Free Republic

The new U.S. Department of Justice Program, which aims to give nonviolent offenders an opportunity to have their Second Amendment rights restored after an extensive review process, is already yielding success.As TTAG readers are aware, federal law disables the firearms rights of many citizens who have been convicted of crimes without regard to whether they actually pose a threat of violence. Attorney General Todd Blanche announced on August 17 a finalized federal regulation allowing eligible individuals prohibited from possessing firearms to apply to restore their federal firearm rights. According to Blanche, the final rule would protect Second Amendment rights while...

About halfway into a chilling New York Times feature detailing how the "right to kill is growing" in the US, investigative reporter and three-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Mike McIntire drops a popular myth. The Constitution's text, he contends, "says nothing explicitly about an individual right to have a gun for everyday self-defense. Locating that right in the Constitution became the grand project of the modern gun lobby." This claim is completely backward. "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State," is the prefatory clause of the Second Amendment. As Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, it announces a...

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that some federal gun restrictions can no longer stand after Republicans last year zeroed out the taxes that justified their constitutionality. Congress relied on its taxing authority to pass the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA), which established a $200 fee to transfer or make certain firearms. But last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act eliminated the tax for short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles and silencers. U.S. District Judge Wesley Hendrix said that has “constitutional consequences.” The law’s registration and recordkeeping requirements for those guns can’t continue, he ruled. “Because today’s NFA does not generate any...

The attorney who helped persuade the Supreme Court to strike down Hawaii’s private-property concealed-carry restriction on Thursday criticized the state’s reliance on a Reconstruction-era Black Code to defend the law. In a 6-3 decision in Wolford v. Lopez, the Court held that Hawaii cannot require licensed gun owners to obtain express permission before carrying firearms onto private property open to the public. Gun-rights challengers dubbed the policy the "vampire rule" because lawful gun owners had to be "invited in" before entering businesses while armed. "It is disgraceful that any state would rely on a law specifically aimed at taking away...

A Florida law disqualifying 18- to 20-year-olds from legal concealed carry violated the Second Amendment, a Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday. “Eighteen- to 20-year-olds can defend the country without restriction but can only utilize their Second Amendment right to self-defense with severe restrictions,” the three-judge panel stated in its opinion. Police arrested 18-year-old Jaylen Tyrus Eubanks in 2024 for carrying a concealed firearm in violation of Florida law that restricts licensing provisions of concealed carry to eligible United States citizens 21 years or older. A trial court denied Eubanks’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, ruling that “licensing provisions for concealed...

During an appearance on the Unity Over Division podcast, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico (D) echoed Joe Biden by saying the Second Amendment is “not absolute.” Talarico said, “I believe in the Second Amendment just as much as I believe in the First. We have a right to bear arms to protect ourselves, our families. We have a right to own weapons for sport or for hunting. But like any freedom in the Bill of Rights, it’s not absolute.”Breitbart News reported that on February 26, 2020, during a CNN Town Hall, Biden argued that the Second Amendment was not “absolute.”...

The transgender Laramie resident who staged a protest at the state Capitol last summer of Wyoming’s new cross-sex access ban for public restrooms is now waging a self-defense argument in a felony aggravated assault case. Rihanna Kelver, 26, made headlines last summer for using the women’s bathroom in the Wyoming Capitol when a new state law activated banning the practice. The ban doesn’t allow for penalties against a transgender person using the women’s bathroom, but allows females aggrieved by that event to sue the state for letting it happen. About two months later, Kelver was involved in an altercation with...

A Utah man missed his connection at Newark Airport, went to retrieve his checked luggage, which contained a properly declared, unloaded firearm, and got arrested. He did everything right. New Jersey didn't care. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) cited that case in a proposed rule published earlier this week that would amend existing Gun Control Act regulations to protect gun owners during routine travel interruptions — a missed flight, a hotel stay, a fuel stop, a medical emergency. The Utah case isn't an outlier. New York and New Jersey have made a prosecution racket out of...

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — A marathon session of the State Senate that began Tuesday ended early Wednesday morning with a bill banning “convertible pistols” being passed.At the state Capitol, legislators voted largely by party lines, except for Republican Tomy Hwang, who joined the Democrats in support, and Democrat Cathy Osten, who joined Republicans in opposition.

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit against the city of Denver, Colorado, "alleging that the City unconstitutionally bans certain constitutionally protected semi-automatic rifles." "These laws unconstitutionally infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms in common use for lawful purposes," according to the Justice Department. "The Constitution is not a suggestion and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. "Denver's ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles directly violates the right to bear arms. This Department of Justice will vigorously...

