Free Republic

On November 4, 2021, the Cook County (where Chicago is located), Illinois board amended a gun and ammunition tax which had been ruled unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court on October 21, 2021. From chicagotribune.com: Cook County commissioners voted Thursday to amend a guns and ammunition tax that was found unconstitutional by the Illinois Supreme Court, aiming to give the measure another lifeline by designating that money for violence prevention. In a 12-2 vote, with three commissioners absent, the county board approved the amendment, which states all revenue from the firearm and ammunition tax must go toward programs or operations...

CHICAGO - An elderly man with a concealed carry license shot and killed a robber in Chicago on Saturday afternoon, police said. The 77-year-old was in a garage on East 89th near MLK in West Chesterfield around 12:30 p.m. when the robber drove up. The robber pulled out a gun and demanded the elderly man's stuff, police said. Instead of handing his things over, the elderly man pulled out a gun and shot the robber in the head and chest, police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene. On Sunday, he was identified as Bernard Peterson. Chicago Police said...

On November 9, 2012, Cook County Illinois created a special tax on guns. On November 18, 2015, the County board added a tax on ammunition. At the time, this correspondent believed the tax to be unconstitutional on its face. So did the Illinois Advocacy Group for Second Amendment rights, Guns Save Lives. They filed a lawsuit, challenging the tax law, on December 17, 2015. The lower courts in Illinois did not agree. They did not find a problem with the taxes. Guns Save Lives appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court. The case was decided on October 21, 2021. The decision...

The men shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in August 2020 can potentially be referred to at his trial as "rioters" or "looters," a Wisconsin judge said Monday while reiterating his long-held view that attorneys should not use the word "victim." Defense lawyers maintain the young man acted in self defense when he fatally shot two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The protesters were shot during a demonstration against the police shooting of a Black man. Rittenhouse was among armed civilians who said they were there to protect businesses after nights of arson and looting. "Let the evidence show what the evidence shows,...

In the Kyle Rittenhouse self-defense case in Kenosha, Wisconsin, much has been written about prosecutors choosing to charge Kyle with “Possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.” and the exemptions to the law which apply to Kyle. The legislative history in Wisconsin and of the particular law, 948.60 are at the crux of the matter. Rifles and shotguns, which are not considered “concealable” in Wisconsin or federal law, have never been defined as “dangerous weapons” under Wisconsin law. The definition of “dangerous weapons” is very limited.It is reasonable that rifles and shotguns were excluded from the list...

On September 13, 2021, Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr. rendered an opinion and order. The ban on possession of firearms by concealed carry license holders in the Forest Preserve District of Cook County (FPDCC) is unconstitutional. The judge issued a temporary stay on the order to give the Illinois legislature six months to address the issue if it so desires. From patch.com: CHICAGO — A state law that bans the concealed carry of firearms in the Cook County Forest Preserve District is unconstitutionally broad, according to a federal judge.U.S. District Judge Robert Dow issued a ruling Monday that found a...

President Biden went for a bike ride at the beach on Sunday amid multiple national crises and he refused to answer reporters' questions as he biked past them. "Mr. President, what will you tell Emmanuel Macron?" a reporter asked as Biden sped by. "When are you going to call Macron?" another reporter asked.

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On 8 July, 2019, in Madison, Illinois, at about 7:40 pm, there was a confrontation between twin brothers and three other people. The confrontation appears to have been between twin brothers Corion Mosley, and Torion Mosley, both 21 years old, and at least three other people, two minors and an adult. The story has been covered extensively by reporter Scott Cousins of The Telegraph.Both twins had felony convictions from 2016 for armed robbery, according to thetelegraph.com. Torion Mosely faced a pending assault charge and an aggravated domestic battery charge. The two brothers faced a 21-year-old, unnamed adult, a...

Tim Mapes served for years under former House Speaker Michael Madigan as the clerk of the Illinois House and as Madigan’s chief of staff. Now, Mapes has been indicted on a charge of lying to a grand jury in a federal bribery probe connected to the longtime former speaker. Last summer, federal prosecutors revealed a deferred prosecution agreement ComEd entered into where the utility admitted to paying associates of Madigan in money and jobs in order to curry favor from the then-speaker. Com-Ed agreed to pay a $200 million fine and cooperate in the investigation. Madigan has not been charged...

Rock Island Auction has quickly become one of the premier gun auction places on the Internet. Rock Island Auction is separate from Rock Island Arsenal. It is a word association for marketing. There is no legal association. Both institutions are located in Rock Island, Illinois, but have no overlap. Rock Island Auction is also frequently confused with Rock Island Armory, also known as Armscor. Armscor is a firearm and ammunition manufacturer based in Nevada.Rock Island Auction (RIA) had its first regional auction in February of 2003. It was a 600 gun auction. The auction was designed as an in-person auction...

