Free Republic

SAN DIEGO — It is the subject of nightly television news reports, daily newspaper stories and prime time dramas. Gun violence is seemingly everywhere you turn. Ask Americans how bad they think gun crime is, and 82 percent will say it is either worse than it was 20 years ago, or mostly the same, according to a Pew Research Center survey released this month. But the numbers on gun crime show otherwise. Firearm homicide and other gun crimes — including robbery and assault — are strikingly lower than they were two decades ago, a trend that has mirrored the decline...

Swiss Vetterli Carbine Circa 1870 This Vetterli carbine was turned in very early on May 18, 2013, at the Phoenix gun turn in event. I photographed it on the turn in table at about 8:09 am. I cannot Identify it further, and this is the only picture that I have. Does anyone know if this is an original carbine, or is it a later conversion? The rifle was manufactured about 1870. Dean Weingarten

The Independence Institute held a press conference on May 17, 2013 announcing the lawsuit against the new anti-gun bills passed by the Colorado legislature and signed by Governor John Hickenlooper. The lead attorney is Dave Kopel.

DENVER — An executive with a prominent gun manufacturer is on his way back to his native Italy after a taxi driver mistook him for a terrorist on Saturday. Daniele Perazzi had just arrived at a gun show at the Denver Merchandise Mart when his cabbie called police to tell them he’d dropped off a terrorist. Perazzi, who was carrying seven shotguns at the time, was taken in for questioning by the Adams County Sheriffs Department. He was released a short time later. Perazzi’s U.S. attorney told Fox 31 Denver that her client was scared during the incident because he’s...

On Friday, May 17, fifty-four Colorado Sheriffs filed a civil rights lawsuit in Federal District Court in Denver, against two anti-gun bills passed by the Colorado legislature in March. Joining the Sheriffs as Plaintiffs are the Colorado Farm Bureau, disabled persons, Outdoor Buddies (an organization that helps disabled persons participate in outdoor sports), the Colorado Outfitters Association (the trade association for hunting guides), the National Shooting Sports Foundation (the trade association for the firearms industry), magazine manufacturer Magpul, federally-licensed firearms dealers, the state’s largest shooting range, the Colorado State Shooting Association (governing body for the shooting sports in Colorado), and...

So let’s review our recent national paroxysm about guns, shall we? Gun control was a complete non-issue during the 2012 presidential campaign, and for good reason: the rate of gun violence — like the rate of violent crime — had fallen by about half since the late 1980s. During those two decades, gun laws got looser almost everywhere, so whatever was driving down the crime rate, it wasn’t gun control. But then came the shootings at the Aurora movie theater and Sandy Hook Elementary, and suddenly nobody could think about anything else. Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, and New York passed restrictive laws concerning...

Hofstra student shot in head by cop while being used as human shield during home invasion By KIERAN CROWLEY, KENNETH GARGER and KATHIANNE BONIELLO Last Updated: 11:13 PM, May 18, 2013 Andrea Rebello (r.), here with her twin Jessica in an Instagram photo, was killed by the friendly fire of a police officer during a shootout with home invader Dalton Smith. The Hofstra University student killed during a home invasion robbery was the victim of friendly fire from a veteran cop who unleashed a barrage of bullets when the armed intruder pointed a gun at him, Nassau County police announced...

WASHINGTON - Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) hasn't given up on his bill to expand background checks for gun purchases, he said Thursday, signaling more willingness to return to the plan than he had publicly shown before. "If we could find a way to bring some more folks on board, then of course it would be worth bringing it up again," Toomey said in an interview. While he has largely returned his focus to the fiscal issues he has long been associated with, he said he still occasionally talked privately with fellow senators about the background-check bill that was defeated...

DETROIT (WWJ) – At least 200 guns are off the streets of Detroit Saturday afternoon following a gun buy back program at a church on the city’s west side. There were two efforts underway at the New St. Paul Tabernacle Church.Wayne County and Goodman Acker both offered $50 Meijer Gift Cards for each unloaded gun, while gun-advocates like Rick Ector offered more in cash.“I refer to them as LEFTs (Law Enforcement Firearms Transfers) they are misleading to the general public because they send a message that they are actually going to do something that’s going to affect the crime rate,”...

