Atlanta police officers were hospitalized with gunshot wounds after an altercation that left a suspect dead Saturday evening, authorities said. Officers responded at 5:15 p.m. to a report of an armed man in a commercial area on Fairbanks Street and encountered a man with a handgun and a knife on Desoto Avenue, Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said during a news conference. “During that encounter there was a struggle, there was gunfire that resulted in three of our officers being injured. It also resulted in the death of the individual that was armed with the handgun,” Schierbaum...

The fatal shooting of a male at 1415 West Gulf Bank Road about 12:30 a.m. today (May 9) will be referred to a Harris County grand jury. The identity of the deceased male is pending verification by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. The male shooter, 53, was not injured in the incident. HPD Homicide Division Detectives M. Perez and S. Overstreet reported: HPD patrol officers responded to a shooting at an apartment complex at the above address and were directed to an unresponsive male near a dumpster across the parking lot from one of the apartment buildings. Houston...

Chicago police say a 13-year-old girl was shot by a car owner Tuesday morning while allegedly trying to steal the car. Police updated information on the incident, saying that the owner shot at the 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old boy who was allegedly with her, according to ABC 7. A bullet hit the girl “in the right side of her body” and she was taken to the hospital, where she was “in stable condition.”

David Pugiliese, the reporter on Canadian Forces and military issues, has been following the saga of replacing and destroying the Browning Hi-Power pistols, which have been used by the Canadian military since WWII. Most of the pistols were part of a production run done at the end of the war. The Canadian military has been working on the project for many years. From David Pugiliese, Ottowa Citizen October 13, 2022: At this time the Canadian Forces has 11,896 Browning handguns in its inventory, National Defence spokesman Dan Le Bouthillier told this newspaper. Of those, 1,323 are non-functioning.As the Browning 9mm...

Generally, it’s best to go about one’s business as unobtrusively as possible, relying on situational awareness and solid knowledge of use of force law to avoid ever having to draw or fire one’s handgun. Among the perennial controversies in the firearm world is whether concealed or open carry is best. Circa 2024, open carry is widely allowed: State laws regarding open carry fall into several categories: permissive, permissive with restrictions, licensed open carry states, and those in which open carry is prohibited. Permissive states allow non-prohibited citizens to open carry without requiring a permit or license. Most states fall into...

A 24-year-old man was shot and killed while walking to work on Chicago's Northwest Side Friday morning. The victim was walking in the 3900 block of North Pittsburgh Avenue around 7 a.m. when an unknown offender shot him in the chest, Chicago police said. He was taken to Loyola Hospital in critical condition and later died. In surveillance video posted on social media, a person in dark clothing was seen running southbound on Pittsburgh Avenue. A woman, who asked she not be identified, told CBS 2 she heard a gunshot and ran to help the man who was on the...

OAKLAND — A 47-year-old man was shot and killed while using a sledgehammer to break up concrete chunks and hurl them at cars and property, and now the suspect is behind bars facing a murder charges. The strange sequence of events started around 4 p.m. March 28, when Greer was seen using a sledgehammer to break up chunks of concrete outside the abandoned home, then began hurling them at the property and cars parked nearby, police said. At some point while Greer was doing this, Dorn allegedly exited the abandoned residence, got on a green bicycle, rode a short distance...

WELLINGTON, Fla. — A suspect accused of fatally shooting a Wellington couple on Saturday confessed to killing them over a dispute related to a basketball hoop, deputies said. ... As they were conversing, "at no point during this encounter" was Taylor Jones recorded being aggressive or threatening, detectives said. However, investigators said the video showed Scott "was clearly upset and appeared to be yelling at Taylor Jones" while both appeared to be looking and pointing toward the basketball hoop that rested between both homes. A short time later the affidavit said Scott reached into his right side and retrieved a...

On Thursday a three-judge panel from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided that Steven Duarte, a felon, has a “right to possess a firearm for self-defense.” Courthouse News Service noted Duarte has five felony convictions and was a member of a street gang in Los Angeles. The decision upholding Duarte’s gun rights was split, with George W. Bush appointee Carlos Bea and Donald Trump appointee Lawrence VanDyke deciding in the majority. Bea wrote the majority opinion, noted the panel tested the prohibition against felons possessing guns in light of Bruen (2022) and found the government...

