Free Republic

God and guns are what our country was founded upon. Any new student of the Revolutionary period quickly learns that. They are what keep us strong, or what should keep us strong. They are there for our defense. God and guns were so important to our founders that they established our protection to exercise them in the first two amendments to our Constitution – the uninhibited and unrestricted freedom to choose our own religion and bear our own firearms. But, more and more, these pillars of American life and liberty are being attacked and abandoned, not only out of sheer...

Never has a president been warped by Washington quicker. At times tonight, Obama sounded like an embattled second-termer with a 35 percent approval rating. What percentage of his speech was spent lashing out at his enemies, real and imagined? Radio and cable-television pundits, George W. Bush, former Congresses, unnamed ghouls employing “scare tactics,” whose “only agenda is to stop reform at any cost”—they’re all against him, Obama said. And they’re lying. This isn’t how confident leaders speak. These are the complaints of a man on his way to bitterness. So soon?

Bad Economy, Obama Fuel Rise in Militias: Report Fears of a return to anti-government violence of the 1990s Updated 2:15 AM CDT, Wed, Aug 12, 2009 The election of America's first black president, fears of a secret Mexican plot to take over the Southwest and a painful recession have combined to fuel a rise in violent right-wing militias, according to a report by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The leading civil rights group is not the only one worried that the country could be on the verge of another domestic terror attack by a lone wolf hatemonger or radical militia...

The Obama administration is raising the stakes in a fight over states' rights and firearm ownership by arguing that new pro-gun laws in Montana and Tennessee are invalid. In the last few months, a grass-roots, federalist revolt against Washington, D.C. has begun to spread through states that are home to politically active gun owners. Montana and Tennessee have enacted state laws saying that federal rules do not apply to firearms manufactured entirely within the state, and similar bills are pending in Texas, Alaska, Minnesota, and South Carolina. Yet the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and Explosives now claims that...

Mentioned "hunting" and "target practice" as legitimate uses for a gun, as long as the state decides you can have one. Not one word on self-defense.

Karl Rove takes on Maureen Dowd.

A contentious "Rightwing Extremism" report that warned of military veterans as possible recruits for terrorist attacks against the U.S. was not authorized, has been withdrawn and is being rewritten, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Capitol Hill lawmakers. "The wheels came off the wagon because the vetting process was not followed," Ms. Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. "The report is no longer out there," she said. "An employee sent it out without authorization." The report was shared with state and local law enforcement officials nationwide via the department's internal Web site on April 7, angering Republican...

The right to bear arms is famously and specifically referenced in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Alas, for advocates of the right, the language of the amendment gets tangled up in the regulating of militias and the interpretation of commas. Now a multistate movement is trying to find more robust constitutional support in another amendment, which makes no mention of weaponry at all. The 10th Amendment declares, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." It inspired the...

American gun owners, en masse, are "casting their ballots" on how much they believe Barack Obama's campaign-trail promise to "not take away your guns." They're driving the price of ammo through the roof, swarming gun shows, hauling away cases on hand trucks, leaving the floors of the ammo suppliers' booths as naked as a wheat field after the locusts pass through. Glen Parshall at Bargain Pawn in North Las Vegas reports "I got 20,000 (rounds of) .223 on Saturday and by Tuesday it was more than half gone. And that's only because I limit customers to a thousand rounds per...

The state of Montana has drawn a line in the sand by passing a new gun law that virtually thumbs its nose at the federal government's encroachment on state and individual rights. If the tea parties were the first shot across the bow of liberal fascism, this is surely the second - and it's being done with heavy artillery. Montana Governor Brian D. Schweitzer, for what it's worth, is a Democrat. Montana fires a warning shot over states’ rights State is trying to trigger a battle over gun control — and make a pointupdated 4:54 p.m. ET April 29, 2009...

Last week, we referred to a firearms treaty that Obama wants the USA to become entangled with. The treaty called the "Inter American Convention Against The Illicit Manufacturing Of And Trafficking In Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, And Other Related Material," would impose international regulation on firearms, their owners, and the firearms industry here. In a broad slash of the international sword, the treaty lumps all your firearms with "any other weapon or destructive device such as any explosive, incendiary or gas bomb, grenade, rocket, rocket launcher, missile, missile system, or mine." This latter category is already regulated in US laws. The...

