Free Republic

Guns don’t kill people, the Constitution kills people, at least according to Karl Rove, Republican strategist and architect of George W. Bush’s election and reelection as president. Rove, speaking on Fox News Sunday, and in the wake of the South Carolina church massacre, embraced the liberal mantra that there are too many guns on the street and went a step further and a step too far, saying the way to avoid more such tragedies is to repeal the Second Amendment and its guarantee of our right to keep and bear arms: Now maybe there’s some magic law that will keep...

If access to firearms were as easy as President Obama insisted in the aftermath of the South Carolina church massacre, Carol Bowne would be alive today. The 39-year-old New Jersey woman with a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend was murdered by that boyfriend while she waited for her application for a gun permit to wind its way through a process that takes at least two months to complete. But it wasn’t completed soon enough: The Berlin Township woman got a restraining order against a former boyfriend, installed security cameras and an alarm system to her home and began the...

If access to firearms were as easy as President Obama insisted in the aftermath of the South Carolina church massacre, Carol Bowne would be alive today. The 39-year-old New Jersey woman with a restraining order against an ex-boyfriend was murdered by that boyfriend while she waited for her application for a gun permit to wind its way through a process that takes at least two months to complete. But it wasn’t completed soon enough:

One would think that Catholic priests like Chicago’s Rev. Michael Pfleger, an early supporter of Barack Obama and his push for gun control, would not be bearing false witness against one of his neighbors. Yet there he was standing in front of Chuck’s Gun Shop in suburban Riverdale, Illinois, to blame it, and other legal businesses like it, along with the National Rifle Association, for the murder spree in the gun-controlled progressive worker’s paradise of Chicago. Standing with the camera-shy Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence president Dan Gross in front of the gun shop,...

Chicago Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel is famous for saying that a crisis is a terrible thing to waste since it allows you to do things you might not be able to get done except for the emotions of the moment spurring calls to action. Chicago’s bloody Memorial Day weekend, which saw a dozen people killed -- including a four-year-old-girl -- certainly proved no exception to Rahm’s Rule as he called for, wait for it, stricter gun control as he spoke at a luncheon honoring police officers for valor and service. “It’s not just about...

The thing that always irks me about their "water the tree of liberty" types is their sheer stupidity. Seriously, you think you and your buddies are going to play Red Dawn against the full might of the U.S. government? Where do you suppose all that defense budget money went, folks? And now we have Ted Cruz, egging them on. Dear sweet Jesus, this man has no conscience. Via Talking Points Memo: WASHINGTON — It's a given that every Republican presidential candidate will run for president as a strong supporter of gun rights. But Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is arguing that...

Yesterday, TalkingPointsMemo reported that Texas Senator Ted Cruz sent an email to supporters urging them to send him money to make him president so that he could, as president, protect their right to violently overthrow the president. As the email read: The 2nd Amendment to the Constitution isn’t for just protecting hunting rights, and it’s not only to safeguard your right to target practice. It is a Constitutional right to protect your children, your family, your home, our lives, and to serve as the ultimate check against governmental tyranny — for the protection of liberty Cruz’s assertion was so absurd...

Bloomberg Politics is drawing fire from the National Rifle Association over a recent story claiming there is a potential rift between likely presidential candidate Scott Walker and the Second Amendment advocacy group. A recent Bloomberg Politics article floated the idea that Republican Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a likely presidential candidate as well as a favorite of gun rights activists, may not be as "pure" as other White House GOP hopefuls, citing a 1995 bill that failed in the Badger State's legislature. The NRA also says Bloomberg's reporter failed to contact the group for comment. "Now that Walker is preparing to...

un Control: Fifty-two senators, 238 House members and 80,000 public comments have forced the ATF to pull back for "more study" its proposed ban on ammo for the AR-15, the leading gun for hunting and self-defense. The Second Amendment, written in the era of muskets, does not mention what arms we have the right to keep and bear. But we have an idea, based on how they were used: to protect their owners' homes, businesses, farms and families, and to resist the tyranny of government, which during the American Revolution was the British crown.

The Škorpion vz. 61 is a very recognizable submachine gun that garnered a following due to its representation in video games and movies. First designed in 1959, this Czechoslovak firearm is also available in semiautomatic versions. However, the semiautomatic variants can be a bit hard to find, and unless you are capable of milling your own lower receiver for one, many fans will have a difficult time getting their hands on a working Škorpion. That is, unless you know how to work a 3D printer. The enthusiasts in this video used a demilled receiver to design their blueprint for this...

