Free Republic

On August 25, 2020, Kyle Rittenhouse defended himself from numerous attackers with an AR15 type (Smith & Wesson M&P 15) rifle. The rifle was not legally owned by Kyle. He had legal possession of it. This was due to a quirk in the law. People under the age of 18 have always been able to buy rifles from private owners and possess them, but they are not allowed to buy them from licensed federal dealers. Kyle Rittenhouse had given money to Dominick Black to purchase the rifle from a licensed federal dealer, with the understanding he would transfer ownership and...

In 2018, California resident Steven Childs wanted to know how much the state paid to a single vendor over a five-year period. Instead of the data, California Controller Betty Yee sent him an invoice for $1,250. Childs asked more questions and the Controller’s chief counsel, Rick Chivaro, admitted the state held electronic records and “warrant records” akin to “maintaining a checking account online.”Today, in a Sacramento superior court, the controller denies having a checkbook and claims the warrant register doesn’t contain vendor information. The Golden State is the only state in the nation not to produce state spending under open...

A very influential American vaccine proponent has died after suffering from "sudden cardiac arrest".. Washington Post editor Fred Hiatt suffered “sudden cardiac arrest on November 24” and did not regain consciousness. Hiatt was a recipient of the jab after his employer imposed a vaccine mandate in July to “help safeguard the health and safety” of the newspaper’s staff. The dramatic upswing in heart failure has been linked to vaccination. Hiatt was directly involved in spreading false news, including the Russiagate hoax and lies to justify the attack on Syria. He published “at least” 27 editorials pushing for war in the...

Dr. Oz is running in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania. Mehmet Oz, cardiothoracic surgeon, author and television personality, checks all the right boxes on limited government, energy independence, capitalism, the Constitution and free markets for better health care, as he told Fox's Sean Hannity last week. What’s not to like?

Wait! Was that an NRA spokesman on Morning Joe today, making the case for the Second Amendment? Nope, turns out it was actually David Ignatius. But the hyper-establishment Washington Post columnist/editor and Morning Joe foreign-policy maven unwittingly made a strong case for the right to keep and bear arms! "He's going to face a guerrilla warfare, extended partisan warfare in Ukraine. There -- I counted 400,000 people who've received some kind of militia training. There are a million guns floating around Ukraine. I mean, it's a place where it’d be hard to subdue the population."Get the rest of the story...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that the Republican Party wanted to destroy the United States government, so they were “associating themselves with the ability of individuals to arm themselves against the government.” Anchor Nicolle Wallace, where does the sickness come from with a Christmas gift for a child was a gun, the child’s instability was known to the school, and communicated to the parents, and then two days later, Republican elected official whose salary is drawn from the United States taxpayer sends out gun porn asking Santa to bring ammo. How do we deal with the rot...

A left-wing protest in Washington, D.C., is blocking traffic in the nation's capital to demonstrate against an administration and lawmakers they believe have failed them by not delivering on various promises. The initiative, dubbed "Shutdown DC," is a joint effort from several activist organizations that are each conducting blockades at different spots near the Capitol building.

A predictive model of a polarized group, similar to the current U.S. Senate, demonstrates that when an outside threat—like war or a pandemic—fails to unite the group, the divide may be irreversible through democratic means. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as part of a Dynamics of Political Polarization Special Feature, the model identifies such atypical behavior among the political elite as a powerful symptom of dangerously high levels of polarization. "We see this very disturbing pattern in which a shock brings people a little bit closer initially, but if polarization is too extreme, eventually the...

Nashville police arrested a woman on Thursday (Nov. 2) accused of carrying a handgun on the East Nashville Magnet School’s campus, the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department reported. Barquita Williams was released from police custody on $1,000 bond. According to the police, the incident stemmed from a physical fight in the school building between two female students at dismissal time. They had argued with each other earlier in the day. As they fought in a stairwell of the school, several other students jumped into the brawl. Meanwhile, parents were waiting outside to pick up their kids as the students scuffled inside...

Last week’s Supreme Court oral arguments sparked a glimmer of hope on left, with the hope being to use a possible overturning of Roe v. Wade as a wedge issue in 2022 to drive turnout. But while signs are certainly pointing toward the “right” to abortion being gutted, would such an event really represent a reset for the coming election?Color me extremely skeptical that the electorate is that malleable at this point, and I’m apparently not the only one throwing cold water on the idea. Politico spoke to several Democrat strategists who not only think the abortion issue isn’t a...