A thief grabbed the purse of an off-duty Polk County deputy Saturday evening, but also got the officer’s weapon. The deputy was entering the Publix, 884 Cypress Gardens Blvd., in Winter Haven, about 6:55 p.m. when a black man took the purse, according to the sheriff’s office. The suspect fled in a bright silver small size SUV, possibly a Mazda or Toyota hatchback-style vehicle, and headed south on 8th Street S.E. The thief also got the deputy's department badge and credentials, along with a .38-caliber Ruger that was in its holster, according to the sheriff’s office.

As a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association with an “A+” rating for her voting record in the Tennessee House of Representatives, Debra Maggart never imagined that her political career would end this way. Maggart, who chaired the Republican caucus, killed an NRA-backed bill that would have permitted Tennesseans to keep firearms in their parked vehicles wherever they went — work, school or the neighborhood bar. Months later, Maggart was stunned to see NRA-sponsored ads on billboards in her district. Her face was next to a picture of President Obama. The ads proclaimed: “Sure, Rep. Debra Maggart Says She...

New York — Nearly 10 years ago, my mother was robbed in front of our home after getting off her second-shift job. The hooded mugger stole my mother's purse by knocking her down and wrestling her purse from her shoulder. She injured her wrist and suffered a few scrapes and bruises. The attack shook her up. I was inside watching television with my father when the incident occurred. We didn't hear or see a thing, but that didn't stop us from driving around the neighborhood looking for anyone suspicious. A week after the incident, I legally purchased my first gun....

Bill Maher on Friday once again exposed himself as a total hypocrite. Minutes after telling his HBO Real Time panel "the Second Amendment is bulls--t," he admitted having two firearms in his house - "one upstairs and one down" - claiming, "As long as we live in the gun country, I ain’t giving up my gun"

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- An attempted robbery just outside of downtown Houston erupted into a gunfight that left one suspect dead and the victim injured, police say. The shooting happened around 6:30am in the 2900 block of Pease. Police say a man coming home from a club was confronted by as many as five suspects. When the suspects tried to rob him, a shootout erupted.

About 4 p.m., the resident of the 3900 block of Rockaway Creek Road reported a burglary in progress at his home. The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office said he arrived home to find two intruders inside of the residence. The homeowner held the suspects at gunpoint while he called the Sheriff’s Office. As he was speaking with dispatchers, one of the suspects, identified at 33-year old Ricky Dewayne Taylor, lunged toward him. The homeowner fired a .38 caliber revolver, striking Taylor in the leg. Taylor was alert and conscious when he was transferred to LifeFlight to be airlifted to Baptist Hospital...

DETROIT — As many as 40 protestors held signs and wads of cash outside New St. Paul Tabernacle Church of God in Christ in Detroit Saturday protesting a Wayne County gun buyback event. Jerry Acker, a partner in Goodman Acker, P.C law firm, fronted $50 Meijer gift cards for each of the 200 guns collected, a cost of $10,000. Meanwhile, gun advocates waited outside offering cash for guns the government hoped to take off the streets and out of homes. "In many cases, they'll end up circulating back in the communities we're trying to take them out of," said Wayne...

More than 100 people lined up to check out the handguns and rifles being auctioned off in Poteau on Saturday (May 18). The LeFlore County Sheriff’s Office auctioned off 264 weapons that had been confiscated and held in the department’s evidence vault. Sheriff Rob Seale said some of the guns were collected as far back as 1999. “A lot of them are weapons that have been seized in court cases that have been cleared,” said Seale. “A lot of them are just lost property that’s been found, property that’s been turned over by the owners.” The auction brought in potential...

Move over, Chris Matthews; there’s a new flip-flopping liberal “journalist” in town and his name is Piers Morgan. Morgan has had a revelation: Maybe, just maybe, government can become tyrannical after all. In a conversation with Penn Jillette, CNN’s anti-gun zealot – who has spent the last six months deriding the suggestion that the American government can’t be trusted when it comes to gun control – has had a change of heart after watching the IRS and DOJ/APP scandals unfold. Yep, Morgan went all Chris Matthews (the flip-flopping one) on Jillette when he came to the

The 21-year-old Hofstra student who was killed during a Long Island home invasion was shot dead by a police officer as the gunman had her in a headlock and was trying to drag her out of the house, officials said Saturday. Nassau County Police said at a news conference Andrea Rebello was killed by police, not by the armed gunman who was trying to rob the off-campus house where she was living with her twin sister, Jessica, and several others. Rebello, a Hofstra junior studying public relations, and suspect Dalton Smith, 30, were both shot and killed as he was...

