Free Republic

Image from southafricatoday  On June 7th, 2018, the Constitutional Court in South Africa, overruled a lower court's decision that parts of South Africa's gun laws were unconstitutional. The laws were absolute, and did not allow for appeal or legitimate reasons for delay, such as hospitalization or death. From citizen.co.za: Section 24 of the Act requires that any person who seeks to renew a licence must do so 90 days before its expiry date. Section 28 stipulates that if a firearm licence has been cancelled‚ the firearm must be disposed of or forfeited to the state. A 60-day timeframe was...

Schools across New York began the academic year with a new tool intended to prevent student suicides and violence: the ability to ask a court to remove a troubled person's access to firearms. About a third of U.S. states have so-called "red flag" laws, which allow courts to temporarily seize guns from people believed to be a danger to themselves or others, but New York is the first to empower schools to petition a court themselves for such an order, rather than go through local law enforcement. In New York, school principals are now allowed to petition the court for...

John Lott is the most admired and the most vilified of researchers on the effects of laws that restrict gun ownership and being armed in public, and the effects of the reform of laws that restrict gun ownership and bearing arms in public.His research is well accepted among his peers, and vilified by those who disagree with his results. John had to learn the hard way that honest science about guns and gun laws is not welcome in most of academia.Unfortunately, academia has, in large part, been taken over by people who are ignorant of guns and gun legislation,...

John Lott, Jr., a PhD economist who has published scores of peer-reviewed articles in top journals, has written an outstanding and important new book, The War on Guns. It is, I believe, the most important document ever written about guns. The book has many outstanding aspects. One is Lott’s careful review of many studies that the media often cite in order to bolster arguments in favor of additional restrictions on guns. Often, Lott uses his exceptional training in statistics to expose major flaws in these studies. A second outstanding aspect of the book is Lott’s documentation of several cases where...

(...) Following the on-air shooting of two television reporters in Roanoke, Virginia, she declared: “I feel just great heartache at what happened. I want to reiterate how important it is [that] we not let yet another terrible instance go by without trying to do something more to prevent this terrible killing that is stalking our country.” She added: "We have got to do something about gun violence in America — and I will take it on." She said the same thing back in July, in an obvious shift away from avoiding Second Amendment issues during the presidential campaign to avoid...

A Michigan elementary school is defending its decision to confiscate a third-graders batch of homemade cupcakes because the birthday treats were decorated with plastic green Army soldiers. Casey Fountain told Fox News that the principal of his son’s elementary school called the cupcakes “insensitive” — in light of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. “It disgusted me,” he said. “It’s vile they lump true American heroes with psychopathic killers.” Fountain’s wife made a batch of 30 chocolate cupcakes for their son Hunter’s classmates at Schall Elementary School in the town of Caro. The 9-year-old helped decorate the...

In retaliation against the New York newspaper — the Journal News — that published the addresses of those pistol permit holders in two of the state’s counties, a blogger has created a map pinpointing the addresses of the newspaper’s employees. Mimicking the title of the Journal News’ original article, Robert Cox with “Talk of the Sound” headlined his post: Map: Where are the Journal News employees in your neighborhood?

No more slow-walking Fast and Furious probeJustice has waited long enough. It’s time to pull the trigger on contempt charges against Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. for withholding documents from Congress in the Operation Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal. Allowing further delay would only confirm what many Americans suspect: There is one set of laws for bureaucrats and another for the rest of us. Congress has been waiting since October 2011 for Mr. Holder to comply fully with a subpoena seeking records in 22 categories of information about the federal firearms-smuggling operation. The attorney general has provided some material...

A Blount County woman arrested on a gun possession charge while visiting New York City has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge, according to the Associated Press. Meredith Graves, a registered nurse from Louisville, was spared jail time under the plea deal. She pleaded guilty Monday to criminal possession of a weapon, according to the AP. Charged with felony gun possession, Graves posted a $2,000 bond and faced a minimum sentence of 3½ years in prison after reportedly requesting to check her loaded, .32-caliber handgun with police at the World Trade Center Memorial on Dec. 22.

My 2nd and last vanity (I promise!) I'd be interested in hearing other's thought regarding the constitutionality of existing CCW laws. Should a person be required to undergo training and pay licensing fees to ejoy a consitutional right? Should I be allowed to put a sign on our building stating "No Equal Opportunity Allowed Inside"?

What reason if any, is there a need for registering a gun? The way that I see it is .. ONLY Law abiding citizens will follow the registration laws while a criminal WILL get a weapon .. whether it is a knife, grenade, hammer, gun, whatever .. Regardless of law!? Hence,the question: What reason do we need gun registration laws?

B.B. Guns Becoming a Problem for Police Updated: 8:12 AM Nov 17, 2005 NBC 15 Tuesday, a 13 year old Blackhawk Middle School student took a B.B. gun on to a Madison school bus. He shot three people with that gun. All three students had minor injuries. Now, police say it's the latest in a series of serious events related to such a weapon. Madison Police Chief Noble Wray says in the last few weeks there have been a growing number of B–B gun incidents involving children. It's illegal in the city of Madison for children under the age of...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE), who seem to go out of their way to alienate gun owners with their heavy-handedness, behaved in a shameful manner this last weekend at the Showmasters' gun show in Richmond. I had reports from members of police going to their houses while the member was waiting for their approval to purchase a gun at the show! The police asked the spouse and other family members questions about the purchases and filled in a survey! "Did you know your husband was going to a gun show today?" "Did you know your husband...

Court Allows Arrests of All in Drug Stops WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court issued a traffic warning Monday: Beware of whom you ride with. If drugs are found in a vehicle, all occupants can be arrested, the justices said in a unanimous decision. It was a victory for Maryland and 20 other states that argued police frequently find drugs in traffic stops but no one in the vehicle claims them. The court gave officers the go-ahead to arrest everyone. In a small space like a car, an officer could reasonably infer "a common enterprise" among a driver and passengers,...