You see it when tens of thousands of citizens turn out to protest in “Tea Parties” across the U.S.; you see it in military personnel compelled to form “Oath Keepers,” outlining orders they will not obey; you see it in a number of states debating sovereignty resolutions, in some cases even calling for secession; you see it in the number of people joining gun rights organizations; and yes, you see it in the number of people buying guns. Simultaneously, just as during the Clinton administration, malcontents have increasingly inflicted mass homicides on the American people. Is it part of the...

Barack Hussein's new Homeland Security Director says that Americans should be afraid that our returning combat veterans will be recruited by right-wing groups and use the 2nd Amendment rights they fought to protect to attack against the country. I never thought I would hear such a profound level of mistrust and hostility directed at our greatest and noblest citizens. But that's how this administration rolls. Of course, Obama already has always thought dimly about those Americans (in the below case Pennsylvanians) who refused to support him: "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion...

Yesterday, Roger Hedgecock and the Liberty Papers posted an unclassified DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis report titled:Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment.The “report” was one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read out of DHS. I couldn’t believe it was real.I spent the day chasing down DHS spokespeople, who have been tied up preparing for a very important homeland security event later today: The First Lady is coming to visit their Washington office. Priorities, you know.Well, the press office got back to me and verified that the document...

Politically savvy gun owners have long distrusted President Barack Obama, and for perfectly fair reasons—even (or perhaps especially) after he went out of his way to tell them that lawful gun owners have nothing to fear from his administration. Perhaps, Obama seemed to be gently suggesting, they could cool it with the spike in gun purchases since he won the election. December showed a 24 percent rise in FBI instant background checks for gun purchases from the previous December, and there was a 49 percent such hike the week of his election. Obama’s famous gaffe about “bitter” people who “cling”...

After only two months of the Obama presidency, Americans are horrified, angry, depressed, and on the verge of full-scale revolt against the president and his toadying Socialist acolytes for doing their best to destroy our once-vibrant economy, inflict decades of debt on our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and usher in what historians will surely record as The Age of The Hubristic and Incompetent Presidency. This assessment is borne out by polls, man-and-woman-in-the-street interviews, escalating unemployment figures, and creeping inflation which threatens to become the hyperinflation that will put the final nail in an economy that up until 2006 – when...

Are you a terrorist suspect? Did you support Ron Paul for president last year? Do you believe there are people actively working to merge the U.S. with Mexico and Canada? Do you display an American flag? Did you ever display a Libertarian Party bumper sticker on your car? Do you buy gold? Any of these characteristics might lead law enforcement authorities to conclude you represent a danger to the republic. You are more likely to be a militia member or a domestic terrorist, according to a document distributed to Missouri police and, potentially, law enforcement authorities nationwide. That is the...

Here it is, folks, and it is bad news. The framework for legislation is always laid, and the Democrats have the votes to pass anything they want to impose upon us. They really do not believe you need anything more than a brick to defend your home and family. Look at the list and see how many you own. Remember, it is registration, then confiscation. It has happened in the UK, in Australia, in Europe, in China, and what they have found is that for some reason the criminals do not turn in their weapons, but will know that you...

Washington » Utah congressmen are taking issue with the Obama administration's call for a new assault-weapons ban, saying it interferes with the public's right to bear arms and won't reduce crime. The ban expired in 2004 after being in place for 10 years. In a news conference Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder said: "As President [Barack] Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons." Holder believes the ban would help curb the flow of guns...

As President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons," Holder told reporters. I think closing the gun show loophole, the banning of cop-killer bullets and I also think that making the assault weapons ban permanent, would be something that would be permitted under Heller," Holder said, referring to the Supreme Court ruling in Washington, D.C. v. Heller, which asserted the Second Amendment as an individual's right to own a weapon.

I think we all realize that our open southern border is a real problem. Illegal aliens are raping, murdering, stealing our identities and assaulting our citizenry, not to mention sucking up welfare dollars by the billions and devastating our medical facilities and our economy in general. What do we hear from the media? We need the illegal aliens here, the Mexicans are doing the jobs that Americans won’t do. Well, for once, the media is right. But it’s not picking cabbage or washing dishes that Americans won’t do, Americans have always done that. So what job won’t Americans do? There...

