Free Republic

A three-judge panel in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has delivered a critical decision affirming Fourth Amendment protections and the right to keep and bear arms.On November 12, 2018, Basel Soukaneh’s life was significantly disrupted. Soukaneh was looking for a house he was considering purchasing, but the GPS on his phone, held in a holder on the dash of his car, had frozen. He was unfamiliar with the area. Soukaneh pulled over to correct the problem, left the engine running, and had the interior lights on. A Waterbury police officer quickly knocked on his window and demanded...

For several weeks, the City of Chicago has been sitting on a request from a pro-Israel group to hold a solidarity march during the Democratic National Convention, even as it has granted permission for a coalition of pro-Palestinian activists to demonstrate when the proceedings kick off later this month. The Israeli American Council, a nonprofit organization representing Israeli-Americans that seeks to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Israel, filed two applications with Chicago’s Department of Transportation at the beginning of July, according to Aya Schechter, the group’s chief programming officer. But with just under two weeks remaining until the convention,...

The City of Chicago is reportedly stalling a permit application from a pro-Israel group to stage a solidarity march during the Democratic National Convention later this month. The Jewish News Syndicate reports: The Israeli American Council, a nonprofit organization representing Israeli-Americans that seeks to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Israel, filed two applications with Chicago’s Department of Transportation at the beginning of July, according to Aya Schechter, the group’s chief programming officer. But with just under two weeks remaining until the convention, the IAC has yet to receive an answer from the city, despite following up via phone and...

The Second Amendment case of Morin v Lyver, granted certiorari, vacated, and remanded back to the First Circuit, has been decided in favor of the plaintiff, Alfred Morin.In June of 2022, the Supreme Court published a clarification of how the Second Amendment should be treated by the Courts in the Bruen decision. Bruen gave clear guidance on how Heller should be applied. This was necessary because the Circuit courts had created a complicated two-step process that was used to sidestep the Heller decision. In Bruen, the court said the two-step process was one too many. The Court laid out a...

President Joe Biden’s deputies quietly announced a work permit giveaway on Wednesday that would allow hundreds of thousands of white-collar temporary workers from India to permanently compete against American graduates for jobs and careers. The giveaway for many Indian H-1B, L-1, and O-1 temporary workers was announced on the same day that House GOP members issued a report that completely ignored migration’s vast damage to Americans’ wages and salaries. The GOP report is intended to help build public support for the impeachment of Biden’s pro-migration border chief, Alejandro Mayorkas. But the GOP report, titled, “Causes, Costs, and Consequences: Why Secretary...

On March 3, 2022, a lawsuit was filed against the City and County of Honolulu. The plaintiff, Michael Santucci, was a naval officer (an LTJG, or O2) with a top-secret clearance, working as a Cryptologic Warfare officer. In Hawaii, all firearms must be registered except for firearms made before 1899 or which are designed to use loose black powder.During the registration process, in early July of 2021, Santucci truthfully answered that he had seen a medical provider for feelings of depression and homesickness. Santucci was not diagnosed with any significant “behavioral, emotional, or mental disorder.” Because Santucci truthfully answered the...

The right to keep and bear arms necessarily includes the right to obtain arms. Arms can be obtained in several ways. Those include: making your own arms; buying your arms from someone else; having your arms given to you; finding arms that have been lost or discarded; and stealing arms that belong to someone else.The most common method of obtaining arms is to buy them. The right to buy arms is clearly included in the right to keep and bear arms as an ancillary right necessary to maintain the right to keep and bear them. Ancillary rights necessary to preserve...

On March 29, 2023, the North Carolina legislature overrode Governor (D) Roy Cooper’s veto, eliminating the unconstitutional state requirement to obtain a permit to purchase a pistol. The permit system was put into operation in 1919, with a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and racism, during the Woodrow Wilson presidency. It was in place for 103 years. It is a classic example of a statute that effectively chills the exercise of a Constitutionally protected right. To see how effective the statute was in chilling rights protected by the Second Amendment, consider handgun sales, as measured by the NICS system,...

GREENSBORO, N.C. — North Carolina House representatives will be voting on house bill 189 today pertaining to concealed carry permits. Republican lawmakers advanced legislation yesterday to make it to where anyone would be able to carry a concealed handgun without getting a permit from a local sheriff. This comes barely a month after the Republican-controlled General Assembly agreed with gun-rights groups and repealed — overriding Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto — another kind of permit issued by sheriffs before someone could buy a pistol. Those groups now are lobbying to eliminate the concealed handgun permit mandate, which has been in...

