Free Republic

Dan Gross, the newly hired president of the Brady Campaign, counts the shooting of his brother Matt in 1997 at the Empire State Building as a seminal event in in his life. He may not call it that but he left a high paying partnership at JWT (formerly known as J. Walter Thompson Advertising) to start what eventually became the Center to Prevent Youth Violence. From his bio at the Brady Campaign: Dan founded CPYV after his brother was severely wounded in a shooting at the Empire State Building in February 1997. Prior to co-founding and directing the Center to...

WASHINGTON -- Brady Campaign Acting President Dennis Henigan today issued the following statement in response to U. S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ announcement that she would resign her seat in Congress this week. "We understand but are deeply saddened by the news that Rep. Giffords has decided to resign her seat in Congress because of the demands of her continued rehabilitation from the gunshot wound she suffered a year ago in Tucson. Congress and the American people now have lost the service of another devoted public servant because of gun violence. It is sadly reminiscent of the nation's loss of Jim...

A Connecticut Appellate Court recently issued an order dismissing an appeal in Gilland v. Sportsmen’s Outpost, Inc. – a Superior Court decision granting a firearm retailer’s motion to dismiss all claims against it pursuant to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (“PLCAA”). The PLCAA was passed in 2005 with broad bipartisan support. The purpose of the act is to prevent firearms manufacturers and retailers from being held liable for crimes committed with their products. In this case, the plaintiffs, who were represented by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, sought to hold the firearms retailer liable in...

On March 30, the 30th anniversary of the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, Jim Brady, who sustained a debilitating head wound in the attack, and his wife, Sarah, came to Capitol Hill to push for a ban on the controversial “large magazines.” Brady, for whom the law requiring background checks on handgun purchasers is named, then met with White House press secretary Jay Carney. During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said. “I just...

Representative Joe Walsh (no--not that Joe Walsh), a Tea Party supported Republican representing the Illinois 8th congressional district, greatly upset the Brady Campaign late last month when he expounded on the purpose of the Second Amendment. From the Daily Herald: “We are an embarrassment (in Illinois),” Walsh said. “We are the last state standing when it comes to concealed carry. There's no issue when it comes to freedom that matters like this, like the Second Amendment. The most important amendment in that Bill of Rights is the Second Amendment. It protects every other amendment. It is the last line of...

Recently gun dealers were sent a large manila envelope from the NH Firearms Safety Coalition. The packet contained a number of items with a disturbing anti-gun-rights message, including a full color poster... The funding path goes down from the Harvard School of Public Health to the Harvard Injury Control Research Center to the Bohnett Foundation and the Joyce Foundation. Both the Bohnett and Joyce foundations are infamous for being extremely anti-gun-rights.The David Bohnett Foundation "supports and encourages groups that promote the goals of reduction and elimination of the manufacture and sale of handguns in the U.S." (Emphasis added) The Bohnett...

Evergreen State gun owners recall Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke as the fellow who declared war on Starbucks for serving armed citizen patrons — and lost — and as he departs that post, an editorial in a Michigan newspaper yesterday underscores why. This column discussed Helmke's looming departure the other day. We talked about the record number of CPL holders here while violent crime had declined. We talked about it on a national scale here, all on Helmke's watch. We noted here how Starbucks profits actually climbed after Helmke's attempt to browbeat the business chain into submission. As America celebrates...

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- “Gun Control” advocates fall into only two categories: the Liars and the Ignorant. There is no third category. The Liars invent the lies. The Ignorant believe the lies and repeat them. Truly fervent “gun control” advocates are quite often mentally ill. Their most common clinical symptoms, projection and denial, are barely below the surface. Because they often entertain a warped contempt of other human beings, they don’t trust themselves with guns, so they would prohibit firearms to all. They also entertain a primitive superstition about an inanimate object: “Guns are bad! Guns kill people!” Read what a...

I remember reading recently that Obama met with a gun-grabber group or member, and assured them that things were being done "under the radar" to advance the cause of gun control. With the "gunwalker" stuff hitting the fan, I wonder if the parties to that conversation deserve a subpoena?

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Brady Campaign...New Champion Of The Tenth Amendment   Friday, June 10, 2011   For more than 30 years, the Brady Campaign has demanded that the federal government impose gun bans, ammo bans, waiting periods, gun registration -- you name it -- with no regard for the states. In 1994, when the group was called Handgun Control, Inc., it said that its main "goal" was to "enact a comprehensive federal gun control policy."In January, the Brady Campaign endorsed Sen. Frank Lautenberg's (D-N.J.) bills proposing a federal law to prohibit Americans from possessing...

