Free Republic

Every mass shooting has three elements: the killer, the weapon and the cultural climate. As soon as the shooting stops, partisans immediately pick their preferred root cause with corresponding pet panacea. Names are hurled, scapegoats paraded, prejudices vented. The argument goes nowhere. Let’s be serious: (1) The Weapon Within hours of last week’s Newtown, Conn., massacre, the focus was the weapon and the demand was for new gun laws. Several prominent pro-gun Democrats remorsefully professed new openness to gun control. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is introducing a new assault weapons ban. And the president emphasized guns and ammo above all...

Last night my local County Republican Executive Committee held elections for officers. The two term chairman (GOP-E in my opinion) who ran on his ability to raise funds was denied and replaced by a (TEA orientated) member who worked tirelessly to build the membership and get out the vote. I'm energized and am going to step up and help out any way I can. Any changes in your local leadership?

The powerful gun rights lobby went on the offensive on Friday arguing that schools should have armed guards, on a day that Americans remembered the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre with a moment of silence. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” said Wayne LaPierre, chief executive of the National Rifle Association, noting that banks and airports are patrolled by armed guards, while schools typically are not. His remarks - in which he charged that the news media and violent video games shared blame for the second-deadliest...

December 20, 2012 Over the past week, we as Americans have been united in our grief as Newtown has laid to rest so many beautiful, innocent children, along with the heroic educators who worked every day to help them achieve their dreams. As a mother of two young daughters, my heart aches for you and your families. Like so many Americans, I wish there were something — anything — I could do or say to ease your anguish. But I know that I cannot begin to imagine the depths of your grief. I know that for many of you, the...

Winning the lottery, lightning striking twice, a perfect SAT score? This last rare occurrence was achieved by one Philadelphia senior who deserves some special recognition. "I woke up and checked my score on my cell phone and I didn't believe it at first, so I kept refreshing the page and after five to 10 times refreshing I woke my parents up. ‘Mom, dad I got a perfect score!'" Cameron Clarke told FOX 29, remembering the day he found out he was notified of his perfect SAT score. As we know, SAT's can feel like a make or break moment for...

If Robert Griffin III is a “cornball”, then clearly cornball is compatible with aptitude, proficiency, talent and intelligence. Frankly, I’d like every young black man in America to be defined that way. While the recent commentary by ESPN reporter, Rob Parker regarding the young Washington Redskins phenomenon may have caught others off guard--I could see it coming from ten miles away. As an educator, I have had the privilege to work with African Washington Redskins player Robert Griffin III. (Evan Vucci - AP) American male students in a number of capacities: as a teacher, principal, counselor, coach, and mentor. The...

Marine veteran Jon Hammar Jr., who was arrested on a dubious weapon charge in August was released today from the notorious CEDES prison, according to his attorney. Eddie Varon-Levy said he and Hammar Jr. are currently at the Matamoros, Mexico-Brownsville, Texas border crossing where he was arrested Aug. 13, waiting to be processed to proceed across the bridge that spans the Rio Grande River. Hammar Jr., is expected to be reunited with his father, who immediately flew to Brownsville this morning after learning from Varon-Levy that a judge in Mexico had dropped the felony charge because of a civil rights...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey state senator says the state should move investments from any company that makes or sells assault weapons. Sen. Richard Codey told The Associated Press on Friday that the "only people who use assault weapons are mass murderers, drug dealers and cop killers." His proposal comes in response to last week's shooting in Connecticut when a gunman killed 26 people at a school, including 20 children. Codey said that he plans to introduce the measure next month. The former governor, who took office because he was president of the state Senate after Gov. Jim...

The federal judge who sentenced former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' gunman is advocating a nationwide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to take the "mass out of mass shootings." "There is just no reason civilians need to own assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," Judge Larry Allan Burns wrote in Thursday's Los Angeles Times. Since Jared Lee Loughner killed six people and wounded Giffords with his 31-round magazine Glock pistol, there have been six deadlier mass shootings, Burns wrote. "But reasonable, good-faith debates have boundaries, and in the debate about guns, a high-capacity magazine has always seemed to me beyond them,"...

