Free Republic

If you receive monthly benefits payments from the VA, you may want to double check your online account. Just a few days before Aubry and David Stevenson planned to leave town for a wedding someone had logged into David's eBenefits account and changed his direct deposit. "They shouldn't be able to change my contact information and my direct deposit," David said. "You should have to do that in person. You should definitely have to do that in person." Someone obtained David's user login and with minimal safeguards in place, the hacker was able to re-route David's disability check to a...

I ask, because I recently noticed the DuckDuckGo mobile privacy browser integrates support for TOR/Orbot. (Under "Settings" is the option to enable TOR.) Relevant URLs: Orbot: https://guardianproject.info/apps/orbot/ DuckDuckGo browser at F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/com.duckduckgo.mobile.android/

Joe Mantegna may be best-known in Hollywood for starring in everything from “Godfather Part lll” to “Criminal Minds,” but even before he was a big shot on the silver screen the 66-year-old was competing in both pistol and shotgun competitions. The devout firearms enthusiast is now loading up for his fourth season hosting the Outdoor Channel’s “MidwayUSA’s Gun Stories,” which takes viewers through gun history – exploring classics like the Mauser bolt-action to top-notch firearms like the Adaptive Combat Rifle.

PORTOLA VALLEY (KPIX) — In the market for a tank, armored bridge carrier, amphibious jeep, or maybe a SCUD missile launcher, complete with attached missile? They can be yours, for a few thousand dollars or up to a few million dollars as the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation auctions off 200 military vehicles from the Littlefield collection, including historic vehicles and armaments from both sides of nearly every armed conflict in the last century.Spread across 460 acres in San Mateo County is late tank collector Jacques Littlefield’s estate, and half of these vintage war machines are heading to a museum. To...

Federal agents recently arrested 10 men on charges that they illegally sold firearms from Sadie’s Flea Market, just south of Dothan. George L. Beck Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama, confirmed federal agents recently arrested 10 people on various illegal firearms charges in connection to an investigation launched by the federal bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Beck said the investigation started after ATF agents received information that guns were being trafficked and sold at Sadie’s Flea Market. Beck said the investigation showed the market had no criminal involvement. “They began their investigation, and they...

The number of SWAT team raids in the United States every year is now more than 25 times higher than it was back in 1980. As America has conducted wars overseas in recent years, our police forces have become increasingly militarized as well. And without a doubt, many of our cities have become much more dangerous places. Thanks to relentless illegal immigration, drug cartels are thriving and there are now at least 1.4 million gang members living in the United States. But there are many that believe that the militarization of our police forces has gone way too far. Almost...

Most of us don’t completely trust the government. We certainly don’t want government to be able to prevent us from getting information we want or need. We are against governments suppressing information…unless it is stuff that we personally want suppressed. Then that’s different, of course. I thought of that this week when Governor Rick Snyder signed legislation that prevents the press or public from being able to get gun records. From now on, we will be unable to find out who owns guns, and who has permits and licenses to have them. Well, conservatives and gun lovers are thrilled about...

A Pennsylvania bill that would legalize AR-15 style semi-automatic rifles for hunting is being criticized by hunters themselves. The bill proposed in 2013 by Republican Rep. Rick Saccone claims that rapid follow-up shots will increase the odds of harvesting game. Saccone says only two states have banned their use and that there is nothing “frightening or extreme in this proposal.” A deer hunter of 54 years who wrote an op-ed for YDR.com says the proposal will make hunting unsafe and unethical. “Marksmanship is the essence of an ethical deer hunt. Spraying 11 shots at a deer (or group of deer)...

Cosmopolitan Magazine probably didn’t anticipate the backlash it would receive when it ran an online article mocking a conservative reality TV show star for what was on her wedding registry. Jill Dugger, 23, is part of “19 Kids and Counting,” the reality show featuring Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 19 children which first aired in 2008. With nine girls and ten boys (including two sets of twins), all of whose names begin with the letter “J,” the series is now in its eighth season.Dugger and her fiancé, Derek Dillard, tweeted their wedding registry announcement in April, which listed — among a...

Before you sigh and repeat the worn old mantra that Alaska’s lone Congressman Don Young, its longest serving republican is unbeatable in this state, don’t discount the potential power of this energetic, smart, savvy young man with considerable Alaska credentials going for him. Forrest Dunbar, a 29-year-old attorney who calls Cordova home, is running as on the democratic ticket to unseat longtime U.S. Rep. Don Young (R) in the November 4th General Election. Dunbar, who has the endorsement of the state’s Democratic Party, introduced himself to local residents at the Resurrect Arts Coffee Shop and Gallery in Seward Thursday, June...

