Free Republic

"Katy bar the door if I’m wrong." Interesting information on San Antonio Police Department preparations for the 19 October event. I will be heading to San Antonio on Thursday and expect to arrive there early Friday afternoon for the Come and Take It San Antonio rally. I received the communication below from a reader and it reveals some interesting information on the police preparations on the part of SAPD. It also reveals the Achilles' Heel of their plans. In any case, I'm going. Hope to see you there. (And for anyone who's not going but wishes they could, let...

Twofer: MAIG Mayors going to prison (Don’t drop the soap, boys) October 15, 2013 It’s been a busy week for Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG) group of gun-grabbing mayors. First up, Filthy Filner, the San Diego Mayor who had a reputation for sexually harassing lots of lots of ladies, pled guilty to some reduced charges. Rumor had it his plea was to avoid convictions with the word “sexual” in them.

Parents of high school students in Montgomery County School District in Maryland were outraged recently by a survey given to sophomores under the new Common Core education standards. The survey asked numerous intrusive questions that a school has no business asking students. Among them were questions like "what is your sexual orientation," "what's your religion," "what's your parents' political affiliation" and "should assault rifles be banned?" Angry parents notified the news website The Blaze about the survey, and shortly after a Blaze reporter began to ask about it, the survey disappeared from the Poolesville High School website. According to The...

It’s time to repeal the National Firearms Act of 1934. The Second Amendment requires it and the American people demand it be done now! The elite in society don’t want you to know that since 1934, there appear to have been at least two homicides committed with legally owned automatic weapons. One was a murder committed by a law enforcement officer (as opposed to a civilian). On September 15th, 1988, a 13-year veteran of the Dayton, Ohio police department, Patrolman Roger Waller, then 32, used his fully automatic MAC-11 .380 caliber submachine gun to kill a police informant, 52-year-old Lawrence...

The preliminary investigation indicates the husband and wife were separated. The woman went to her former home to exchange some sort of property. A dispute erupted and the husband shot the wife. She made it into the front yard before collapsing. A neighbor, armed with a handgun, rescued the woman from the yard and moved her to safety.

There were five justifiable homicides in Saginaw from 2000 to 2010, though the Federal Bureau of Investigation only knows that one of those cases was justifiable. The killing is one of 117 civilian justifiable homicides that took place from 2000 to 2010 in Michigan, according to FBI statistics, though an MLive investigation has shown those numbers are incomplete. Saginaw Police Department Detective Sgt. Joseph Dutoi said the agency reports to the state whenever there is a homicide, and the department is supposed to file another report when the homicides are determined to be justified. 

One of the users at The Firearm Blog has called the ATF and it seems like they have stopped processing all NFA paperwork as a result of the shutdown. I called [the BATFE] today and Vicky (a pleasant sounding lady who answered the phone) said they have been affected by the government shutdown. Staff furloughed, no applications are being processed, nor can they check status. My Form 4 was sent in Feb 2013, so who knows when I’ll see it. I guess the ATF is not an essential government function.

Washington (CNN) -- A federal agent will be allowed to write a book with an insider's account of Operation Fast and Furious, reversing an earlier government attempt to block publication for "morale" reasons. However, John Dodson, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, won't be allowed to make money on the book. A U.S. law enforcement official familiar with the matter says the Justice Department, ATF and the Federal Bureau of Investigation will review Dodson's manuscript and, after making redactions to protect sensitive law enforcement information, will clear it for publication. However, federal employee guidelines prohibit...

The New York Times’ recent 6,000-word major opus, “Children and Guns: The Hidden Toll ,” is the latest installment in the paper’s self-described series on “the gun industry’s influence and the wide availability of firearms in America.” In this article, it took the authors 75 paragraphs before they acknowledged that federal statistics, in fact, show a dramatic 30-year downward trend in accidental deaths involving firearms. But that’s not the impression that the Times wanted to leave with its readers. The article focused dramatically on case vignettes involving the accidental deaths of children from firearms, which we all agree are tragic...

