Free Republic

A store owner in Australia recently proved an ax-wielding robber was no match for tuna fish and Pringles. Baz Rizk, who owns the Friendly Grocer, fought back against an assailant. The masked man walks up an aisle demanding cash only to have Rizk pelt him with cans of tuna fish and Pringles until the suspect runs away. Rizk said his coworkers chased the man away from the store using baseball bats. He previously has defended his store from robbers, pelting one would-be thief with a jar of Vegemite in an incident 10 years ago.

David Edwards had no beef with the guy who killed him. On March 1, 2017, Jordan Sharlow allegedly fired several bullets into the 31-year-old father of three at an east Madison gas station, reportedly confusing him with Riccardo Simms, the man he intended to kill. Simms was gunned down five months later. The murders of Edwards and Simms contributed to a grim milestone for Madison: 12 homicides in a single year, counting one in the town of Madison, a soon-to-be-annexed pocket on the city’s south side. That’s the most on record. Nine of those homicides were by gunfire, again a...

Since Illinois began issuing permits to carry concealed firearms in 2014, state government has generated considerable evidence of how its 265,000 permit holders use their weapons. There have been dozens of shootings by licensees. At least 11 people have been killed. These episodes might confirm the value of armed citizens in stopping violent criminals. Or they could reveal a pattern of trigger-happy amateurs blasting away without a good reason. So which is it? We can’t say — and neither can law enforcement. As the Tribune’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and Jennifer Smith Richards report, “The state police know nothing about the nearly...

A political action committee backing former state Sen. Michael Johnston of Denver for the Democratic nod for governor has received another $1 million dollars from Michael Bloomberg, bringing the wealthy former New York mayor’s total donations to the committee to $2 million. ... The $1 million contribution was the largest that any campaign committee received in the most recent reporting period from May 31 to June 13, according to the secretary of state’s office’s TRACER campaign finance system. Second on the list: another $750,000 from fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder to his gubernatorial campaign, bringing his total...

Two children stood outside a home within the crime scene where four people were shot in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side Sunday night. They watched police shine flashlights across the sidewalk, and place evidence markers near shell casings. The children caught Annette Hernandez’s eye as she walked by the scene in the 2200 block of South Sacramento Avenue. “You see, there are kids running around,” Hernandez said. “Every night, it’s the same stuff.” The four were standing on the street around 9:30 p.m. when a male shooter approached on foot and began firing, critically injuring a 21-year-old...

(snip)The Tribune combed through police files, court records and news reports to compile its own list. The analysis shows that: Most of those shot by CCL holders have been armed robbers. Others include carjackers, a burglar with a crowbar, a robber with a gun to a clerk’s head, neighbors, an ex-girlfriend, a father-in-law, an unarmed teen stealing a Jeep, a passenger in a car during a road rage attack and a naked man acting “aggressively.” They were shot by homeowners, customers, security guards, store clerks, a Chicago police dispatcher, a Chicago fire lieutenant, a Chicago Park District worker, a tow-truck...

Jeffrey Scott Kirschenmann attempted to register an AR-15 with the California Department of Justice last month but instead found himself in significant legal trouble. The California DOJ accused Kirschenmann of illegally modifying the rifle he attempted to register. Law enforcement officials raided his home in Bakersfield before ultimately confiscating a dozen firearms and a few hundred rounds of ammunition, then charging him with a dozen felonies . . . The National Rifle Association said Kirschenmann's ordeal is proof that even those who attempt to comply with California's gun laws can still get caught up in them. "California residents attempting to...

This Sept. 2003 photo released by Christian Zebrasky shows his then eight-year-old daughter Brittany Zebrasky hunting in New Mexico. In an effort to keep hunting alive in Wisconsin, state senators were scheduled to vote Tuesday on a bill that would allow children as young as 10 to hunt with a rifle. The bill, S.B. 167, would allow 10-year-olds to hunt, provided that a parent or guardian with a hunting license accompanies the child, that he or she is always within "arm's reach" of the child, and that the duo carry only a single firearm. State Sen. Jim Holperin, D-Conover, said...

The gradual, incremental, persistent, unrelenting “other”-ing of guns and those who sell, shoot, broadcast and write about them continues apace. The latest victim: Brownells. Yes, the notoriously radical, fire-breathing Iowa-based retailer has had their YouTube page deleted by the don’t-be-evil types who run YouTube, the Google-owned video platform. Brownells just announced the move on their Facebook page and had this to say on Twitter (while both of those social media channels remain open to them): Brownells’ YouTube channel has been terminated w/oout warning or notice. If you’re opposed to the attacks on our communitys 1st & 2nd Amendment rights, please...

