Free Republic

In an article published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, Italian researchers mapped the genetics of European Marsican Brown bears (Ursus arctos). They found evidence indicating the bears had been selected by human hunting pressure to be less aggressive. From yale.edu: To investigate, Italian researchers mapped the genes of Marsican bears and compared them with the genes of brown bears in Slovakia and the U.S. Their study, published in Molecular Biology and Evolution, found clear evidence that the Marsican bears had been selected for lower aggression.The study has confirmed what naturalists, ranchers, hunters,, and wildlife managers assumed to be true. Grizzly...

A 77-year-old gunman opened fire at an Idaho sheriff’s office — injuring three people before he was killed in a standoff with police, according to authorities. The incident unfolded around 2:30 p.m. on Friday when shooter John Drake opened fire outside of the Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office in Wallace, Shoshone County Sheriff William Eddy announced at a press conference. Drake shot through the windshield of a pickup truck on the street near the sheriff’s office, striking two women in the leg. An officer was also wounded in the gunfire, Eddy said. The officer was nicked in the ear by flying...

A Bay Area Jewish advocacy organization is calling for Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez’s resignation, accusing him of spreading conspiracy theories about a deadly terror attack in Sydney, Australia. The Bay Area chapter of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) said in an open letter sent to Bay Area media organizations that Martinez has “posted repeatedly on LinkedIn spreading false conspiracies blaming Jews for the Bondi Beach terror attack.” Two gunmen killed 15 people, including a child, during the Bondi Beach Hanukkah celebration on Sunday in what Australian authorities called an antisemitic terror attack linked to an “Islamic State group.” Martinez,...

An Oklahoma man who was doing target practice with a recently purchased handgun in his backyard on Christmas Day is accused of shooting and killing a woman seated on a front porch blocks away as she held a child in her arms, authorities said. The woman, identified as Sandra Phelps, was sitting with family members under a covered front porch at a home in Comanche, about 90 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, on Thursday afternoon when she was struck in her right arm by what appeared to be a single bullet, an affidavit said. Phelps was holding a child in...

A Jewish American firearms club, founded in the wake of the October 7 massacre and the rise in antisemitism, is growing in popularity, with over 30 chapters across the United States. It’s poised to go international. Created in Cleveland, Ohio, the Lox & Loaded gun club has more than 1,000 members and aspires to establish a chapter in every US state. A spokesperson said that the objective was reasonable, given the immense interest in the organization. The name of the club is a Jewish play on the term “locked and loaded,” in which a firearm is loaded with ammunition and...

We live in a golden age that far surpasses all previous golden ages. Some call it the Industrial Revolution. Some say it is the digital revolution. This correspondent refers to it as the petroleum age.The cost of firearms and ammunition, in terms of labor, is near an all-time low. .22 Long Rifle cartridges can be had for under six cents a round, with free shipping, on the Internet. The all-time low, in constant dollars, would be about five cents per round, not including sales and seconds, from 1993 to 2006. Nominal prices are higher, but costs in labor are much...

A Delaware state trooper was killed Tuesday during a shooting at a Division of Motor Vehicles building and the shooter has also died, authorities said. The Delaware State Police said it responded to an active shooter situation at a DMV location in Wilmington. Authorities later said that one suspect was in custody and that there was no longer an active shooter incident.

Last month’s mass shooting at a child’s birthday party in Stockton that left four people dead, 13 injured and more than 150 guests at the targeted event likely severely traumatized, should have been a rallying moment for California’s political leaders. In addition to calling for more gun control, elected leaders could have doubled down on support for crime victims — specifically by improving access to emergency financial assistance and trauma recovery services, as well as violence intervention programs. Available data shows these investment strategies to be effective in lowering crime rates.

On November 14, 2025, the Arkansas Attorney General (AG), Tim Griffin, clarified Arkansas law about the legal carry of firearms. The three questions to be answered included: publicly owned buildings or facilities, the legal definition of an “athletic event” in Arkansas law, and what type of carry is prohibited in statutorily prohibited spaces. The questions were asked by the Honorable Sonia Eubanks Barker, a Republican state representative with a pro-Second Amendment reputation. AG opinions are not binding on judges. They are statements of what the Attorney General believes the law to be. They are often taken into account by prosecutors...

A Brown University custodian spotted depraved gunman Claudio Neves Valente pacing school hallways and peering into classrooms nearly a dozen times in the weeks before his mass shooting — and alerted campus security twice about the suspicious figure, a new report said. Derek Lisi, who has worked at the elite school for 15 years, told the Boston Globe he “knew something was off with” the mass shooter before the sicko opened fire in a lecture hall, killing two students, Dec. 13. While Lisi said he twice told the same security guard about a suspicious person lurking around the same building...

