Free Republic

A YES vote on Proposition KK would mean: a new tax on firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, and using the revenue for crime victim services, mental health services for veterans and youth, and school safety programs. A NO vote would mean: the state’s taxation of firearms and ammunition will not change. A new ballot measure in November would create a 6.5% excise tax on firearm-related purchases within the State of Colorado. The ballot measure, titled Proposition KK, is the result of a bill that was signed into law in May of 2024, but because it deals with taxes, it must be...

A Chicago woman is being praised by her neighbors after fending off a would-be intruder trying to enter her home through her daughter's window. Police were initially called to the home on a report of a shooting around 10:45 Saturday evening, and found a man with a gunshot wound to his leg. It didn't take long for officers to learn that the man wasn't an innocent victim, but had been shot after allegedly trying to make his way inside the home. “I’m just super shaken up. I’m a single mom. I live here with my children, so that’s the last...

After 2024 monthly gun sales — as measured by adjusted NICS data — trailing 2023 for most of the year, they started to accelerate in July and jumped even more in August. The may be due, at least in part, to the impending election. Americans tend to hedge their bets every four years by stocking up on firearms and related gear. And then there’s the general state of society that seems to have an increasing number of people concerned about self-defense. As the NSSF’s Mark Oliva tells us . . . The horrific crimes committed by a disturbed youth in...

This is a garbage research paper by a UK-based company using California institutes to come to the conclusion that MAGA adherents are the primary threat for political violence. You read that right. Read the paper and come to your own conclusion; but the design of the study funnels respondents to groups that would presumably have MAGA followers. Goebbels would be so proud. If you ever wanted to know why our governmental institutions are targeting conservatives, it is BS like this that passes itself off as peer-reviewed research; then goes into PubMed and elsewhere. What's the big deal, it's just a...

The M4 Carbine dates back to the Vietnam War when the Long-Range Reconnaissance Patrol soldiers needed a weapon that was compact and still semi-concealable so they could snoop deep into enemy territory without being seen. This was the CAR-15, the older brother of the M4. The M-16 was longer and cumbersome in close combat situations, so special operations personnel later preferred the smaller size of the M4, especially when they jumped out of airplanes. The M4 then spread to light infantry units later in the 1990s. Some soldiers and marines still used the M-16A2 and A3 until the Second Gulf...

The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) reported last week an astounding milestone: Every month of every year for the last five years Americans have purchased more than one million firearms. The group estimates that 86 million firearms were purchased during that period ending in July, and that 22 million of them were purchased by new owners. That brings the total to approximately 510 million firearms owned by more than 82 million American citizens. The news gets even better: Gun owners outvote non-gun owners by double digits. Four out of five of them said they voted in the last presidential election....

After 25 years, Wisconsin anglers won back the right to carry guns while fishing, but some Wyoming anglers said it would be stupid to ever give that right up in the first place. Particularly where grizzlies are lumbering about, a .44 magnum could be part of the well-equipped Wyoming angler’s kit. Even so, don’t entertain any thoughts of leveling your hand-cannon at a trout in a “make my day” moment with a menacing snarl like Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” character. It remains patently illegal to shoot fish with a firearm in Wyoming or Wisconsin. Indeed, people who try to blast...

Citigroup, the international banking giant worth over $300 billion, is suffering from a case of cognitive dissonance when it comes to its banking services policies. Citigroup is holding steadfast to its refusal to provide services to firearm businesses that won’t knuckle under to their gun control demands but is standing by its decision to finance actual weapons of war. Citigroup last week urged its Wall Street staff to “keep their cool” when anti-Israel protestors blocked their New York City headquarters building. The protestors took issue with Citigroups’s alleged financial agreement to support Israel’s purchase of fighter jets from the U.S....

A leftist activist has been arrested for burning down a gun shop owned by Cornel Rasor, a Republican candidate for the Idaho State House of Representatives, on the Fourth of July. The activist, Jennifer S. Meyer, is accused of burning down Cornel Rasor’s Army Surplus Store in Sandpoint, prompting celebrations from her fellow leftists. Meyer has reportedly made signs for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and a local arts commission. It appears the fire that consumed Cornell Razor’s Army Surplus store (located just 1 block away from where Sandpoint Pride is held) was ARSON, not a “stray firework.”...

German court has ruled that members of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party can be banned from owning firearms, citing the party’s right-wing “extremist” views.In its July 1 judgment, the 22nd Chamber of the Düsseldorf Administrative Court explained that the AfD members and affiliates engage in “anti-constitutional activities” and are presumed ineligible to own weapons under the country’s strict gun control laws.The decision, which can be appealed, comes after a married couple, both of whom are AfD members, filed a precedent-setting lawsuit against the revocation of their firearms licenses. The court ruled that the couple fulfilled the criteria of ineligibility...