Friday Digest Vol. 09 No. 04 30 January 2009 THE FOUNDATION "A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed." --Second Amendment, United States Constitution PATRIOT PERSPECTIVE Sixty million armed Patriots ... and counting By Mark Alexander By now, you've probably heard that large sectors of the U.S. economy have collapsed, consumer confidence is at a historic low, Democrats control the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government, and they're poised to print "bailout and infrastructure" money on the theory of "trickle...

One sector of the American economy that is booming is the absolute orgy of guns and ammunition sales. I am pretty certain President Obama will not say anything positive about this economic news. I have read more than one report that shows how the surge of civilian firepower sales began back when it appeared that Obama was likely to be elected. The already-brisk guns and ammo market blew up another 25% once he was elected. Reason: freedom lovers do not trust liberal President Obama. His nomination for Attorney General, Mr. Eric Holder, proves that distrust is justified. Both President Obama...

If you want a glimpse into the minds of those in Obama's administration, just take a look at the new whitehouse.gov website in the section talking about the Bill of Rights. Apparently they believe government has chosen to "give" you and I the right to bear arms. Now, I don't know about you, but in my schooling I was taught the Bill of Rights were not a list of rights "given" to us citizens, but were a declaration of what rights the federal government could not infringe upon. I think SCOTUS agreed with me on the last year as well.......

HOLDER:...I think you had asked me earlier about the regulations that I thought might still exist, post-Heller. And I had mentioned, I think, closing the gun show loophole, the banning of cop-killer bullets and I also think that making the assault weapons ban permanent would be something that would be permitted under Heller, and I also think would be good for my law enforcement perspective.

Gun control in the United States generally has meant some type of supply regulation. Some rules are uncontroversial like usertargeted restrictions that define the untrustworthy and prohibit them from accessing the legitimate supply.

No sane person wants innocent people victimized, maimed, or murdered, nor to see the perpetrators escape justice. This is true, whether the perpetrators use their hands or objects — like baseball bats, rocks, knives, vehicles, or a host of other readily available inanimate objects of endless variety — or a firearm. It is the intent and the will of the criminals, and not the inanimate objects they use, that are responsible for the criminal acts and the harm done to victims. From the dawn of man, violent acts have been a sad aspect of life in nearly every civilization and...

Friday, January 16, 2009 No one, including the Brady Campaign, seriously believes that Barack Obama was elected president because of his support for gun control. But Brady is pretending that it provided Obama the margin of victory in November, and has provided him with a very long list of gun bans and other restrictions that it expects from him in return. If for no other reason, Obama might want to tell Brady "no," because if he were to do their bidding, they would be sure to demand that he do even more. That's demonstrated by Brady's statement that their current...

At the board meeting today, Orange County deputies searched gun-rights supporters, especially those wearing CCW buttons, according to those who attended the meeting. Although Sheriff Sandra Hutchens said she would let the permits expire rather than revoke them, her real disdain for freedom is shown by the presence of the SWAT team and the heavyhanded searches of law-abiding residents who wanted to attend the board meeting. Did the sheriff really think that gun supporters are somehow dangerous. I’ve been to gun shows and gun events and have never felt safer. Share this post: 9 Responses to “SWAT team searches gun-rights...

Despite a huge Democratic Senate majority, Eric Holder’s confirmation hearings are going to be difficult. He has a long record to defend. Whether it is his involvement and inconsistent statements about Bill Clinton’s pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich’s or his pushing Clinton’s clemency of the FALN terrorists or his failure to disclose his work for troubled Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich after Blagojevich's legal problems surfaced, he faces tough questions. But Holder’s nomination raises other questions about what President-elect Barack Obama claimed he believed during the campaign. Numerous times he promised that he supported an individual’s right to own guns...

But Holder’s nomination raises other questions about what President-elect Barack Obama claimed he believed during the campaign. Numerous times he promised that he supported an individual’s right to own guns and that he wouldn’t do anything to take away people’s guns. Just last year in a brief to the Supreme Court, Holder argued that “the Second Amendment did not protect an individual right to keep and bear arms,” that it only protected government militias’ rights to guns. He claimed that the Second Amendment posed no obstacle to implementing gun bans. I can’t find even one gun control law that Holder...