Bear Cothran works–or rather, worked–at a Shell station in Nashua, NH. Over the weekend, in the wee hours of the morning, a large guy with a knife entered the store, demanded money and, according to Cothran, threatened to kill him if he didn’t cooperate. Cothran is a lawful New Hampshire gun owner, he had his gun on him, so he drew the gun and the robber left post-haste. Yay, the good guys win! Uh…no. At 11:20 [Monday] morning, Bear received a phone call from his boss, informing him that, in spite of his status as a 10-year employee in good...

After months of anguished debate over mass shootings, gun control and Second Amendment rights, the Justice Department finds itself on the defensive after a training manual surfaced that suggests federal agents could face a firing squad for leaking government secrets. The online manual for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — complete with a photo of a turn-of-the-century firing squad — was obtained by The Washington Times from a concerned federal law enforcement official, and it immediately drew protests from watchdogs who said it showed a lack of sensitivity to gun violence and the continuing hostile environment toward...

BOZEMAN — The number of Montana residents with concealed weapons permits has more than doubled since 2008.

The Sheriff did not return phone calls, so details are scarce. At this point, we know two burglars tried to break into a home Saturday just outside Rockport City limits. Sources say the homeowner shot at the burglars, but its not clear if they were hit.

Tulsa, Okla. — A homeowner returns from a walk Saturday evening and finds an intruder inside his home near Skelly and Lewis. Police say they received the call around 6 p.m., but not just for a burglary.

(CN) - Concerns that a limitation on concealed-carry permits in Orange County, Calif., amounts to an all-out ban did not seem to resonate with the 9th Circuit. A three-judge panel with the federal appeals court met this week to consider a 2012 lawsuit challenging Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchen's policy of "denying law-abiding, competent adults ... state-required licenses to carry handguns in public for the purpose of self-defense." The policy requires gun owners to prove to the sheriff that they have a valid reason to carry their gun for self defense.

A pit bull attacked at least two children on a neighborhood street, wounding one, before someone fatally shot the dog Sunday afternoon, police said. The dog got loose in the 2400 block of North Genevieve Street (map) and began attacking people about 2:40 p.m., a San Bernardino police lieutenant told NBC4. The pit bull bit a child's thigh. Someone arrived with a gun and fatally shot the dog, the lieutenant said.

It kills me when I hear anti-gunners exclaim how they are against guns because they have a right to feel safe.A right to feel safe?Are you kidding me?I looked through the entire thesaurus looking for a word that could capture how disgustingly self-entitled that statement is.The word I came up with can’t be written in this article so use your imagination.You don’t have a right to feel safe anymore than I have a right for Zoe Saldana to be in love with me.It’s ridiculous to think you have a right to feel safe, with that line of reasoning we should...

Assemblyman Steve McLaughlin has finally found something he loves about the SAFE Act. “The only upside,” McLaughlin, a two-term Rensselaer County Republican, said from atop a homemade stage at the University at Albany Tuesday, is “that Andrew Cuomo will never, ever be president of the United States.” McLaughlin, who for 10 months has railed against Cuomo’s divisive new gun control law, assured the sparse but appreciative crowd that rushing the law through the Legislature on its first day in session last year torpedoed any White House aspirations harbored by the Democratic governor. “This was an arbitrary bill that just attacked...

WASHINGTON, DC - The Supreme Court won't review a decision upholding Maryland's law requiring handgun permit applicants to demonstrate a "good and substantial reason" for carrying a weapon outside their own home or business. The high court on Tuesday refused to hear from Raymond Woollard and the Second Amendment Foundation, Inc., who say the law violates the Second Amendment. Woollard obtained a permit after a 2002 home invasion but was denied renewal in 2009. The Maryland law does not recognize a vague threat or general fear as an adequate reason for obtaining a permit, and state officials said Woollard failed...

The criminal homicide rate for the general population has been added to more accurately compare to the murder plus manslaughter rate for those with a Minnesota carry permit. Minnesota is one of a few states that track crimes committed by Concealed Carry permit holders.  When the Minnesota law was passed, an annual report of crimes committed by permit holders was required.  The Minnesota permit is simply a permit to carry, the law does not discriminate between carrying concealed and carrying openly.  Reports for the law are available for 2003, and 2005-2012 in pdf files.   The number of people...

