Free Republic

“It is difficult to find peace in the woods when armed frogmen might be lurking behind every tree,” lawyers for the Whidbey Environmental Action Network, the group behind the lawsuit against the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, argued in a legal brief filed last month. The Navy has used Washington state coastal parks for over 30 years for SEAL cold water training and other special operations exercises, with leaders saying the area offers the perfect environment to simulate what the elite forces may encounter on difficult operations overseas. “I do not care to catch a glimpse of apparently armed...

“Pray for Orlando" we read on Facebook and Twitter. Prayer is vitally important, but is there more we can do? As United Methodist Christians, we mourn with the victims and families of those wounded and killed in the shootings on June 12, 2016 in Orlando, Florida. We may even pray and wonder if anything could have been done to avert this heinous act. But should we do more? Is there anything that can be done to keep something similar from happening in the future? While we may not agree on a solution, many of us agree there is a problem....

The McLean Citizens Association (MCA) Board will have a meeting Wednesday evening to discuss the current predicament involving a new gun shop and a local elementary school. Franklin Sherman Elementary School is located right behind the newly-opened NOVA Firearms in McLean. Local community members started protesting the gun store soon after its open. Some parents claim they are even pulled their kids out of school as a result of threats they received because of the protests. NOVA Firearms owner James Gates said the shop officially opened up about two weeks ago to about 120 protesters. Even so, Gates said the...

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is targeting country music star Alan Jackson and comedian Jeff Foxworthy for agreeing to appear at the 2015 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibitions, April 11 in Nashville.

Administrators at Texas Christian University repeatedly shot down conservative students’ attempts to publicize an event by using a picture of a gun, and vetoed a gun safety course entirely. Administrators at the private university in Fort Worth, Texas prohibited student members of a Young Americans for Freedom chapter from advertising conservative commentator Bay Buchanan’s visit to the university by circulating a picture of an antique shotgun with the caption “Fully Loaded.”

The forthcoming Will Ferrell-Mark Wahlberg flick The Other Guys may yet be riddled with pot shots from film critics. Poor Ferrell and Wahlberg -- on Muni, they can't shoot back. While the official poster for the film features a maniacal Ferrell and the menacing Wahlberg sailing through the air, guns drawn, the version in Muni stations features Ferrell brandishing a vial of pepper spray and Wahlberg relying upon his bare fists. This is not a coincidence. "Well, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency does have an advertising policy that states ads should not appear to promote the use of firearms...

ZUCK: Have gun, will tremble Sunday, August 5, 2007 10:50 PM EDT A weekend in Las Vegas! The lights, the casinos, the shows, the glitz, the noise, the - guns? "This here's the easiest to start with. It's got less kick so it's easier to control." Into my hand he plops a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum revolver. It's only the second time in my life I've actually touched a gun (the first being during a Boy Scout trip). My hand droops under the surprising weight of the pistol. He chuckles. What am I doing here? It's Saturday afternoon,...

Joshua Enos, of Denmark, Maine, is a member of the American Trap Association (ATA), and has been a member since he was 13. Joshua is graduating from his high school (the Fryeburg Academy, in Fryeburg, Maine) this year, and had submitted to his high school a picture of him with his shotgun--unloaded, broken, and draped over his shoulders. The school refused to use this photo, because it showed a firearm in it. Joshua's father asked if he could be in the Alternative Sports section of the yearbook. The answer was: "no" with a gun, but "yes" with his trophies. His...

Shootings continue daily and knife crime has reached epidemic proportion. Here Dr Sean Gabb from the Libertarian Alliance explains why he believes we need more guns to make us safer The current debate on armed crime is depressingly predictable. Everyone agrees something must be done. Just about everyone agrees this something must include laws against the sale or carrying or simple possession of weapons. More controls on weapons, the argument goes, the fewer weapons on the street: therefore lower levels of armed crime. Now, this whole line of thinking is nonsense. We already have some of the strictest controls in...

Many gun owners fear that Ohio's open carry requirements in a car are going to get someone killed one day. Just last week, another incident played out that demonstrates just how dangerous the mindset of "man with a gun equals criminal" could be for law abiding gun owners. Recently, a concealed handgun license holder was pulled over in Oregon, Ohio (near Toledo) after leaving a gas station. He was ordered out of his vehicle by police conducting a "felony traffic stop", eventually had to crawl out of his window (his doors were locked and he was ordered to keep his...