United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) now says that there is a surge in fentanyl coming across the United States border, and the agency has seized more of the incredibly potent narcotic in the first several months of 2021 than it did in all of 2020. “Customs and Border Protection seized more fentanyl so far in 2021 than all of 2020,” ABC News reported Tuesday. “As of April, 6,494 pounds of fentanyl were seized by authorities at the border, compared to 4,776 pounds in all of 2020. In fact, fentanyl seizures have been increasing since 2018.” “Fentanyl is an...

Judge T. Scott Webb, of White County, Illinois, Found the requirement to obtain a (FOID) before owning a firearm in Illinois, to be unconstitutional. From the decision, Case 17-CM-60, 26 April 2021: “A citizen in the State of Illinois is not born with a Second Amendment right. Nor does that right insure when a citizen turns 18 or 21 years of age. It is a façade. They only gain that right if they pay a $10 fee, complete the proper application, and submit a photograph. If the right to bear arms and self-defense are truly core rights, there should be...

Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs and a group of 29 other state financial officials recently sent letters to six of the nation’s largest private sector money managers in a transparently partisan attempt to bully them out of supporting Republicans. The effort is a misuse of the power that adheres to managing billions of dollars of taxpayer money and sets a dangerous precedent that might well invite retaliation in the same form by Republicans holding similar offices or from a Republican successor to Frerichs. It’s an attempt by incumbent officeholders to control much of the money that controls politics. Unfortunately, the effort...

Candidates are wasting no time getting on the campaign trail. Research is needed to identify the best Conservatives. We know that RINO Liberals are campaigning. ILLINOIS: March 2022 primary is 13 months away. To take on Congress-critter Kinzinger, the Impeachment RINO. IL-16 Already 4 challenger Republicans running, including: Gene Koprowski (R) - Multimedia Producer & Conservative Activist Jim Marter (R) - Management Consultant & Former Candidate Wyoming at-large. House Defeat Liz Cheney in Aug '22 primary 4 challengers, including: Bryan Miller (R) - Energy Consultant, Retired USAF Officer & '20 US Sen Candidate Anthony Bouchard (R) - State Sen., Realtor

...The Batavia Police Department in upstate New York on Tuesday joined hundreds of local law enforcement agencies in asking both potential victims and concerned residents to report allegations of unemployment benefit fraud directly to the state's Department of Labor. Police in Avon Lake, Ohio, in Whitman, Massachusetts, and in Evanston, Illinois, say frustrated taxpayers have called or even shown up at the station holding 1099-G tax forms which show someone is fraudulently reporting income in their name. ..

Republicans who have supported Donald Trump's impeachment from South Dakota to South Carolina are getting a painful reminder of just how powerful the former president remains within the Republican Party ranks. Rep. Tom Rice was the latest to feel the wrath of Trump supporters when the South Carolina state GOP voted to censure him this weekend for his vote two weeks ago supporting the House Democrats impeachment article. "Trying to impeach a president, with a week left in his term, is never legitimate and is nothing more than a political kick on the way out the door," state GOP Chairman...

Illinois lawmakers on Wednesday used the final hours of the general assembly’s lame duck session to pass a sweeping and controversial criminal justice reform bill that would eliminate cash bail, make it easier to ban officers from working at police departments across the state and allow for anonymous complaints against cops.

At least one of the group of intruders received some ballistic dissuasion when they entered the store. Thanks to the shop’s camera system, store management and cops have nice quality video of the incident, along with an image of the license plate of the getaway ride. The car’s driver dropped his bleeding buddy at the local hospital’s ER entrance before speeding back to Peoria. The guy they’d left at the hospital is now in the morgue. Meanwhile, cops found the driver/car owner not long after. It wasn’t exactly tough detective work since the (alleged) perp used his own car. Perhaps...

A man on the scene shot the robbery suspect in the chest and abdomen, police said. It is not clear if the man was the owner, employee, or another customer. Police said the shooter, 29, had a valid concealed carry permit. The robbery suspect was transported in critical condition to Stroger Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Adam Kinzinger says he isn’t scared of President Trump. Kinzinger, an Air Force veteran and lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, has garnered a reputation for being one of the few GOP lawmakers willing to push back on Trump. The Illinois Republican has been one of the most outspoken critics of the administration’s decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan, was one of the first in his party to recognize President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election, slammed the president’s allegations of voter fraud on Twitter and has come out heavily against the QAnon conspiracy theory.