Free Republic

On August 8, 2023, Associate Justice John F. Coffee, in the Lowell District Court of Massachusetts, wrote an opinion that found the charge of carrying a firearm without a license is unconstitutional on its face when applied to non-residents. The opinion was based on the Supreme Court decision of Bruen. The case involves a New Hampshire resident, Dean Donnell, who was charged with carrying a firearm without a license in Massachusetts. Donnell could legally carry a firearm in his home state. The court held the right to carry outside the home was at issue, and the conduct in this case...

Bump stocks are not machine guns. Not only are they not machine guns in the legal definition, but they are significantly different from machine guns in other ways as well.In the recent Supreme Court decision on Garland v Cargill, Justice Clarance Thomas wrote:A semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a “machinegun” as defined by §5845(b) because: (1) it cannot fire more than one shot “by a single function of the trigger” and (2) even if it could, it would not do so “automatically.” Far left VOX claimed Thomas was lying. From Vox.com:The six Republican justices handed down...

The National Instant Background Check System (NICS) numbers are in for May 2024. NICS shows May of 2024 to be the sixth highest number of NICS checks for May in the 25 years recorded. Gun sales are no longer reliably tied to the NICS checks because the checks are used for many other purposes than gun sales. The FBI system shows checks done for various categories of gun sales individually. This allows an estimate of gun sales to be calculated separately from the overall NICS checks.The number of gun sales is an estimate because one NICS check can be used...

On June 7, 2021, Florida Governor DeSantis received HB0087 along with 24 other bills. Because the bill was sent after the Florida legislature had adjourned for the session, Governor DeSantis has 15 days to sign the bill, allow the bill to become law, or veto the bill.The Florida legislature overwhelmingly voted for HB0087 on March 8, 2024. The bill is titled Taking of Bears. It restores the ability of people in Florida to protect themselves, their pets, and their dwellings from black bears without having to ask permission from the Florida state bureaucracy first. The legal ability to defend pets...

On November 8, 2023, the Sierra County Sheriff’s deputies performed a welfare check on 71-year-old Patrice Miller at her home in Downieville, California. At the house rented by Miller, they found a gruesome scene. The door had been broken in, and there was bear scat on the porch. What was left of Miller’s body was inside. The bear had been feeding on it for several days. California has a rapidly growing bear population and rapidly increasing numbers of bear-human conflicts.Downieville is a small village at the confluence of the Yuba and North Downie rivers, 54 miles west of Reno, Nevada....

There have been at least two cases where local judges in Massachusetts have held the license to carry law, which was passed in defiance of the Supreme Court Bruen decision and is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. On May 14, 2024, Judge Kevin J. Finnerty granted a petition against the denial of a Firearm Identification Card (FID). Without an FID, the License to Carry is suspended.On May 20, 2024, Judge William P. Hadley ordered Police Chief David Pratt to issue Randy Westbrook a License to Carry (LTC).The two cases are discussed in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly:Smith noted that Fall River District...

Recent research shows a significant correlation between the possession of guns and a man’s satisfaction with his sexual equipment.A common fantasy thrown at male gun owners is they are using guns as “compensation” for an undersized penis or sexual disfunction. This speculation has long been a staple of those seeking to discredit the ownership of firearms. This earlier paper gives an overview of the psychosexual insult and its use.In 2016, an editorial in HuffPost argued that “the compulsion to own firearms stems from an unconscious need to compensate for a deep-seated psychological sense of insecurity and inadequacy in terms of...

On June 8, 2023, a year ago, Gavin Newsom, Governor of California and continuous supporter of ever-more laws restricting gun ownership and use, proposed an Article V convention of the states to amend the United States Constitution. The new amendment would allow for more restrictions on who may own firearms and what type they are allowed to own. Since the convention and amendment were proposed, no other state has passed a resolution to support Governor Newsom’s effort.The initial proposition did not propose language for the Article V convention. It listed several possible restrictions without statutory language. Resolution 7 was passed...

On June 6, 2024, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty filed a lawsuit against Steven Little in his official capacity as Acting Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), demanding the Court temporarily and permanently enjoin enforcement of Wis. Admin. Code § NR 20.05(2). Wis. Admin. Code § NR 20.05(2): “No person may…[p]ossess or control any firearm, gun or similar device at any time while on the waters, banks or shores that might be used for the purpose of fishing.”The DNR regulation bans possession of firearms in a wide variety of locations and activities. It directly violates...

On June 3rd, 2024, an anti-gun organization known as Humanium Metal was destroying firearms at a Maine police department at Old Orchard Beach. The firearms had been collected as part of a push by the disarmament group the Maine Gun Safety Coalition. In the process of destruction, one of the firearms discharged. Fortunately, only two cars were hit by the projectile. It does not appear any person was injured. From themainwire.com: One of Maine’s primary gun control advocate groups, the Maine Gun Safety Coalition, oversaw a gun-giveback program on Saturday at local police departments throughout southern Maine. Despite the focus...