PHOENIX, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- Paul Helmke, ringleader of the aggressive Brady Anti-Gun gang, released this statement about the “bipartisan� gun-control meeting the White House scheduled.(Note: The “White House� is a building and can’t do anything; the person responsible in that building remains unidentified but appears to be Steve Croley) The meeting only included people who want to ban guns, an indicator of the plans, according to unidentifiable experts. “On Tuesday, I attended a meeting at the U.S. Department of Justice with representatives from the White House, the Vice-President’s office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI, and...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Brady Ad Off-Target   Friday, April 15, 2011   We have reported many times on the Brady Campaign’s rush to exploit tragedy for political gain.  Since its inception as the National Council to Control Handguns over 30 years ago, the group has premised its entire agenda on this kind of exploitation for political gain, and on the notion that having more gun control laws and, therefore, fewer guns, means that crime must necessarily decrease.  Since the senseless January 8 attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her innocent staff and constituents,...

There are the “Gunwalkers” at ATF, and then there are the real Gunrunners. In addition to turning a knowingly blind eye to gun smuggling, some New Mexico City officials are alleged to be willing participants in gunrunning for profit for them. Eddie Espinoza, Mayor of Columbus, New Mexico, its Police Chief, Angelo Vega, who had just come off administrative leave for alleged wrongdoing, and Blas Giuterrez, a city councilman, have been arrested for suspected gunrunning across the border from this town. They were among eleven arrested under an 84 count indictment. The town’s last claim to fame was that it...

Obama intentionally did not mention gun control in his State of the Union, but aides say that in the next two weeks the administration will unveil a campaign to get Congress to toughen existing laws. At the beginning of his State of the Union address, President Obama tipped his hat to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who’s now recuperating in a Houston medical facility. But throughout the hourlong speech, he never addressed the issue at the core of the Giffords tragedy—gun control—and what lawmakers would, or should, do to reform American firearm-access laws. That was intentional, according to the White House. An...

Now that Dick Cheney has opened the door to tighter gun restrictions, will President Barack Obama do the same? That politically dicey question is playing out behind the scenes in the run-up to next week’s State of the Union. In the aftermath of the Tucson shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and federal Judge John Roll, gun control groups and some Democratic members of Congress are pushing to get the president to directly address the issue of gun violence in his speech to Congress next Tuesday, according to gun control advocates and congressional aides, who asked for anonymity. Some Democratic party...

DENVER (AP) - A group that opposes guns on campus filed an argument with the Colorado Supreme Court urging the justices to dismiss a lawsuit that seeks to give students the right to carry firearms at colleges. The Washington, D.C.-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence said in a brief filed Monday that the Court should "protect students and faculty from the severe risks posed by guns." In April, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a gun-rights group that sued the University of Colorado. The group argued that the university's 1994 policy banning concealed weapons violates state...

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has been endorsed for election by a leading gun control group, two years after earning a top rating from the National Rifle Association. The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence notes that Gillibrand had been an NRA favorite when she was an upstate congresswoman in a Republican district. But the group says that in less than two years as an appointed U.S. senator, she has become a leader in what the Brady group calls sensible gun laws. Gillibrand accepted the endorsement on Aug. 12, saying it reflects her opposition to illegal guns...

National lawmakers were in Chicago holding a Congressional hearing on proposed gun control legislation today. The Closing the Gun Show Loophole Act would require private sellers at gun shows to perform background checks before selling firearms. Illinois passed a similar law in 2005. Jody Weis is superintendent of Chicago Police. He says the law should be implemented in all states. WEIS: It's just common sense legislation. I don't see how anyone could say this is restrictive when we're simply asking for a background check if you're going to buy a weapon. This is pretty simple to understand. Thirty-three states, including...

People walking the streets armed with guns must be dangerous, right? A newly revised study by the Brady Campaign and the Violence Policy Center found that even those individuals who have legally obtained permits to carry concealed handguns are extremely dangerous. With millions of Americans already having been issued such permits from the various states, this is an important issue. The gun control organizations have frequently made these claims in the press, and Dennis Henigan, the vice president of the Brady Campaign, will likely make these claims again when he and I appear on John Stossel’s FoxBusiness show today. But...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Winner Of 2010 Sarah Brady Visionary Award Resigns In Disgrace   Friday, June 11, 2010   On May 18, the Brady Campaign held a big shindig in Washington, D.C., to give this year’s “Sarah Brady Visionary Award” to now-former Hearst News Service White House reporter Helen Thomas.In accepting the award, Thomas vilified the U.S. Supreme Court for declaring the Second Amendment to protect an individual right to arms, and vilified the Armed Forces for fighting the war on terrorism.“The inept Supreme Court has found a way for all individuals to have...

