Free Republic

Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- – On Friday, June 27th, Karen Spranger went to work as the County Clerk in Macomb County, Michigan. When she arrived at 0730, the metal detection machinery and the armed guards had been removed. She had filed a lawsuit to make this occur.  She had not been notified it would happen.In Michigan, public buildings are not allowed to forbid the exercise of Second Amendment rights, with an exception for court rooms or other official space used for official court business.From macomdaily.com: Security measures at the Macomb County Clerk and Register of Deeds office at the Talmer building in...

I struck up a conversation with a health care professional. The subject turned to active shooters and the vulnerability of Yuma Regional Medical Center (YMRC). We were in the Yuma Regional Medical Center outpatient clinic. I was getting prepped for my daily dose of high powered intravenous antibiotic. The health care professional did a good job, and I complemented her. She said she had a lot of practice.  I agreed that performance on nearly everything improves with practice, but some people are just naturals at some tasks. I gave the example of a young man I took dove hunting....

Texas has very specific requirements for “gun free” zones.  When the legislature passed the shall issue concealed carry permit law, they included specifications for signage if establishments were to ban people form carrying guns on their property.The signs are called 30.06 signs, from the section of the law, and are large, obvious, and in both English and Spanish.When the legislature reformed the law to restore some open carry rights, they expanded the signage requirement to include a separate sign for premises to legally prevent people form openly carrying handguns on their premises. Those signs are 30.07 signs.They are also...

West Virginia is continuing its reform of archaic weapons laws. On Friday, the 24th of March, the House passed HB 2679, a reform of gun bans in parks. From theet.com: The House also approved House Bill 2679 by a vote of 94-4. The measure would allow firearms to be carried in state and county parks for self-defense, and it would prohibit county parks from banning guns. Coonskin Park in Kanawha County is apparently the only county park in the state to prohibit guns. Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, argued that county officials should be allowed to restrict guns in the...

Representative Thomas Massie, (R) KY, has re-introduced a bill to repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act (GFSZA) of 1990 and its amendments.  It was found unconstitutional in 1995 in U.S. v Lopez. Then it was passed again, slightly modified, under pressure of the President Bill Clinton and the establishment media in 1996. Donald Trump has pledged to eliminate Gun Free Zones, but he will need Congressional help for the GFSZA.  The bill is numbered HR 34 for the 2017-18 Congress. Progress on the bill can be seen at congress.gov. Representative Massie issued a press release on Thursday, January 5th....

Yet another shooting at yet another gun-free zone occurred today. At this moment 5 people were murdered and another 8 injured. The tragedy today at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is all the more disappointing because just this last year legislators tried to change Florida’s ban on concealed carry at airports to avoid today’s type of event. Florida Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby warned last year the legislation was needed because airport terminals “could become more of a target” for terrorists and criminals. Florida is one of on six states that ban people being able to carry guns at airports. While...

The refrain is heard almost as often as the fatal gunshots: The way to reduce Chicago’s gun violence is tougher prison sentences for repeat gun offenders, keeping them off the streets and decreasing the city’s mounting death toll. That idea, pushed by the mayor, police superintendent and others, shifts pressure from patrol officers of the city’s West and South sides to the Capitol, where legislators will consider how to balance law and order with finding alternatives to imprisoning young blacks and other minorities.In that building, in the same Senate seat where Barack Obama launched his political career and focused on...

In 2016, SB 1736/HB2033 was passed in the Tennessee legislature. The bill was an attempt to hold businesses that chose to ban defensive firearms from their premises responsible for damages. That was a step to far for the Tennessee legislature. The bill was cut back to say that businesses that did not ban firearms would be immune from lawsuit for actions that resulted from their lack of a ban. In Missouri, Representative Schroer has introduced a bill, HB 96, that is very similar to the original HB 2033 in Tennessee. From news-leader.com: The proposal, known as House Bill 96,...

A year ago, the House of the 131st Ohio General Assembly voted to pass HB 48.  It passed the House 68 to 29. It has been languishing there ever since.   House Bill 48 is the prominent gun law reform bill pending in Ohio.  It is a modest bill that makes only a few reforms.  It removes silly prohibitions on permit holders from carrying concealed guns in day care centers, in the unsecured areas of airports, and other "gun free zones".   It passed the House by over 2-1 (68-29) on 17 November,  and has 42 cosponsors in the...

Progressives used a brutal knife attack at Ohio State University (OSU) on Monday as an excuse to demand more gun control, even after authorities declared that they had no evidence the attacker even used a gun during his rampage. The attacker reportedly struck pedestrians with his vehicle and proceeded to stab several others, harming at least nine individuals, one of whom is in critical condition. Despite OSU’s initial tweets stating there was an active shooter on campus, authorities later said there was no evidence that the attacker used a gun during his attack. The victims are being treated for stab...