We are shouting from the outside. Shout loud and long enough, though, and we can prevail. We can civilize our gun laws. One month ago, this editorial page launched a campaign called “31 bullets” to promote 31 ways to curb gun violence in our nation, and with each proposed action we did our best to include a simple way that you, personally, could make it happen. We presented our 31st and last bullet — a call for federal design safety standards for American-made guns — on Tuesday. EDITORIAL We have called the campaign, which we are conducting in partnership with...

If a gun shop does a lousy job of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, police officers shouldn’t buy their guns from those shops. If a gun-maker allows its guns to be sold at those lousy shops, the police shouldn’t buy those makes of guns. And if a gun manufacturer does a lousy job of making guns that are childproof and useless to thieves, the cops should pass on buying those guns, too.

OKLAHOMA CITY - A mother and daughter were shot Thursday night at a popular restaurant on Lake Hefner in northwest Oklahoma City, police said. The shooting occurred at Louie’s Grill & Bar at 9401 Lake Hefner Parkway around 6:30 p.m. According to Captain Bo Mathews with the Oklahoma City Police Department, the suspect described as an 18 to 20-year-old white male entered the restaurant and opened fire.A mother and daughter celebrating a birthday were the shooting victims. They were both transported to OU Medical Center. News 9 has learned that the victims are Natalie Will and her daughter, Niah. Police...

“CBS This Morning” gave generally fair coverage today to yesterday’s shooting at an Oklahoma City restaurant in which an armed citizen shot and killed the assailant. But CBS couldn’t help but let the MSM’s fixation on gun control creep in. At the end of the segment, the CBS reporter on the scene, David Begnaud, said: “We asked the police if that armed civilian had a permit to carry his weapon, and they told us they didn’t know but they were looking into it.”Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

When tragedy struck a Newtown, Connecticut community five and a half years ago, an unimaginable nightmare unfolded while the country looked on in horror. During a roughly 10 minute period, the native Chicagoans exchanged seven messages two days following the massacre, in which Mayor Emanuel, who had previously served as President Barrack Obama’s chief of staff, advised Secretary Duncan on what position he should take on the Sandy Hook shootings. At 6:57PM EST on December 16, 2012, Duncan wrote to Emanuel in a message titled “CT shootings.” Duncan asked the Chicago mayor, “What are your thoughts?” Five minutes later, Emanuel...

mass shooting of congressional Republicans... many lawmakers are mad, or frustrated, or saddened, at how quickly the story disappeared from the headlines given that the shooter, James T. Hodgkinson, targeted Republicans... Hodgkinson carried a list of names of lawmakers in his pocket: ... The list included their office numbers and short physical descriptions. He’d recorded video of the field in April of of that year — a sign, the prosecutor wrote in his official report, that Hodgkinson “had already selected Simpson field as a potential target as early as April 2017.” His social media was filled with Bernie and anti-Republican...

The National Rifle Association's annual convention last weekend cost Dallas police $575,000, the city manager said on Thursday. The NRA spent $150,000 on 400 off-duty officers who patrolled the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and its perimeter starting last Thursday through Sunday. Dallas' $575,000 bill includes security and traffic control for rallies, protests and President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence's visit to Dallas to speak at the convention, City Manager T.C. Broadnax said.

Oklahoma's Republican Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday vetoed a bill supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA) that would have allowed state residents to carry a firearm without a permit or training. "I believe the firearms laws we currently have in place are effective, appropriate and minimal," Fallin said in announcing her veto of Senate Bill 1212, which would have removed the requirement for Oklahoma residents to complete a training course and demonstrate competency with a firearm before carrying in public. The governor argued that the bill would have taken away the ability of the state's law enforcement personnel to...

Raleigh When closing time nears, local Chinese restaurant owners say they must quickly decide whether to greet people approaching the entrance doors with a welcoming smile or a drawn gun. Their fears continue after they lock up for the night, checking their rear-view mirrors for headlights as they drive home. They want to make sure robbers aren't following them. Dozens of Chinese business owners in the Triangle say they have felt targeted by thieves for so long that they have turned to firearms, including AR-15 assault-style rifles, to defend their livelihoods and their families. About 100 small-business owners have banned...

Multiple rural Illinois counties have passed resolutions establishing a so-called “sanctuary” for gun owners in a bid to thwart the state legislature’s efforts to enact stricter gun control.

It must be nice walking through life believing that the paradise the founders built here in North America is the natural state of man, and that we can therefore forgo the difficult and dangerous tasks associated with defending it. But some of us don’t have the luxury of illusions. We know that peace and civilization are not the natural state of man, and that the black swan events that we have somehow convinced ourselves could never happen do happen with startling regularity. And this is why you should buy guns and ammunition.Specifically, you should own, at a minimum, a modern...