Free Republic

On October 16, 2020, a number of plaintiffs, including Madison Lara, the Second Amendment Foundation, and others, filed a lawsuit claiming Pennsylvania law, which forbids 18-20-year-olds from obtaining a concealed carry permit or from openly carrying outside of the home during an emergency was an infringement of the rights protected by the Second Amendment. This was nearly two years before the Supreme Court decision of Bruen. On April 16, 2021, the District Court ruled against them. On April 21, 2021, the plaintiffs appealed the decision by the Pennsylvania District Court to the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. The...

On April 27, 2023, Governor Jared S. Polis of Colorado signed Senate Bill 23-169 into law. The bill increased the required legal age of a person to purchase firearms from 18 to 21, preventing people under 21 from legally purchasing firearms. Exceptions were provided for people in the United States armed forces or peace officers. The bill was challenged by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (RMGO) with two individuals plaintiffs in April, then amended in May. The RMGO and other plaintiffs asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the statute while the case is undergoing adjudication on July...

Five years ago, on March 8, 2018, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law Senate Bill 726. The law forbade residents of Florida 18-20 years old from purchasing firearms from federally licensed dealers. On the same day, the NRA sued the state of Florida (in the office of Attorney General, then Rick Swearingen), claiming the law was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. On June 21, 2021, the District Court Judge ordered summary judgement against the NRA and for the State of Florida, finding the purchase ban on long guns against residents 18-20 years old did not violate the Second Amendment....

On November 9th, 2021, the Firearms Policy Coalition filed a lawsuit against the State of Texas, titled, at the time, Andrews v. McCraw in the North District of Texas. From the complaint: To be sure, Plaintiffs acknowledge that their facial challenge to Texas’s ban on public carry by 18-to-20-year-olds is foreclosed in this Court by National Rifle Association of America Rifle, Inc. v. McCraw, 719 F.3d 338 (5th Cir. 2013), but they believe that case was wrongly decided. They therefore institute this litigation to vindicate their Second Amendment rights and seek to have McCraw overruled by a court competent to...

In his 1861 "Cornerstone Speech", Vice President of the Confederacy Alexander H. Stephens said the following: But not to be tedious in enumerating the numerous changes for the better, allow me to allude to one other — though last, not least. The new constitution has put at rest, forever, all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution — African slavery as it exists amongst us — the proper status of the negro in our form of civilization. This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present revolution. Jefferson in his forecast, had anticipated this, as the "rock...

It’s a town most people in Alabama don’t even know exists. But, that’s not the way things have always been, as this tiny Tallapoosa County community was once one of the largest cities in Alabama. The reason can be found deep beneath the woods near the main road that runs through town. James “Coy” Powell, whose ancestors have lived in Goldville for generations, said he hopes the history of this town doesn’t fade away like the population has. “It’s a sacred spot that I can go back and I can tell people like you, you know this wasn’t easy back...

Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois September 15, 1858 MR. DOUGLAS' SPEECH. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I appear before you today in pursuance of a previous notice, and have made arrangements with Mr. Lincoln to divide time, and discuss with him the leading political topics that now agitate the country. Prior to 1854 this country was divided into two great political parties known as Whig and Democratic. These parties differed from each other on certain questions which were then deemed to be important to the best interests of the Republic. Whig and Democrats differed about a bank, the...

The 1820s American Farm at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia, features a log house which incorporates an original log cabin built in 1773. The two wings of the house, joined by an enclosed dogtrot, demonstrate the progression in log-structure building techniques from colonial to early American times. This log farm house is a Shenandoah Valley original, moved from northern Rockingham County to the Museum and reconstructed on a hillside site.