Free Republic

Ashley earned her gun! California criminal defense firm Tully & Weiss has a tradition to celebrate an associate’s first jury trial victory. The firm awarded associate attorney Ashely Bargenquast the gun of her choice for winning a major case. The tradition rewards a great job, as well as encourages their attorneys to practice and celebrate the Constitutional rights they defend. Associate Attorney Ashley Bargenquast won her first jury trial in Shasta County. The case was related to cannabis cultivation, manufacture, firearms, conspiracy, and resisting arrest after a raid at their property which included a very public and substantial medical grow....

If it passes the Senate and is signed into law by President Biden, it would result in new background check requirements for all gun transfers conducted by private parties. As it currently stands, unlicensed or “private sellers” are not required to conduct a background check for transfers on firearms, and this includes sales made at gun shows – which has resulted in opponents of such transactions calling this the “gun show loophole,” and additionally have argued this is how many criminals obtain their firearms. All licensed dealers, including those who sell at gun shows, are in fact required to conduct...

Democrats want to use stimulus money to make you into the people populating Disney's cartoon 'Wall-E.' Instead, turn it into a weapon for antifragility.Democrats’ fifth round of “coronavirus” “stimulus” will soon hand another $1,400 in government debt, plus interest, to every American man, woman, and child in 90 percent of U.S. households. It’s clear this is yet another round of hush money meant to keep Americans quiet and distracted while Democrats restructure the United States into a larger version of their failed uniparty state, California.While COVID times have been obviously worse than the four years of prosperity and freedom under...

Image of Constitution public domain, red text added by Dean WeingartenTo those who support the United States Constitution and the Second Amendment, many propositions put forward by the ruling class do not make any sense. The United States is/has been the most successful, most prosperous, most powerful, most free and least racist (with the exception of Affirmative Action) nation on the face of the earth, at least for the last thirty years. The "poor" in the United State would be upper middle class in most of the rest of the world. Given this reality, when appraising the proposals of the...

The Gun Owners’ Action League and others are protesting proposed increases in MassWildlife’s freshwater fishing, hunting and trapping license fees — with some rates jumping 200% or more. “This dramatic increase request comes at a rather troubling time,” the league said in a statement. “It is GOAL’s opinion that before we agree to any further fee increases, some serious issues need to be addressed.” Under the proposal, a fishing license for a Massachusetts resident would increase from $22.50 to $40 per year. The costs of licenses and permits to hunt bear, turkey, pheasant, waterfowl, small game and deer, including archery...

A Louisiana legislator, Danny McCormick, Republican, has filed a Constitutional Carry Bill in the House, HB16. It has a chance of becoming law. Constitutional Carry is a close approximation of the state of law which existed concerning the carry of weapons when the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791. At that time, no permit was required to carry weapons, either openly or concealed.The Louisiana legislature has strong Republican majorities in the House and the Senate. 27 – 12 in the Senate, and 68 – 35 in the House, with 2 independents.Democrat Bel Edwards is governor. He was re-elected in 2019...

The Democrat-led House on Thursday passed HR8, a gun control bill that will expand background checks, with a 227-203 vote. Eight Republican lawmakers voted with the Democrats to pass the “Background Checks Act” that prohibits private firearms transfers without having a background check. It will require a gun registry to work. They also passed HR 1446 which allows tyrants to indefinitely hold back background checks. At the same time, these same Democrats blocked legislation that would require ICE to be contacted when illegal aliens apply to buy a gun... Steve Scalise announced on Twitter: House Democrats just REJECTED an amendment...

A significant gun control measure mandating universal background checks passed the Democrat-controlled House Thursday with the help of eight Republicans.

The measures, similar to ones passed by the House in 2019, are again not expected to pass in the Senate. The Democrat-controlled House on Thursday afternoon passed the second of two gun-control measure, extending the review period for background checks by roughly one week. The bipartisan bill, which passed 219-210, would extend the review period for background checks from three to 10 days. Democratic South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn introduced the so-called "Charleston loophole" legislation. In 2015, a shooter killed nine people at a Charleston, S.C., church. The FBI said afterward that a background check examiner never saw the shooter’s...

