Free Republic

Does the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms apply to fully automatic machine guns? The US District Court for the Western District of Tennessee is poised to rule on the matter. Jaquan Bridges pleaded guilty to possessing a machine gun after engaging in a 2023 shootout with police officers on a Tennessee highway. Courthouse News reported that Bridges “was arrested with a Glock .40 caliber pistol with an attachment that converted the handgun into a machine gun, but fought to dismiss the charge on constitutional grounds.” He claimed the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State...

California Democrats are pushing legislation to require background checks for gun barrel purchases, effectively taking the “ghost gun” regulatory push to its logical conclusion. The bill, Senate Bill 704, is sponsored by state Sen. Jesse Arreguín (D). SB 704 singles out firearm barrels among the many other parts of firearm, requiring a background check for any replacement barrel or aftermarket barrel upgrade purchase. […] Moreover, SB 704 specifically outlines how the costs of performing background checks for barrels must be handled, making clear that the legislation literally creates “a new crime,” albeit a misdemeanor, in the state California. …

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A court affidavit identifies the two Booker T. Washington High School students who were killed in a broad-daylight shooting in South Memphis — Christian Brown, 17, and Darrius Wadley, 18. One of four suspected gunmen was arrested after he was shot and dropped off at a hospital, according to new information from the court system. Valdemar Patterson, aka Valdemar Richards, 18, is so far the only suspect in custody. He is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Police say last Thursday, an Infiniti pulled into the South City apartment complex at Mississippi Boulevard and Lauderdale. Surveillance...

(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, has introduced legislation he says will save lives and protect communities from gun violence while protecting Americans’ constitutional right to own a firearm. Gun rights groups said the legislative proposal is clearly unconstitutional. The GOSAFE Act would regulate the sale, transfer and manufacture of gas-operated semi-automatic firearms by establishing a list of prohibited firearms and prevent the unlawful modification of permissible firearms. Moreover, Kelly wants to mandate that future gas-operated designs are approved before they are manufactured. Unlawful firearm self-assembly and manufacturing would be prevented under his bill. Machinegun conversion devices...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson 🚨BREAKING: Judge lowers Karmelo Anthony’s bond from $1 Million to $250k for the murder of Austin Metcalf. 10:43 AM · Apr 14, 2025

A Walmart employee in Newton County, Georgia, shot and killed one person inside the store and another person at a residence early Friday morning. The Associated Press noted that the shooting inside the store occurred at 1:30 a.m., leaving an employee dead and another employee wounded. The gunman then went to a nearby residence and killed another person. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that the individual killed in the home was a Walmart employee, too. The violence started when one employee left the store, retrieved a gun from his vehicle and came back inside. He was captured just across the Georgia...

Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday signed into law one of the most restrictive gun regulations ever adopted in Colorado. Senate Bill 3 bans the manufacture and drastically restricts the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms in Colorado. It’s aimed at reducing the carnage that can be inflicted during a mass shooting. “I really think this will make Colorado safer,” Polis said before signing the bill in his office at the Colorado Capitol. Here’s how the measure will work. What it would do Starting in August 2026, the manufacture, sale and purchase of certain semiautomatic firearms that can accept detachable ammunition magazines...

Documents from Frisco Police Department report the suspect in the fatal stabbing of Memorial High School student Austin Metcalf, claims he was “protecting myself.” According to the documents, the suspect, who has been identified as Centennial High School student Karmelo Anthony, 17, was tracked down by the responding school resource officer after the incident on April 2. During this time, the documents state the suspect said, “I was protecting myself” and “he put his hands on me.” The responding officer said in the documents that the suspect said, “I’m not alleged, I did it.”

The teenager accused of fatally stabbing Austin Metcalf and leaving him to die in his twin brother’s arms at a high school track meet allegedly admitted to the senseless killing — but claimed it was in self defense. “I’m not alleged, I did it,” 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony chillingly told police in Frisco, Texas as he was being arrested at Kuykendall Stadium, according to an arrest warrant obtained by NBC DFW. The horrific stabbing was sparked when Anthony, who was sitting under another team’s pop up tent as it rained Wednesday morning, was asked by Metcalf to move — and Anthony...

President Donald Trump has begun his war against Democrat-dominated, left-wing California, according to the New York Times, enacting six policies against the state in the space of just 24 hours last week.The Trump administration waited to take on Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), initially, because of the devastation of the January 7 wildfires in Los Angeles.However, that did not stop Newsom from spending $50 million to fight Trump, even while asking for federal aid.The Times reports on what happened next — on Thursday, March 26:The U.S. Education Department announced early in the West Coast morning that it would challenge a major...