ILLEGAL GUNS | With a big-city summit set for Tuesday, Mayor Bloomberg's war on traffickers is bringing results, but weapons keep flowing into his city as fast as police can seize them. It took 11 months and ended in a porta-potty on a construction site. In the bitter pre-dawn cold of a Sunday morning in February in the borough of Queens, members of New York's Operation Tripod pounced as gun traffickers from Ohio sought to close the type of big-money deal that keeps the so-called Iron Pipeline humming.

The growing acceptance of guns Handguns become popular among young people By From the Editor frankbucholtz Guns, Guns, Guns is the name of a song by The Guess Who from the early 1970s. Unfortunately, its title seems eerily prophetic. Our sister paper, The Leader in Surrey and North Delta, is running a series about the widespread availability and use of guns. It’s a surprising and shocking picture. Guns are easily available to young people and those involved in crime. Most come from the U.S., smuggled into Canada in trade for drugs. They are used, more and more often, in crimes...

SPRINGFIELD - The first five bullets from the AK-47, delivered in two short bursts, tore through the metal of the U.S. Postal Service mailbox. The remaining 70 shots in the 75-round clip fired in one continuous spray turned a bullet-proof vest into Swiss cheese. "I went through it in what, five seconds?" said Springfield police officer Sean Sullivan of the empty and now smoking rifle. During a demonstration for the press in the basement shooting range at police headquarters, Sullivan showed what an assault rifle, illegally converted into a machine gun capable of firing as many as 400 rounds per...

The National Tracing Center database is an essential resource for law enforcement. Beyond enabling law enforcement to trace the history of a gun linked to a crime, it helps identify patterns of gun theft and trafficking. And that information can help local law enforcement — like the NYPD — in stopping illegal guns before they're used to commit crimes. Yet the NYPD — along with every other branch of law enforcement in the nation — is being denied the information needed to get illegal guns off our streets: There is no requirement that stolen guns or guns used to commit...

San Francisco -- Banning guns and booting military recruiters would seem like sure-fire hits with voters in peace-loving San Francisco. But days before a municipal election, two ballot measures dealing with the typically passion-provoking topics face uncertain fates. One would prohibit the sale of firearms and ammunition, the other would oppose — in word only — the presence of military recruiters at public high schools and colleges. The rhetoric over the two has been so restrained, in fact, that Mayor Gavin Newsom said he hasn't felt compelled to take a public position on them. "I haven't given either that much...

Gun enthusiasts were handed a legal victory this week when a federal judge ruled they can argue that their free-speech rights are violated by an Alameda County ordinance that bans guns on county property. In a ruling issued Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Martin J. Jenkins cleared the way for a new First Amendment challenge to the 1999 ordinance. County attorneys had asked the judge to dismiss the challenge, arguing that the gun ban is a public safety issue rather than a constitutional one, but Jenkins said the plaintiffs had sufficient grounds to continue with their lawsuit. "Plaintiffs have articulated...

Miami advice for Brits   By EMILY SMITH US Editor BRITS visiting Florida are being warned — don’t pick a fight or you could be SHOT. Any tourist who starts a road-rage or bar row risks being gunned down under a new state law.It makes it legal to use any force necessary on an attacker WITHOUT first trying to escape the confrontation.Opponents call it “The Shoot First Law” and fear it will lead to a huge increase in gun deaths.Anti-gun groups plan to issue leaflets to Brits arriving at Orlando and Miami airports giving the chilling advice: “Do not argue...

Fri 30 Sep 2005 printer friendly    email articleFlorida tourists warned that locals could shoot them ALASTAIR JAMIESON IT IS Britain's most popular transatlantic holiday destination, attracting more than 1.5 million visitors a year with its sun-drenched beaches, theme parks and wildlife. But Florida's £30 billion tourism industry is under threat from a campaign launched by a gun-control group which warns visitors they could be killed. A series of alarming adverts, to be placed in British newspapers, warns potential tourists about a new law allowing gun owners to shoot anyone they believe threatens their safety. It means thousands of British...

IF IT QUACKS LIKE A DUCK... The Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, reported on May 2, on an upstart "centrist" advocacy (read: lobbying) group known as "Third Way." The group's co-founders, Matt Bennett, Jonathan Cowan, and Jim Kessler should be familiar to readers of the Grassroots Alert. All previously worked for "Americans For Gun Safety" (AGS), an organization that was founded in 2000 under the guise that it too would be a "centrist" group on gun issues. A little more background on each may give those who believe they are centrists a bit of pause (at least on gun issues)....

<p>So far, John Lockwood has had only two customers for his new Internet-based business, yet lawmakers in California, 14 other states and Congress are moving to shut it down.</p> <p>Lockwood operates a website — live-shot.com — that for a few hundred dollars lets anyone with access to a computer shoot and kill a variety of animals roaming a fenced ranch in Texas.</p>