Free Republic

There are about 533 million firearms in private hands in the United States of America in 2025. The current population is estimated at 343 million people. This gives a record number of 1.55 firearms for every person in the United States. The number of privately owned firearms in the United States is growing by 15-20 million firearms a year.The number of firearms which are privately owned in the United States is not clear and obvious or easily measured. There has never been a registry of firearms for the United States. A national firearms registry is forbidden by law. There are...

That’s rich! Socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders refused to apologize for chartering private jets to ferry him across the country as part of his campaign to rip the wealthy — snapping, “You think I’m gonna be sitting on a waiting line at United … while 30,000 people are waiting?” Sanders (D-Vt.) defiantly defended his mode of transport after he was widely ridiculed for opting to fly private during his recent “Fighting Oligarchy” tour alongside far-left New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. “No apologies for that,” Sanders, 83, told Fox News’ “Special Report” late Wednesday when asked about the backlash. “That’s what campaign...

During an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted President Donald Trump’s economic plan would be a net benefit to the U.S. economy. Among the positive impacts he offered were reindustrialization, a revitalized private sector and higher wages. Transcript as follows: WELKER: It’s great to have you back after a very big week. Let’s start with the market reaction to President Trump’s announcement of his tariffs. As I just laid out at the top of the program, the markets lost more than $6 trillion in value. Was this disruption always part of the plan,...

There is a private property rights battle brewing in rural parts of southeastern Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma and portions of the Dakotas, Nebraska and five Tribal Nations. The U.S. Department of Energy has plans to establish the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors or NIETCs, in these areas and the corridors span five to 15 miles in width. If approved, in New Mexico about 2 million acres of mostly private property would be transferred to the control of the federal government potentially via eminent domain. In Colorado, farmers, ranchers and rural residents stand to lose control of 325,000 acres in...

A pilot retrieved a gun from his truck and stopped an armed teen who was demanding an airplane at Texarkana Regional Airport in Arkansas on Tuesday. The New York Post reported the teen was armed with an AR-style rifle and had a handgun as well. CNN noted that the teen “demanded a plane at the front counter while brandishing the guns.” The teen then chambered a round and chaos ensued. A pilot who saw what was happening ran to his truck and retrieved a gun and pursued the teen, who had “breached security onto the airfield.” The pilot ordered the...

Former second gentleman Doug Emhoff is returning to his career as a private attorney after his wife, former Vice President Kamala Harris, lost the presidential election. A longtime entertainment attorney, Emhoff has joined Willkie Farr & Gallagher as a partner and will split his time between Los Angeles and New York, the law firm announced Monday. The announcement indicated Emhoff’s practice will advise corporations on investigations and litigation, “including matters with significant reputational concerns that are international in scope.” “I am delighted to be joining Willkie, where I am looking forward to working alongside trusted and innovative legal counselors,” Emhoff...

Desperate one-percenters are dropping small fortunes on private professional fire crews to protect their mansions as California’s most expensive wildfires continue to devour some of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. Private fire protection companies often contract with state and local governments to help battle wildfires, but in recent years California’s fire firms have begun offering “on call” services, ready to to show up with their own water supplies, trucks, hoses, fire-quenching chemicals, and other industrial-grade equipment. But these heroes-for-hire come with a hefty price tag, with some outfits charging $2,000 an hour for their services, the Daily Mail reported....

When devastating wildfires erupted across Los Angeles County this week, David Torgerson’s team of firefighters went to work. The thousands of city, county and state firefighters dispatched to battle the blazes went wherever they were needed. The crews from Torgerson’s Wildfire Defense Systems, however, set out for particular addresses. Armed with hoses, fire-blocking gel and their own water supply, the Montana-based outfit contracts with insurance companies to defend the homes of customers who buy policies that include their services. It’s a win-win if the private firefighters succeed in saving a home, said Torgerson, the company’s founder and executive chairman. The...

LOS ANGELES — Adam Leber was nodding off in his Hollywood Hills mansion late Wednesday night when his housekeeper jolted him awake with an urgent message: There’s a fire at the door. Leber — a talent manager whose clients have included Miley Cyrus and Lil Nas X — opened his door and looked. Sure enough, “The entire hillside was on fire,” he said. “It was insane.” Orange-red flames sprung up everywhere, spitting embers dangerously close. Without thinking, he and his wife scooped up their dogs and 3-year-old daughter, threw some belongings in their car and drove east, to take refuge...