With early reports of an “active shooter” on the Ohio State University campus Monday, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) tweeted about the “senseless act of gun violence” before updating the campus attack was performed with a car and a knife. “Deeply saddened by the senseless act of gun violence at Ohio State this morning. Praying for the injured and the entire Buckeye community,” Kaine tweeted at 11:58 AM. The Associated Press reports authorities are saying nine people were injured at Ohio State University when an attacker purposely drove over a curb and into pedestrians and then got out of the vehicle...

A promise made by Donald Trump during the campaign was to remove gun free school zones.  The federal gun free school zone law has been an abominable infringement on the Second Amendment. It has no justification as anything other than an infringement on the right of Americans to bear arms. It does not improve safety. It does not protect "sensitive places".  It serves no legitimate purpose. It has already been struck down once by the Supreme Court. The Gun Free School Zone act creates an illusory "zone" where most people are forbidden from bearing arms. The zone exists within...

The rally turned into a march and was proceeding down various streets in town at the time of the shootings, according to witnesses. Merner said the shooting is unrelated. “It’s not related to the protest at all,” he said. “It appears to be some type of personal argument.” To ppl worried about gunman at large: "This is not random," SPD spokesman. "It was an argument that escalated very quickly with gunfire"

While the NO HANDGUNS sign is cut off in this photograph, it clearly shows that the Crossroads Center, where the Islamic mass stabbing terror attack took place, was and is posted as a Gun Free Zone.In Minnesota, the sign has no legal weight.  Minnesota law prevents malls from banning guns from the common areas, but malls are not prevented from asking that visitors not carry guns.  The sign reads “please while shopping”.  That makes it a request, not a command.The difference can easily be lost on a someone who is not well schooled in the niceties of the law. ...

Image by Brandy Shreve/ Skagit Valley Herald The Cascade Mall in Burlington, Washington is the latest site of a mass killing.  Motive is uncertain, but the shooting was done by a 20 year old immigrant from Turkey, who came here as a young boy.   The Cascade Mall has been widely reported as a gun free zone.  I believe it is.  It has been stated that the parent company, Macerich, has a corporation wide gun free zone policy.  From an opencarry.org post: Cascade Mall (201 Cascade Mall Drive) - Burlington (Macerich Corporate-wide policy, due to this thread)  I am...

Dr. John Lott is the go-to expert when it comes to crime data and Second Amendment rights. His studies from the Crime Prevention Center have been cited in numerous pieces, including ones published here on Townhall, about the Left’s incessant, and often ridiculous, efforts to strip Americans of their Second Amendment rights. His studies have proven that contrary to what the anti-gun Left says about concealed carry holders, they’re actually more law-abiding than law enforcement. . . . In Oregon, Christopher Harper-Mercer was able to kill nine people at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg last year. Oregon has a universal...

More than 50 people were shot over another violent weekend in Chicago, a level of violence that has marked many of the summer weekends this year and has pushed the total number of people shot in the city to more than 2,600. The number of people shot during all of last year was 2,988. Between Friday evening and early Monday morning, at least 52 were shot and nine of them were killed, according to police. The weekend before, 49 people were shot, nine of them fatally. And the weekend before that, 52 people were shot, seven of them fatally. The...

During her July 25 speech at the Democrat National Convention, Michelle Obama talked about moving into the White House and watching “big men with guns” take their daughters to school. She said this by describing life after taking up residence in the White House. She recalled her daughters “setting off for their first day at their new school,” adding, “I will never forget that winter morning as I watched our girls–just seven and ten years old–pile into those black SUVs with all those big men with guns.” The audience responded with a warm applause as Mrs. Obama talked about seeing...

The Tennessee Legislature sent SB1736 (HB2033) to Governor Bill Haslam (R) on April 21, 2016.  Governor Haslam signed it on 27 April, 2016.  It goes into effect today, 1 July, 2016.  Most places will start taking down their “No Guns” signs as of today.  SB1736, now Pub. Ch. 947, does this without stepping on private property rights. It does so by making property owners or property managers responsible for a legal gun carrier’s defense if they take positive action to disarm legal gun carriers and the gun carrier(s) suffer harm as a result.Here is a summary of the bill. ...

Unilateral disarmament in the face of hostile, heavily armed adversaries was a hopelessly naïve idea during the Cold War and is equally unworkable now in the domestic arena. This most recent mass killing-by-firearm has once again been exploited by the Hard Left to make the case to further render law-abiding citizens defenseless against armed criminals, terrorists and crazies. It deflects attention away from the fact that those who are charged to protect us have let us down once again. There was plenty of warning that Omar Mateen was disposed to perpetrate such an atrocity; from his own words and deeds...