Free Republic

A Lubbock courtroom could be the location of a major change in national gun laws. James A. D’Cruz, 18, has asked a federal judge to declare unconstitutional the ban on handgun sales by federally licensed dealers to 18-20-year-olds. The suit against the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and explosives was filed just days after D’Cruz visited Sharp Shooters, Inc. and asked if he was legally able to buy a handgun. The employee told him he couldn’t. According to the suit, D’Cruz is a well-trained, lawful owner of both long guns and handguns and is a decorated competitive Junior Reserve...

The 9th Circuit of Appeals has reaffirmed the right of software companies to circumvent the first-sale doctrine by “licensing” rather then “selling” its products. The significance of this ruling cannot be overstated—it could singlehandedly destroy the used software market. In 2005, one Timothy Vernor bought a sealed copy of AutoCAD Release 14 at a garage sale. In 2007, Vernor purchased four used copies of Release 14 from an authorized dealer, Cardwell/Thomas & Associates (CTA). He subsequently placed all but two copies on eBay, and in each instance, Autodesk appealed to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), alleging copyright infringement. In...

What the heck is a "Manurhin"? Is this like a Walther knockoff or something, similar to the way there's CZ and Browning copies?

Democrats running in tough reelection races this fall are wrong to keep their distance from President Obama, Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tim Kaine said Monday. In an interview with The Hill, Kaine said House Democrats who do not run with Obama's agenda risk alienating their most energetic supporters. "If you distance yourself from the president, you can pour cold water on the excitement about what he is doing," said Kaine, who alluded to Democrat Creigh Deeds's problems. Deeds lost a gubernatorial election in Kaine's home state of Virginia last year after distancing himself from Obama, who had won Virginia's...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Owners of the iPhone will be able to legally unlock their devices so they can run software applications that haven't been approved by Apple Inc., according to new government rules announced Monday. The decision to allow the practice commonly known as "jailbreaking" is one of a handful of new exemptions from a 1998 federal law that prohibits people from bypassing technical measures that companies put on their products to prevent unauthorized use of copyright-protected material. For iPhone jailbreakers, the new rules effectively legitimize a practice that has been operating in a legal gray area by exempting it...

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...

Any new agreement on providing bank data to the United States - for example via the SWIFT system - must avoid "bulk data" transfers until they can be processed within the EU, warned MEPs on Wednesday. As for Passenger Name Records, Parliament opted to postpone its vote on the existing agreements with the United States and Australia and called for those accords be renegotiated on the basis of new criteria. MEPs voted on two resolutions in Brussels today, one on the opening of negotiations for an EU-US agreement to provide the US Treasury Department with bank data to combat terrorism,...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Gov. Brad Henry on Tuesday vetoed a bill to exempt Oklahoma-made guns and ammunition from federal regulations, saying the measure would make it easier for criminals to obtain weapons and endanger citizens and law enforcement. Similar to laws passed in at least four other states, the "Oklahoma Firearms Freedom Act" states that firearms, gun accessories or ammunition produced in Oklahoma would not be subject to interstate commerce laws and federal regulations if the items remain in the state. The bill does not apply to certain large firearms and exploding ammunition. "I'm a strong supporter of the Second...

Poll below first picture at top left.

The New York Daily News reported yesterday that People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), always on the lookout for a media stunt, delivered a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture demanding the government refuse to renew the exhibitor license of the Ringling Bros. circus. Looks like the media whiz-kids at PETA screwed this one up, though. The same newspaper reports today in a follow up article that the USDA already renewed Ringling’s permit—last week. Oops. This attempted offensive strategy is just the latest from animal rights groups like PETA and the so-called “Humane Society” of the...

Governor Jan Brewer (R) today signed HB2307, Arizona's version of the Firearms Freedom Act, making Arizona the sixth state, behind Montana and Tennessee, who passed theirs in 2009, and Wyoming, Utah, and South Dakota which did so earlier this year.For those not familiar, the FFA is a Tenth Amendment as much as a gun rights issue, declaring firearms and accessories manufactured, sold and used within the state to be beyond the reach of federal regulation.After Montana and Tennessee had the audacity last year to pass legislation after actually having read the Constitution, the ATF sent a letter to FFL's in...