MJTruthUltra @MJTruthUltra We have a pretty significant development… The Trump Admin finally signed the Transition Agreement with the Outgoing Biden Administration to hand off Control of the Government— but with a Twist… The entire transition Will Be PRIVATELY FUNDED, Not to Use tax-payer Dollars, GSA Technology, or Government Buildings • What this means…? It means Trumps MAGA administration has decided to go dark and will is creating a closed circuit loop of communication and security. Trump’s administration will not be using GSA provided cell phones, computers, offices or “any technology” provided by the GSA. • Why? I can only speculate,...

Private Harris campaign polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris is in a lot of trouble, political analyst Mark Halperin said on The Morning Meeting with Sean Spicer and Dan Turrentine. Despite Harris being up three points nationally according to the New York Times poll, Halperin said he sees her support as precarious. While highlighting key states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where Harris’s polling deteriorated, Halperin explained that the Wall Street Journal reported that Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s (D-WI) campaign shared negative polling with the paper, indicating broader implications for Democratic candidates in Senate races linked to Harris’s performance.

At the Columbus, Ohio, gun turn-in/”buyback” event on Saturday, September 14, 2024, at least two private buyers were seen looking for deals. In the event’s coverage, this correspondent did not find any mention of the private buyers. The cameraman could not resist their compelling image. The image of private buyers destroys the “guns are bad, turn them in” message. In an event where city officials are deliberately paying “more than market value” in gift cards, it is difficult to find bargains. Once the gift cards run out, the dynamic reverses. Cash in hand is better than no gift cards. From...

ROME — Pope Francis received Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in a private audience Saturday, the Vatican Press Office reported. Warnock, senior pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, said he deeply admires the pontiff’s efforts “to center humanity in public life — from addressing poverty and hunger, to fighting the climate crisis, to promoting peace.”

The Institute for Justice says its data show that a century-old Supreme Court doctrine created a huge exception to the Fourth Amendment. Police can traipse onto the vast majority of private property in the country without a warrant thanks to a century-old Supreme Court decision, according to a new study by the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning public-interest law firm. In a study published in the spring 2024 issue of Regulation, a publication of the Cato Institute, Institute for Justice attorney Josh Windham and research analyst David Warren estimate that at least 96 percent of all private land in the...

Hollywood star Barbra Streisand has found her next big role: defense attorney for Fulton County district attorney Fanni Willis. Barbra Streisand has argued her case for the embattled Fani Willis, who is on trial in Georgia for her alleged ethical violations in the prosecution of former President Donald Trump and 18 other co-defendants.

Whistleblowers at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) are sounding the alarm on a reported 1,300-page draft document that allegedly justifies a proposed rule that would effectively ban private gun sales, according to a watchdog group. "The fact that inside ATF sources are blowing the whistle on this draft rule is an indication of what a difficult position it would put the ATF in. ATF agents did not sign up to go after law-abiding citizens for private sales protected under the Second Amendment of the Constitution," Tristan Leavitt, president of watchdog group Empower Oversight, said in a...

ROME — Pope Francis received Italian American director Martin Scorsese for a private meeting in the Vatican on Wednesday. Scorsese, who directed the controversial 1988 film The Last Temptation of Christ and is currently working on a movie of the life of Jesus, has said that when he thinks of Pope Francis, he thinks of “compassion.” n Wednesday’s meeting, the 81-year-old director presented Pope Francis with a book chronicling the making of his Oscar-nominated film Killers of the Flower Moon. Papal confidant Father Antonio Spadaro, a harsh critic of American Christians, gushed effusively over the meeting, insisting that it formed...

The British government has reportedly hired a fleet of private boats to help the Border Force bring illegal Channel migrants ashore at a cost to the taxpayer at least £36 million. According to a report from The Times of London, the UK Home Office — the government body responsible for controlling immigration and protecting the country’s borders — has signed a contract worth £36 million for the hiring of a “charter of vessel(s) to support small boats operations in the Dover Straits”. The contract, which is set to come into force in April and will last until at least the...

Some of the most radical changes proposed in the new ATF rule are to completely redefine “personal collection,” “personal collection of firearms,” “personal firearms collection,” and “hobby.” Three of the long-term exceptions to “engaged in the business” have been:a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms;Personal collection of firearms has long meant “the firearms owned by a person.”None of the wording of those exceptions was changed by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act or BSCA,...

Two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions are victories for anyone dealing with government administrative agencies, say lawyers interested in the cases. One constitutional scholar warns that the decisions are only the first steps in the fight to maintain our form of democracy. “Administrative power is the greatest threat to our constitutional rights,” Phillip Hamburger, a Columbia University School of Law law professor and CEO of the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), told The Epoch Times. Mr. Hamburger is the author of “Is Administrative Law Unlawful?” a treatise on the dangers of administrative law. Lawyers interviewed by The Epoch Times believe...