Free Republic

CDC Undercounts Defensive Gun Uses COMMENTARY By John R. Lott Jr.September 11, 2026 CDC Undercounts Defensive Gun UsesAP Whoever controls crime data can shape the political debate. The Trump administration has already reversed some of the changes the Biden administration made to federal crime and gun data, including information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But politicization of data at the FBI and Justice Department still deserves attention. Gun-control activists have long tried to “debunk” what they call the “good guy with a gun myth” as they push for stricter gun-control laws. The federal government and much...

A surprising number has been revealed from comparing the ratios of firearms found in over a hundred years of federal government data on firearms production, export, and import to the firearms reported to be owned by gun owners in the William English’s survey done in mid 2026. Ratios validate the Survey’s methods and numbers of firearms findings.The survey paper, released in August of 2026 is the best designed and executed survey to date in an attempt to determine the extent of firearms ownership in the United States. The 2026 Survey has been designed to overcome minor defects in the original...

WILMINGTON, DE (September 10, 2026) — Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today a major Second Amendment victory in its Rigby v. Jennings lawsuit, with the United States District Court for the District of Delaware holding that the State’s bans on possessing and self-manufacturing so-called “ghost guns” are unconstitutional. The decision comes nearly four years after FPC first secured a preliminary injunction against Delaware’s possession and home-manufacturing bans. In its new merits decision, the Court granted FPC’s motion for summary judgment in part and rejected Delaware’s effort to defend its prohibitions under the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment framework. “Delaware tried to...

Gun owners do not carry firearms only because violent criminals exist. Bears, mountain lions, feral dogs, rabid animals and other four-legged threats do not care about gun-control politics—and they do not wait for police or animal-control officers to arrive.A newly published national firearms survey from Georgetown University professor William English estimates that Americans use firearms defensively against animal threats roughly 180,000 times every year.English’s new 2026 National Firearms Survey is a detailed, 75-page follow-up to his widely cited 2021 work. The survey began with 51,398 American adults and identified 16,688 respondents as gun owners through a two-stage validation process.The paper...

The Air Force said last week that its M18 service pistol is "safe, reliable, and functional" following a review of tens of thousands of the firearms. The findings came as part of the final review in a large-scale inspection of the gun ordered last year after an airman was killed by a bullet fired from a M18. Last July, Airman Brayden Lovan, 21, with the 90th Security Forces Group was shot and killed at F.E. Warren Air Base. The shooting was initially reported as an accidental discharge. Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the United States' intercontinental ballistic missile...

The Supreme Court could decide multiple Second Amendment cases as appeals accelerated since it decided two cases about gun rights in June. The Supreme Court agreed to hear Viramontes v. Cook County on June 30, and announced Friday the hearing would occur on Dec.2, taking up a Second Amendment challenge to a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms passed by the Illinois locality days after issuing rulings on two Second Amendment cases. The high court, though, received four petitions asking it to hear cases since the end of July, while it has considered taking up one case for a record number...

Why did British police patrol the streets unarmed while officers in New York considered carrying a gun essential to doing their job? In this 1966 report, ITN’s Peter Woods explores the stark differences between British and American policing. NYPD officers react with disbelief to Britain’s largely unarmed police force, with one lieutenant describing the idea as “sort of ridiculous” and predicting chaos if New York officers were expected to work without guns. The report also follows firearms training at the New York Police Academy and shows unarmed British police searching for Harry Roberts, wanted in connection with the murder of...

In 1994, the Clinton Administration conducted a gun control study, particularly addressing the number of defensive gun uses every year. They were certain they’d debunk the numbers—up to 2.5 million—which would produce more restrictive laws. Despite using biased methodology, they found, to their horror, 1.5 million. They tried to bury the results, but they leaked. They learned an important lesson: be careful what you ask for; you might not get it. In The CDC honestly reports; gun grabbers would prefer they didn’t, I reported on another updated effort gun grabbers hoped would damage that 2.5 million reality. It didn’t: In...

On Sunday, May 3, 2026, at about 9:30 pm, Anthony Polio was attacked by a mature grizzly bear on the Mt. Brown Lookout trail in Glacier National Park. Polio had time to draw and empty his 7.9-ounce Bear Guard bear spray before he was killed by the bear. The official report on the incident has been released by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) Board of Review. The Board of Review consisted of 10 people: 4 from federal agencies, 1 from Wyoming Game and Fish, and 5 from Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. From the official report, p. 10:Claw marks...

Considering our contemporary political turmoil and the threat posed by internal Communists, Americans may need every gun they can get. In its next term, the Supreme Court will take up “assault weapon” bans. Such bans refer specifically to the AR-15 rifle family and similar semiautomatic rifles. Not only are they emotional rather than rational, but they’re also an attempt to circumvent the Supreme Court’s Heller and Bruen decisions, which held, among other things, that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right and that controversies must be decided under the Strict Scrutiny standard, the highest standard of judicial review. A...