CNN — Hunter Biden’s latest attempts to throw out his federal gun case were rejected in back-to-back rulings Thursday, teeing up a high-stakes criminal trial next month in Delaware. The president’s son had asked the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the charges by overturning prior decisions from the trial judge that let the case move forward. But the appellate panel instead rejected Hunter Biden’s appeals, which related to his defunct plea deal and his claims that the case was tainted by political bias. Hours later, the trial judge, Maryellen Noreika, rejected Hunter Biden’s remaining motion to dismiss...

Five shot in Northeast Side home At around 7:40 p.m. Wednesday evening, May 8, Bexar County deputies were called to home on the Northeast Side of San Antonio after reports of shots fired. Investigators would arrive to a grisly scene where some 30 rounds of ammunition were fired into the home of a family, including two adults and five children under the age of 10. All five of the family members were transported to a local hospital in critical condition, and Bexar County Sheriff Salazar said the shooters – two men donning balaclavas spotted from security cameras on neighboring homes...

Yesterday, anti-gun New York legislators introduced a bill designed to COMPLETELY ban the sale of Glock handguns and other semi-automatic pistols.Their bill, S. 9225, comes under the guise that Glocks, and other semi-automatic “convertible pistols,” can be easily turned into machine-guns through the installation or attachment of a “pistol converter,” more commonly known as a “Glock switch.”New York state lawmakers are intentionally targeting a major firearms manufacturer and banning the sale of their product because criminals, who don’t obey the law in the first place, could illegally acquire handguns and then illegally alter them further.Under federal law, machine guns are...

On March 11, 2024, Judge William Q. Hayes of the United States District Court, Southern District of California, granted a summary judgement in the case of Nguyen V. Bonta. The case is a challenge to California’s one gun a month law. Judge Hayes ruled the law violated the text of the Second Amendment and there were no reasonable analogies in the relevant legal history of the United States. Judge Hayes granted one month for an appeal to be filed to the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The case was sent to a three judge panel of the Ninth...

MILTON, Fla. - A Florida father was arrested over the weekend after pulling an AR-15 rifle on an Uber driver who dropped his daughter off at his home, according to deputies. Sean Hollonbeck, 54, of Milton, was taken to jail on charges of false imprisonment of a person and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. On May 4, shortly before 11 p.m., an Uber driver arrived at Hollonbeck's home to drop off the suspect's daughter. The young female was still in the vehicle when she saw her father run up to the driver with an AR-15 in hand and force...

A known gang member with a long violent criminal history accused of shooting a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy could have been kept behind bars if not for soft-on-crime policies by the region's top prosecutor, his election opponent said. Raymundo Duran, 47, who allegedly shot Deputy Samuel Aispuro in the back at a stop light while he was sitting on his marked sheriff's department motorcycle on April 22 in West Covina, California, has been involved in a number of violent crimes, including two felony assaults that he committed while serving an 11-year sentence for manslaughter, according to court records. Aispuro,...

A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected Hunter Biden’s bid to toss gun charges. “The defendant in this criminal case appealed three pretrial orders entered on April 12, 2024, denying his motions to dismiss the indictment,” the court document released Thursday states. “This appeal is DISMISSED because the defendant has not shown the District Court’s orders are appealable before final judgment.” In September Hunter Biden was indicted on federal gun charges. He was indicted in a Delaware court on three counts related to his possession of a firearm while using drugs. “Two of the counts carry a maximum prison sentence...

Link to video of arrival of the police and the original comedy skit. On March 12, 2024, Dutch absurdist comedian Hans Teeuwen posted a video mocking the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema. As part of the video, a vaguely pistol-looking object was on a table, at the edge of the screen, next to him.Three hours later, the police were at his door. The came in and confiscated the object, which was still on the table. AmmoLand covered the story. In the AmmoLand article, this correspondent noted the object was most likely a Webley air pistol.Coverage of the incident continues in...