So-called "ghost guns" are untraceable firearms that can be bought online and assembled at home, without background checks (and with the aid of YouTube videos). A homemade firearm that federal agents say was recovered on Feb. 6, 2020, from a home in Edmonds, Washington. © U.S. Attorney's Office via AP A homemade firearm that federal agents say was recovered on Feb. 6, 2020, from a home in Edmonds, Washington. Earlier this week, police said one such ghost gun was used in a shooting at a high school in Arizona. The guns' rise in popularity is a "fast-growing scourge" facing the...

When a conservative thinks about what Republican policy platforms should include, there are certain things we do not expect to see:Bail reformGun controlTransgender surgeries for childrenVaxx-nannyingThe Great ResetWhat do all of these things have in common, other than being associated with the political left? They all happen to be policies actively and aggressively promoted by “Republican” U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz. He’s running in arguably the most consequential Senate race in 2022, Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, his name recognition may be enough to propel him to a primary win. We need to stop him.Here are just some of the receipts demonstrating...

A total of 60 United States police officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty since the beginning of the year, new data reveals, following anti-law enforcement riots and the start of the “Defund the Police” movement in 2020.According to records from the National Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP), 60 police officers across 45 U.S. states and territories have been killed in gunfire from January 1 to December 3 — a nearly 28 percent increase in fatal shootings of officers compared to all of 2020 when 47 officers were shot...

The man who gave reportedly gave the parents of accused Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley a place to stay as they were being hunted by police is a Detroit artist. Artist Andrzej Sikora said through a lawyer on Sunday that he had given shelter to the parents of accused Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley but did not know they had spent the night, and that he’s cooperating with police.... ...The couple said they did not intend to flee but had left their home for safety reasons and planned to return for their arraignment. Authorities, meanwhile, launched a manhunt,...

Former high-ranking U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy discusses charges against the parents of Ethan Crumbley. McCarthy made these comments yesterday appearing with Neil Cavuto. Andrew McCarthy — “I really think it’s outrageous, I mean I understand it because people are very hot, emotions are very raw, this was a heinous heinous act.” “And the state of Michigan has considered a number of times enacting a law, this child access prevention law that many states have adopted which would make criminal what happened here which was the that the parents allowed the child to get access to the weapon. But the state...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” called for a national safe storage law when reacting to James and Jennifer Crumbley being charged with involuntary manslaughter after their son 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley was charged for terrorism and murder in the school shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan.

If you’ve heard of “ghost guns,” you may have begun to panic about an epidemic of untraceable firearms lacking a federally-mandated serial number and assembled from parts purchased online or 3-D-printed. A recent New York Times article warned that ghost guns “can be ordered by gang members, felons and even children,” and deemed the rising number of seized ghost guns a “crisis.” The head of a gun-safety organization called ghost guns “the biggest threat in the country right now.” The problem? None of this language is new. It echoes 60-year-old rhetoric first used to describe the country’s original post-World War...

Baldwin said he pulled the hammer back and released it and the pistol fired without pulling the trigger. The pistol was a replica Pietta, but we don't know now if it had a transfer bar. Assume it doesn't. Has anyone here ever had that happen, or have known that it happened?

“Unforgivable.” That’s the message a pro-gun rights organization is relaying to former Gov. Eric Greitens as he criticizes Missouri’s newest gun law while running for U.S. Senate. At the heart of the issue is Missouri’s Second Amendment Preservation Act — dubbed SAPA — which took effect in August. It declares federal laws that could restrict gun ownership among law-abiding Missourians as “invalid” and restricts law enforcement officers from enforcing federal firearm regulations that could be deemed invalid under the law. SAPA has garnered national media attention, and some prosecutors and law enforcement officers have expressed concern that the law could...

Editor's note: this piece was authored by Addison Hosner.Regardless of your opinion on the outcome of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, one thing cannot be denied — from a legal standpoint, the verdict was correct. You don’t have to like it, you don’t even have to tolerate it, but you have to understand: Legal decisions are not made with the emotional state of proponents and dissidents in mind — nor should they be. Unfortunately, as a nation, it seems we’re becoming less and less able to separate facts from our feelings. In order to address difficult conversations in the future regarding...