Free Republic

A growing number of U.S. adults regularly get their news from TikTok, with almost a third of adults between 18 and 29 relying on the video-sharing platform, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center—even as fewer people get news from social media sites like X and Facebook. KEY FACTS Between 2020 and 2023, the percentage of U.S. adults who reported regularly getting their news from TikTok has increased four-fold from 3% to 14%, according to Pew Research, which surveyed 8,842 adults in late September and early October. Fifteen percent of U.S. adults between the ages of 30 and...

Now more than ever with the rise in antisemitism, I feel we have a responsibility as Jews to speak up and speak out, and also know how to protect ourselves because the reality is people don’t seem to want us around, and it’s hard," she said. But it appears that the rise of hate against Jews is changing a lot of minds on the efficacy of the Second Amendment. "I think a lot of people were hoping that we were past that – I know I definitely was – but I think current events have shown us that may be...

Campaign finance documents found an unsurprising connection between Liberty Safe’s parent company and the Democratic Party in an attempt to restrict American’s Second Amendment rights. Monomoy Capital Partners, which purchased Liberty Safe in 2021, has contributed more almost half a million dollars to prominent Democrats such as Senators Raphael Warnock (D-GA), John Fetterman (D-PA), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). All of the donations made by the company total over $400,000 to the party that seeks to limit firearms. Liberty Safe is the gun safe company that cooperated with the FBI and recently turned over a private, secure passcode used by a...

On Saturday, President Biden tweeted his support for an assault weapons ban, for safe storage requirements, for holding gun manufacturers liable for gun crimes, and for enacting universal background checks. Unfortunately, all of these measures will either have no effect or will increase crime. We have tried a federal assault weapon ban before, and it didn’t save lives. In 2003, the last full year before the ban expired, the U.S. murder rate stood at 5.7 per 100,000 people. The murder rate stayed below that level until the COVID pandemic in 2020. In 2019, it was 5.0 per 100,000 people. There...

A 26-year-old rideshare driver with a concealed carry permit shot two alleged robbers in Chicago Saturday just after 1:00 a.m. The driver had just dropped off a passenger when a man and woman approached, at least one of whom was armed, CBS News reported. The couple allegedly took the driver’s cell phone, then “fired shots” as they attempted to flee the scene. The rideshare driver pulled his own gun and returned fire, “striking the 20-year-old man in the leg and grazing the 18-year-old woman in the arm.” ABC 7 noted that the woman’s wound was just a graze and she...

President Joe Biden spoke out against stabilizing braces during a speech, in which he erroneously claimed putting a brace on a pistol makes it more dangerous because it increases the caliber the firearm shoots. "Made it harder for people to buy stabilize braces. Put a pistol on a brace, it turns into a gun — makes it more — you can have a higher-caliber weapon, higher-caliber bullet coming out of that gun," Biden said.

Perspective matters, but it’s not difficult to have one’s perspective skewed horribly. All that needs to happen is to have something presented often enough as a massive issue of epic scale and you’ll likely believe it to be so absent anyone showing otherwise. Take mass shootings, as an example. Sure, they’re awful, but many like to pretend they’re the biggest threat to life we have. We simply need to upend our entire lives, forfeit our rights, and anything else demanded because if not, our kids are going to be gunned down. Yet a report trying to pin mass shootings on...

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) gave no room for nuance during Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives new rule on arm braces, stating either people are for strict gun control laws or they are with mass shooters. "l look at this is very binary. You can protect your home, you can take your kids hunting, you can shoot for sport. But if you’re not on the side of protecting our kids, you’re on the side of helping their killers, that’s it. You either can help the kids or help the killers," Swalwell said....

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords saw her political career, as it was going, put to an end by a madman. No one thinks what happened to her was justified, but it happened. It’s not surprising that she recovered and started a gun control group. I don’t think anyone was overly shocked by that. However, many of Giffords’ supporters have argued over and over again that people like her respect the Second Amendment, they just want what they term “common sense” gun control. The problem is that Gabby didn’t get that memo. As we wrap our interview in her office, I ask...

On Wednesday, lawmakers in Nebraska passed a bill allowing residents to carry concealed guns in the state without a permit. Opponents of the bill filibustered for 14 hours over three rounds of debate. The bill was opposed primarily by lawmakers in the areas of Omaha and Lincoln, where the majority of gun violence in the state occurs. The bill ended up passing 33-14 (via the Associated Press): Republican Gov. Jim Pillen is expected to sign the bill into law. It will go into effect 90 days after he signs. Earlier this month, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed permitless concealed carry...