Everytown for Gun Safety is also trying to swing the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. The radical anti-gun rights group is spending $600,000 on an advertisement targeting former attorney general and Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Brad Schimel—a staunch defender of the Second Amendment. Guess who backs them? Mega donor Michael Bloomberg. WI, please, I need you to go out and vote. We cannot afford to lose two house seats.

(The Center Square) – A controversial gun control bill has cleared the Colorado General Assembly and now heads to the governor’s desk to be signed into law. Senate Bill 25-003, when introduced, initially outright banned the sale or purchase of most semi-automatic rifles or shotguns that take detachable magazines and exempted firearms with “permanently fixed” magazines. The bill was later amended to allow purchases if an individual secures a “firearms safety course eligibility card” from their local sheriff department and then completes a qualifying firearm education course. SB 25-003 passed a concurrent vote of 19-15-1 in the upper chamber on...

LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — A 20-year-old man and three teens have been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with Friday night’s shooting at a park in Las Cruces, New Mexico, that left three people dead and 15 others hurt, authorities said Sunday. Tomas Rivas and a 17-year-old male were taken into custody Saturday and a second 17-year-old male and a 15-year-old male were arrested Sunday, according to a statement from the city of Las Cruces. Each could face a murder charge and additional charges were pending, the statement said. It wasn’t known Sunday if the defendants had attorneys....

A few decades ago the movement for concealed carry began. Anti-liberty/gun cracktivists were outraged. There would be wild west gunfights everywhere! The streets would run with blood! Of course, none of that happened. More recently, the Constitutional Carry movement caught fire, and the same predictions of blazing gunplay were made and failed to materialize. More than half the states allow constitutional carry and every state allows concealed carry of some sort. No state that has adopted concealed or constitutional carry has repealed either. Constitutional Carry means any citizen not otherwise disqualified by law—adjudicated mental illness, felony convictions, etc.--can carry concealed...

Hawaiian Supreme Court rules that individuals have no Second Amendment rights under its history, state law, and “spirit” “As the world turns, it makes no sense for contemporary society to pledge allegiance to the founding era’s culture, realities, laws, and understanding of the Constitution. ‘The thing about the old days, they the old days.’” –Justice Todd Eddins Justices with the Hawaii Supreme Court argue that Hawaii must follow the “spirit of Aloha,” not the rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court, when it comes to the Second Amendment rights of individuals. The Supreme Court of Hawaii has handed down a decision...

After a violent year that saw multiple mass shootings in the state, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and many lawmakers in both parties are supporting a ban on so-called Glock switches and other conversion devices that make semi-automatic weapons fire like machine guns. The Republican governor is expected to back the proposal in her State of the State address Tuesday as part of a broader package of bills focused on public safety that she has named her top priority for the session. Democrats have long supported banning the conversion devices, but their bills have failed to win final approval in the...

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that a decades-old ban on federally licensed firearms dealers selling handguns to people aged 18, 19 and 20 is unconstitutional. In a unanimous ruling, the three-judge panel on the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals slammed the Biden administration’s attempt to argue that the handgun ban was in line with the “nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation” — a test for gun laws set by the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen. ... “Ultimately, the text of the Second Amendment includes eighteen-to-twenty-year-old...

In Kennesaw, Georgia, it’s against the law not to own a gun. The city law, dating back to the 1980s, makes it a requirement for residents to own guns and ammo. Kennesaw’s gun law states: “In order to provide for and protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants, every head of household residing in city limits is required to maintain a firearm, together with ammunition.” The law excludes residents with mental or physical disabilities, felony convictions or conflicting religious beliefs. ... the law keeps citizens safe as there were no murders in town in...

A Colorado law that went into effect January 1, 2025, requires guns in vehicles to be kept in locked containers. snip Breitbart News pointed out numerous new gun controls go into effect in California on January 1, 2025, among them a law that requires licensed gun dealers to warn would-be gun purchasers of the alleged dangers of gun ownership. snip California leads the nation in gun control and Colorado has been leaning more and more toward adopting California-style gun controls. Beginning July 1, 2025, Coloradans who want a concealed carry permit will have to take an eight-hour training course as...

Hundreds of students at Madison High School marched to the state Capitol on Friday to demand an “assault weapons” ban after the December 16, 2024, Abundant Life Christian School handgun attack. The Cap Times reported the students chanted “books, not bullets” and “no more silence, end gun violence.” The Wisconsin Examiner quoted the high schoolers saying, “Graduations not funerals.” Once at the Capitol, the students called for an “assault weapons” ban and enhanced background checks. The students did not mention that the alleged 15-year-old shooter did not use a firearm categorized as an “assault weapon” nor did she buy her...