Free Republic

WAUSAU - The state's concealed carry gun law is in the spotlight again after a fight stemming from a road rage incident in Wausau ended when one person involved pulled a gun. That 48-year-old Appleton man has a concealed carry permit. As we've reported, police arrested 30-year-old Nicholas Flanagan and 26-year-old Jessica Ratliff. Investigators say the Menominee, Michigan couple attacked Scott Van Patter after their vehicles collided. Wausau police provided FOX 11 with dash cam video showing officers arriving on the scene of a fight at a Menards parking lot Tuesday. Police say Van Patter was physically assaulted by Flanagan...

Open carry arrives with a whimper in OklahomaOpen carry advocates celebrated loosened gun restrictions with a quiet demonstration at an Oklahoma City diner, and police reported nothing out of the ordinary a day after open carry arrives. By Zeke Campfield | Published: November 1, 2012 Open carry arrived in Oklahoma without a hitch. Spokesmen with police departments in Oklahoma City, Norman and Edmond said their dispatchers did not receive a single call from citizens concerned about firearms on Thursday, the first day for the law allowing people with a state-issued permit to openly carry certain handguns in public. “It feels...

The quote (from a dissent in yesterday’s Dickens v. Ryan (9th Cir. Aug. 3, 2012)) comes up in an unusual context: The case was about whether Dickens could be sentenced to death for a felony-murder in which the killer was Dickens’ confederate in an armed robbery, and the specific issue was whether Dickens knew that the robbery created a grave risk of death; part of the evidence for this knowledge was that Dickens knew that the killer had a history of carrying guns. Moreover, the carrying itself was unusual, since the killer was a 14-year-old, who had run away from...

Charlotte, NC --(Ammoland.com)- Since 2010, when Chicago’s aldermen responded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago by rushing to impose the harshest possible restrictions on residents’ Second Amendment rights, the city’s new laws have been under legal attack. On June 19, Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois became the latest judge to undermine the city’s anti-gun ordinance, in the NRA-supported case of Gowder v. City of Chicago. In 1995, Shawn Gowder, a Vietnam veteran living in a high crime area, was convicted as a first-time offender for...

This video reveals an astonishingly easy way to stop massacres in mere seconds. It requires: * No police or 911. * No taxpayer expense. * Can be deployed anywhere. * Begins working in as little as five seconds. * Protects innocent lives Spread the word: Concealed carry SAVES LIVES.

MARION COUNTY, Fla. — An elderly patron at a strip mall casino in Marion County shot two men who attempted to rob the place, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office. According to investigators, two men burst into the Palms Internet Cafe on State Road 200 in Ocala on Friday afternoon. A sheriff's report said that one of the men was carrying a baseball bat, the other had a gun.

Concealed carry applicants in Wisconsin would need instruction in the use of deadly force and how to avoid violent situations under new rules the state Justice Department has proposed. DOJ has been operating under temporary rules governing how the agency issues permits since the concealed carry law went into effect. Those rules require training but don't lay out any specifics. The new rules not only require instruction on deadly force and de-escalation but mandate training on firearm safety rules and how to safely use, handle, transport and store firearms and ammunition. Training class sizes would be restricted to 50 students.

CHICAGO, July 10, 2012 — That is how Larry Oakes, a reporter for the Star-Tribune, describes Minnesotan Pat Cannon. Cannon is one of over 100,000 persons in Minnesota who has a concealed carry weapon permit. Oakes describes this as “acquired the power to kill.” Another lovely literary chestnut in describing Cannon and others who choose to carry is, “people who have taken on the means to use deadly force if they decide it's necessary.” Who decides whether deadly, or any other force is necessary? A more accurate statement would be, “if they decide it is justified.” There is a distinct...

Earlier this month, an attempt by the Obama Administration to slash funds for the Federal Flight Deck Officer Program (FFDO) was rejected by the House of Representatives, which passed legislation to ensure that the program, which permits qualified and trained airline pilots to carry firearms in the cockpit of commercial flights, remains alive and well. “Pilots are the first line of defense against terrorist attacks in the sky, and the most cost-effective layer of security that we have in a system that’s prone to security breaches,” said Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John L. Mica (R-FL), in a press release....

