Free Republic

One year ago on July 3, Arizona resident and concealed-carry holder Raul Mendez and his family were enjoying a Fourth of July party before shots rang out and left their lives changed forever. Mendez was shot in the head as suspect Jason Hunt opened fire on the partygoers, leaving two men dead and four others, including Mendez, seriously injured. The rampage ended when Mendez was able to gather the strength to pick himself off the floor, unholster his concealed-carry weapon and shoot Hunt four times in the chest. "It's still something that's unreal," Mendez told Fox News Digital in a...

The Instructor, a retired Navy SEAL, spoke with a quite, steady and commanding voice: “Load one nine round magazine, lower the hammer, place your weapon on safe, re-holster, and raise your right hand when you have completed these actions.” Clear and concise. Each of his ten students followed these commands. Soon ten right hands went up. “Now lower your hands, and listen to the following directions. I will give these directions twice, and only twice.” He then enunciated how his students were to draw their weapons, engage targets, how many rounds to place on each target, when to perform a...

We all know that female participation in gun ownership and shooting sports is up. Female gun owners are also lining up for their carry permits as well. The gun industry knows that women are the next big thing for their business. It’s no longer an activity or a right exercised solely by white men, which if often an anti-gun talking point to denigrate the Bill of Rights. In fact, it’s made the gun control movement’s work in the stripping of our Second Amendment rights all the more difficult. They will put forth statistics about how a firearm in the home makes it less safe,...

There have been many controversial incidents that have involve police officers using firearms to neutralize deadly situations. Most of the after math are not desirable as a whole for the community. We take a look at how hard it is in this day and age when it comes to neutralizing a life threatening situation that law enforcement must face on a daily basis. There is more to it than shooting a gun, there is a time and place for it. But the biggest challenge is when to meet that same degree of force when confronted with that life threatening situation....

Okay. I mean, this shouldn’t be a shocker, but people who have no firearms training didn’t survive the firearms training simulator located at Prince George's County Police Department in Maryland. Another non-surprise is that police officers did well; though some might add that concealed carry holders spend more time at the range than police officers. Regardless, the Washington Post  reported on how determining life and death situations–and when to use deadly force–is difficult; something that any gun owner, or person with common sense, would already know: [A] new study from researchers at Mount St. Mary's University sheds some light on why people...

TrainMeArizona Plan Spreads to Kansas! The lamestream media told you: A lot of misinformation: "news" reporting on the bill was typically horrendous. Ms. Stoneking reports: "Some reported we had passed open carry -- Kansas has always been an open carry state (statehood was in 1861). Some said now felons could carry guns -- uh duh, no. Some were talking how now we could drive around in our cars with a concealed gun with no permit -- uh, we already could do that as long as it wasn't concealed on our person. Basically just the fear mongering, Kansas will turn into...

CNN Wolf Blitzer: Why Don’t Cops “Shoot to Wound?” By Robert Farago on August 17, 2014 “On Thursday, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer asked guest [lawyer] Jeffrey Toobin why police weren’t instructed to “shoot to injure,” instead of kill,” talkingpointsmemo.com reports. “Blitzer’s questions arose during a discussion on the unfurling conflict in Ferguson, Mo. over the fatal police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. ‘They often shoot to kill,’ Blitzer said of police. ‘Why do they have to shoot to kill? Why can’t they shoot a warning shot in the air, scare someone off if they think they’re in danger. Why...

One June morning last year, Jack Dailey drove from his home in North Carolina’s Piedmont country, through verdant, hilly farmland to a rifle range near the town of Ramseur. Eleven men and a woman had mustered there for a weeklong boot camp run by the Appleseed Project, a group Dailey started that is dedicated to teaching every American how to fire a bullet through a man-size target out to 500 yards. So far Appleseed has taught 25,000 people to shoot; 7,000 more will learn by the end of this year. Its instructors teach this skill not for the purpose of...

Its founder billed it as a Disneyland for gun enthusiasts, a 550-acre master planned community with a shooting range as the draw. The concept was unveiled in the late 1990s, complete with artist renderings and a miniature model. Today, the model remains on site but so far it’s the only house there. "The safest community in America," that was the pitch to people seeking a home at the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute. For upwards of $200,000 members were promised a one-acre luxury home site in an exclusive resort. Instead they got a thank you letter, a baseball hat and...

FOREIGN SERVICE FIREFIGHT AN FSO DESCRIBES A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH IRAQI INSURGENTS ON THE ROAD FROM BAGHDAD TO NAJAF. BY PHILIP S. KOSNETT March 5, 2004. We were southbound on the main highway from Baghdad to the Coalition Provisional Authority provincial headquarters in Najaf late on a Friday afternoon. Our three-car convoy carried six American personnel and a sixman Salvadoran personal security detachment from a Spanish/Salvadoran base in the city. By agreement with the Salvadoran commander, his U.S.trained personal security team was assigned fulltime to protect us. The Cuscatlan Battalion, based in Najaf, is the best in the Salvadoran...

The NRA Members' Council of Westside Los Angeles will meet this Thursday, June 12th, 7pm, for our regular monthly meeting (2nd Thursday of every month.) As usual, the meeting will be held at the American Legion Hall, 5309 S. Sepulveda Blvd. in Culver City. Our featured speaker this month will be Ken Mays. Ken owns and operates the Top Gun Training Centre located at Burro Canyon in Azusa. Ken has studied shooting under both Jeff Cooper and Colonel Rex Applegate. Both of his instructors had strong and opposing opinions on the issue of point shooting vs. sighted shooting, something about...