Montana’s office of governor, lieutenant governor, and the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Senator Jon Tester are up for election in 2024. Montana is considered a Republican stronghold. The Republican primary for governor totaled 78,667 votes. The Democrat primary for governor totaled 54,402 votes. Democratic Party Senator Tester has become an anomaly among statewide elected positions in Montana.Republican Governor Greg Gianforte is popular. He is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment in his words and actions and is almost certainly going to win.Ryan Busse, the Democratic candidate for governor, was an executive at Kimber. He wrote a book...

On May 3, 2024, Deputy Eddie Duran shot and killed Senior Airman Roger Fortson when Fortson answered the deputy’s demand for entry on a domestic violence call. The initial review of the body cam video was discussed on AmmoLand. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) has completed its administrative internal affairs investigation into the shooting. The findings of the investigation were released on May 30, 2024. On May 31, the Sheriff’s office announced Deputy Eddie Duran had violated the Sheriff’s Office policy and had been terminated (fired) from his position. From the Okaloosa Sheriff’s Facebook page:SHALIMAR, Fla. (May 31, 2024)...

The Second Amendment case of Morin v Lyver, granted certiorari, vacated, and remanded back to the First Circuit, has been decided in favor of the plaintiff, Alfred Morin.In June of 2022, the Supreme Court published a clarification of how the Second Amendment should be treated by the Courts in the Bruen decision. Bruen gave clear guidance on how Heller should be applied. This was necessary because the Circuit courts had created a complicated two-step process that was used to sidestep the Heller decision. In Bruen, the court said the two-step process was one too many. The Court laid out a...

Brandon Maddox and Silencer Central is an American success story. Brandon went from a Federal Firearms License (FFL) in his home to the largest silencer dealer in the USA. Today, Brandon’s companies dominate the silencer/suppressor market, regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA). This correspondent met Brandon Maddox at the 2024 SHOT Show. Brandon had read several AmmoLand articles, recognized this writer, and started a conversation. Brandon graciously agreed to be interviewed. This is the second in a series of articles resulting from several interviews. Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity.Silencers are currently regulated under the National Firearms Act...

On January 12, 2024, Judge Kathryn Kimball ruled the federal ban on possession of firearms in post offices is unconstitutional because it violates the Second Amendment. The United States indicted Emmanuel Ayala, a postal worker, for possessing a firearm in a Federal facility in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 930(a). Ayala argues that statute is unconstitutional as applied to him because the historical record does not support a law banning firearms in post offices. See N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022). Relying on dicta from earlier cases, the United States responds that the Second...

On May 11, 2018, over six years ago, the National Rifle Association (NRA) filed a lawsuit in federal court alleging the Government of New York violated the organization’s First Amendment rights by coercing third parties, particularly insurance companies and banks, to cease to do business with the NRA. The government officials explicitly stated their dislike of the advocacy of the NRA to promote gun ownership and the Second Amendment. The opinion was issued on May 30, 2024. The ruling was expected, as explained in a previous AmmoLand article. The case was relatively clear. Government officials Andrew Cuomo (Governor) and Maria...

On Monday, May 27, a cinnamon color phase of the common black bear entered the home of a long-time resident of Lake Tahoe, California. The bear has been reported to be a yearling. Yearling bears, recently separated from their mothers, have a difficult time establishing a territory of their own. Sometimes, sows, cubs, and young bears will keep close to human habitations to avoid being killed and eaten by adult male bears. A majority of young bears who do not reach adulthood are killed by mature male bears. It appears this young bear disputed the ownership of the house with...

FARRELL — A “good guy with a gun” reportedly came to the aid of a Farrell police officer during a shootout early Friday morning. “He had a valid concealed-carry permit, he had a gun,” Mercer County District Attorney Peter C. Acker said. “He went to where the police officer was and fired on the suspect.” State police and county district attorney’s office detectives are continuing to investigate the incident, which took place about 12:30 a.m. Friday outside a convenience store along Indiana Avenue in Farrell. Acker said the suspect, identified only as a 49-year-old white man, was undergoing treatment Friday...

In the October 2023 term, the Supreme Court heard three significant cases involving the Second Amendment. Only one of these cases, Rahimi, was directly about the Second Amendment.Supreme Court terms begin with the first week in October. Court sessions usually end by the last week of June, occasionally extending into the first week of July. Cases decided by the court are published during the term before the Court recesses near the end of June. During the recess from the end of June to October, the court is busy studying cases that have been argued and working on their opinions.We should...

Over a year ago, I started tracking down a story about a bear killed in self-defense in Wisconsin in a chicken coop with a .22 Magnum revolver. With considerable effort, the source of the story was contacted.Around about 1964 or 65′, a boy accompanied his father on the Menomonee Reservation in east-central Wisconsin. A well-known logger was visited. Upon entering the log house, made of logs cut and fitted by the logger, with a fine living room paneled in knotty pine, the boy noticed a bear-skin rug with a Ruger Single Six revolver prominently displayed above the mantle of a...