On Friday, Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera said he “lament(s)” that the number of guns that are in America, including the guns that guns that people possess “legally.” Rivera said these things during an appearance on Fox & Friends, after being asked to comment on a mom who had pulled a gun to stop a fight where one girl pinned another girl on the ground and was punching her in the head repeatedly. The mother has been “charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.” After watching the cell phone footage of the incident, Rivera responded: “First, I’ll talk about the...

ecurity: A video by Somalia's al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab group warns Minnesota's Mall of America may be a repeat of a 2013 mall attack in Kenya. The Second Amendment may be our best defense against terrorism. The immense Mall of America in Bloomington would indeed make an inviting target for jihadists intent on martyrdom. Its 520 stores, the most of any mall in the world, attracts 40 million people annually and is a global tourist destination. It's as inviting a target and as much of an iconic symbol of Western capitalism and culture as was the World Trade Center on Sept. 11,...

Let's Freep this petition to prevent the smelly hippies in Corvallis to restrict open carry. Maintain and protect the right to self defense of all residents and citizens, through the lawful open carry of loaded firearms in Corvallis, Oregon

Gun Control: To some, concern over a U.N. Arms Trade Treaty set to take effect Dec. 24 is much ado about nothing. But a president unconstrained by Congress or the Constitution may try to impose severe limits on gun rights. All treaties must be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate, and that's not about to happen in the case of the unratified Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), particularly after the 2014 election that gave the GOP Senate control. The same, of course, could have been said about the Kyoto Protocol and other climate change deals that mandate that governments tie their...

Security: In a country with strict gun control and without a Second Amendment, an armed citizen stopped a terrorist attack as our neighbor to the north becomes a jihadi target. When Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, aka Michael Hall, was shot dead by Kevin Vickers, the House of Commons sergeant-at-arms, the jihadist wannabe and Muslim convert had already murdered Corporal Nathan Cirillo, a guard at Canada's National War Memorial, and was inside Canada's Parliament building, very near a room where Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was meeting with members of his Conservative Party. "PM (Harper) was addressing caucus, then a huge boom, followed...

The picture of IA GOP SEN nominee Joni Ernst that’s emerging from exposure of her pre-2014-general-election utterances is of a standard-brand Constitutional Conservative embracing all the strange and controversial tenets of that creed. There’s Agenda 21 madness. There’s Personhood advocacy. There are attacks on the entire New Deal/Great Society legacy—and perhaps even agricultural programs—as creating “dependency.” And now, inevitably, there’s the crown jewel of Con Con extremism: the belief that the purpose of the Second Amendment is to enable “patriots” to violently overthrow the government if in their opinion it’s overstepped its constitutional boundaries. Sam Levine of HuffPost has that...

Politics: More than two dozen House Democrats are pushing the Senate to revive and ratify the nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy to a critical post, but helping to fight deadly disease is not what they have in mind. The question of the day is why we have or need an Ebola czar in the form of political operative/hack Ron Klain when we have an unfilled surgeon general's position that physician emeritus serving as America's doctor is supposed to fill. We have an acting Surgeon General, Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak, but he is seemingly just a placeholder instead of the force...

The Islamic State has issued a global call to lone wolves. One could be standing behind you on the bus, walking next you at the mall or sitting in the next cubicle. In the age of the Islamic State and solo terrorism, gun-free zones are simply an invitation for a terrorist attack. In Moore, Okla., the life-saving value of the Second Amendment was proved once again. It may be our secret weapon in the ongoing war against terrorism.

More Guns, Less Crime: Since Illinois began issuing concealed-carry permits this year, robberies, burglaries, car thefts and, yes, even murder, are down significantly. Last month, when an 86-year-old Crestwood, Ill., man decided to visit his local phone store, he arrived to find a robbery underway. After staying outside to keep others from entering the store, he saw the suspect fleeing through a back door. He pursued the suspect, legal firearm in hand, stopped him, then held him until police arrived to make the arrest. The actions of the unidentified law-abiding citizen were made possible by Illinois becoming the 50th and...

A bill allowing family members to ask a judge to order firearms removed from people likely to commit gun violence advanced in California on Wednesday, one of several gun control measures up for votes in the last week of the state's legislative session. The measure was introduced after police near Santa Barbara said they were unable to confiscate weapons from a man who later went on a rampage and killed six people, despite concern from his family that he was in poor mental health and might become violent. The bill passed the senate 23-8. It passed the assembly once, but...