Justice Samuel Alito on Friday asserted that Congress could amend the law to successfully ban bump stocks in an opinion concurring with the Supreme Court’s decision Friday to invalidate a Trump-era ban on the devices. The ban on bump stocks, which allow semi-automatic weapons to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, was implemented by the Trump administration in the wake of the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting, where a shooter used a bump stock to kill a total of 60 people and wound hundreds of others — the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. The Biden administration later defended the...

Licensed gun owner Donald Trump will have to turn over all of his firearms in the coming weeks now that he has been found guilty of felonies in the Manhattan “hush money” case. Under New York state and federal law, convicted felons are banned from possessing any type of firearm, and the former president must have his weapons legally passed off to another person or surrendered to authorities by his July 11 sentencing, criminal defense attorney Peter Tilem said. “There is no grace period,” Tilem told The Post. “You are federally prohibited once you are convicted.”…

Police are recommending murder charges after two of three robbers were killed by their intended victims on Monday, but it's the third accused robber who's facing prosecution, not the individuals who acted in self-defense. [snip] “They acted in self defense,” said Gulfport Lt. Jason DuCré. But the third man involved in the attempted robbery was arrested and charged in the killings in Gulfport of Temi Lawal, 18, of Moss Point, and Lorenzo Stennis, 21, of Pascagoula. Lawrence Corley IV, 17, of Gautier is charged with two counts of capital murder. On Monday night, Gulfport PD officers arrived at a residence...

In a remarkable move, 26 states have launched a legal counterattack against the Biden administration’s assault on the Second Amendment. The states filed lawsuits against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Justice Department on Wednesday. At the heart of the matter is a new ATF rule finalized on April 19, 2023, that requires thousands of law-abiding gun owners to register as firearms dealers. The rule derives from the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a federal anti-gunner law passed in the aftermath of one of several high-profile mass shootings: [snip] The Texas coalition includes Louisiana, Missouri,...

Attempting to quantify the effectiveness of defensive methods for use against bears suffers from significant selection bias. It is impractical to enlist large numbers of volunteers, randomly select half, give half a method of protection, leave the others as a control group, and place both in equal chances of being attacked. Instead, we rely on gathering data from people who were attacked and who had various types of defensive weapons. Obtaining a valid sample is nearly impossible because successful defenses have a strong bias of not being reported. The more spectacularly a defense fails, the more likely it is to...

Flipping a gun for a price higher than one paid now may turn anyone into a dealer, making any such sale unlawful if it does not involve all the licensing and paperwork that govern gun dealers.. On Friday, the 31st anniversary of the massacre of Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the ATF issued new regulations that make it more difficult to comply with federal laws regulating gun dealing and background checks. Since the 1930s, federal law has required gun dealers to be registered as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL). The requirements hinged on the meaning of “engaged in the business of”...

U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika on Friday rejected a bid from first son Hunter Biden to dismiss gun charges against him. Special counsel David Weiss has alleged that the now-first son lied on a federal gun form about his drug use and that he possessed a firearm while using illegal narcotics. He has pleaded not guilty. Noreika rejected the first son's claims that the case was politically motivated in denying the motion for dismissal, according to the Associated Press.

What do you buy your daughter to mark her coming of age when she turns 21? If you are Republican Senate hopeful Kari Lake the gift of choice is a 9mm Sig Sauer P365-XL Comp handgun, finished with flourishes of rose gold. 'My baby girl is growing up. I won't always be there to protect her,' Lake told DailyMail.com.

Colorado Democrats are pushing an 11 percent excise tax on gun and ammunition sales, as well as numerous other California-style gun controls. There is a public hearing on the excise tax proposal today, and Colorado Springs firearms instructor Ana Flanell is urging the public to rally against the tax. On Easter Sunday she posted to X: “Join me at the Capitol tomorrow to testify against this “sin” tax. Self-defense is our right and we should not be taxed an outrageous 11% to exercise our Second Amendment rights. I’ve included a screenshot below of what to select when signing up. Let’s...

Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D) is pushing legislation to make it easier for gun owners in the state to have their firearms confiscated. Her push is being done in response to the October 25, 2023, Lewiston shootings, in which Robert Card killed 18 people. Maine already has a yellow flag law, which allows police to secure a judge’s order to confiscate firearms from a gun owner believed to be a threat to himself or others. On July 1, 2022, Maine Public Radio focused on Maine’s yellow flag law, suggesting it “could be a model for gun control” and noting the...