Free Republic

It is revered as a modern-day musket. It is reviled as a tool for mass killers. The AR-15 wasn’t supposed to be a bestseller. The rugged, powerful weapon was originally designed as a soldiers’ rifle in the late 1950s. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” an internal Pentagon report raved. It soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in the Vietnam War, where the weapon earned a new name: the M16.

As mass shootings become an almost ever-present part of the news cycle, the Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling on a case any day now which “could legalize assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in all 50 states.” In the case in question, National Association for Gun Rights v. City of Naperville, a gun shop owner and a gun rights group have claimed that two Illinois statutes “violate the Second Amendment,” and now it’s on the shadow docket for the Supreme Court. But what exactly is the shadow docket? In a nutshell, the high court takes cases on either...

DENVER — It was the 554th Friday since his son, Alex, was one of 12 people shot to death in a movie theater 11 miles from here, and state Sen. Tom Sullivan (D) stood in the well of the Colorado Senate, calling again for stricter gun laws. The gallery above was filled with grieving Denver high-schoolers whose classmate had recently been fatally shot. The halls outside were swarming with volunteers in red Moms Demand Action T-shirts, one of whom stopped Sullivan as he exited the chamber to ask: Would he support a state assault weapons ban? Federal, absolutely, he responded....

Let’s face it: Many armed Americans are deathly — and irrationally — afraid of others. And so they have become a menace to the rest of us. According to a 2021 Gallup Poll, as many as 88 percent of gun owners are apparently terrified of being harmed, since they say the guns are for self-defense. Yet very, very few gun owners end up defending themselves and their families from the sort of random crime they fear. According to The Trace, fewer than 3 percent of gun owners ever use a weapon in self-defense, and apparently some of those involve misrepresentation...

DENVER (AP) — Colorado Democratic lawmakers killed an ambitious bill Thursday that would have banned the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, citing promises made to their constituents and concerns over the sweep of the ban even in a state still reeling from a mass shooting in Colorado Springs months earlier. Washington state's Democratic-controlled Statehouse cleared a ban on semiautomatic rifles Wednesday, joining the blue bastions of California and New York. But Colorado's Democratic-controlled Legislature was split on the issue, underscoring the state's purple roots, tensions between urban and rural constituents, and an ongoing push-and-pull between progressive and moderate Democrats...

---assorted Colorado sources say the "assault weapons" ban failed--

But it is also a fundamentally disingenuous statistic that, rather than illuminating, obscures the problem of firearm deaths in those under 20. Put simply, virtually no study on any scientific issue considers the broad grouping of ages 1-19 a single cohort. This grouping encompasses toddlers, preschoolers, elementary school children, adolescents and young adults. Is there any logic in combining those too young to walk with those learning to ride a bicycle with those who are driving cars? Unfortunately, this is how the CDC has defined children, thereby conflating vastly different circumstances. The CDC cherry-picking of who is considered a child...

Like thousands of others who had waited hours in line for a seat at the National Rifle Assn.'s annual Leadership Forum on Friday, she was craning her neck toward the stage as the syrupy lyrics of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." blared through speakers. Then he appeared and told them exactly what they wanted to hear. “With me at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, no one will lay a finger on your firearms,” former President Trump blathered to rapturous applause. "They want to take away your guns while throwing open the jailhouse doors and releasing bloodthirsty criminals into your communities." To...

Which states have the loosest, most irresponsible gun laws? Southern states. Which are most dominated by the Republicans? Ditto. Which are most resistant to “broader public opinion” favoring greater restrictions on firearms. Same. Which states send the greatest number of lawmakers to the US Congress to block any chance of national gun-law reforms. You got it. Southern states with loose, irresponsible gun laws do not feel the effects of tight, responsible gun-control laws. But states with tight, responsible gun-control laws do feel the effects of loose, irresponsible gun laws in southern states. This is how they bend these United States...

Ghost guns are coming under fire from gun-control advocates. But why are these weapons so difficult to trace? And can anything be done to keep them from getting into the wrong hands? (snip) Officials told him the 17-year-old suspect used a ghost gun, which is a privately made firearm that is unregistered and untraceable. Nowadays, anyone with access to the internet can buy the parts needed to make a gun without a background check. Tutorials online explain how to assemble the pieces into a fully functioning firearm with just basic tools in less than an hour. "I was just in...