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been heckled and booed on his return to Bondi Beach for a vigil, the first time he has visited since a brief visit on Monday morning. A National Day of Reflection is being held today to honor the victims of the terrorist attack at Bondi Beach, on a night that should have been the final night of Hanukkah.

A quick way to keep a couple of guys occupied is to pose this question, “Batman versus the Terminator—Go.” The typical American male can entertain himself for hours with such banal stuff as this. I know I can. Unlike Superman, Captain America, or the Flash, Batman is just a dude. Sure, he has ninja training and more cool-guy gadgets than Delta Force, but at his heart, he’s really no different from the rest of us. What always befuddled me, however, is how anybody could philosophically oppose his violent nocturnal forays into the Gotham underworld. Certain events are watershed moments in...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) released a report in 2024 detailing updated data about traces involving Privately Made Firearms (PMF), sometimes referred to as “ghost guns” in the media. The data covers traces from 2017 through 2023. ATF also publishes overall trace data for firearms for the covered years. The total number of firearms traced in the seven years 2017-2023 was 288,0257. Of those, PMF traced are 92,702, or 3.2% of the total. The number of PMFs traced has been growing. In 2023, 5.4% of the total firearms traced were PMFs. Of the total homicides involving...

An emotional meeting took place at a Sydney hospital between Rabbi Mendel Kastel, the brother-in-law of Rabbi Eli Schlanger, who was murdered in a terrorist attack in the city, and Ahmed al-Ahmad, the Syrian Muslim citizen who courageously intervened and neutralized one of the terrorists during the attack. Al-Ahmad’s attorney, Sam Issa, also attended the meeting, which was reported by Kan News. Speaking to Ahmed at his hospital bedside, Rabbi Kastel expressed his gratitude. “Thank you-not only for saving lives, but for your courage,” he said. “The fact that you come from a non-Jewish background, from a Muslim background, makes...

Claudio Neves Valente, the suspect in the Brown and MIT shootings, had flashes of temper; former classmates describe him as confrontational and socially awkward Twenty-five years ago, two promising physicists graduated from a prestigious science university in Lisbon. On Monday, one gunned the other down at his home outside Boston after firing on a classroom of Brown University undergrads, authorities say. Claudio Neves Valente, the suspected shooter, once had a bright future. He graduated at the top of his college class, ahead of classmate Nuno Loureiro. But by the time Neves Valente confronted Loureiro at his Brookline, Mass., apartment building...

Left-wing Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was greeted with boos and abuse at Bondi Beach on Sunday when he attended a memorial vigil to remember those murdered in the terrorist attack that struck a Hanukkah celebration one week ago. Shouts of “shame!” rang out as the Labor leader made his way through the crowd with his security team and staff. Grim-faced Albanese and his wife were further jeered with one man yelling out “blood on your hands” joined by a second who cried, “you are not welcome.” Other hecklers could be heard yelling out, “you don’t represent Australia” as he...

Gun owners’ number one fighter in Washington, D.C., Representative Andrew Clyde, along with five senators and 35 other House members, have sent a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.In this letter, they’ve made it clear that the DOJ is out of line with Congress’ intent.Specifically, they cite the Justice Department’s recent defense of the National Firearms Act in the Gun Owners of America case that we’re affectionately calling the “One Big Beautiful Lawsuit.”The case itself, Silencer Shop Foundation v. ATF, centers around the recent removal of the $200 tax from items regulated by the National Firearms Act. Specifically, short-barreled rifles,...

The New Zealand government is working to reform its complex and draconian firearms law.In 2019, a far-left ideologue mass murdered dozens of Muslims in New Zealand. One of his goals was to promote draconian gun laws in New Zealand and in the United States. He succeeded in New Zealand. Many extreme restrictions on firearms and ownership were piled onto already restrictive laws.Far Left PM Jacinda Ardern was successful in pushing through the draconian law on a wave of media maximized emotion. As part of the pushback to these draconian exercises of power, the Hon. Nicole McKee was elected as a...

The suspected gunman behind both the deadly shooting spree at Brown University and the killing of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor was already dead for two days before authorities found his body inside a New Hampshire storage facility, officials said Friday. Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old Portuguese national and former Brown University graduate student, died Tuesday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, according to the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. Police discovered his body Thursday night inside a storage unit in Salem following a nearly weeklong manhunt. Authorities identified Valente as the suspect who opened fire...

Body-camera footage captures the terrifying moment a convicted felon attempts to execute a police officer inside a Walmart loss-prevention room A violent felon was caught on camera attempting to shoot a police officer in the head while inside a Walmart loss prevention room. The only reason the officer is alive today is because the criminal’s gun failed to fire and a brave Walmart employee jumped into action. The incident unfolded around 1:45 p.m. Thursday at a Walmart on Atlantic Boulevard NE in Canton, Ohio, FOX10 reported. An officer with the Canton Police Department responded to a shoplifting call and escorted...