Governor Dannel Malloy does not understand a law pertaining to “large capacity magazines” that he demanded, promoted and signed, Connecticut Citizens Defense League documented yesterday following statements the governor made on a local radio program. Malloy’s “legal” response to a caller on Milford’s “Chaz & AJ in the Morning” show was dangerously off-base, CCDL charged. Asked if it would be legal to carry two 14-round magazines limited to 10 rounds in each one, the governor’s advice could subject anyone heeding it to prosecution.“First of all what you have to do is disclose,” Malloy told the caller. “There’s a way to...

Police said the two armed suspects entered an apartment and one of the intruders was shot to death. The second intruder fled the scene and police are searching for him. Police said the resident was not hurt

FAISALABAD, Oct 8: Traders subjected two robbers to severe torture, leaving one of them dead, after a vendor was shot dead during a robbery bid at a jewellery shop at Mamunkanjan on Tuesday. Two robbers entered the shop owned by Shahid in Purana Dakhana Bazaar, Mamunkanjan. As the shop owner put up resistance, the panicked outlaws opened indiscriminate fire. A bullet hit Tanveer Ali, a vendor present outside the shop, who died on the spot. The traders retaliated the fire and forced the robbers to flee the market. They gave a chase to outlaws and finally nabbed them. The furious...

By now you have probably heard about the New York incident in which a businessman was dragged from his Range Rover and beaten by a mob of motorcyclists. The attack—which nicely combined elements of The Wild Angels and Bonfire of the Vanities—would have been media catnip regardless, but became a sensation when helmet-cam videos were posted on YouTube. The story just keeps producing spicy tidbits, notably the fact that a half-dozen undercover New York police officers were among the hundreds of rampaging cyclists. Now the New York Post has reported Reginald Chance, who was videotaped using his helmet to break...

RACINE – The suspect in a Tuesday morning home invasion is the same man acquitted this spring in the gang-related killing of a 12-year-old boy, Racine police said Wednesday. Tarence A. Banks, 33, of Racine, allegedly attempted an armed invasion of a home in the 3200 block of 17th Street around 1:56 a.m. Tuesday. A man in the home shot Banks, seriously injuring him, according to police. Banks was taken to Wheaton Franciscan-All Saints hospital, 3801 Spring St., and later to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa with serious but non-life-threatening injuries, police said. An update on his condition was not available...

Detectives said that John Rose, 82, and Mamie Rose, 83, were in their home when a man tried to break in. John Rose shot the man when he entered the home. The sheriff's office said investigators have been unable to identify the suspect, but he will face burglary and trespassing charges. He is currently in a Salem hospital.

Jonathan Wald has a difficult job. He’s executive producer of Piers Morgan’s show on CNN, a set of duties that include taming a volatile and sometimes rude television personality. In an “extract” from his new book “Shooting Straight: Guns, Gays, God and George Clooney” published in the Guardian, Morgan describes an incident when Wald’s counsel came into play. . . .

mosin-nagant The Mosin-nagant is an old school bolt action rifle from Russia. Originally designed by a drunk Russian engineer and an even more drunk Belgian gunsmith, who drew up blueprints on napkins in the back of a pub somewhere in Siberia in a vodka-induced stupor. The Mosin-nagant fires the 7.62x54r cartridge, which can kill a polar bear at a thousand yards and keep going right through the tree he was standing in front of. The Mosin-nagant was used by the Russians in both world wars, so it's killed more Germans than collisions on the autobahn and under-cooked sauerkraut combined. Surplus...

Gun FReepers -- I am seeking clarification on a "deer rifle" that can serve as an adequate firearm for someone beginning to hunt game with larger caliber center-fire scoped rifle. More follows below. p.s, I am a long time pistol / rimfire / AR shooter, and am just now moving up to hunting game with a .308 and lack 1st-hand knowledge.

A North Miami-Dade man was justified in fatally shooting a pipe-wielding, drug-addled attacker during a wild confrontation on a sidewalk four years ago, a judge has ruled. The first-degree murder charge against Luis Martinez, 29, was dismissed late last month. It was the fourth Miami-Dade murder case dismissed by a judge since the 2005 passage of Florida’s controversial Stand Your Ground law. The law eliminated a citizen’s duty to retreat before using deadly force to counter a deadly threat. The law also gave judges greater leeway in granting “immunity” to people deemed to have acted in self-defense. The state’s Stand...