On March 29, 2023, the North Carolina legislature voted to override the veto of Democrat North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper. In the Senate, as expected, the vote was 30 to 19, with 30 Republicans voting to override the veto of the Jim Crow era pistol permit law, 19 Democrats voting against the bill, and one Democrat not voting with an excused absence.In the House, there are 71 Republicans and 49 Democrats. 3/5 of the vote is required to override a veto. If all members voted, 72 votes would be required. In this case, three Democrats were excused from voting, so...

North Carolina Republicans scrapped the state's long-lived pistol permit requirement Wednesday, aided by the absence of several Democrats, which gave Republicans the numbers they needed to overturn Gov. Roy Cooper's veto for the first time since Republicans lost their veto-proof super majorities in the 2018 elections. North Carolina Republicans scrapped the state’s long-lived pistol permit requirement Wednesday, aided by the absence of several key Democrats, which gave Republicans the numbers they needed to overturn Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto for the first time since the GOP lost their veto-proof super majorities in the 2018 elections. No longer will North Carolinians buying...

On Monday, October 3, 2022, the Supreme Court struck down another unconstitutional infringement on the right to keep and bear arms, restoring more Second Amendment rights. The Court granted the writ of certiorari. Then it vacated the existing opinion by the lower court. Then it sent the case back to the First Circuit Court of Appeals to be reheard in light of the Second Amendment decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.The case is Morin, Alfred V. Lyver, William, et al. From the Supreme Court.gov:21-1160 MORIN, ALFRED V. LYVER, WILLIAM, ET AL. The petition for a...

Hawaii has had the most restrictive policy of all states regarding the issuing permits to carry in public, either concealed or openly. In the last few decades, the number of permits issued has been in the single digits. From the staradvertiser.com:Hawaii has among the strictest gun laws in the nation. So strict, said attorney Alan Beck, that Hawaii essentially bans carrying guns outside the home. It has been practically impossible to get a permit to carry a loaded gun in public, he said. In the past 22 years, there have been four permits issued in Hawaii, said Beck, who represents...

Zamfara State in northern Nigeria is suffering from a long-term conflict between mostly Muslim Fulani nomadic herders and mostly Christian Hausa farmers. Zamfara has a population of about ten million, of which about 20% are Fulani and other tribal herders. Disputes between herders and farmers have been accelerated by increasing populations, the ability of herders to breed and treat cattle for “tsetse fly” related diseases, and poor and disputed land titles.While numbers are difficult to validate, hundreds, possibly thousands, have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced from their lands and homes. Armed camps in forested areas, kidnapping,...

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York would require people applying for a handgun license to turn over a list of their social media accounts so officials could verify their “character and conduct” under a bill headed toward passage Friday in the state Legislature.

The North Carolina state Senate on Wednesday voted to approve legislation that would allow residents to bypass the longstanding requirement to obtain a permit from the local sheriff in order to purchase a handgun. While Republicans were successful in passing the bill in a 27-20 party line vote, the measure is expected to be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who has repeatedly signaled his support for additional gun control measures and implementing more restrictions on gun sales. GOP members in the state legislature argued that the requirement to seek approval from the local sheriff is not necessary due to...

U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- On 12 November 2018, at about 8:34 pm, Basel Soukaneh was driving in Waterbury, Connecticut. He was not familiar with the area and was attempting to find a house he was considering purchasing. The GPS on his cellphone had frozen. The cell phone was on a holder on the dash, so he pulled over to adjust it. Shortly after he pulled over, with the engine running, an officer knocked on his window and demanded his license. The interior lights on the vehicle were turned on.According to the complaint, Soukaneh rolled down his window and said “Hi” to the...

As a compromise in the debate over Constitutional Carry, the Indiana legislature passed a firearms reform bill that eliminated the fee for an Indiana lifetime carry permit. The fee for the 5-year permit was eliminated in 2019. That law went into effect on 1 July 2020. From the Crime Prevention Research Center, Indiana had 967,061 permits as of July 1, 2020. At that time, 18.73% of the adult population had an Indiana carry permit. On 1 July of 2020, when the five-year permit fee was eliminated, about 8,000 applications for permits were received. From indystar.com:State Police received 2,259 handgun permit...

This will be the most dangerous time for our republic for our enemies are cornered and will lash, attack, kill. Be aware.

On April 26, 2019, Indiana HB 1284 became Public Law 107. The bill was a major reform of firearm carry law in Indiana. One of the reforms was free five-year permits for the carry of handguns in Indiana, after 1 July, 2020. Most of the reforms went into effect immediately when the bill became law. They included: Law enforcement offices were required to provide a voter registration form whenever a person applied for a license to carry a handgun.People who justifiably defended themselves with force, in most instances, were granted immunity from a civil lawsuit. If the immunity defense was...