As the American public increasingly turns away from the gun control agenda, the leading gun control group has been forced to sell its membership list to raise money. While NRA membership nears 4 million members, the flagship gun control group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, has been revealed to have just over 50,000 members. The once-secret Brady Campaign membership numbers were discovered when gun rights activist and blogger Joe Huffman found that the Brady Campaign was selling its membership list for direct mail marketing. As Huffman points out, 50,000 members is far below the "about half a million...

The tide turns in the battle for gun rights as the Brady Campaign withers away As gun rights activists await the upcoming decision in the McDonald vs. Chicago Supreme Court case, new evidence emerges that, in this post-Heller decision world, the public has soured on the bitter taste of gun control.The latest evidence of the declining public support for restrictions on gun rights is in the data released today by the Federal Election Commission on the private donations and expenditures of the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence - Voter Education PAC (Link goes to actual FEC reports).The Brady Campaign to End...

United States Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch has issued an order affecting the amicus brief submitted by the Brady Center in the Montana FFA case. (Click here to read it, along with the Department of Justice "Reply Memorandum"). Here's the order ----------------------------cut------------------------- Good grief. So none of their co-signers "sought or received permission to" be listed? And their attorney didn't file the required motion to represent them? If the gungrabbers can't manage a list this small, what makes them think a bigger one is such a hot idea?

HELENA, Mont. -- The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is joining the federal government's fight to stop states that want to exempt themselves from national gun control laws, arguing the effort threatens public safety.The gun control advocates and the U.S. Department of Justice both filed new arguments Tuesday in the ongoing legal battle over federal gun control and states rights.The issue was sparked with the "firearm freedoms act" first enacted in Montana last year and subsequently in several other states, and is leading to a constitutional showdown over the reach of Congress into state borders.The states argue they should...

Is the Brady Campaign a closet klavern of the Klan?By Alan Gottlieb and Dave Workman They opposed a landmark court ruling that struck down the handgun ban in District of Columbia, a city with a predominantly black population. They later opposed legislation that would grant the District full voting rights in Congress, because the measure contained a provision expanding gun rights for those same citizens. They filed a court brief opposing a lawsuit filed against the City of Chicago’s handgun ban by Otis McDonald, an African-American whose life story would make inspiring material for a movie. “They” are the...

H/T Mike at SipseyStreetIrregulars Terrorists and Guns: The Nature of the Threat and Proposed Reforms Wednesday, May 5, 2010 10:00 AM Dirksen Senate Office Building, room 342 Add To My Calendar (vCal) Witnesses Panel 1 The Honorable Frank R. Lautenberg U.S. Senate The Honorable Peter T. King U.S. House of Representatives The Honorable Michael R. Bloomberg Mayor City of New York The Honorable Raymond W. Kelly Police Commissioner City of New York Panel 2 Daniel D. Roberts Assistant Director, Criminal Justice Information Services Division, Federal Bureau of Investigation U.S. Department of Justice Eileen R. Larence Director, Homeland Security and Justice...

Watch her elitist attitude throughout the show and watch as she tries shooting a shotgun at at a shooting clays station, only to break down and cry. I think this speaks volumes about the mindset of the anti-gunners.

The Brady anti freedom- anti gun rights group is complaining that Colorado college campuses may soon be removed from the ranks of "gun free" zones These "gun free" zones are public areas in which every mass killing of three or more people have always occurred. The Colorado Appeals Court reinstated the lawsuit challenging a University initiated ban on firearms on the University of Colorado campus. The Court noted that the state's concealed carry law did not make carry on college campuses illegal, and that if the legislature wanted to have done that, then they knew how to have done it...

A California Democrat is proposing a new law requiring residents to register their shotguns and rifles or go to jail, CBSNews.com has learned. Assemblyman Mike Feuer, whose district includes Beverly Hill and West Hollywood, this week introduced legislation ordering law enforcement to "permanently keep" records of anyone who buys a gun from a dealer or an individual. California already stores information about handgun purchases. Feuer is no friend of firearms owners: his previous legislative effort, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law, required all new handguns to include "microstamping" technology that can imprint serial numbers on spent ammunition casings. As...

Judge Ricardo Urbina of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled Friday that the Washington, D.C., firearm ordinances enacted after the Supreme Court's D.C. v. Heller decision in 2008 "permissibly regulate the exercise of the core Second Amendment right to use firearms for the purpose of self-defense in the home." Urbina dismissed a case brought by Dick Heller, the same plaintiff who challenged the previous D.C. ordinance in the Supreme Court. Heller challenged the District's firearms registration process, its ban on assault weapons and its prohibition of "large capacity ammunition feeding devices," claiming they violated the Second...