The M16 or AR-15 rifle is one of the US's most divisive symbols To gun enthusiasts, it is an effective, lightweight weapon. To anti-gun advocates, it's a symbol of mass shootings. Experts estimate approximately 16 million adults in the US now own at least one of these rifles.

Most US states get a failing grade on gun laws, according to a new scorecard published by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The group, which advocates for stricter gun laws as a way to save lives, gave What Matters a first look at the new analysis. (snip) How do you account for a state like Illinois, that has strong gun laws, but also a high rate of gun deaths in its major city, Chicago? DRANE: We don’t take into account cities and that, in part, has to do with the availability of city-level data. It’s actually quite...

Gov. Evers wants to expand background checks on guns through budget proposal; Here's what data shows for rejected gun purchases in Wisconsin Ricardo Torres Milwaukee Journal Sentinel President Joe Biden traveled to Monterey Park, California on Tuesday, where a gunman killed 11 people and injured nine others in January, to announce he signed an executive order to increase the number of background checks during gun sales. The executive order does not call for universal background checks, but a proposal at the state level is being evaluated by lawmakers to expand handgun background checks. Gov. Tony Evers is proposing in the...

In New Orleans, a former Innocence Project lawyer named Emily Maw is currently serving as an assistant district attorney. And it is going about as well as you would expect. Maw is now the focus of controversy for declining to press charges in at least 15 gun crimes that occurred over the Mardi Gras season. These crimes included at least one egregious case in which the defendant was carrying around a machine gun — a federal crime that carries a lengthy prison sentence. That particular defendant also had prior convictions, according to local news reports. Yet instead of prosecuting these...

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — After years of trying to pass a bill to allow people to carry concealed guns in Nebraska without a permit, conservative lawmakers are on the cusp of doing so, thanks in part to the defection of two Democratic Omaha senators — the only Black lawmakers in the body — who cited racial disparity in enforcing gun laws in their districts. After three days of debate, lawmakers voted 36-12 Friday to advance the bill. It must survive two more rounds of debate to pass. While the bill would not usurp the federal requirement for a background check...

A downstate judge on Friday struck down the ban on high-power firearms and high-capacity ammunition magazines that Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law earlier this year, a ruling the Illinois attorney general’s office immediately appealed to the state Supreme Court. The scope of the ruling was a subject of dispute, with the attorney for the state lawmaker who was the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit arguing that it applies statewide and Pritzker’s office contending it does not. “We expected political grandstanding from those more beholden to the gun lobby than to the safety of their constituents and today’s ruling comes...

As Chicago mourns more victims of gun violence, including the horrific shooting of Police Officer Andres Vasquez-Lasso on Wednesday, some willfully misguided lawmakers in Springfield are busily working to make things worse. In the new legislative session, gun apologists have introduced a flurry of bills that would have the effect of increasing gun violence. If the bills are enacted into law, there would be more slain police officers, more Highland Park-type mass shootings and more gunfire on community streets every day. There is a bill to allow guns on public transit and another to allow guns both on public transit...

(snip) Gun advocates do not argue that these weapons are needed for hunting. Hunters are sportsmen and -women. During certain seasons, many of them are happy to use a bow and arrow; shooting multiple rounds at a deer isn’t a sport. Some gun owners talk about the thrill of using assault-style weapons and AR-15-style rifles for target practice. In fact, if gun advocates wish to argue that assault-style weapons are now in “common use,” that use is most likely at a rifle range. And therein lies a modest proposal: Allow these dangerous weapons to be used only at secure ranges...

You must have seen a movie in which the protagonists empties their entire magazine through automatic fire and hits the target every single time. And if you’re a fan of video games, you must have played at least one first-person shooter that made you believe that automatic weapons essentially turn you into a god of war. Unfortunately, that’s the literal opposite of what the truth is, as automatic firearms aren’t used like that in real-life combat, and here’s why. Automatic fire is inaccurate In real life, if they have the option to choose their rate of fire, professionals like to...

As temperatures across the country soar and unseasonably warm days continue, the number of gun deaths across the country has gone up. Nearly 8,000 gun shootings can be attributed to extreme temperatures, according to research published by JAMA Network. The study analyzed 100 major U.S. cities with the highest proportion of gun violence between 2015 and 2020. It found that out of 116 ,511 shootings, roughly 6.85% (or 7,973) were attributable to above-average temperatures. Gun violence, as well as other types of violence, such as road rage, is known to worsen in the summer. Warmer temperatures increase the body’s stress...