Free Republic

The Swiss have always had a lot of guns and significant freedom.  Machiavelli noted it in "The Prince" in 1517: “Moreover, a Republic trusting to her own forces, is with greater difficulty than one which relies on foreign arms brought to yield obedience to a single citizen. Rome and Sparta remained for ages armed and free. The Swiss are at once the best armed and the freest people in the world.” The Swiss have remained one of the best armed countries in the world since then.  Many claim they escaped most of the ravages of WWII because of their...

Doctors routinely ask if you smoke, and counsel you to wear your seat belt when you’re in a car. Technically, either behavior isn’t any of their business, but they do fall under the umbrella of preventive care. Now Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the violence prevention research program at the University of California Davis, and his colleagues want to add firearms to the office visit for similar reasons. First, he says that no federal or state laws prevent doctors from asking their patients about whether they have guns in the home.

January of 2016 had the highest number of NICS checks for any January on record.  There were 2,545,802 million checks, which translates to a bit less than 1.9 million new firearms. The industry is producing firearms as fast as they can, and they are being purchased just as fast.  The demand side is crowded with first time buyers, women, and young urbans.  Where will it end? Disarmists, those who wish us to be disarmed, constantly talk about "need".  Need is something they seem to think that they are the only ones qualified to define.  The idea of "need" is...

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: Black people are disproportionately victimized by gun violence, and prominent African-American leaders are among those calling for tighter gun control. Yet as Karen Grigsby Bates of NPR's Code Switch team found out, many other African-Americans believe that owning guns is crucial to protecting themselves and their rights. KAREN GRIGSBY BATES, BYLINE: Know how some people can't do without something? April Howard has three possessions that are non-negotiable. APRIL HOWARD: I have a .22, a .38 and a rifle. BATES: And she's keeping them all. Howard's had guns for several years now, the result of a close call...

Gun sales are at record levels.  In the last six months, gun sales, as reflected by the National Instant Check system, have hit record highs for each of the six months.  It is almost certain that 2015 will be the highest year on record for private gun sales in the United States.  But when national polls ask how many households own guns, the numbers appear to be the same or dropping.  How do we reconcile this seeming contradiction?  The answer is likely in a Zogby Analytic question asked in February of 2015.  From prnewswire.com: QUESTION: "If a national pollster...

The Chapman University Survey of American Fears, Wave 2 (2015) provides an unprecedented look into the fears of average Americans. In April of 2015, a random sample of 1,541 adults from across the United States were asked their level of fear about eighty-eight different fears across a huge variety of topics ranging from crime, the government, disasters, personal anxieties, technology and many others. Top Fear Domains, 2015 Each fear question asks Americans to rate their level of fear on a scale ranging from 1 (not afraid) to 4 (very afraid). The average score for each domain of fear provides insight...

Politifact: Obama is a LIAR! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS5uhFxP8Ac School Shootings? http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2014/jun/13/everytown-gun-safety/have-there-been-74-school-shootings-sandy-hook-clo/ Gun laws prevent crime? http://www.factcheck.org/2015/10/gun-laws-deaths-and-crimes/

While I was fact checking today's Mises Daily article, I checked some correlation coefficients of my own so I didn't have to rely on Volokh's numbers as my only source.I approached the data a little differently than Volokh did and instead of using a subjective ranking by an organization like the Brady organization, I just looked at the rate of gun ownership in the state. After all, the argument is often that more guns and more gun owners leads to more violence.So, I looked at the correlation between the gun ownership rate (a percentage on the x axis) and the...

When asked about new firearms legislation at an event in Saskatoon, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said there are too many restrictions on gun ownership, which he added is important for the livelihoods of rural people, recreation and personal safety according to CTV. “My wife’s from a rural area and obviously gun ownership wasn’t just for the farm, but was for a certain level of security when you’re a ways away from immediate police assistance,” he said during a question-and-answer session with the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities.

The number of Americans who live in a household with at least one gun is lower than it’s ever been, according to a major American trend survey that finds the decline in gun ownership is paralleled by a reduction in the number of Americans who hunt. According to the latest General Social Survey, 32 percent of Americans either own a firearm themselves or live with someone who does, which ties a record low set in 2010. That’s a significant decline since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when about half of Americans told researchers there was a gun in their...

