Free Republic

On Thursday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government of Mexico may not continue its lawsuit seeking to hold firearms manufacturers and a firearms distributor civilly accountable for their role in causing cartel-driven gun violence in Mexico. Having taken the case at an unusually early stage in the litigation, and so working from an undeveloped factual record, all nine justices agreed that Mexico’s current complaint does not even satisfactorily allege that the defendants have aided and abetted U.S. dealers who illegally sell guns to traffickers who then get them to the cartels in Mexico. What’s worse, Justices Clarence Thomas...

(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, has introduced legislation he says will save lives and protect communities from gun violence while protecting Americans’ constitutional right to own a firearm. Gun rights groups said the legislative proposal is clearly unconstitutional. The GOSAFE Act would regulate the sale, transfer and manufacture of gas-operated semi-automatic firearms by establishing a list of prohibited firearms and prevent the unlawful modification of permissible firearms. Moreover, Kelly wants to mandate that future gas-operated designs are approved before they are manufactured. Unlawful firearm self-assembly and manufacturing would be prevented under his bill. Machinegun conversion devices...

Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Monday that she would rescind a Biden-era gun policy that yanked licenses from federally licensed firearm dealers if they intentionally falsified records or sold weapons without running a background check. The policy — known as the “zero-tolerance” policy — was viewed by conservatives as a punitive rule that stripped law-abiding gun sellers of their licenses for making simple mistakes on forms. But Biden administration officials said the rule was intended to crack down on “rogue gun dealers.” They said it specifies that officials would only revoke licenses if sellers committed willful violations of the federal...

(The Center Square) – A controversial gun control bill has cleared the Colorado General Assembly and now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. Senate Bill 25-003, when introduced, initially outright banned the sale or purchase of most semi-automatic rifles or shotguns that take detachable magazines and exempted firearms with “permanently fixed” magazines. The bill was later amended to allow purchases if an individual secures a “firearms safety course eligibility card” from their local sheriff department and then completes a qualifying firearm education course. SB 25-003 passed a concurrent vote of 19-15-1 in the upper chamber on...

First came the guns — the Mausers from Germany, the Carcanos from Italy — and then came the moral pretexts. These days, the American right is forever touting firearms as matters of principle or heralding them as hallmarks of a certain sort of rugged identity. But guns, before fetishists succeeded in converting them into symbols, were simply commodities, as unglamorous as washing machines. In his crisply written and incisive new book, “,” historian Andrew C. McKevitt chronicles the transformation of guns from tangible weapons to ideological ammunition. Sharp, fascinating, devastating, exhaustively researched and often wryly funny, this indispensable book —...

U.S. District Judge Peter Sheridan's 69-page opinion says he was compelled to rule as he did because of the Supreme Court's rulings in firearms cases, particularly the 2022 Bruen decision that expanded gun rights. Sheridan's ruling left both 2nd Amendment advocates and the state attorney general planning appeals. The judge temporarily delayed the order for 30 days. Pointing to the high court's precedents, Sheridan suggested Congress and the president could do more to curb gun-related violence nationwide. “It is hard to accept the Supreme Court’s pronouncements that certain firearms policy choices are ‘off the table’ when frequently, radical individuals possess...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) is reportedly preparing a new rule to regulate private gun sales, requiring background checks via the FBI. Empower Oversight, representing IRS agents in the Hunter Biden case, has raised concerns about the move, calling it an “unconstitutional” power grab. The group argues that only Congress has the authority to enact such changes due to a 1986 law prohibiting background checks for private firearm sales. “Such an expansive rule that treats all private citizens the same as federal firearms licensees would circumvent the separation of powers in the Constitution, which grants ‘all...

leven years ago, Democratic state lawmakers faced protests and recalls over their passage of a high-capacity magazine ban and universal background checks for gun buyers in the wake of the Aurora and Sandy Hook mass shootings. The legislation cost two senators their seats, including the Senate president, and a third resigned. The backlash left a scar on Democratic leaders, even as the recalled lawmakers said they had no regrets. For several years, legislators introduced few gun reform bills, and none passed. But that timidity is now long gone — a turnaround attributable to increasing Democratic electoral dominance in Colorado and...

--24 years son FR as of yesterday--

On November 7, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argument in U.S. v. Rahimi to determine whether laws that prohibit possession of firearms by persons subject to restraining orders are constitutionally permissible. The ruling could lead courts to invalidate “red flag” laws in more than 20 states across the country. While we will not know the outcome until 2024, this court has already made it abundantly clear over the last 15 years that it will take every opportunity to curtail common-sense gun regulations, even as gun deaths skyrocket in the wake of their rulings. Gun reform advocates have been fighting...

