Free Republic

Condolences to David Codrea and his family on the passing of his father this morning. David's father had been ill for some time. Nonetheless, nothing really prepares one for the loss of a parent. Also keep Mike Vanderboegh in your prayers as well. He went in the hospital on Monday for what was scheduled to be an out-patient procedure to place a stent in his esophagus. The out-patient procedure turned into an overnight stay and I'm still not sure if he has returned home yet. It is a cruel twist of fate that the two citizen journalists who broke the...

Second Amendment activist, GUNS Magazine columnist and National Examiner writer David Codrea will be on the Armed America radio network tonight. The show runs from 8 to 11 p.m. EST. Click here to find your local station or streaming link. It promises to be hot, discussing the Obama administrations cover-up of Operation Fast And Furious, AKA "Murdergate," and other RKBA cases in the news. Here is the Armed America Radio link.

A joint release by David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh Dear Rep. Issa and Sen. Grassley, Congratulations on the exceptional leadership you both have shown in advancing congressional investigations on the Fast and Furious “gunwalking” criminal enterprise. The two of you have taken things a long way since we first felt compelled to write an open letter requesting attention and action nearly a year ago. We once more feel a need to correspond openly because we realize our voices are small compared to the many larger ones demanding your attention, and because it is in the public’s interest to be aware...

“Montana blogger is not journalist,” Jeff Barnard of the Associated Press reported Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernández ruled that “investigative blogger” Crystal L. Cox “was not a journalist and cannot claim the protections afforded to mainstream reporters and news outlets.” Per Alex Dobuzinskis of Reuters: Hernandez found Cox failed to present evidence that she had any media credentials or affiliation with a “recognized news entity,” or that she had checked her facts or tried to contact the other side to “get both sides of the story.” “Montana blogger is not journalist,” Jeff Barnard of the Associated Press reported...

David Codrea, is the author of The War on Guns, National Gun Rights Examiner, Host of NBC 1260 Drive time radio show The War on guns and writes the “Right Watch” column on Guns Magazine. He is also a long time gun advocate, kindly agreed to answer some question about the state of gun rights, Bringing to light the truth about the Gunwalker scandal, in which he was instrumental, and various other issues that should interest all gun owners. Here goes: GVB: Being a site of avid gun collectors, I am sure we would all like to know what your...

Last Tuesday I was on David Codrea's "War On Guns" radio program, which airs first from NBC1260 in Arizona. This link takes you to a standard "Realplayer" mp3 audio file. I'm on for ten minutes, starting at minute 28:30. Just drag the play button across. We talk about my books and the fight to preserve freedom in America from creeping state tyranny. http://www.nbc1260.com/WARTUE.mp3 If you don't know, David Codrea has been one of the writers and bloggers who broke the Gunrunner/Gunwalker/Fast & Furious story to the national audience.

Scottsdale, AZ, June 12, 2011—A relentless campaign is being waged against the right to keep and bear arms, with gun control edicts falsely painted by ambitious politicians as needed crime-fighting tools. These attacks against a basic right are cheered on by well-funded lobbyists and an almost universally-sympathizing mainstream media. Scottsdale-based radio station KBSZ 1260’s new program, “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” debuts on June 13 in the 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. time slot to provide a much-needed voice to counter and refute those who demand citizen disarmament, and to argue instead for freedom. Hosted by long-time...

The Senate evaded taking a stand on the controversial nomination of Andrew Traver to head up ATF. From Main Justice: The Senate did not vote on whether to confirm Andrew Traver as the next leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives this Congress, sending his nomination back to the White House on Wednesday. The main reason cited was “strong opposition from the National Rifle Association.” NRA did take a lead in the opposition, and as the largest of the “gun lobby” groups was no doubt the most influential in prompting telephone calls, letters and emails opposing Traver’s...

Brian Aitken, the New Jersey gun owner whose seven-year sentence for gun and ammunition possession was commuted yesterday by Gov. Chris Christie, will appeal, his lawyer has stated. The commutation does not expunge his conviction, and as such, Aitken is currently prohibited from owning firearms. I asked Aitken’s attorney Evan Nappen if there were any plans to try for pardon with full restoration of rights or some other strategy to effect the same, and if he had any statement for public consumption he'd care to make. His reply: Our next step is to win the appeal to vindicate Brian. I...

A Second Amendment advocacy leader has released video of his encounter with Sandy Springs, GA police during a traffic stop. Daniel Almond, founder of Restore the Constitution (which includes what the Brady Campaign’s Paul Helmke described as a polite armed Second Amendment rally among its achievements) was pulled over for speeding and a broken light over his rear license plate. That’s when he was ordered out of his car to submit to being frisked. In Almond’s words: This is me getting stopped by Sandy Springs PD for speeding. The second thing the officer asked me, after asking for my license,...