(GunReports.com)--A report from a national coalition of mayors urges President Obama to adopt dozens of gun registration and confiscation measures, including the creation of a federal interstate firearms trafficking unit. After months of waiting in vain for gun control supporters in Congress to take aggressive action against semi-automatic firearms, gun shows and NRA-supported restrictions on the abuse of instant background check records and firearm trace information, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is urging President Obama to make 40 changes to federal gun law interpretation and enforcement on his own-without congressional approval. Bloomberg conveyed his recommendations to the president through...

More and more editorials outside the second amendment community are taking the position of praising Starbucks for standing their ground against the gun control bully The Brady Center For the Prevention of Handgun Violence, a non-profit. This is most significant. Brady prevents nothing in the way of violence, as it bullies companies into submission and compels them to give in to disarming their employees or students and now customers. In bullying companies to refuse business to armed customers in states where it is perfectly legal to carry your loaded sidearm, gun control forces corporations to enforce rules that aren’t there...

The Brady Campaign has grouped the “Gun Lobby” with “Gun Criminals.” Although The U.S. Supreme Court is deliberating whether the 2nd Amendment applies to the States, a Massachusetts Supreme Court decision on March, 10, 2010, said that, “Based on current Federal law, however, we cannot say that the Second Amendment applies to the States, either through the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of substantive due process or otherwise.” It would have been prudent for the Massachusetts Court to have delayed their ruling until SCOTUS has its say. If the SCOTUS holds that it does apply to the States, their ruling will trump...

The Obama administration will seek to reinstate the assault weapons ban that expired in 2004 during the Bush administration, Attorney General Eric Holder said today. "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.

It is a truism to say that there are many anti-gun ideologues among our educational elites. But few are as honest as Doug Van Gorder – a math teacher at Brockton High School. He admits that he would rather lose a child than exercise his right to defend himself with a gun. In the wake of a recent school shooting, he wrote this in a Letter to the Editor of the Boston Globe: Some propose overturning laws that made schools gun-free zones even for teachers who may be licensed to securely carry concealed firearms elsewhere. They argue that barring licensed-carry...

With crime down ten percent almost across the board nationally in 2009, the Bradys are complaining about lax gun laws in most U.S, States. This is contrary to the proven proposition that more guns equals less crime. About 20% of all Brady instant checks (14 million of some 60 million total background checks) since they began in 1994 were conducted last year in 2009. Struggling to appear to be relevant, here's the latest Brady attempt at grasping at gun control straws. "WASHINGTON - February 18 - Most states have weak or non-existent gun laws, helping feed the illegal gun market...

Among the many groups that opposed Barack Obama's presidential race, few were more certain or vehement than gun rights organizations. "Barack Obama would be the most anti-gun president in American history," the National Rifle Association announced. "Obama is a committed anti-gunner," warned Gun Owners of America. So it's no stunner that after a year in office, the president is getting hammered by people who have no use for his policy on firearms. The surprise is that the people attacking him are those who favor gun control, not those who oppose it. Obama's record on this issue has been largely overlooked—except...

The Brady Campaign trying to drag Starbucks Coffee into the anti-open carry debate is, like the core mission of the gungrabbers, senseless, punitive of the innocent and fundamentally unfair. The coffee giant just wants to sell its wares, and is reluctant to alienate a large market segment simply because anti-rights bluenoses get all hissy when they see anyone pushing beyond social norms they deem acceptable. Here's a company that's not innocent--in fact, they are willful leading collaborators in the global citizen disarmament movement: "American icon," Levi Strauss. Some of us have been waving that denim flag for years--here's an early...

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has declared war on a Northwest institution, and in the process perhaps the public will discover the extremes gun prohibitionists will go in an effort to push their radical agenda. The Brady Bunch has Starbucks squarely in its crosshairs, hoping to browbeat the coffee giant into refusing service to an evidently growing clientele of law-abiding firearms owners. In an e-mail message sent out this week, Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke laments that, “Starbucks is refusing to prohibit open carrying in its stores, despite protests from loyal customers." UPDATE: My colleague, David Codrea, weighs...

The Brady anti gun rights campaign and the NBA were both offended by a recent Nike ad featuring two of the NBA's biggest basketball stars. This, after the gun flap with Washington Wizards stars. The ad was created months before Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton were suspended for having guns in the locker room. The ad showed James on one page and Bryant on the adjoining page. It had the slogan, "Prepare For Combat." "I'll do whatever it takes to win games. I don't leave anything in the chamber." James said such slang is common among his peers. Nothing has...

