Free Republic

Recently, the Akron Roundtable of Ohio invited me to give a presentation on the issue of election integrity as part of a recurring series it calls “Point/Counterpoint.” As I told the audience, the sponsors of the Roundtable, which includes the Kiwanis Club, the Greater Akron Chamber, and the Akron Beacon Journal, were to be applauded for upholding the great American tradition of having civil, even vigorous discussions on important issues from individuals with differing points of view, a tradition that has virtually disappeared in our communities and college campuses. The progressive, radical left, however, has no interest in upholding this...

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- Paul Helmke, ringleader of the aggressive Brady Anti-Gun gang, released this statement about the “bipartisan” gun-control meeting the White House scheduled.(Note: The “White House” is a building and can’t do anything; the person responsible in that building remains unidentified but appears to be Steve Croley) The meeting only included people who want to ban guns, an indicator of the plans, according to unidentifiable experts. “On Tuesday, I attended a meeting at the U.S. Department of Justice with representatives from the White House, the Vice-President’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI, and...

Paul Helmke and John Lott talked about the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, in which Representative Gabrielle Giffords and 13 others were wounded and six people killed on January 8, 2011. They focused on jurisdiction and purview of federal gun laws, state gun laws, the efficacy and implementation of background checks, the success of bans on various kinds of gun-related weaponry, and the effect that past multiple-victim- shootings have had on guns laws. They responded to telephone calls and electronic communications.

In soft-pedaling that 2009 encounter, Giffords was doing a balancing act that she’d perfected during her political career as a rather progressive Democrat in a increasingly conservative state. She was the spunky Western girl with a populist agenda mixed with down-home values, one of which was opposition to gun control. But those protesters had been following her around for a while. Her staff members were clearly scared for her, and they put me in touch with Ruiz, who told me the story. Back then, the amazing thing about the incident in the supermarket parking lot was that the guy with...

Megyn: Should tougher restrictions be placed on gun purchases and ownership in the wake of the tragedy, john lott is a Fox News contributor and the author of "more guns, less crime" and Paul Helmke is the president of the brady campaign to prevent gun violence joins us, gentlemen, thanks for being here, appreciate it. Lott: Thank you. >> Megyn: John, let me start with you to respond to the congresswoman, who -- the statement gets a lot of feedback from people when you say, guns kill. . . .

The Brady anti freedom- anti gun rights group is complaining that Colorado college campuses may soon be removed from the ranks of "gun free" zones These "gun free" zones are public areas in which every mass killing of three or more people have always occurred. The Colorado Appeals Court reinstated the lawsuit challenging a University initiated ban on firearms on the University of Colorado campus. The Court noted that the state's concealed carry law did not make carry on college campuses illegal, and that if the legislature wanted to have done that, then they knew how to have done it...

With crime down ten percent almost across the board nationally in 2009, the Bradys are complaining about lax gun laws in most U.S, States. This is contrary to the proven proposition that more guns equals less crime. About 20% of all Brady instant checks (14 million of some 60 million total background checks) since they began in 1994 were conducted last year in 2009. Struggling to appear to be relevant, here's the latest Brady attempt at grasping at gun control straws. "WASHINGTON - February 18 - Most states have weak or non-existent gun laws, helping feed the illegal gun market...

Four and a half years ago, three police organizations in the United States issued advisories to warn officers that a new handgun introduced into the U.S. market by a Belgium manufacturer of military firearms represented a unique threat to the safety of police officers.  It was a handgun that was designed to fire bullets through body armor.  A U.S. Senator and a U.S. Congressman urged a legal ban on civilian possession of the firearm, which began being referred to as the "cop killer gun."  The gun, manufactured by FN Herstal of Belgium, is lightweight and easily concealable, and was designed...

Gun control groups have blasted the new law allowing loaded firearms into national parks... Brady's Paul Helmke..., said, “The U.S. House vote..moves us one step closer to reversing the safety-oriented gun responsibility rule... “This vote ignored the concerns of law enforcement officials responsible for safety in our national parks as well as the vast majority of park users who submitted comments in opposition to changing these rules." The National Parks Conservation Association headlined their press release by saying, "National Park Rangers and Park Advocates Outraged by Votes Allowing Loaded Guns in National Parks..." "“We are disappointed in the members of...

Pick up the morning newspaper or turn on the evening newscast and the story that you’re bound to see is that America is facing an economic recession of historic proportions. Consumer spending is down and unemployment is up, but there is one item that Americans are rushing to buy -- guns. Why? Well, as NRA-certified instructor Joel Rosenberg told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “It’s the Obama effect.” Gun sales have skyrocketed ever since it became clear that Barack Obama was going to win the White House and be able to govern with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. The...

The first convention of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus (SCCC) featured at least one speaker who said college students bearing arms on campus would not make anyone safer. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign, a gun control advocacy group, said studies show that college students are more likely to engage in risky behavior than the general population. “When I look back on my college days, maybe it was a different era in the late ‘60s, but most of my fraternity brothers didn’t have criminal records – not yet, most of them, even those who were in ROTC and...

Statement Of Brady President Paul Helmke On Supreme Court Second Amendment Ruling Washington, D.C. - Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, issued the following statement: “Our fight to enact sensible gun laws will be undiminished by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Heller case. While we disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling, which strips the citizens of the District of Columbia of a law they strongly support, the decision clearly suggests that other gun laws are entirely consistent with the Constitution. “For years, the gun lobby has used fear of government gun...

Acknowledging that public opinion is against them and that a loss in the Supreme Court of the United States is likely eminent, gun control groups are regrouping and preparing to try new tactics to accomplish their unpopular goals. "We've lost the battle on what the Second Amendment means," campaign president Paul Helmke told ABC News. "Seventy-five percent of the public thinks it's an individual right. Why are we arguing a theory anymore? We are concerned about what we can do practically." He later went on to say, "We're expecting D.C. to lose the case, but this could be good...

Lawmakers who favor gun control are not optimistic about next year even though Democrats may be running Congress and the White House. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), the sponsor of legislation that would reinstate the expired federal assault weapons ban, dismissed the idea that her bill might pass in the 111th Congress. “It’s a pro-gun House, a pro-gun Senate and [Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)] won’t want to deal with it,” McCarthy said. McCarthy stressed that she is not giving up on reauthorizing the weapons ban that sunsetted in 2004, but also made clear she is...

Paul Helmke’s mind is filled with stories about gun violence. The former Fort Wayne mayor can talk about the first time he struggled with the idea of guns, when as a North Side High School student he turned on the news to find a friend from grade school had been accidentally shot in the back. The current president of the non-profit Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence talks about a Fort Wayne police recruit killed in 1987 by a training officer because he didn’t know the gun was loaded. That happened one month before Helmke took office in 1988, but...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two major safety and security organizations -- the American Society of Safety Engineers and ASIS International -- joined the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in filing a "friend of the court" brief urging the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a 2007 federal district court ruling striking down Oklahoma's 2005 guns-at-work law as unconstitutional. In a suit filed by ConocoPhillips and others -- ConocoPhillips v. Henry -- the lower court held that the law, which made it a crime in Oklahoma for employers to bar guns from company property, impermissibly conflicted with the...