...The state’s Democratic governor — former Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper — has a message for the gun control groups that poured resources into the recent failed defenses of two other senators in Colorado Springs and Pueblo...

The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is asserting authority to block the publication of whistle blower John Dodson’s book The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious. The book ban was issued by Deputy Ethics Official Greg Serres on the grounds that supervisors can deny outside employment “for any reason.” Dodson writing a book on his own time is considered “outside employment.” “Dodson is seeking to profit from knowledge he gained while being employed by the ATF,” Serres said. “It is the agency’s contention that all knowledge gained on the job belongs to the agency....

The son of a slain Sikh temple president plans to challenge U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan in next year's congressional election, in a Wisconsin district where support for the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee has been strong but slipping. Amar Kaleka, 35, told The Associated Press he'll file paperwork Wednesday to form an exploratory congressional committee. He plans to formally announce his candidacy as a Democrat next month. Kaleka said he wants to bring accountability and transparency back to Washington. He blamed the government shutdown on Ryan, who's the House Budget Committee chairman, and his GOP colleagues. He said citizens are...

A group of Milwaukee pastors and their supporters gathered Monday morning at a local coffee shop to implore city officials to sponsor a gun buyback program, which they say could remove weapons from the city's streets and reduce violence in their neighborhoods. "We are here today because we are fed up," said the Rev. John McVicker Sr., pastor at Christ the King Baptist Church. "There have been far too many senseless shootings in our city, many resulting in homicide." The pastors have asked the city to allot $50,000 in its 2014 budget to initiate a one-time, anonymous gun buyback, where...

Of course, I do not own an AR-15, but I may consider one in the future -- provided they are legal, naturally!But I like to prepare for future purchases. The rifle I am considering has no carrying-handle and no iron sights. I'd like freeper input on what sort of scope I should consider: Reflex / Holo with or without Fixed Power, a Fixed Power illuminated, or a variable power? Brands, prices, suggestions, all are welcome. The rifle would be for close to medium range target shooting (0-300 yards), especially 'action shooting' competitions. Price must be under or at 500. Would...

Andrews-Ahearn filed three LSRs dealing with guns. She said she probably won’t move forward with one, a bill establishing a gun registry, and instead will focus on proposals for expanded background checks and a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. “I think a lot of people are looking at us as Democrats and saying, ‘Why aren’t you doing anything?’ ” Andrews-Ahearn said.

“Mark ‘I wasn’t really buying that AR-15‘ Kelly is committing a felony right in front of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. It’s against New York State (NYS) law for someone to be in possession (i.e. holding) a handgun without a valid NYS Pistol license. Mark Kelly can’t have a NYS pistol license because he’s not a legal resident of New York.” An Empire State firearms attorney told TTAG that there’s an exception for firearms training but, as far as he can tell, not gun shows. Unless we hear otherwise, under Article 265 of New York State penal law,...

The good news: the ban does not extend to ammunition used for target shooting.The bad news: It extends to more than traditional hunting.    The bill applies to the taking of all wildlife.  From the bill: (b) Except as provided in subdivision (j), and as soon as is practicable as implemented by the commission pursuant to subdivision (i), but by no later than July 1, 2019, nonlead ammunition, as determined by the commission, shall be required when taking all wildlife, including game mammals, game birds, nongame birds, and nongame mammals, with any firearm. There is no exemption for self defense, protection of...

Another Democrat in the Colorado Senate is facing recall for voting for new gun control laws. Two other Democrats faced recall earlier this year over those laws, and despite having Michael Bloomberg and his anti-gun allies pour millions of dollars into Colorado to defend them, they were both defeated and removed. This third recall would switch control of the state Senate from D to R. So Gov. John Hickenlooper is scared, and wants Bloomberg and his anti-gun nuts to just stay away. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper suggests national gun-control groups stay away from a looming recall battle that could switch...