It’s been disappointment after disappointment with Obama for lots of us; however, we expected nothing but bad news from his administration. But, of all people who are disappointed with Obama, now it’s the anti- gun rights Brady Campaign. The Brady’s President, Paul Hemke, is apoplectic. We give the Brady’s an “A” for Asinine in their “Whine of the Month.” Here’s their press release from Tuesday. “Weaker Gun Laws, Lack Of Leadership Earn President Obama A Failing Grade Jan 19, 2010 Washington, DC - In his first year as President, Barack Obama’s continuing concessions to the “guns anywhere” mentality of the...

Washington, DC - The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence today endorsed Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in the special election for the U.S. Senate seat previously held by the late Edward M. Kennedy, calling her election critical because her opponent has become beholden to the National Rifle Association and other gun extremists.  

Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign, said that a Brown victory could lead to passage of federal legislation that would force Massachusetts to allow out-of-state residents to carry loaded, hidden handguns in the state. This would include states with much weaker concealed carry laws like Florida,...

Back in late October, I wrote "Brady Campaign hypocrisy," chiding the Brady Campaign--specifially, their Vice President for Law and Policy, Dennis Henigan--for his accusation that the "gun lobby" tries to hide the truth. This accusation positively reeks of hypocrisy, on a couple levels. First, Henigan himself, in arguing on a video clip that the Second Amendment did nothing to protect the individual's right to keep and bear arms, recited the amendment in its entirety--except for the "of the people" part--the very part that poses the biggest problem for the now discredited "collective rights" interpretation of the Second Amendment. Second, when...

Four and a half years ago, three police organizations in the United States issued advisories to warn officers that a new handgun introduced into the U.S. market by a Belgium manufacturer of military firearms represented a unique threat to the safety of police officers.  It was a handgun that was designed to fire bullets through body armor.  A U.S. Senator and a U.S. Congressman urged a legal ban on civilian possession of the firearm, which began being referred to as the "cop killer gun."  The gun, manufactured by FN Herstal of Belgium, is lightweight and easily concealable, and was designed...

Sacramento, CA – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation that will help law enforcement officials track down and apprehend armed criminals and other prohibited persons. AB 962 by Assembly Member Kevin DeLeon (D-Los Angeles) had the support of law enforcement officials from across the state and was modeled after successful city ordinances, including the cities of Sacramento and Los Angeles. AB 962 was the Brady Campaign´s top priority bill in this year´s legislature. The law requires maintenance of purchaser records by handgun ammunition vendors. Local law enforcement can use these records to find illegal guns. "The purchase records will...

'CZAR' Sunstein Shoots Himself In The Foot Gun Hater Lautenberg Proposes "Extraordinary Powers" Be Given To the U.S. Attorney General To Limit Gun Sales. Obama and the White House are looking the other way as Lautenberg seeks to ban guns from 1,000,000 US citizens on a secret FBI terrorist watch list. Obama has deliberately and repeatedly lied to America's 90 million gun owners across the country when he insisted that he would not try to take away anyone's firearms. Now Obama's silence endorses Lautenberg's latest attempt at banning guns. Lautenberg has now introduced bill S. 1317 that would give the...

Many media outlets have misfired about guns. Countless newspapers and television networks -- from CBS to MSNBC -- have misreported that conservative protesters are threatening President Obama with guns at public events. It hasn't happened. In Portsmouth, N.H., a man carrying a gun, William Kostric, joined an Aug. 11 health care protest. This was blocks away and hours before Mr. Obama's town-hall meeting in that city. Mr. Kostric was given permission to be on church property where the protest occurred and was not at the place the president visited. What most of the coverage left out was that Mr. Kostric...

WASHINGTON – Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends. The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration. Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the...

Militia groups with gripes against the government are regrouping across the country and could grow rapidly, according to an organization that tracks such trends. The stress of a poor economy and a liberal administration led by a black president are among the causes for the recent rise, the report from the Southern Poverty Law Center says. Conspiracy theories about a secret Mexican plan to reclaim the Southwest are also growing amid the public debate about illegal immigration. Bart McEntire, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, told SPLC researchers that this is the most growth...

The Senate confirmed Judge Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court yesterday. Gun-control groups are crowing that the 68-31 vote was a major defeat for the National Rifle Association, which actively opposed the nomination. The gun controllers are reading too much into this vote. The NRA scored Judge Sotomayor's confirmation and ran ads to defeat her, but the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence counted eight NRA-endorsed senators who spurned the powerful gun-rights group to support her nomination. Some Democratic senators, such as Virginia's Mark R. Warner, even took to lecturing the NRA about being hijacked by extremists. The Sotomayor vote...