Classically-educated writers are often fond of quoting classically-studied writers like the Roman poet Juvenal, who famously asked, "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" or "Who will guard the guards themselves?" Lacking a classical education, your humble Chicago Gun Rights Examiner is limited to the English language in asking today's question: "Who will teach the professors themselves?" Wait! Don't roll your eyes and pass by; this is not yet another editorial mocking President Obama's credentials as a constitutional law professor. No, our purpose today will be to help another absent-minded professor, Dr. Thomas William Heyck, remember how the Constitution works. Dr. Heyck, Professor...

South Dakota --(AmmoLand.com)- The South Dakota Legislature has passed the South Dakota Firearms Freedom Act and that bill is enroute to the Governor’s desk. Governor Michael Rounds has indicated that he’s comfortable with the SDFFA and will sign the bill when it reaches his office. SD will make the fourth state that has enacted a clone of the Montana Firearms Freedom Act. Once the Wyoming and South Dakota governors sign their respective bills into law, they will join Montana, Tennessee and Utah with enacted laws.

Democrats characterize Republican opposition to this "reform" (talk about a loaded choice of words) as support for the status quo, and they say that's an unworkable position because the status quo is unsatisfactory. I can't speak for congressional Republicans whether that's how they feel or not, but this is the one thing in the debate the Democrats have right, the status quo is bad. But that's the last place along Democrats' journey from which reality can be seen even with the aid of very strong optics. To a Democrat, the statement “The status quo is bad” is equivalent to “We...

The recent passage of H.B 10-1193 has just prompted internet giant retailer Amazon.com to leave Colorado and all of its affiliates in the State.This Bill that only the most informed among us has even heard of before this, levied a new tax on all out-of-State retailers including through internet communications....So, without double-speak, it basically puts the responsibility onto the out-of-State retailer (Amazon.com in this case) to collect and pay the necessary sales taxes of an advertiser inside Colorado....Democrat lawmakers, including Gov. Bill Ritter, criticized Amazon for cutting off affiliates, with some calling it "corporate bullying."

Something has happened to the StickyZoom on Firefox. It was working fine (and a cool feature too), but now it's picked a few sites that don't work. I read some of the Examiner.com sites and keep a group that I read regularly in a folder, which I open all at once. The feature seems to keep a common remembered zoom for the entire domain, because when it was working, if I changed in on one Examiner page, it would change the initial zooms on the others to match. Anyway, now those preload at one zoom, and the first time I...

Since Monday afternoon, hundreds of Boxer supporters have already joined our contest for a pair of tickets to a special lunch event with Vice President Al Gore and Senator Barbara Boxer in Los Angeles this Saturday, February 13. But there’s still time to put your name in the hat too. You don’t want to miss this chance to meet two of the greatest fighters for our families, our environment, and our future. Contribute $10 or more before 5 p.m. PT today — and you’ll automatically be entered in our contest to join Al Gore and Barbara Boxer on Saturday! We’re...

If you're like me, Audi's Green Police ad during yesterday's Superbowl was sort of a high point of creepiness -- and not just for its boomerific revival of a classic Cheap Trick song. No, the celebration of the right car purchase -- a "clean diesel" -- as a get-out-of jail-free card for a totalitarian eco-state sort of ruined car shopping for you while also hinting a bit too strongly at the direction in which the world is inching in its intolerant, lemming-like way. Our friends in Britain already have to worry about government snoops pawing through their garbage and forcing...

Sam Dodson (Sam A. Miller) was arrested on Monday April 13th, 2009 at Dave Ridley’s arraignment. The charges brought against Sam are disorderly conduct, resisting arrest or detention, possession of property without serial number, and refusing to be processed. On or around May 14th, 2009 the disorderly conduct and possession of property without a serial number were reported dropped but a new charge of common law criminal contempt of court was added. He was arrested for filming the arraignment with a video camera. You can hear audio of his ridiculous arrest here.

St. Louis area readers will most likely remember the lethal rampage almost two years ago at a Kirkwood City Coucnil meeting.  The shooting, by Charles Lee "Cookie" Thortnon--who seemed to have borne a more or less perpetual series of grievances against the City Council, claimed five victims immediately (plus Thornton, who was killed by police), and Mayor Mike Swoboda, who died several months later as a result of his wounds. What brings this up again now is the fact that an unarmed security guard has been named in a lawsuit for failing to stop the killer. A lawsuit faults an...