Free Republic

FIRST ON FOX - A New York judge ordered the state to pay nearly half a million dollars in legal feels to the National Rifle Association (NRA) after the gun rights group won a major case at the Supreme Court. In a case decided last summer, the Supreme Court ruled that a New York public carry licensing law was unconstitutional and that the ability to carry a pistol in public was a constitutional right guaranteed by the Second Amendment. The NRA was a party in that case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, and last week a...

The Idaho 4th of July Parade Live from Boise has rescinded an addendum to the parade entry rules that was sent to participants yesterday. Idaho Dispatch broke the story late last night that an email had been sent to all parade participants with an attachment that contained an addendum. The addendum said that participants were not allowed to open carry firearms or weapons in the parade. The email instructed the representative of the entry to agree and sign the addendum and return the form via email. You can see the story here: Breaking: Boise Independence Day Parade Bans Open Carry...

On May 24, 2023, a three-judge panel of the District Court of Appeal of the State of Florida, Fourth District, which includes Broward County, found the circuit court judge, Michael I. Rothschild, to have egregiously misread Florida law. The three-judge panel, consisting of judges Artua, Ciklin and Conner, unanimously found loading and openly carrying a firearm in a person’s own yard is not use of deadly force and is protected conduct under both Florida law and the Second Amendment of the US Constitution. Richard Burns engaged in a verbal confrontation with a five-man tree-cutting crew in his front yard. A...

During the spring of 2023, J’den McAdory, in Maryland, has been openly carrying a long gun in protest over Governor (D) Moore’s push for infringements on Second Amendment rights.For weeks, maybe months, people ignored J’den’s protests. WBALTV interviewed McAdory, and then the governor responded and called McAdory’s brave protests an “act of cowardice.” Whatever else is true, for a young man to stand against the entire state apparatus in Maryland and assert his First and Second Amendment rights is not the act of a coward.From wbaltv video :The man, J’den McAdory, told the I-Team on Thursday he’s protesting the governor’s...

Image Courtesy Dean Weingarten On Friday, April 14, at the first day of the NRA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis in 2023, this correspondent rode the shuttle from the Gate Ten parking lot to the Indiana Convention Center. A passenger was openly carrying what appears to be one of the Springfield XD series of pistols in a thumb-break outside the waistband holster. Notice the clip on the right front pants pocket. It is almost certainly attached to the ubiquitous folding pocket knife. The gentleman was perfectly willing to have this picture taken of him openly carrying. His comment was to the...

Alongside the amendment, many Republican lawmakers have opposed adding an open carry amendment to the legislation, with Senate President Kathleen Passidomo saying she does not support open carry because the Florida Sheriffs Association (FSA) is against it. “Republicans are showing their true colors on restoring our Second Amendment rights here in Florida. Whether it’s repealing gun free zones that only put innocent people in danger, or having the guts to pass Open Carry, they are failing miserably.” GOA Florida State Director Luis Valdes told the DCNF.

Less than 24 hours after a GOP lawmaker filed an amendment to gun legislation that could potentially allow open carrying of firearms in Florida it has been withdrawn, disappointing Second Amendment advocates. That leaves the gun legislation, a permitless carry bill, to proceed to a vote before the full Florida House of Representatives later this week. That bill, HB 543, would repeal the requirement that Floridians who carry a concealed weapon must get a license through the state. It would also mean Floridians would not have to take a gun safety and training course. Luis Valdes, the state director of...

Gun Owners of America’s Florida director Luis Valdes figured the best way to find out what DeSantis thinks about open carry is to ask him directly. So Valdes bought a copy of the Governor’s new book and stood in line for two hours at a book-signing event in Jacksonville. As DeSantis was signing the book for Valdes, he asked him about open carry. When asked if he he supports open carry and would like to see it added to the permitless carry bills, DeSantis said . . . Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think [the Legislature] are gonna do it, but...

The Chief Rabbi of the Israel Police penned an open letter on Tuesday addressed to rabbis throughout Israel urging them to advise their congregants to carry legal and licensed firearms on Shabbat. In his letter, Rabbi Rami Brachyahu said that this measure was necessary in the wake of the recent terrorist attack in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Neve Yaakov in which seven people were murdered outside of a synagogue where most did not carry arms because of the Shabbat.. “We are learning that the religious neighborhoods and synagogues can serve as an extensive target for terrorist acts,” he wrote. “This...

On January 16, Monday, after coming back from the Industry Day at the Range, before the opening of the SHOT Show on Tuesday, this correspondent was outside in Las Vegas, on Tropicana Avenue, in front of Liquor World, taking a few pictures. The weather was cool, but not cold. It was overcast, without rain. A young black man drove up in a late model sporty car, parked, got out, and entered the store with an openly carried pistol stuck in his waistband. As a writer for AmmoLand, this correspondent knew he had to take action. This correspondent formulated a hasty...