“A painted plywood cut-out of Santa with a cowboy hat and a gun on his belt is causing quite a stir in Turlock,” 3KCRA.com reports. “I tried to get the image out of my head all day long and I could not, because Santa is made for love, bringing families together, not carrying weapons,” Monica Sliva said. Sliva thinks it sends the wrong message to kids. She complained to staff at the Christmas tree lot where the Santa was on display, and they first took the cut-own down, but then put it back up with the gun covered. It’s ridiculous,...

Despite the practice being “lawful” in many states (not to mention being a fundamental right), gun owners who openly carry firearms often place themselves in legal and physical jeopardy from police reactions. Because official ignorance endangers open carriers, as one in Willowick, Ohio, found out when, per Ohioans for Concealed Carry, he "was ordered to his knees at gunpoint by several police officers." And the chilling account they relate includes no small amount of disrespect by the enforcers, including blasphemies directed at the detainee. And then there was this bit of telling attitude for a right articulated in the Constitution...

“Mayor Richard Daley expressed frustration today that the Chicago Police Department has not set up a database to let police officers and firefighters know how many firearms are registered in each home in the city,” the Chicago Tribune reports. “A key piece” in the mayor’s response to a loss in the McDonald case, where the Supreme Court ruled the Second Amendment is applicable against state and local infringements, “[t]he mayor said it would help protect first responders by letting them know what kind of situation they might encounter when they went to calls in Chicago residences.” That, of course, is...

“Paul Henick arrested for BRANDISHING FIREARM in Chesterfield,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Aside from a photo and a link to past news accounts, where it is learned Mr. Henick is a gun rights/open carry advocate, no further details of the arrest are presented. For those, an account is presented on the OpenCarry.org forum that, if substantiated, presents serious concerns about security, police and prosecutorial misconduct. The incident reportedly began as Henick attempted to take the Surrey (Jamestown-Scotland) Ferry when “a private contractor working for VDOT to ‘ensure security’ ordered [him] to get out of his car.” When the contractor refused...

By assigning knife regulations to its legislature, the state of Arizona has eliminated a patchwork of conflicting local laws and become what a report in The New York Times calls “a knife carrier’s dream, a place where everything from a samurai sword to a switchblade can be carried without a quibble.” Arizona’s transformation, and the recent lifting of a ban on switchblades, stilettos, dirks and daggers in New Hampshire, has given new life to the knife rights lobby, the little-known cousin of the more politically potent gun rights movement. A main driver behind this “transformation” is Knife Rights, “a membership...

“Dangerous combination,” The Akron Beacon Journal editorial headline reads. “A lame-duck maneuver to allow guns in bars,” the subhead clarifies. Ohio Rep. Danny Bubp is trying to get enough signatures on discharge petitions to force two gun bills passed earlier in the Senate to the House floor for a vote. Oxymoronically, the "Authorized Journalists," who ordinarily present themselves as champions of democracy, along with House Democrats, don’t want a vote to happen: In the House, Armond Budish, the Democratic speaker, wisely has taken a firm stand against the bills. The Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, the Fraternal Order of...

In the absence of physical evidence, the case against Paul Henick, a Virginia man accused of brandishing a firearm and obstruction of justice (reported earlier today in Gun Rights Examiner) boils down to the word of a citizen against that of Surry County Sheriff’s Department personnel. As such, the credibility of the department in past actions becomes relevant, particularly where questions alleging outright corruption via framing/planting evidence are being considered in a $10 million lawsuit. Bob Addison, a former business owner and unsuccessful candidate for sheriff, filed the suit against former Sheriff Harold Brown and a former deputy. A Daily...

The NFA Owners Association has posted a letter to incoming representatives from former Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Lightfoot advising they investigate allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) (click here, then on “Letters by Members of Congress Regarding ATF Mismanagement”). His unique qualifications to do so? As a former Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government, Committee on Appropriations, Rep. Lightfoot had responsibility for approving ATF's budget and gained insights into ATF operations. Here’s the relevant excerpt from Rep. Lightfoot’s letter: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms...

“Hollywood star Mark Ruffalo has been placed on a terror watch list by U.S. officials after organizing screenings for a new documentary about natural gas drilling,” Paul Thompson of Mail Onlinereports. [H]is efforts to raise awareness and demand a stop to natural gas drilling attracted the attention of officials from Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security. Ah, Pennsylvania, well no wonder. That’s the same first line of defense Keystone Staters have to protect them against the giant inflatable pink pig owner menace. No wonder Gov. Ed Rendell felt so confident vetoing the right to self defense, with these all-seeing guardians of...

“Dr. Bill Holda, president of Kilgore College in Kilgore, TX, will have to do some fast backpedaling if he’s to have any hope of outrunning his recent comments about the 1991 massacre at a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, TX—the second deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, surpassed only by the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre,” the email from Students for Concealed Carry on Campus began. Dr. Holda recently angered both survivors of the shooting and concealed carry advocates by claiming that some of the victims of the massacre (which became a rallying cry for supporters of lawful self-defense) actually shot each...