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill expanding background checks on individuals who are seeking to purchase or transfer firearms as top Democrats have vowed to reintroduce gun control measures. “This bill is a critical step toward preventing gun violence and saving lives,” Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) who sponsored the measure known as H.R. 8, as Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) introduced the companion bill in the upper chamber. The bill, titled the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, passed 227-203, receiving eight Republican votes and one Democrat vote against. Five Republicans co-sponsored the bill along with several Democrats....

The bill passed by a 237-203 vote with eight Republicans backing the measure and one Democrat voting against. The legislation would implement new background check requirements for gun transfers between private parties. Under current law, unlicensed and private sellers are not required to conduct background checks for gun transfers despite licensed firearm dealers being required to do so. The bill would require “a licensed gun dealer, manufacturer, or importer” to first take possession of the gun while a background check is being conducted. The legislation creates an exemption for transfers made as a gift between spouses. While the bill faced...

The U.S. House of Representatives passed universal background check gun control Thursday, criminalizing private gun sales conducted apart from an FBI background check. The legislation, H.R. 8, sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA), passed by a vote of 227 to 203.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Texas Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke often bellowed on how, if elected president, he wanted to take away your firearms, specifically your “military-style” AR-15 through a mandatory gun buy-back program, something unconstitutional on its face and a direct infringement of the right to keep and bear arms enshrined in the Second Amendment, During the Democratic presidential primary debate on October 15, 2019, the Congressman responded to the question of how he intended to enforce that proposed gun buyback program: Although he hasn’t offered exact specifics on the program, he did share some additional details at the...

Our neighbor to the north doesn’t have a “Second Amendment,” so there is little that gun owners can do if Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passes his sweeping gun reform legislation. Not only would it ban the ownership of so-called “assault-style” firearms such as AR-15s, but it could allow municipalities to even ban handguns – all handguns regardless of age. In a press conference earlier this month, the Liberal Party PM said he would move forward with a buyback program in the coming months, but also said that the legislation would empower municipalities to restrict storage and transportation of handguns...

Portland Oregon politicians decided to drastically cut the budget for the police department at the end of last year, hoping to make their city streets safer — at least for Antifa and Black Lives Matter. For the rest of the citizens? Not so much. Shootings have skyrocketed — nearly 2 1/2 times higher than the year before. Authorities blame the pandemic. And unemployment. And “systemic racism.” And everything but the 7 percent reduction in the police budget. The cuts with the biggest impact on gun violence included the disbanding of the highly effective Gun Violence Reduction Team. The unit was...

Sen. Joe Manchin, the moderate West Virginia Democrat whose vote the party will almost surely need to pass laws this year, signaled Sunday that he may be open to reforming the filibuster, a procedural rule that requires 60 votes for many measures, effectively dooming most legislation.

One factor could be that just as law-abiding citizens went through legal channels to acquire firearms last year and into 2021, so too have criminals. It could be that criminals fear an armed law-abiding population and are responding in kind. It is also important to note that year-over-year crime rates have been on the decline in recent decades even if 2020 reversed those numbers. At the same time, firearms sales have steadily increased. As a result, it is simply unlikely that the record number of legal firearms sales attributed to the increase in crime. Rather it just seemed criminals kept...

In most cases, you’ll want to focus on either a shotgun or a pistol. Shotguns, especially pump-action shotguns, are generally easy to use, point well, and mostly handle by feel. However, shotguns can be heavier and come with a good amount of recoil. If this is a problem, you might want to go with a handgun instead. No matter what type of firearm you choose, from a revolver to a rifle, you should remember to prioritize two things: recoil and reliability. A gun with lighter recoil is often better for older shooters. Although it may seem counterintuitive, a heavier, larger...

When the Framers put the Bill of Rights into place, they did so assuming that Americans were a fundamentally moral people. John Adams stated that explicitly, saying, "Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." One element of this assumption was that the people could be trusted with firearms. Now, though, those in charge of the government presumptively assess Americans as immoral and untrustworthy.Immediately after the Framers created the Union, they passed the ten constitutional amendments that we call the Bill of Rights. The Framers understood these...

Of course, nothing comes close to the cost of a single shell used for the cannon originally designed for the U.S. Navy’s USS Zumwalt, which came in at an estimated $800,000 each and made the gun too expensive to operate. However, there still some are calibers that are so expensive that shooters may want to think twice before ever squeezing the trigger. When shooting these rounds you can expect that it will be a costly day at the range. (Note: many of the prices below could be much higher due to what seem like regional price increases due to the...