Dramatic video shows a Brazilian biker being held up at gunpoint before an undercover cop shoots his attacker down so he can't escape. The terrifying scene reportedly went down in Sao Paulo at 3 p.m. Saturday - caught on the victim's helmet cam - and starts with him driving his Honda Hornet down the street.

American action film star Steven Seagal will become the face of a new Russian firearm, the actor announced at a Moscow news conference Friday. Seagal also used the occasion to practice some local phrases, give two thumbs up to the Russian army and criticize the weapons used by President Vladimir Putin's bodyguards. The U.S. actor has established friendly relations with Putin, who shares a penchant for martial arts with Seagal, and Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. One of Putin's associates, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, asked the American star earlier this year to lobby for easing restrictions on the sale of...

It’s been over a quarter-century since Robert Bork’s nomination to the Supreme Court became a defining moment in the confirmation of federal judges. Since the distinguished judge and former Yale Law professor was “borked” by demagogic personal attacks and blocked from the Court, confirmation battles have grown uglier and more protracted. John Lott, an economist who has written thought-provoking books on everything from gun control to the federal budget, says the pitched battles over court nominations are having real-world consequences. He argues that our federal courts are being intellectually degraded as politicians in both parties try to keep the brightest...

~~Come on in and shoot the breeze~~ Gun Talk Radio 10/13/13~~07:00 CST Listen to the podcast Here Or the KIDO 580 stream Here

You’ve seen the story about the terrorist toddler who was ridiculously suspended for threatening to shoot a classmate with her bright pink Hello Kitty bubble gun… Well, just for fun, I thought I’d track down some actual Hello Kitty guns… because they do exist. And they are pink. And cute. And I kinda want one. You got your basic Hello Kitty handgun, complete with a clip of Hello Kitty tipped bullets. Available in reworked Sig Sauer & Colt models, too! A Hello Kitty Keltec pistol? Or an HK-47? (Get it? HK? Like AK? No? Ok, well, I thought it was...

Well-meaning social liberals who think putting up some silly yellow signs proclaiming “Safe Passage” zones does nothing to deter predatory criminals, just as a slew of gun laws that only disarm the good guys do nothing to slow violent crime.

With some businesses eager to let people know guns aren’t welcome, the Illinois State Police on Friday released the official sign to indicate a concealed carry ban. Businesses can download the state-approved sign for banning concealed carry on the Illinois State Police Web site. This summer, one Chicago restuarant put up a makeshift “no weapons” sign following the passage of Illinois’ concealed carry law. Keefer’s Restaurant managing partner Glenn Keefer expressed concerns about people carrying guns in his restaurant that serves alcohol as well as food. Permits for concealed carry become available online on Jan. 5.

Hyatt Gun Shop states that a subsidiary of Visa shut down payments for its customers' online gun purchases, effectively cutting ties with "the nation's largest gun store," Hyatt claims, because of legal online gun sales. Hyatt Gun Shop is located in Charlotte, NC, and owner Larry Hyatt says Authorize.net—described on its website as "a solution of Cybersource, a wholly owned subsidiary of Visa"—sent him an email saying they were ending their business relationship with his store over "the sale of firearms or any similar product." According to the Washington Examiner, the email said "that gun sales violated a section of...

The Obama administration has turned bureaucrats at environmental agencies into armed SWAT teams to conduct unprecedented raids on small mining operations for what used to be simple reviews of clean water permits. That’s according to Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn, chairman of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on energy and mineral resources, who held a hearing Thursday that examined the August raid of armed federal officials including the Environmental Protection Agency in Chicken, Alaska. Lamborn said the “EPA SWAT team of heavily armed and armored agents conducted paperwork inspections on small mining operations, in what appears nothing more than an...

The two Democratic state senators who lost their jobs last month in recall elections for endorsing strict gun control initiatives in Colorado are nothing more than sacrificial lambs in New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s mission to reform the nation’s gun laws. While Bloomberg didn’t precisely use the words “sacrificial lambs,” he essentially said as much in an interview with Time Magazine, when he rejected the notion that the recall was a sign that his side had lost in Colorado. “What do you mean we lost?” Bloomberg told Time. “I’m sorry for those two people. But we won in Colorado....