In the recent Supreme Court decision of NYSR&PA v. Bruen, the court ruled the proper way to determine restraints on the exercise of Second Amendment rights was to review history and see if restraints on those rights had been widely accepted across the American polities, especially at the time of the ratification of the Second Amendment in 1791 and the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, as the Second Amendment has been applied to the States by the Fourteenth Amendment. The right to bear (carry) arms for the protection of self and others has long been a part of...

On May 27, 2022, at Clay’s Wellston Food Market in Missouri, next to the Illinois border on the east side of St. Louis, a man “openly carrying” an AR15 type rifle, under a jacket, with a “gun sleeve” on the rifle, was accosted by an armed man who approached him from behind and demanded the rifle and the jacket. From ksdk.com: Major Ron Martin with the North County Police Cooperative spoke to 5 On Your Side after the shooting. He said that moments before the shooting, a customer with a rifle had entered the grocery store.Martin said the patron was...

Open Carry at Church, Equipped with AR-15 and Radio, image by Dean Weingarten U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- In the law of self-defense of almost all states, If a person is attacked, and reasonably fears for their life, they may legally defend themselves with deadly force. A small minority of states require a person to retreat from the situation if they can do so in complete safety.In all states of which I am aware, a person may not use deadly force in self-defense, if they provoked the attack with the intent of using deadly force.It is not legal to start a fight so...

Joy Behar told her co-hosts Wednesday on ABC’s “The View” that “the Supreme Court is poised to pass a bill,” making New York State an open-carry state, seeming to confuse the legislative and judicial branches of the U.S. government. Behar referenced the Supreme Court potentially ruling to overturn a New York 1913 gun control law that limits the ability to legally carry a concealed gun in public spaces.

The author really likes his Glock and lightweight revolver.U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- My everyday carry is a Glock 17 in a Fobus retention holster. It was fitted with Glock factory tritium night sights when refurbished by a Glock armorer a few years ago. A spare magazine is carried in a narrow pants pocket. The ammunition is 115 grain Triton +P 9mm hollowpoints. When a need for more concealment than easily achieved with the Fobus arises, the deeper concealment pistol is a Smith & Wesson 337 Scandium revolver with a 3 1/8 inch barrel, adjustable sights, and Crimson Trace grips. Various holsters and...

On 11 September 2015, Liberty Activist Michael Picard was protesting a Connecticut speed trap when he was accosted, his property illegally seized, and three Connecticut State Troopers conspired to violate his rights and charge him with disturbing the peace. This correspondent wrote about the situation in 2016. Here is how Picard described the situation back then. Here are the words of Michael Picard:Back on Friday, September 11th, 2015, in West Hartford, CT, I was illegally detained, frisked and searched, and my gun, permit and camera were seized, I was threatened with arrest for interfering (apparently, freedom of speech passes for...

South Carolina State House, Christmas 2006, Brandon Davis, public domain, cropped and scaled by Dean WeingartenThe South Carolina Open Carry with Permit bill, HB 3094, was amended in the Senate. The House has now concurred in an 83 to 34 vote. The bill will now be sent to Governor McMaster, who has indicated he will sign the bill.South Carolina has been one of only five states which ban the open carry of loaded handguns in most public places. The other four states are: California, Illinois, New York, and Florida. There have been several serious efforts, including court cases, to restore...

On Sunday, 2 May 2021, at about 12:30 p.m. this correspondent was in a Walmart in Yuma, Arizona. It was a mission of mercy.After church, a visit to a friend in the hospital was in order. I had delivered him to the emergency room three days before. The friend desired another key for his residence, so more people could help to care for his dogs and do other needful things.At the Walmart, I stopped at the firearms and ammunition section to take pictures of the lack of product available. I had a cart with some canned goods and a loaf...

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On 27 April, 2021, the Senate Judiciary subcommittee failed to vote on Open Carry with Training, HB3094. An activist had written, in 2018, the Judiciary committee is where gun reform bills go to die. He seemed to be prescient, from long experience.Then the unexpected happened.The Senate voted to recall HB3094 from the Judiciary committee. A recall vote for a bill is not common, but it happens.This correspondent spoke with Senator Rex Rice, a strong proponent of Constitutional Carry in the South Carolina legislature. He had predicted the subcommittee would approve of HB3094, but if it did not, there...

A breakthrough may be happening in South Carolina’s move to incrementally restore Second Amendment rights. In past history, some Second Amendment supporters have seen the Senate Judiciary Committee as the place where the Senate leadership places bills to restore Second Amendment rights to die. The mechanism is simple. Do not schedule a hearing or a vote on such bills until it is too late to pass them in the legislature or to get them to the Governor for signature. Second Amendment activist, James Moffitt wrote, on 24 March, about the Senate Judiciary Committee:This is typically where most 2A friendly bills...