Despite pumping life into every town and city that they haul freight to, truckers are still looked upon as a nuisance by most areas. They think of big trucks as rolling death-machines that bring pollution, noise, and crime to their towns, not realizing that what they really bring is absolutely everything the town needs to survive. Well, yet another city is taking steps to ban these “nuisances” from their streets entirely. The mayor of Columbiana, Alabama has called for a ban on semi-trucks driving in their downtown area. He says that trucks are the main cause of traffic jams in...

MINNEAPOLIS — At a press conference Friday, the National Rifle Association proposed adding armed security at all U.S. schools. The organization's suggestion comes exactly one week after 20 children and six adults were shot to death in a Connecticut school. Members of Minnesota's Congressional delegation, and some members of the NRA, are divided on the proposal. NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre announced Operation School Shield during a presentation interrupted twice by protesters who shouted that the NRA is to blame for gun violence. LaPierre ignored the protestors and said violent movies and video games were to blame for the...

Currently behind. Category: Nation Voting began on 12/21/2012 Voting ends on 12/22/2012 A.Yes - 847 (26%) B.No - 2304 (70%) C.Not sure - 149 (5%) Read more: http://old.post-gazette.com/polls/Default.asp#ixzz2FkEvJyTq

The husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords ripped the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Friday for a press conference that defied “common sense” and defended “extreme pro-gun positions.” “Gabby and I are extremely disappointed by the NRA's defiant and delayed response to the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” Mark Kelly said in a statement. “The NRA could have chosen to be a voice for the vast majority of its own members who want common-sense, reasonable safeguards on deadly firearms, but instead it chose to defend extreme pro-gun positions that aren't even popular among...

Executive order closes federal offices Monday Friday - 12/21/2012, 5:02pm ET WASHINGTON - Federal employees don't have to go to work on Monday, Dec. 24. The White House announced shortly after 1 p.m. on Friday it was giving all executive branch departments and agencies the day off. The executive order, below, is also posted on the White House website.

Several conservative House Republican members are contemplating a plan to unseat Speaker John Boehner from his position on January 3, Breitbart News has exclusively learned. Staffers have compiled a detailed action plan that, if executed, could make this a reality. The Republicans, both conservatives and more establishment members alike, are emboldened after the failure of Boehner’s fiscal cliff “Plan B” on Thursday evening. Dissatisfaction with Boehner is growing in the House Republican conference, but until now there hasn’t been a clear path forward.

House Speaker John Boehner (R.-Ohio) said on Friday that he was not afraid of losing his speakership in the aftermath of the stunning defeat dealt to him on Thursday evening by House conservatives who refused to vote for his “Plan B” proposal to increase the income tax rate on income over $1 million. When a reporter asked Boehner at a Capitol press conference whether he should be concerned about losing his speakership, Boehner said, “No, I’m not.” “Listen, you’ve all heard me say this, and I’ve told my colleagues this, if you do the right things every day for the...

For the last two years, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the nominee to be the next secretary of state, has called for “immigration equality” to prevent the deportation of illegal alien same-sex partners of legal U.S. residents. In May, shortly after President Barack Obama announced his support for homosexual marriage, Kerry and 16 other Democratic senators sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The letter pointed to the number of states recognizing gay marriage, but said problems could arise because of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations...

Pope Benedict XVI has weighed in on a heated debate over gay marriage, criticising new concepts of the traditional family and warning that mankind itself was at stake. "In the fight for the family, the very notion of being – of what being human really means – is being called into question," the Pope said in Italian during an end-of-year speech. "The question of the family ... is the question of what it means to be a man, and what it is necessary to do to be true men," he said. The Pope spoke of the "falseness" of gender theories...

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Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said Thursday that he had started discussions with leaders of the State Legislature about new gun control measures, and that he planned to propose a package of gun legislation in his State of the State address on Jan. 9. “There’s a big difference of opinion on these issues,” Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said in an interview on an Albany radio station. The New York Assembly, controlled by Democrats, has voted for a number of proposed gun control measures in recent years, only to have the legislation falter in the Senate, which has been controlled by Republicans....