Free Republic

Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” French Ambassador to the United States Gerard Araud defend a tweet he had posted in response to Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump immediately following the terror attacks in Paris earlier this month. Araud described Trump as a “vulture” for a tweet Trump had made earlier in the year following the January attack on Charlie Hebdo. Araud acknowledged he deleted the tweet, explaining it was immediately as his home country was reeling from the attacks, but doubled down on the sentiment he originally conveyed, which was using a gun to defend themselves in such...

On Monday, 24 Senate Democrats urged President Obama to circumvent Congress by using executive action to expand background checks to cover private gun sales. ....snip.... According to WMDT, the latest two Senators to join the effort to get Obama to go around Congress are Sens. Chris Coon (D-DE) and Tom Carper (D-DE). The Senators want Obama to use executive action to expand background checks to include private gun owners who sell a certain number of guns each year. Breitbart News previously reported that Obama began talking about this expansion after the October 1 Umpqua Community College attack. NBC News reported...

Richard Cunningham was homeless. But he wasn’t gun-less, police allege. Deputies found a cache of weapons at his Harbor City encampment, including: two fully operational submachine guns, four handguns, two makeshift silencers and numerous rounds of ammunition, It is unclear how Cunningham came to possess the arsenal.

The Houston Zoo has reinstalled a series of signs that prohibit carrying firearms into the gates of the family-friendly attraction almost three months after taking them down under threat of legal action. Attorney Edwin Walker with Texas Law Shield, a legal services firm for gun owners, sent a demand letter on Sept. 3 to the Houston Zoo and its corporate entity and the city's parks and recreation department asking that they take down the signs, which state "handguns not permitted on zoo grounds.' After the signs were removed, about a week later, the zoo staff said that they would confer...

The gun stolen from an officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Francisco and allegedly used in the murder of Oakland muralist Antonio Ramos was just one of more than 144 firearms lost or stolen from ICE agents since 2005, according to records NBC Bay Area's Investigative Unit obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

I was sent to the supermarket to buy some green beans for Thanksgiving. On the way out I decided to look at the computer magazines in the magazine rack which I have not done in years. This rack is medium size. I figured I would see no computer magazines (computers are passe) but that I would see  magazines devoted to smartphones and iphones. But I saw nothing.What I did see surprised me. 12 gun magazines, maybe one or two were buying guides. I also saw a model drone buying guide. On the cover was a photo of a helicopter type...

In the latest high-profile racial railroading of a white policeman for obvious political reasons, it has taken authorities over a full year to decide to charge Chicago cop Jason Van Dyke in the fatal shooting of black 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. The obviousness of the racial/political theater here is largely due to the fact that the timing of the ridiculous charge — first degree murder — being suddenly announced after all these months, so transparently coincides with the sudden FOIA public release of a police dashcam video of the shooting which, to the untrained eye, looks pretty bad. The video in...

This is news from Louisiana on Sunday. Seventeen people were shot but survived when gunfire erupted on on a playground where a block party was going in New Orleans. If you did not hear about it, do not be surprised. It was barely news. It is amazing to think that there was not a huge media blitz, that there were not the standard outrageous, grandstanding tweets, or the ridiculous parade of pseudo-experts on CNN and MSNBC to spend hours talking about gun control. The endless blog posts, the overwrought editorials. None of those. And why is that? Here is a...

If you have followed the news headlines lately, you know that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – the bureaucracy responsible for ensuring the safety of our nation’s travelers – has seen better days. An internal investigation released in June found that the TSA had a stunning 96 percent failure rate in detecting weapons and fake explosives. More recently, a report from “The Today Show” revealed that NBC producers were able to pass airport security with Swiss army knives and box cutters in tow. Comforting, huh? While knives and weapons may make it past airport security all too often, your handgun...

Fans of mindless authoritarianism are having a pretty good month. The New York Times reports: Congressional Democrats are trying to build support for an effort to bar gun purchases by terror suspects, hoping to take advantage of the same public anxieties about security that gave Republicans a ringing House victory. The Democratic push seems likely to fall victim to opposition from the National Rifle Association and congressional gun-rights backers, chiefly Republicans, who have smothered firearms curbs for years. If the Republicans who control Congress block votes on the proposal, Democrats hope to profit politically by winning sympathy from angry voters....