The number of children and teens killed by gunfire in the United States increased 50% between 2019 and 2021, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of the latest annual mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, there were 1,732 gun deaths among U.S. children and teens under the age of 18. By 2021, that figure had increased to 2,590. The gun death rate among children and teens – a measure that adjusts for changes in the nation’s population – rose from 2.4 fatalities per 100,000 minor residents in 2019...

The world’s first ever “smart-gun” that features a life-saving fingerprint unlocking feature hit the market this week. The 9mm handgun from Biofire Technologies uses fingerprint recognition technology to lock out anyone besides the owner of the firearm and users who are approved by the owner. A press release from the company explains that it “enables firearm owners to defend themselves against external threats while preventing unauthorized access and misuse.” “Your Smart Gun only fires for the people you choose, so your firearm can never cause a tragic outcome in the hands of a child, criminal, or anyone else,” Biofire’s website...

President Joe Biden issued an executive order that will expand background checks on gun sales, the White House said Tuesday. According to an fact sheet from the White House, Biden traveled to Monterey Park, California, where a mass shooting occurred in January, to announce the order. “The Executive Order will also keep more guns out of dangerous hands by increasing the effective use of ‘red flag’ laws, strengthen efforts to hold the gun industry accountable, and accelerate law enforcement efforts to identify and apprehend the shooters menacing our communities,” the announcement said. “President Biden is also encouraging the Federal Trade...

Scarcely a day goes by that we don't hear in the news of another gun rampage. The latest, on the campus of Michigan State University in East Lansing, caused me to have more than the usual pause about such incidents. It was personal for me. I did my graduate work at MSU, lived on campus and worked in those buildings. To read of shootings, injuries and death to students in those same buildings that I had been in many times, gave me more than the usual chllls I experience when reading of such incidents. The loss of life and the...

Guns save lives. That's a slogan gun-control activists on the left despise, for obvious reasons. But two recent incidents confirm the common-sense truth behind it. And perhaps you can add these words to the politically incorrect motto, based on the heroic actions of two American women, one in Florida, the other in Texas. Guns, properly used to defend self and property, also stop crime. And criminals. In Interlachen, Florida, a 67-year-old woman "fatally shot an armed man who barged into her home early Wednesday morning," according to the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, the Blaze reported Thursday. The local sheriff called...

A Michigan state representative released a statement in the aftermath of the Michigan State University mass shooting that left three dead and five others wounded, saying, "F**k your thoughts and prayers," and the state needs more gun control laws on the books. "I want to extend my deepest condolences to the Michigan State University community," said Michigan House Majority Whip Ranjeev Puri (D). "What happened in East Lansing is unfortunately far too common. Going to school in America, whether it's pre-school or college, means risking your life every day to the threat of a mass shooting. Yet all we have...

The gun control group Newtown Action Alliance is responding to the constitutional carry push in Florida by tweeting that “there is no such thing as ‘constitutional carry.'” Twenty-five states have constitutional carry, and Republicans in Florida and South Carolina are now racing to see which state will be number 26, but Newtown Action Alliance says it does not really exist. Newtown Action Alliance’s tweeted their opinion: Newtown Action Alliance @NewtownAction Just to be clear, there is no such thing as “constitutional carry”. The constitution didn’t give anyone the right to carry guns publicly without permits, background checks, or training. This...

The first question any reasonable person asks after a horrible crime is, "What could have been done to stop it?" Yet after every mass shooting, gun controllers suggest unworkable, unconstitutional, completely ineffectual ideas that target people who will never commit a crime. After the twin mass shootings in California last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom (flanked by armed guards) told CBS News more federal gun-control laws were needed because the Second Amendment is "becoming a suicide pact." What he didn't mention was that California has passed not only every law Senate Democrats are proposing in Washington but a slew of others....

In the wake of yet another horrific mass shooting in our nation, the left is going after the Second Amendment once again and demanding that gun control measures be put in place. But one journalist, in a rare piece of actual journalism, pushed back on those demands and exposed a flaw in the left’s gun logic. On Monday, CBS News journalist Norah O’Donnell interviewed California’s leftist Gov. Gavin Newsom following a mass shooting in Monterey Park on Saturday that left 11 people dead. Predictably, Newsom repeated the leftist talking points about guns. He even went so far as to describe...

At SHOT Show University, the FBI provided an update on the Nation Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). What they shared was staggering and sure to make the anti-gunners throw up their hands in frustration. For those unfamiliar with NICS, it is a system used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to conduct background checks on individuals who want to purchase firearms from a licensed firearms dealer in the United States. The NICS system was created in response to the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, which required background checks for all firearms sales made through licensed dealers....