Washington, DC — Newly available data for 2013 reveals that states with weak gun violence prevention laws and higher rates of gun ownership have the highest overall gun death rates in the nation, according to a Violence Policy Center (VPC) analysis of data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Meanwhile, states with the lowest overall gun death rates have lower rates of gun ownership and some of the strongest gun violence prevention laws in the nation. However, even in these states the human toll of gun violence is far above the...

After Irish-born actor Liam Neeson shot off his mouth about Americans’ fondness for guns — you know, the things he uses in his hit action movies — the company that provided the weapons for the latest installment in the Taken series decided it had had enough: "PARA USA regrets its decision to provide firearms for use in the film “Taken 3″. While the film itself is entertaining, comments made by its Irish-born star during press junkets reflect a cultural and factual ignorance that undermines support of the Second Amendment and American liberties. We will no longer provide firearms for use...

Support for gun rights has edged up from earlier this year, and marks a substantial shift in attitudes since shortly after the Newtown school shootings, which occurred two years ago this Sunday. The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Dec. 3-7 among 1,507 adults, also finds a shift in attitudes about whether gun ownership in this country does more to protect people or put people’s safety at risk. Nearly sixin-ten Americans (57%) say gun ownership does more to protect people from becoming victims of crime, while 38% say it does more to endanger personal safety. In...

This is one case where I have to give the New York Times full credit. They have managed – at least in part – to dredge some information out of the New York State government which I have been unsuccessfully trying to obtain since May of this year. (More on that saga below.) The paper has now released details of a database kept by Empire State law enforcement of people who have had their Second Amendment rights terminated on the basis of being “mentally unstable.” The number of people in this database – created as a result of the...

The conservative publication, Newsmax, quotes a former CIA agent saying that some ISIS militants have already entered the United States from Mexico: http://www.newsmax.com/US/ISIS-border-threat-mexico/2014/09/02/id/592180/ Conservatives have to deal with the painful reality, that America is ruled by corrupt corporate elites, who care more about the profits that they make selling stuff to the 1.5 billion Muslims, than they care about American lives. If ISIS were to begin beheading people in America, the corporate elites who rule the country would do absolutely nothing, if there is a chance that it may reduce profits made in the Muslim world. Already, the corporate elites...

Why do we have introduced regular military training of citizens - gun owners? The reasons are many. But the main one is that we begin to form a military reserve for the defense of the country, without waiting for the decision of the country's leaders on defense for fundamental reform of the Cossacks, and now for the Swiss and Israeli demands. Most citizens who understand the need to be prepared to defend the family, city, country voluntarily at their own cost to buy weapons and equipment in their spare time come to the Legion for learning and training. We create...

Gutfeld nails nonsense in study linking gun ownership, racism

Federally licensed firearms dealers (FFLs) are required to perform criminal history background checks on prospective firearms purchasers. However, when the sale or transfer of a firearm does not involve a licensed dealer, no background check is required. This is an enormous loophole—one in which convicted felons, minors and other prohibited purchasers can readily avoid background checks and more easily acquire guns. This bill would require that a criminal history background check be performed in connection with the sale or transfer of all firearms, with a few exceptions noted below. Background checks would be performed by licensed firearms dealers, who are...

While gun control legislation is a politically risky vote for red state Democrats, it’s also an issue that could hurt the GOP’s efforts to attract female voters.A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows that 65 percent of women favor stronger gun laws, compared to 44 percent of men. That’s consistent with previous polling; a recent Quinnipiac University poll showed 61 percent of women and 45 percent of men in favor stricter gun laws.Richard Feldman, Independent Firearms Association president and former NRA lobbyist, said that the gender gap on gun laws is a long-standing one, and that much of it has...

We've seen a lot of female gun owners in the debate over gun control, because a sassy take-charge Lara Croft is a much better image for gun ownership advocates to project than nutty middle-aged men. But while we've read lots of trend pieces about "more and more" women owning guns, polls consistently show that women own far fewer guns and are far more likely to support gun control than men. According to an NBC News/ Wall Street Journal poll released just before the Senate voted to take up gun legislation this morning, 65 percent of American women want stricter gun...