The real problem does not lie with these refugees seeking help from America. The real problem lies in the accessibility terrorists have to guns in this country. Rep. Tony Dale, a Republican congressman for the state of Texas, expressed that one of his top concerns about the refugee situation is how easy it is to buy a gun in his state. Dale is not wrong. The availability of guns for anyone in America, even legally, is nonsensical. According to the Government Accountability Office, between 2004 and 2014, 91 percent of the time suspected terrorists attempted to buy guns in America...

What might have happened if a few of the 1,500 concert attendees in Paris' Bataclan theater had guns? The terrorists had time to kill, reload and kill again. The police unit didn't come for more than a half hour. If a few people in the theater were armed, might they have killed the killers? We'll never know. France's guns laws say you may not carry a gun unless police certify that you are "exposed to exceptional risks of harm" to your life. Few people even bother to apply. Fortunately, in America, laws in every state now allow adults to carry...

Having overwhelmingly lost the public debate about whether the Obama administration’s Syrian refugee screening policy should be enhanced, Democrats have retreated to more comfortable rhetorical ground: demanding more gun control. Their new secret weapon? A bill that would ban anyone whose name appears on a terror watch list from buying or possessing a firearm. The idea sounds reasonable enough until you dig into the details and realize that the proposed Democratic legislation is a shocking assault on the constitutional right to due process. What makes the proposal even worse is that the Democrats’ assault on due process isn’t necessary to...

The single image of LaQuan McDonald for the past six months has been that of a 17-year-old African-American teenager dressed in a red graduation cap and gown. Beyond the fact that he was shot and killed by a Chicago police officer the night of October 20, 2014, only a few facts about the remainder of his life have been reported. /See video at link)

Mechanical engineering student James Patrick recently uploaded a video to his YouTube channel showing off the fully functional PM522 Washbear .22LR revolver that he designed and 3D printed. With the exception of the firing pin, a few elastic bands that act as springs and the legally required amount of detectable metal, the entire gun including the body and cylinder is completely 3D printed. This is, to my knowledge, the very first functional repeating firearm ever made entirely (This doesn’t count, it has metal barrel inserts) on a desktop 3D printer. The optional 8 barrel revolver needs metal tubing inserts for...

Instead of voting to "encumber and bog down the refugee process," Republicans should go along with a Democrat demand to bar people on a secret government list from buying guns, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Monday. Earnest said the Republican plan to beef up the vetting of refugees will not improve national security: "Again, if Congress were actually interested in doing that, they'd pass a law that would prevent somebody who's on the terror watch list from being able to buy a gun. That's what Congress should do. "And as people are sitting around the Thanksgiving table, talking...

The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld one of the most basic principles of United States law this month.  The law has been under continual attack for the last hundred years, during the rise of the “progressive” state.A great many zoning ordinances around the country are based on “model” legislation that is pushed by central planners.  One of the stated premises in the legislation  is that anything that is not permitted is forbidden.  From a discussion of a previous zoning case in North Carolina:Virtually all zoning ordinances are based on the premise that the ordinance shall list certain land uses...

A group of 24 Senate Democrats urged the president Monday to dodge Congress and act on his own to make new rules on gun control, after Congress has failed to move any gun bills. The senators, led by Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy of Connecticut, requested the White House take an immediate step to change the law that now allows sellers who do not have a federal license to sell guns to individuals at shows, online and elsewhere without conducting background checks. The letter said Democrats would keep trying to pass a gun bill, but said Obama should explore...

You shouldn't trust Rubio. Senator Marco Rubio is running for president but he doesn't want you to know about his past views on guns. Take a note at this research on him opposing lawful gun owning. Rubio Favored Restrictions On Florida Gun Owners In His 2000 State House Race, Rubio Supported Waiting Periods On Gun Purchases. "'Background checks are necessary and the sale of guns at shows should be limited,' Garcia said. 'Furthermore, safety locks should be required. I am also against honoring the concealed weapons permits of other states in our state.' Rubio supports 'reasonable restrictions' including background checks...

An elderly couple turned the tables on a career criminal who tried to rob them at their Albuquerque home, holding him at gunpoint until police arrived. Police said the couple caught Aaron Lujan loading their belongings into an SUV that was parked across the street from their home. When Lujan didn't listen to their demands to stop, they retrieved their weapons and drew them on him while neighbors called the police. Police video shows the moments officers arrived on the scene and made the arrest.