A federal judge in Texas declared the Biden administration's attempt at banning pistol braces is likely unlawful last week. The lawsuit, brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) on behalf of members of the National Association for Gun Rights Inc. and Texas Gun Rights, Inc., argued the rule put forth by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), that would require 40 million U.S. gun owners to place their name on a gun registry and pay a tax, is unconstitutional. If gun owners didn't register and pay the tax, they could face up to 10...

Senate Bill 2, authored by Senator Anthony J. Portantino (D – Burbank), was signed by Governor Newsom. The law implements significant improvements to strengthen California’s concealed gun permit law, commonly called CCWs. SB 2 is sponsored by Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta. Both worked collaboratively with the Senator to craft California’s response to the recent Supreme Court ruling that made it easier for citizens to acquire CCW permits. “I am grateful for Governor Newsom’s bold leadership on gun safety and thank him for signing SB 2,” stated Senator Portantino. “I was proud to partner with the Governor, Attorney General...

In December 2005, five groups of Wall Street investors flew in private jets to Portland, Maine, where they took waiting limousines to a warren of metal buildings that resembled a midsize lumberyard. They had come to Bushmaster Firearms in pursuit of a highly profitable product whose market was growing faster than any other in America’s stagnant gun industry. The product was the AR-15, and red-hot Bushmaster, the nation’s leading manufacturer of the rifle, had decided to auction itself to the highest bidder. Bushmaster’s owner Dick Dyke had once feared that he could never sell the company because so many people...

Standing in the shadow of a gigantic net from the Topgolf facility next door, the nondescript XCAL building in Ashburn, Virginia, resembles any of the number of corporate offices in the area. Inside, however, there are several shooting ranges, including a tactical range, a fitness center, a martial arts dojo, and a restaurant serving bar-and-grill fare such as burgers, wings, and tacos. I was there a few weeks ago for Range Day. The annual event is the brainchild of Shermichael Singleton and John Keys, the co-founders and owners of Guns Out TV, a brand described as a “media company that...

Senators John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), Rick Scott (R., Fla.), Steve Daines (R., Mont.), Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.), Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R., Miss.) joined Kansas’s Marshall in urging the “immediate withdrawal” of the DOJ’s rule, which would amend current Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) regulations. “This latest action by the Biden administration is yet another step in their campaign to attack law-abiding gun owners,” the group of U.S. senators wrote to U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland, who signed ATF’s notice of the proposed rule on August 30. Marshall and his colleagues further warn the...

No weapon has been more in the public eye in America of late than the AR-15, in large part because of its tragic role in some of this country’s deadliest shootings. The AR-15 has the dubious distinction of being America’s most popular semi-automatic rifle. I’m more familiar with the gun than most people: I own one. And one thing I know for sure is that this weapon doesn’t belong in the hands of the average civilian.

This undated photo provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, shows the FRT-15 made by Rare Breed Triggers, an after-market device for AR-15-style rifles that allows them to shoot seemingly as fast as fully automatic weapons. A lawsuit, being heard in federal court, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, includes numerous civil fraud counts against Rare Breed, alleging the company defrauded customers by telling them the triggers are legal and conspired to defraud the government by failing to get ATF approval before selling the devices, among other accusations. (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives via...

It wasn't until 2008 that the Supreme Court for the first time struck down a gun control law, ruling the 2nd Amendment protected the "right of law-abiding, responsible citizens" to keep a handgun at home for self-defense. Last year, the court went a step further and said an "ordinary law-abiding citizen" also has a right to a state permit to carry a concealed weapon in public for self-defense. Now the justices face a new frontier: Do gun rights extend to dangerous people and dangerous weapons? In just the last year, accused criminals and felons including drug dealers and domestic abusers...

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed constitutional amendment on gun safety has two great things going for it. The first is that it aims to protect four popular and modest commonsense restrictions: a ban on assault weapons, mandated background checks on gun buyers, a waiting period before buyers can take possession, and a minimum purchasing age of 21. All four requirements are already law in California, where they contribute to a gun death rate that’s about 37% lower than the national average. All four are currently in peril as the U.S. Supreme Court continues to strike down reasonable gun laws. Under Newsom’s...

A couple of years ago, an "80 percent" receiver I purchased refused to accept parts, let alone chamber and fire cartridges, until my son and I drilled and milled it to completion; that's because unfinished firearms are not firearms. For a long time, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agreed. But, pressured by the Biden administration, the ATF tried to extend firearms regulations to a lot of things that aren't guns but could, with work, become one. Now a federal judge is injecting some sense, ruling in a lawsuit that bureaucrats can't just decide that inert objects...