Second Amendment Check is a great organization that enables you to support the right to bear arms with your wallet, rewarding companies who support the Second Amendment, and boycotting companies who don't. This organization deserves your support (click on the "Donate" button and email them a "thank you"). You should shop according to their evaluation of gun-friendly or gun-unfriendly businesses. Second Amendment Check "reach[es] out to companies via email and telephone" to determine which businesses support the constitutional right to bear arms. They rate those willing to participate. Note that Second Amendment Check states, "If we can't get in direct...

Went to make application for a gun I ordered and the form has two new identifiers: 1. Ethnicity (Hispanic or Non-Hispanic) and 2. Race These are in sections 10a and 10b on the form.

Officials in Nelson, Georgia, say law is mostly symbolic   (Newser) – The tiny town of Nelson, Georgia, is facing a court battle after passing a law that requires all households to own a gun and ammunition. The DC-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence had filed a federal lawsuit against the town on the grounds that the law, which was passed in April, is unconstitutional, and violates the 1st and 14th Amendments, reports CNN. "Forcing residents to buy guns they do not want or need won’t make the City of Nelson or its people any safer, and only...

The drive to recall a top Colorado Democratic legislator over his gun-control support received a boost Thursday from a newly released poll showing a plurality of his constituents support removing him from office. A poll by Public Opinion Strategies showed that 34 percent of district voters surveyed support the recall of state Senate President John Morse, versus 29 percent who oppose it. Another 33 percent said they were undecided on the recall effort, which is still in the signature-gathering phase. When told that Mr. Morse sponsored an unsuccessful bill to make manufacturers and owners liable for crimes committed with their...

An investigation by a division of the Maine State Police was unable to determine why a lieutenant’s firearm accidentally discharged during a computer training session. Lt. Shawn Currie, commander of the state police commercial vehicle enforcement division, was not disciplined after the Feb. 27 incident. Currie was attending the training at the agency’s former headquarters at 36 Hospital St. when his gun belt reportedly rode up, according to a synopsis of the incident that the Bangor Daily News obtained Friday after submitting a request under the Freedom of Access Act. The gun belt “was causing discomfort to his hip so...

Then in one of the best displays of civil disobedience I’ve ever seen, the entire audience recited the pledge of allegiance, while most of the lawmakers remained seated. This is one to share. Patriotism is ALIVE in America.

In light of the ongoing IRS scandal, and who knows what else these folks are up to, doesn't it make it plain to see why we need the Second Amendment? If a government can ask what kind of prayers are being said in an organization there is practically no limit to what else they can ask.

Bill Maher on Friday once again exposed himself as a total hypocrite. Minutes after telling his HBO Real Time panel "the Second Amendment is bulls--t," he admitted having two firearms in his house - "one upstairs and one down" - claiming, "As long as we live in the gun country, I ain’t giving up my gun" (video follows with transcript and commentary): MAHER: I say all the time on this show, as long as we live in the gun country, I ain’t giving up my gun. S.E. CUPP: There you go. MAHER: There have been twelve home invasions in my...

If you’ve seen the video we posted earlier today, then you definitely want to check this one out. There was some question that when Second Amendment activist, James Kaleda, was removed from the hearing if the audience was clapping for him or for his removal. I think this video, which took place immediately following that, should clear things up. After a Second Amendment activist was forcefully removed from a hearing on upcoming gun legislation in NJ, the audience wasn’t too happy. Several members of the audience yelled at the state senator in charge from the audience, several called him out...

Tense moments in the early morning hours, as a woman carrying a gun confronts a man trying to get into her home. The attempted home invasion happened on the 1900 block of Loxley near Upton, just before 5 a.m. Thursday. It proved Betty Collins is a woman who stands her ground - with a gun in her hand. "I said, 'Get on the ground.' and he got on his knees. I said, 'no, put your face in the dirt and you're gonna stay there.'," recounted Collins. The past two mornings, she says, someone has stolen items from her car. This...