The grassroots community organization, ACORN, is fighting for a new law it says will save lives. "Stop the Bullet" is a campaign that would make it harder for felons to buy ammunition from stores. When you buy a gun, gun shops have to run a background check first to make sure you're not a convicted felon. Although it is also illegal for convicted felons to buy bullets, a background check is not required. As it stands now, gun shops aren't required to ask any questions before selling bullets, as long as the buyer is 18 and can present identification. Community...

Storm Warning! Obama Will Attack... Apparently I was wrong in my thinking that the Dems had been burned enough times on the gun issue that they'd wait until at least after the 2010 midterm elections before sticking their toe back into the parana pool. Sources from Washington are telling me that President-Elect Obama may move forward on an Assault Weapons/Magazine Capacity Ban ASAP — maybe as soon as later this January. Jim Shepherd at the SHOOTING WIRE is this morning also reporting similar rumors. This from Jim: Despite the new administration's insistence that jobs and the economy will be the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- Vic Scuderi is loaded with weaponry. His booth is stocked full of customers who are looking to wipe out his arsenal of firearms. It's business he won't shoot down. "I've probably seen a 25 percent increase in sales from last year," said Scuderi. While the economy may be wounded, gun dealers say sales are exploding at the annual Arms Fair at the City Center in Saratoga Springs. "This is my best show ever. I've sold more ammunition and more magazines than I've ever sold, so in that regard it's been a very good show for me,"...

Pick up the morning newspaper or turn on the evening newscast and the story that you’re bound to see is that America is facing an economic recession of historic proportions. Consumer spending is down and unemployment is up, but there is one item that Americans are rushing to buy -- guns. Why? Well, as NRA-certified instructor Joel Rosenberg told the Minneapolis Star Tribune, “It’s the Obama effect.” Gun sales have skyrocketed ever since it became clear that Barack Obama was going to win the White House and be able to govern with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. The...

Aides report that Obama is toying with the idea of naming defeated rival Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) to the newly created post of “Ambassador to America.” The idea is said to have arisen from the Senator Obama’s “feelings of alienation from a large segment of the population.” “If my administration is to be successful, I’ve got to be able to communicate with the bitter minority that opposed me,” Obama is reported to have said. “Who could be better suited to such a task than Senator McCain? He was able to persuade nearly 60 million of them to vote for him....

The last time voters in the Democratic stronghold of Fayette County favored a Republican for the White House, President-elect Barack Obama was 11 years old. In the midst of trouncing George McGovern and winning re-election with 520 electoral votes in 1972, Republican incumbent Richard Nixon won Fayette by 4,813 votes. This year, despite an almost 41,000-registration edge for Democrats in Fayette and a 10 percent margin of victory for Obama statewide, GOP nominee John McCain beat Obama by 160 votes, according to unofficial results.

I have been reading some of the crap on this board after the election and some of it is shocking. I've seen plenty of vanities...but to me vanities aren’t the problem....the messages contained in many of them reflect a mindset that IMHO has no place here. I've always thought of FR as a place where Conservatives (not Republicans) dominate and idiots kind of hang around the periphery sniping with their stupid notions. But (more and more) you read some of the dumbest crap here...and then see a coterie of nitwits chiming in with their agreement. Allot of it is the...

Jonathan Alford has a stunning piece in Salon about how Barack Obama's campaign views the people of Western Pennsylvania: With U.S. Rep. John Murtha making news about calling Western Pennsylvanians racist, Julia tells me about her own awful experiences driving through those rural towns. "I will never go back there again," she says. I ask her what will change these people. "Prayer and love," she says. "It's hard to love these people. But Jesus didn't say it was easy. We just have to be firm and things will change." "But these white voters are religious too," I say. "Just because...

John McCain on Sen. Obama's dormant remarks on the coal industry: “We found out yesterday what Senator Obama really thinks about coal. In a new video talking about his policies on coal, he told the San Francisco Chronicle, “if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them.” “Now, I believe we need to control emissions,” added McCain, “but I’m not going to let our coal industry go bankrupt. I’m not going to let coal workers lose their jobs and I’m not going to let energy prices increase even more for our families.”...