When the FBI's official crime stats come out later this year, we're likely to learn that 2025 saw a record-setting decline in homicides nationwide, and that the overall homicide rate is the lowest it's been since the FBI started keeping track in 1960. [snip] Still, there are some outliers, and one of them is Denver, Colorado. Last year Denver saw a 48% decrease in homicides, with Denver Police Chief Ron Thomas pointing to "a mix of faster police response, medical intervention, and long-term prevention strategies." This year, though, homicides are trending in the wrong direction. [snip] Last year, Democrats in...

During a video posted to X on Tuesday, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon stressed that semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 “are protected by the Constitution.”She pointed to the Supreme Court’s Bruen (2022) decision and said, “When you look at the historical analysis — and Justice Thomas lays this out very clearly — it is clear that semiautomatic rifles of the nature of the AR-15 are protected by the Constitution and the Second Amendment.”Dhillon noted that she sent a letter to Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) warning the DOJ would file a lawsuit if the governor signed the “assault...

Connecticut already has some of the toughest gun restrictions in the country, and a new bill advancing in the state legislature targets Glocks and Glock clones. Backed by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D), state House Bill 5043 advances a ban on popular handguns that have been on the market for over 40 years and are commonly used for lawful self-defense. The measure, advanced last week in a partisan vote of the House Judiciary Committee, ambiguously bans the future manufacture, sale, and importation into the state of "convertible pistols" defined as "any semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar" that could...

The claim that an uprising in Iran can be "ignited" through external action sounds dramatic, but it is equally misleading. An uprising is not an event that can be manufactured from the outside, certainly not at the push of a button. Anyone familiar with how intelligence organizations operate knows that uprisings are not created but identified, amplified and at times guided... The first stage is diagnosis: identifying points of frustration, feelings of humiliation, loss of meaning and the gap between the official narrative and reality. This is a quiet, almost invisible stage, but a critical one. Without a precise understanding...

wo high-profile shootings carried out by transgender individuals in the span of less than a week have sparked fears about a perceived uptick in violence from the community. On February 10th, an 18-year-old transgender shooter, Jesse Van Rootselaar, gunned down his mother and stepbrother before killing six others at a school in British Columbia, Canada. Then on Monday, Robert Dorgan, who also identified as Roberta Esposito, opened fire at a Pawtucket, Rhode Island, ice rink where his son was playing hockey, killing two family members and then himself.

In the final stretch of New Mexico’s legislative session, two sweeping gun control measures championed by progressive Democrats have effectively collapsed — a major victory for New Mexicans’ Second Amendment rights. Senate Bill 17, the so-called “Stop Illegal Gun Trade and Extremely Dangerous Weapons Act,” was tabled indefinitely in the House Judiciary Committee, halting what critics described as one of the most aggressive gun control packages ever introduced in New Mexico. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 261, which sought to dramatically expand so-called “gun-free zones” around polling places and ballot drop boxes, failed to advance out of the House Government, Elections and...

After a sometimes heated six-hour debate and a few failed amendments, the New Mexico Senate passed a gun bill that aims to stop firearms from getting into the wrong hands and ban the sale of certain types of weapons. With a 21-17 vote, Senate Bill 17 now heads to the House for approval. Sens. Joseph Cervantes of Las Cruces, Benny Shendo Jr. of Jemez Pueblo and Angel Charley of Acoma Pueblo were the lone "no" votes among Democratic lawmakers. All Republican senators voted in opposition. Senate Bill 17 would require licensed gun dealers to keep inventory records and implement security...

Iran is facing its most critical moment in decades. In this exclusive Jerusalem Dateline interview, Iranian-born lawyer, activist, and former Canadian lawmaker Goldie Ghamari joins Chris Mitchell and Joshua Swanson to discuss what she’s hearing from inside Iran as nationwide protests erupt. Ghamari says unconfirmed reports point to more than 30,000 Iranians killed, calling it the largest massacre since the Islamic regime took power in 1979. She explains why this uprising is different, why Iranians believe the regime’s fall is near, and what freedom could look like after nearly five decades of oppression. She also shares why Christianity is rapidly...

VIDEODiosdado Cabello of Venezuela gave an impassioned speech revealing why the founders of the American Republic insisted on including the Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.

This Thursday, January 08, at night, the Sectorial Vice President for Politics, Citizen Security and Peace, Diosdado Cabello Rondón, during a tour of the streets of Caracas, stressed that Venezuela is in peace He argued that Venezuela is at peace, “and one of the fundamental reasons that Venezuela is at peace, and peace is guaranteed, is that the Venezuelan State has a monopoly on weapons.” In this regard, on a broadcast of Venezolana de Televisión, he highlighted that he was meeting a group of officials from the General Directorate of Military Counterintelligence (DGCIM) and the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN)....