Free Republic

Critics say the administration is weakening public safety. Proponents say regulations would be where they were before President Joseph R. Biden took office. The Trump administration is scrapping more than three dozen firearms regulations, abandoning a crackdown on illegal sales, restoring gun rights to some people with mental illness and loosening oversight of private weapons transactions. The drastic retrenchment at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the federal agency responsible for enforcing the nation’s gun laws, was not entirely unexpected: President Trump campaigned as a champion of gun rights. In the view of critics and even some A.T.F....

Memphis police say National Guard troops fired their weapons in the early morning hours Sunday, killing a man who was armed with a handgun. Police say officers were responding to calls of shots fired in downtown Memphis just before 4 am local time when they saw "an armed male carrying a handgun." The man — identified by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson — fled on foot, pursued by Memphis police officers along with Tennessee National Guard soldiers who are assigned to the area. What happened next was not immediately clear. "For reasons under investigation, the situation...

The Supreme Court’s Heller decision in 2008 established that the Second Amendment is a fundamental, unalienable—God-given--right that does indeed acknowledge, but not grant, the right to keep and bear arms for lawful purposes such as self-defense. Unfortunately, the wheels of justice grind slowly, and it was not until 2022 that the Court handed down its Bruen decision, which affirmed that the right to bear arms extends to wherever Americans might be. What good is a right that can only be exercised in one’s home or on one’s property? Where is self-defense more likely, in one’s kitchen or out there in...

As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, gun owners should take a moment to remember how unlikely today’s victories once seemed. In 1976, when the nation marked its bicentennial, many Second Amendment supporters believed the right to keep and bear arms was slowly being written out of American life. The law schools were hostile. The courts were hostile. The media was hostile. Most politicians treated the Second Amendment as a historical inconvenience. The future looked grim.We chose to keep fighting. Giving up was not an option. The Constitution was clear, and we intended to fight to keep the Republic,...

Imagine a woman driving across state lines alone at night, fearful that her car might break down and leave her vulnerable. Or picture a truck driver hauling valuable cargo across the country. In states such as California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Oregon – five of the ten states that refuse to recognize concealed handgun permits from other states – these travelers can find themselves defenseless. Nine states also either deny non-residents permits altogether or make them extremely difficult to obtain. Last week, President Trump again called for passage of national concealed carry reciprocity. The legislation would allow anyone...

Most stories one reads about the legendary sci-fi author Harlan Ellison tend to be about how cranky and/or litigious he was. Harlan Ellison hated Hollywood. The stories about his dissatisfaction with "Star Trek" are legendary, and he often took other writers and/or studios to court, claiming they had ripped off his idea. He once sued the makers of the obscure 1970s sci-fi cop show "Future Cop," and he famously (and successfully) sued James Cameron over "The Terminator." He sued the movie "In Time" for "borrowing" one of his ideas. And in interviews, Ellison remained cantankerous. A notable 1979 interview with...

Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's efforts to enact a sweeping gun-control agenda have been placed on hold by courts in June, while the state Legislature pushed back the effective date of another law. Since Thursday, judges in Lancaster County and Washington County issued preliminary injunctions preventing enforcement of a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms, while Spanberger had to request that the state Legislature delay the effective date of a ban on carrying such firearms. The National Rifle Association trumpeted their legal success in a Monday evening post on X. "The NRA's world-class legal team delivered a clear, powerful argument demonstrating...

Las Vegas cops busted a transgender gunman who allegedly planned a casino massacre using a huge cache of weapons. Allison Howlett, 36, who was born a man but lives as a woman, was arrested Saturday on charges of making terroristic threats, assault with a deadly weapon, auto theft, gun theft and other offenses. The wild story unfolded shortly after 9:30 a.m. Saturday when Howlett’s former spouse, who is female, called police to report Howlett had stolen her car and the vehicle held numerous firearms, Henderson Police Chief Reggie Rader said. The former spouse said Howlett intended to commit “suicide by...

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit Wednesday taking aim at California’s ban on Glock pistols the day it was slated to take effect.Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB1127 into law in October 2025, making California the first state to ban the popular pistol. The lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California,

Tennessee’s attempt to revive two gun-control statutes moved to the Court of Appeals on June 23, 2026, as judges heard argument in Stephen L. Hughes, et al. v. Bill Lee, et al., a major right-to-carry case challenging the state’s “Going Armed” law and its ban on carrying firearms in many public recreational areas.The case stems from a ruling by a special three-judge Chancery Court panel that declared Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1307(a)(1), the state’s “Going Armed” statute, and Tenn. Code Ann. § 39-17-1311(a), the Parks Statute, unconstitutional, void, and of no effect.At issue is whether Tennessee can continue treating ordinary...