President Donald Trump has granted a presidential pardon to Patrick “Tate” Adamiak, an active-duty Navy sailor whose federal conviction over inert weapons parts drew significant scrutiny from gun-rights advocates. The announcement was made Friday by the Second Amendment Foundation, a firearms advocacy organization that closely covered the legal proceedings. Federal agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrested Adamiak four years ago following a search of his home. Prosecutors charged him with the unlawful possession of destructive devices in connection with two inert rocket-propelled grenade launchers that had internal components removed and holes drilled into their receivers....

MIAMI — The Florida woman who shot and killed a drugged-up Army vet in a spat over a parking spot at a Walmart will not face charges after he threatened to ‘f— her s— up’, prosecutors revealed Thursday. Bart Diguglielmo, a 62-year-old retired staff sergeant, was fatally shot in front of the supercenter in North Lauderdale just before 12:30 p.m. on June 30. The shooter, identified as Melissa Payne, is immune from prosecution because she acted in self-defense due to the state’s “stand your ground” law, the Broward County state attorney’s office announced. One witness said she had heard Diguglielmo...

A petition asking the Supreme Court to hear a Second Amendment case from a trucker argued that Minnesota’s refusal to honor out-of-state concealed carry permits violated the constitutional provision protecting the right to keep and bear arms.Liberty Justice Center first filed the lawsuit in January 2025 against Minnesota Department of Public Safety Commissioner Bob Jacobson over the state’s refusal to recognize the out-of-state permits of two truck drivers, David A. McCoy II and Jeffrey A. Johnson Sr. In the petition filed Aug. 24, the group claimed Minnesota’s approach was turning the Second Amendment into a “second-class right.”The Second Amendment is...

n August 9 in Short-barreled rifles are finally legal—sort of—maybe… I wrote about a recent decision by a Texas federal judge striking down portions of the 1934 National Firearms Act. That act was written under congressional taxing powers, but when President Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill eliminated that tax for NFA items, the lawful basis for requiring registration of short-barreled rifles, short-barreled shotguns, and suppressors vanished. In effect, the constitutional basis of the NFA disappeared. Graphic: X PostThe catch is the judge’s injunction, which hasn’t yet been appealed by the DOJ but might be, applies only to the parties to the...

A shootout inside Washington Park left one man dead and nine other people injured Saturday night, according to Chicago police, marking the city’s second-worst shooting of the year. Chicago police officers were already in the area monitoring a planned gathering in the park near the 5400 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue when multiple gunmen began shooting around 11:37 p.m., police said. Officers immediately reported “nonstop” gunfire over their radios as people ran for cover. “They’re still shooting,” one officer said as the gunfire continued. Officers quickly called for ambulances and began providing advanced first aid to the injured. Police...

Democrat gubernatorial candidate David Jolly is sharing the top of the ticket race with Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) Senate candidate Angie Nixon in Florida, and despite acting as a moderate Democrat, Jolly shares many of the same positions as DSA. Jolly – a Republican turned Democrat – has attempted to position himself as a moderate Democrat, but that is anything but the case. He has openly said he wishes to apologize to the world for Florida’s “culture wars” and sided with disgraced former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) head Anthony Fauci during the pandemic, fleeing Florida...

The National Rifle Association's Gun Bus prepares to depart NRA headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia, for a 13-state tour ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Photo: Courtesy of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action / Used with Permission(The Center Square) – The National Rifle Association launched its first national bus tour Thursday as the group tries to get gun owners to vote in the 2026 midterm elections.The NRA Institute for Legislative Action plans to make 63 stops in 13 states before the tour ends on Election Day, Nov. 3.The group calls it the 2026 NRA’s Gun Bus Battleground Tour.The...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) restored information regarding studies of the use of firearms for self-defense on its website, reversing a move made during the Biden administration. CDC took down information about the studies during the Biden administration after a lobbying campaign by anti-Second Amendment groups backed by Democratic Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, according to emails obtained by The Reload. The restoration of the studies to the CDC site prompted criticism from anti-Second Amendment advocates. “It is the politically motivated laundering of disinformation that has become a hallmark of the Trump administration’s approach to all scientific inquiry,...

On Saturday, August 15, 2026, at about 1:30 a.m. on the Virginia State University campus, a shooting broke out. Five people were wounded, one of them a 20-year-old student at the university. Camron Rarris, 19, was found hours later and was charged with four counts of malicious wounding. The Virginia State student was treated and released with non-life-threatening injuries. A 21-year-old man remains in critical condition, according to foxnews.com. Police are seeking others to determine if some people fired back in defense of self and others. A 23-year-old man, a 17-year-old teenager, and a 19-year-old woman had non-life-threatening injuries. The...

A burglar will not become a multi-millionaire after a Portland, Oregon, jury ruled Tuesday in favor of the business owner the burglar sued for shooting him three times. Kenneth Voyles claimed that he was trying to find food and possibly some items to steal when he broke into Touchstone Granite & Marble in March 2023, only to be confronted by the business owner, James Grant, who was living in the back room, the Portland Oregonian reported. After the initial confrontation in which he threw a cup of urine into the intruder’s face, Grant retrieved a firearm and shot Voyles three...