In an election year, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper used the F-word to the state’s sheriffs after claiming they never bothered to tell him the gun control bills he signed into law were unenforceable and he had no idea the bills would be controversial. During the last legislative session Democrats who controlled both chambers of the legislature as well as the governor’s mansion passed a series of gun control laws that are among the strictest in the nation. Among them are what the state’s sheriffs have said is a ban on the sale of all new magazines in the state. The...

Can't wait until October when "The Walking Dead" returns? Good thing AMC is looking out for you with an all-things-zombie celebration over Fourth of July weekend: There's a "TWD" Season 5 preview edition of "Talking Dead" and two new documentaries to tide you over until the fall. AMC will celebrate "Dead, White and Blue" weekend starting July 4 at 9 a.m. ET/PT when the network begins airing every episode of "The Walking Dead," which will culminate in a "Talking Dead Season 5 Preview Special" on Sunday, July 6 at 9 p.m. ET/PT with guests Aisha Tyler and showrunner Scott M....

A news item that emerged a few days ago seemed to encapsulate the increasing helplessness that has gripped America as gun violence reaches new heights. An Oklahoma company reported that sales of its new product, bullet-proof blankets to protect school children during mass shootings, have “far exceeded our wildest expectations.” Some school officials have determined that the best response to the potential threat of a deranged gunman is to spend $1,000 each on Bodyguard Blankets. Under normal circumstances, the nation would be engaged in a soul-searching debate about guns, based on the most recent shooting incident. Which shooting? Santa Barbara?...

On street corners and in rallies, the Texas gun rights crowd aims to accustom the public to guns. DALLAS — “One of them said, ‘You’re going to wish you had a gun, boy, when I fill you full of holes.’ ” A 35-year-old former Marine, Henry was fresh from an encounter with an increasingly common phenomenon in North Texas: an Open Carry rally, where advocates gather in public places with semi-automatic rifles. Henry said he simply wanted to make a video of the Memorial Day demonstration by the small but well-armed crowd. Then tempers rose and some curses flew. He...

On Tuesday morning a 15-year-old killer murdered fellow student Emilio Hoffman, age 14, and wounded a teacher at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon. The killer brought an AR-15 type rifle, a semi-automatic pistol and enough ammunition to do far more harm – but he was stopped before he could by police. The police were aided by a brave teacher and by a well-practiced school lockdown. After being confronted and exchanging gunfire with police, the killer committed suicide. Police also found the killer had brought a large knife. Within hours, politicians were already attempting to exploit the tragedy – including...

Australians pride themselves on telling it like it is, but when it comes to gun laws, straight-shooting often takes a back seat to a determined effort at silencing debate. In 1996, Australia passed some of the most restrictive gun laws in the western world. They included bans on self-loading rifles and self-loading and pump-action shotguns, universal gun registration and a taxpayer-funded gun confiscation program costing over half a billion dollars. The ongoing costs of running the firearms registration systems are unknown but have been estimated at around $28 million per year, or $75,000 per day. That’s more than what the...

President Obama said Tuesday that that the ”biggest frustration” of his presidency so far is the fact that the country hasn’t taken steps to keep guns out of the hands of mass shooters. The President  has been vocal the past couple of days in the wake of the Oregon shooting and the new press secretary says he is always looking for a “unilateral” way to install some gun control.“We’re the only developed country on Earth where this happens,” Obama said during a question-and-answer session organized through Tumblr. “And it happens now once a week. And it’s a one-day story. There’s no place else...

Within hours of Tuesday's shooting at Reynolds High School, a startling statistic began circulating on Twitter and other social media sites: The incident was the 74th school shooting in the U.S. since the December 2012 shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. That works out to nearly one school shooting a week since Newtown, when 20 students and six staff members were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School. But is it true? A lot, it turns out, depends on how "school shooting" is defined. The statistic comes from Everytown for Gun Safety, a group based in New York and started by former...

After Tuesday’s shooting at an Oregon high school, many media outlets, including CNN, reported that there have been 74 school shootings in the past 18 months. That’s the time period since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot to death. The statistic came from a group called Everytown for Gun Safety, an umbrella group started by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a passionate and public advocate of gun control. Without a doubt, that number is startling. So on Wednesday, CNN took a closer look at the...

BELLEVUE, Wash., June 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today congratulated CNN for helping to expose what now appears to be a deliberate deception by Michael Bloomberg's "Everytown for Gun Safety" that claims there have been 74 school shootings since the December 2012 Sandy Hook tragedy. That figure is also being questioned by other news outlets after one curious journalist looked at the list of shootings released by the Everytown group, along with a map, and discovered that many didn't happen on school campuses, and others were gang-related events after school...