The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will consider whether there is a Second Amendment right to possess AR-15s and similar rifles, setting up the court’s latest potential expansion of gun rights. The issue will be argued in the next term, which starts in October, with a decision expected by July 2027. The court has expanded gun rights in recent years and just backed those rights in multiple rulings this term. * * * With Tuesday’s decision to review the matter in two consolidated cases from Illinois and Connecticut, Kavanaugh’s statement is coming to fruition. It takes four justices to...

Victor Davis Hanson’s defense of the Second Amendment is not merely academic. In a Dec. 6, 2025 episode of Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words, the historian and Hoover Institution senior fellow recalled a late-night confrontation at his family farm that he says permanently shaped his view of armed self-defense. The episode was published under the title “Why Alvin Bragg Refuses To Recognize the Awesome Power of the Second Amendment.” Hanson is best known as a classicist, military historian, and conservative public intellectual. The Hoover Institution has described him as the author or editor of 24 books and hundreds...

You’ve probably seen it by now. A chart, passed around on social media with the kind of grim satisfaction that only statistics can produce: more Europeans die each year from summer heat than Americans die from gun violence. The implication cuts both ways—Europe’s lack of air conditioning is deadlier than America’s lack of gun control—and it has been lighting up feeds across the political spectrum ever since. Turns out, it’s mostly true. And this summer is making it impossible to ignore.This semi-true graph is picking up steam online.Hannah Ritchie’s By the Numbers SubstackEurope is currently in the grip of its...

A South Carolina condominium association has told residents they may no longer carry firearms through many of the shared spaces surrounding their own homes, including parking lots, sidewalks, and the community mail kiosk.The sweeping restriction at Forest Pines Condominiums in Horry County is drawing objections from residents and raising serious questions about how far a homeowners association may go in regulating the lawful carry of firearms.According to an email obtained by WMBF News, firearms, “whether openly carried or concealed,” are prohibited in Forest Pines common areas, including:The pool and pool deckThe clubhouse and restroomsThe mail kioskParking areasSidewalks and landscaped groundsAll...

The attorney who helped persuade the Supreme Court to strike down Hawaii’s private-property concealed-carry restriction on Thursday criticized the state’s reliance on a Reconstruction-era Black Code to defend the law. In a 6-3 decision in Wolford v. Lopez, the Court held that Hawaii cannot require licensed gun owners to obtain express permission before carrying firearms onto private property open to the public. Gun-rights challengers dubbed the policy the "vampire rule" because lawful gun owners had to be "invited in" before entering businesses while armed. "It is disgraceful that any state would rely on a law specifically aimed at taking away...

n July 1, 2026, a new anti-liberty/gun law goes into effect in California. Its primary feature is a ban on all new Glock handguns and a variety of other similar, striker-fired handguns. Why would California ban the most popular handgun in America? Because of “Glock Switches.” Graphic: Glock switch. ATF. Public Domain.These are small, aftermarket accessories, apparently mostly made in China and illegally smuggled into the country. The Chinese don't have America's best interests at heart, but neither does California. They replace the small panel at the rear of some Glock slides—they don’t fit every Glock model—that allows fully automatic...

A Virginia judge has issued a statewide preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the Commonwealth’s new ban on so-called “assault firearms” until December 31, 2026, handing Virginia gun owners a major victory just days before the law was scheduled to take effect.The ruling came Thursday in Crump v. Katz, the state-court challenge to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s sweeping gun-control package. The judge read the preliminary injunction from the bench and made clear that the assault-firearms ban is now enjoined statewide while the case proceeds.The Commonwealth tried to limit the injunction to Lancaster County. The judge refused.The state then asked the judge to...

The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Hawaii gun restriction that limits when people can carry firearms on certain private properties open to the public, saying it infringes on the right to bear arms. On a 6-3 vote, the court invalidated the measure that requires people with concealed carry permits to seek permission from a property owner before entering. It has been dubbed the "vampire rule" because, as in the classic novel "Dracula" and related tales, vampires can only enter someone's home if they are invited in. The court, often supportive of gun rights, concluded that the provision violates...

Grok 4.1 has informed me the June 1962 Guns & Ammo magazine had a letter or short article in it about a boy/young man or boy scout who encountered a black bear on a mountain trail and shot it with a .22 handgun, killing the bear. I do not know if it is true. However, Freepers have vast stores of knowledge. A freeper may even have a copy of the June 1962 Guns & Ammo magazine, or know where one may be accessed. Any help in tracking down this lead would be appreciated.

A new ban on Glock handguns takes effect in California, starting July 1. The law will, once again, remind Americans why California has become the ultimate legislative laboratory for aggressive gun control. Firearms dealers across the state will no longer be permitted to sell new Glock handguns or similar models that state lawmakers have aggressively reclassified as a form of machine gun. The justification behind this radical pivot is that these pistols can supposedly be modified easily with illegal, aftermarket conversion devices that fundamentally alter their rate of fire. But rather than focusing energy and resources on the criminals who...