The narrative of this historic presidential election has come down to which candidate will close the deal and win the trust of Pennsylvania voters. From the outside looking in, Pennsylvania has become a metaphor for all that is wrong with our country when it comes to race -- especially those of its Democrats who are soft on or wary of Barack Obama. Yet on the inside, Pennsylvania is far from its broad-brush portrayal as racist. It is not the color of the candidate; it is the culture he represents. Say what you will, Obama's "spread the wealth" tongue-slip hit home...

Remember last April when Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., clumsily described economically struggling small towners as "cling"ing to guns, God, and bigotry? Hank Williams Jr., does. In a new radio spot airing in Montana, Williams says: "When Barack Obama said folks like you and me were bitter, and clinging to religion, I knew he just doesn't understand small town America," says Williams, adding: "We love our God, and we love our guns, 'specially handed down from our grandfathers. And we resent it when liberals like Obama question our way of life. Don't be bitter, vote McCain." One has to say: Montana?...

Warrenton gun shop owner Steve Clark said buyers fear restrictions on weapons that have been restricted before. (By John Mcdonnell -- The Washington Post) Buy Photo Americans have cut back on buying cars, furniture and clothes in a tough economy, but there's one consumer item that's still enjoying healthy sales: guns. Purchases of firearms and ammunition have risen 8 to 10 percent this year, according to state and federal data. Several variables drive sales, but many dealers, buyers and experts attribute the increase in part to concerns about the economy and fears that if Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins...

ABC News Political Reporter Jack Tapper writes on his blog Political Punch that Sen. Barack Obama taped an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that will air tomorrow on her show. “I regret to inform you that he did, indeed, dance,” pens Tapper, “As he has in the past.”

First we are bitter-gun-clinging-God-clinging-racist-rednecks, now we are crackers. At least according to John Baer at the Philadelphia Daily News. Click here for his opinion column reasoning that the "Cracker Effect" is why McCain continues to campaign in PA despite sagging polls numbers. You really have to wonder how the people of Pennsylvania feel about all of the negative adjectives being thrown their way in this election - especially Democrats that vote for John McCain. It is their "traitorous" vote for McCain that everyone is targeting with less than flattering descriptives for their vote.

Republican John McCain today said he regrets that retired Gen. Colin Powell crossed party lines to endorse Democrat Barack Obama and expressed disappointment that his longtime friend didn't notify him first. "I was surprised that he didn't call me before," McCain told the Tribune-Review in an exclusive telephone interview on the eve of a campaign swing through Pennsylvania that includes a rally at Robert Morris University in Moon. Powell, the former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed Obama Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. Powell acknowledged a close relationship with McCain for more than...

"Sometimes the leak is so bad that even a plumber can't fix it." This was the concise summation of a cable political strategist the other day, after the third and final presidential debate. That sounds about right, and yet the race in its final days retains a feeling of dynamism. I think it is going to burst open or tighten, not just mosey along. (snip) But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for,...

Barack Obama may be ahead in the polls in Pennsylvania, but he remains the "underdog," his wife, Michelle Obama, said today at a rally in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. With 19 days left, the Illinois senator’s wife was in Allegheny County to excite the base. She spoke in front of 1,500 supporters at the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum, where both her husband and Sen. Hillary Clinton held rallies in the Pennsylvania primary. RealClearPolitics shows Obama up 14 percentage points, that is a pretty steep plus for an underdog.

Rep. John Murtha said today in a prepared statement that he is sorry for making the comment that Western Pennsylvania is a racist area. Yesterday Murtha told the Tribune-Review that "Obama's got a problem with the race issue in Western Pennsylvania" and that the junior senator from Illinois could expect his skin color to cost him up to 4 percentage points at the polls on Nov. 4. In his statement today, Murtha said: "While we cannot deny that race is a factor in this election, I believe we've been able to look

On the October 13 CNN "Newsroom" program, European political editor Robin Oakley pontificated to Sens. McCain and Obama on how the U.S. can be more liked by people in Europe: "While we're on the symbolism, let me remind you how many Europeans see U.S. voters -- as a trigger-happy bunch with a Bible in one hand and a rifle in the other.... Does either of you senators have any serious plans to reduce the number of guns available in the U.S. or even dare to suggest it? That really would impress the Europeans, that you stand for change."