A hotly contested gun-control law that was passed in 2007 is finally ready to be implemented, Attorney General Kamala Harris said Friday: a requirement that every new semiautomatic handgun contain "micro-stamping" technology that would allow police to trace a weapon from cartridges found at a crime scene. The law, signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, made California the first state to require micro-stamping, which engraves the gun's serial number on each cartridge. But the legislation specified that it would take effect only when the technology was available and all private patents had expired. The gun owners' group Calguns Foundation tried to...

DENVER (Reuters) - A group of Colorado county sheriffs, angry about two new state gun control laws passed in the wake of last year's mass shootings in Connecticut and Colorado, filed a federal lawsuit on Friday seeking to block the laws from going into effect. The two laws, passed by the state's Democratic-controlled legislature with scant Republican support, ban ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds and require background checks for all private gun sales and transfers. All but 10 of the state's 64 county sheriffs signed on to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Denver. In...

Thief in Venezuela tries to carjack a man after locking up his store. The thief is in for a rude awakening.

Carry permits for concealed weapons are soaring all across the country. Part of the reason for this is uncertainty about the future. No one knows what is going to happen with tax rates, inflation, Obamacare, and the stock market. This uncertainty has translated into uncertainty about public safety, both from ordinary criminals and from the possibility of a breakdown of public order. A comment writer in Lane County, Oregon expresses the motives for and results of obtaining a concealed carry permit well: After many years of no guns in the home (grandchildren, after all), we made the decision to resume...

It appears microstamping is now the law in CA. (effective immediately) Read at the link. Seems like a typical Friday document dump from the fascists.The purpose of this bulletin is to inform California licensed firearms dealers, California Department of Justice certified laboratories, firearm manufacturers with firearms listed on the Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale in California, and all other interested persons/entities of the Department of Justice’s certification on May 17, 2013 pursuant to Penal Code section 31910, subdivision (b)(7)(A) that the microstamping technology is available to more than one manufacturer unencumbered by any patent restrictions.In 2007, Assembly Bill 1471...

So, this is NJ huh? Second Amendment activist, James Kaleda, was forcefully removed from a hearing on a new gun control bill in NJ during his testimony. I guess this is how they handle dissent in NJ, remove it from the building with armed guards.

Joe Scarborough is outraged, OUTRAGED, that any senator could have opposed the gun bill which went down to defeat. Oops! That was a month ago and it now appears that Scarborough is having second thoughts on this since he wondered aloud today if the government could be trusted with performing background checks in the light of the revelations of the IRS scandal in which that agency targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups. First let us look at Scarborough in the video below the fold in full outrage mode in April when his over the top anger at the gun...

Via NRO’s Andrew Johnson, Joe Scarborough isn’t the only TV show host rethinking his scorn of gun-rights advocates this week. Piers Morgan, who engaged in some of the worst demagoguery outside of the White House and Capitol Hill over the last six months on that issue, routinely derided the idea that the American government couldn’t be trusted to abide by the law and tell the truth. Now, after watching what happened at the IRS — and to the Associated Press — the CNN host admits to Penn Jillette that maybe people had a point about creeping tyranny after all: (VIDEO-AT-LINK)...

A woman in Toledo, Ohio, found herself the victim of an attempted home invasion on Thursday. After having her car broken into two mornings in a row, she refused to be a victim for a third time, especially not in her own home. She stopped the intruder before he kicked the door in, holding him at gunpoint until the police arrived. According to a report by an ABC affiliate, the incident happened just before 5 a.m. Betty Collins was home alone, her boyfriend, Mike Billick, had just left for work. However, he was at a nearby gas station when he...

DENVER - County sheriffs from across Colorado are trying to bring down two gun control measures signed into law in March with a constitutional challenge filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Denver. "Today represents a line in the sand," El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa said. "The filing of this lawsuit is our only option. We did not want this. We did not ask for this, but we will not stand by silently while good citizens are deprived of their rights and criminalized." Maketa is one of 54 sheriffs challenging the constitutionality of the state's ban on high-capacity magazines...

