Free Republic

Wyomingites wanting to just grab a couple of friends and go target shooting could potentially be breaking the law if a federal bill introduced by a Massachusetts senator passes. The Preventing Private Paramilitary Act of 2024 could potentially be used to ban just about any gun-related activity, Cody firearms instructor Bill Tallen told Cowboy State Daily. “It would shut down even any three individuals going to the gun range to practice with firearms,” he said. The bill, U.S. Senate File 3589, was introduced last month by Sen. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts. The bill’s stated intent is curb or prevent the formation...

Democratic Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed one of the nation’s most restrictive gun laws in 2023, and now highway shootings are surging in the state. Over 50 models of guns are banned under the legislation, including popular rifles such as AR-15s and M-16s, and the Democratic Legislature wants to crack down further with several more gun control bills in the body. The state is now seeing a surge in highway shootings, with more than a dozen reported on state highways since the beginning of the year, according to KOMO News. There have been over 190 reported “shooting incidents” in the...

Gun control activists are thrilled that a federal appeals court has allowed the government of Mexico's lawsuit against several major U.S. gun makers to proceed, at least for the time being, because they're hoping that the litigation will lead to the obliteration of the firearms industry. A new op-ed in Newsweek from Jonathan Lowy, head of Global Action Against Violence, makes that clear. Lowy, who was formerly the general counsel and vice president of Brady's legal team, is the architect of Mexico's lawsuit, though you have scroll all the way to the bottom of his op-ed to discover his role...

California gun owners didn’t get to enjoy a full week of freedom as they did when Judge Roger Benitez enjoined the state’s ban on “large capacity” magazines a few years ago, but as attorney Kostas Moros wrote on X, the Ninth Circuit’s delayed stay in Rhode v. Bonta allowed them to experience what purchasing ammunition is like in the rest of the country for a short period of time. [embedded court ruling] Unfortunately, that brief taste of freedom came to an end, at least temporarily, on Monday evening as a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit granted Attorney General Rob...

While the rate of homicides involving a firearm has increased in Canada, those crimes are not usually committed by people who have a licence for the weapon, according to a Statistics Canada report. “The firearms used in homicides were rarely legal firearms used by their legal owners who were in good standing,” said the report, titled Firearms and Violent Crime in Canada 2022. Looking at data from 2022, the report found that around half of the firearm-related murders were carried out by those who had obtained the gun legally (58 out of 113 homicides). “In most firearm-related homicides, the accused...

Topline: The Environmental Protection Agency isn’t traditionally associated with ranged weaponry, but the federal government has spent almost $620,000 since 2018 to buy guns, ammunition, and more for EPA employees. Key facts: Auditors at OpenTheBooks.com found that between 2018 and 2022, the EPA spent close to $400,000 of federal funds just on ammunition. That came after the EPA purchased 500,000 rounds of ammo and 600 guns from 2010-2017. Over $100,000 went to buying armor for EPA employees. Funds were also used for “optical sighting and ranging equipment,” for “night vision equipment” and “security vehicles.” Background: The EPA has a Criminal...

Afederal judge has declared that a law banning Americans from possessing guns in postal offices is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Florida ruled Friday that a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 2022 made the postal office gun ban illegal. As part of the decision, she dismissed part of an indictment charging postal worker Emmanuel Ayala with illegally possessing a gun in a federal building. She said the criminal charge violated Ayala’s 2nd Amendment rights. [link to judge's opinion included in article]

Three employees at a sporting goods store in Louisiana were terminated from their jobs after attempting to stop a shoplifter who allegedly stole a pistol. Michelle Sutton, along with two other unidentified workers at the Academy Sports + Outdoors in Metairie, Louisiana, said that the shoplifting incident happened Dec. 16. The sales associates said that they thought they were about to make a sale and were showing a customer a pistol, when he took off with the firearm. Sutton, who was working as a team lead at the store, said once she received word on her radio, she immediately dropped...

A report from the Guardian notes that police indicated that the Prague mass shooter “legally owned multiple firearms.” This means he complied with the Czech Republic’s myriad gun controls, including the acquisition of a gun license, which requires passage of a mental and criminal history background check and a demonstration of good cause for owning a gun. Other gun controls pertinent to legal gun ownership in the Czech Republic include passing a gun safety test, storing the gun according to regulations, and registering the weapon with the “regulating authority,” according to the University of Sydney’s Gun Policy Center.