Dan Sometimes it's what they neglect to mention that's more revealing than that was. Disgraced former CBS anchorman Dan Rather, now broadcasting from obscure AXS TV on the high triple-digit end of the cable dial, told Rachel Maddow of an incident back when he was a reporter devoted to hounding Richard Nixon. (Video after page break). Rather appeared on Maddow's MSNBC show Tuesday to divert attention from President Obama's ongoing scandals involving the Benghazi attack, IRS targeting of tea party groups, and Justice Department spying on the Associated Press, Rather serving the transparent purpose of recounting the good old days...

Thursday, May 16, 2013 RE: When They Come For Your Guns I enjoyed this Hoss USMC video. Like most things his perspective is well thought out and logical. Dude just makes sense. Here's that video again Here are my thoughts on the video: 1) It should have been titled "IF They Come For Your Guns". Personally gun confiscation is pretty low on my list of concerns. Though if I lived in Kalifornia, New York, Chicago, etc I might feel differently. Simply cannot see that happening in most of the US. Anyway moving on. 2) People are more important than...

Three armed home invaders broke into a house and beat up the resident before pushing him into a closet, not realizing it was a weapons storage area.

SILVER CLIFF - A man is said to be recovering after he was attacked by a black bear in Marinette County, and his wife killed the animal by pounding a gun over its head. Authorities said Gerre Ninnemann saw the bear running after his dog near his cabin at Silver Cliff yesterday. The bear tackled Ninnemann after a chase, and was biting-and-clawing at his back before he ran away. Sheriff’s deputies said he was mauled again. In the meantime, his wife Marie took out a gun but she didn’t know how to load it. So she pounded the weapon over...

In an age of terrorism, we have become used to seeing armed police at major railway stations and airports, or guarding other potential targets such as embassies. But when officers with guns are needed to patrol the streets of an English town because of an upsurge in gang shootings, it seems we have reached something of a watershed in our national life. The images of paramilitary-style policemen with assault rifles escorting parents and children to school in Luton are a shocking confirmation that law and order has collapsed in parts of our country. In the past four months, there have...

A measure spelling out who can carry concealed handguns and where they can carry them emerged Thursday after months of contentious negotiations, a system with one set of rules for violence-plagued Chicago and another for the rest of Illinois. Though the attempt at a compromise cleared its first hurdle in the Senate, it faces considerable opposition from gun rights advocates who derided it as an effort to greatly restrict where guns could be carried for self-defense and argued that it gave too much leeway to law enforcement in denying permits. "You put lipstick on a pig, and it's still a...

The court must be wary of “manufactured” government arguments masking its own “impropriety,” as well as mindful of attempts to “drive a wedge” between defendants and “impos[e] unnecessary financial burdens,” lawyers for the Reese family of gun dealers cautioned in a joint response in opposition to the government’s opposed motion for ruling on joint representation filed Tuesday in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Jailed for allegedly knowingly selling guns to cartel members, all family members were found not guilty on the most serious charges of conspiracy, and money laundering charges against them were dismissed. Husband...

ATF agents let a man armed with a gun and threatening to shoot someone walk out of their storefront sting operation in Milwaukee last summer, failing to arrest him or take the weapon, the Journal Sentinel has learned. The suspect, Bobby Ball - a felon with a violent history - promised to return to the store and sell the agents that gun and others but he never came back, according to sources familiar with the case. Instead he spent four months on the loose, until he was picked up in Minnesota on a drunken-driving arrest. He is now awaiting sentencing...

The code, ““Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies,” was slightly altered during a May 13th update which now allows the military to unilaterally declare martial law without presidential approval. Multiple sections of the code outline plans and policies for a martial law scenario and should be considered a must read for any American worried about their freedoms in what has become a hostile American police state. The rule seems to actually contradict itself, in one part claiming that the military can only be used during extreme circumstances with Presidential approval and then, in an updated part of the code,...

DENVER (AP) — A group of Colorado sheriffs unhappy with recent gun control laws are planning to file a lawsuit to block them.

JEFFERSON CITY — Less than six months after the state Revenue Department began scanning driving applicants’ personal documents into a state computer system, Missouri lawmakers sent the governor legislation Wednesday that would force the department to stop.