The proportion of registered Democrats who have a firearm in their home has jumped significantly over the past few years.. rising crime in urban areas could be behind the increase. In November 2023 the survey found 41 percent of Democrats said they live in a household with a gun, up from 33 percent in a similar survey .. in August 2019. Notably, 33 percent of Democrats also said they lived with a gun in a similar NBC survey conducted in March 2004, indicating the sharp rise has been concentrated over the past four years. ... The data also showed a...

For years, people have been purchasing solvent traps and following Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) procedures to legally convert the devices into suppressors by filling out an ATF Form 1, paying for a $200 tax stamp, and going through all the checks and balances. The ATF has recently started rejecting all applications to make a suppressor. In a letter written to federal firearms licensees (FFLs) on November 20, the Bureau claims that solvent traps never existed under federal law and most have always been unregistered silencers. Solvent traps are devices used to catch fluids from cleaning firearms....

The total of privately owned guns in the United States is estimated to have passed 500 million after gun sales for the month of October were the third-highest on record. A year-over-year increase in gun sales for October 2023 signaled a new landmark for private gun sales in the United States. Ammoland reported approximately 1.33 million firearm sales, an 8.3% increase from October 2022, which has pushed the total number of privately owned guns in the country over the 500 million mark. As well, October 2023 was the third-highest October on record in terms of gun sales. Sales for 2023...

Video of the shootout with comments by Colin Noir and reference to the "rooftop" Koreans from the LA riots of 1992.

Comments during Ammo Inc.’s Nov. 9 earnings conference call indicate enthusiasts can expect cartridge prices to increase for the rest of the year and continue to do so through 2024. Officials from the firm base that prediction on demand for its Streak Visual Ammunition, Jagemann Munition Components, /stelTH/ Subsonic Ammunition and Ammo Incorporated Signature lines. Sell through on Gunbroker, which it also owns, supports that conclusion. One caller asked if the recent increase in ammunition sales reflected a seasonal trend, rather than an unexpected market shift. Ammo Inc. CEO Jared Smith answered, “So we would expect anywhere between a 5-...

If we possess a right to keep and bear firearms, it stands to reason that we must also have the right to acquire one, but according to a federal judge in Colorado no such right exists. U.S. District Judge John L. Kane, an 86-year-old appointee of Jimmy Carter back in 1977, made the eyebrow-raising decision in a case known as Rocky Mountain Gun Owners v. Polis, which challenges Colorado’s newly-enacted three-day waiting period on all gun sales. Kane denied the group’s request for an injunction that would have halted enforcement of the waiting period while the litigation continues, ruling the...

Two Washington, D.C., men face felony charges in connection with crashing a stolen vehicle this past weekend into a Capitol Hill complex barricade, after which police allegedly found a cache of ammunition and weapons including a device to convert a Glock into a machine gun-like pistol. Those arrested have been identified as Ricardo Glass and Onosetale Okojie, both 20. They face over a dozen charges, including carrying a pistol without a license, being a felon in possession of a firearm, driving under the influence and unlawfully possessing a machine gun, the U.S. Capitol Police said Monday. Multiple hip-hop publications have...

Gun Owners of America’s (GOA) preliminary injunction against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) rule on pistol stabilizing devices (Final Rule 2021R-08F) has been extended until the conclusion of the case. The case, State of Texas v. ATF, was bought by GOA, Gun Owners Foundation (GOF), and the state of Texas to challenge the ATF rule that reversed years of determinations surrounding pistols equipped with stabilizing devices. The ATF’s new rule reclassified most pistols with stabilizing braces to short-barreled rifles (SBRs), meaning the firearms would be regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA). It required...

The U.S. has stopped issuing export licenses for most civilian firearms and ammunition for 90 days for all non-governmental users, the Commerce Department said on Friday, citing national security and foreign policy interests. The Commerce Department did not provide further details for the pause, which also includes shotguns and optical sights, but said an urgent review will assess the "risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities." The Commerce Department declined to comment beyond the posting on its website. The halt covers most of the guns and ammunition...

The ATF under Director Steve Dettelbach has been at the forefront of assaulting the Second Amendment. Even after President Biden pushed through the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) with the cooperation of submissive Senate Republicans, he has used the administrative powers of the ATF to further infringe on our rights. Modeling their regulatory attacks on Trump’s bump stock ban, Biden and Dettelbach have unilaterally reclassified unfinished frames/receivers as firearms, reclassified pistol braces as NFA items, reclassified forced reset triggers, and are now changing who must register as a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL). The ATF has also been harassing ordinary FFLs...

If you could choose just three types of firearms that are essential for a well armed citizen to own, which would you recommend?