Milford, NH --(Ammoland.com)- The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Constitutional Carry (HB 536) on this Wednesday, April 25th! I wish this meant the Senate intended to pass the bill. Unfortunately, my sources are telling me the Senate is already planning to kill this bill without a recorded vote. You read that right. Despite the fact that a majority of the Senate has pledged to support Constitutional Carry — Republican Senator Peter Bragdon is still leading the fight to make sure this bill doesn’t pass. What’s worse, in a sickening display of politics at its worst, anti-gun Senators...

Referencing today’s post on Glenn Beck and Constitutional Carry, I bumped into the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation at the NRA convention. I asked Alan Gottlieb if he could foresee a day when the entire country enjoyed permitless concealed carry (a la Alaska, Arizona, Wyoming and Vermont). “It’ll never happen,” the gun rights champion stated flatly. “New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Hawaii—it would have to get through the legislature, and that just isn’t in the cards.” Never? “Not in my lifetime.” Given Mr. Gottleib’s considerable contribution to our collective gun rights, let’s hope that’s a very long time. Let’s...

Guns.com is busy soaking in the sights, sounds (and smells?) of St. Louis at the 2012 NRA convention but our trip to Missouri has also given us a chance to mingle with gun owners, writers and lobbyists from across the country and swap notes. For example, the word on the street here in Saint Louie is that if a new proposal gets wings, NRA members will be permitted to carry their guns home with them, openly or concealed—on public transportation. Currently, Missouri state lawmakers are mired in legislation that works to block all cities (though this is clearly aimed St....

As expected, the Maryland Attorney General’s office has filed a timely notice of appeal in the case of Woollard v Sheridan which struck down Maryland’s requirement that an applicant for a handgun [carry] permit demonstrate a subjective “good and substantial reason.”

If you want to get these alerts directly, click here. A letter has been prepared and is waiting for you to send at AzCDL's Legislative Action Center. Current law allows the operator of any state or local government property, choosing to ban firearms, to simply slap up a “no firearms” sign while doing nothing to ensure the safety of those entering the property. HB 2729 would require them to also control access to the property using law enforcement officers, or armed guards and metal detectors, and would allow the operator of the property to be sued if they don’t comply...

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — Pike County voters sent a message Tuesday in favor of gun rights. A question on Tuesday's primary ballot asked whether the county should adopt a constitutional carry of arms ordinance — and the answer was resoundingly yes by a vote of 3,214 to 550. Pittsfield chiropractor Dan Mefford spearheaded the ballot issue which he said had wide support from Democrats, Republicans and independent voters. "As far as I'm concerned, it's a poke in the eye for the thieves of liberty," Mefford said. "It's a thing whose time had come." Winning voter approval was key in sending what...

Dr. Suzanna Hupp was the special guest speaker at IGOLD in Springfield March 7. IGOLD is Illinois GunOwners’ Lobby Day. The purpose of IGOLD is to get Illinois in line with the other 49 states and allow its citizens the right to carry firearms for self-protection. The Illinois State Rifle Association is the primary sponsor of the event, but other organizations also participate. Each year since its inception, the attendance has grown. This year was no different. People from all over the state come to lobby their state legislators to persuade the last holdout, Illinois, to grant its citizens rights...

South Dakota HB 1248 is on Gov. Daugaard’s desk awaiting his signature. He has until March 19 to either sign or veto it. Gun Owners of America (GOA) strongly support this bill. I have been in touch with one of the co-sponsors of HB 1015, which was killed in committee. Rep. Betty Olson, SD District 28B told me that she took the original bill and added the requirement that residents must be 18 and hold a SD drivers license to carry a firearm without a state issued permit, because it was the only way to get the Bill out of...

FAIRFAX, Va. --(Ammoland.com)- Self-defense is a fundamental right. The U.S. constitution, the constitutions of 44 states, common law, and the laws of all states recognize the right to use arms in self-defense. RTC laws respect the right to self-defense by allowing individuals to carry firearms for protection. The Supreme Court, striking down the District of Columbia’s handgun ban in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), ruled that “the inherent right of self-defense has been central to the Second Amendment right,” and that the amendment protects “the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation. This meaning is...

Yesterday, the Arizona state Senate Judiciary Committee passed two important gun bills: House Bill 2729, by a 6 to 2 vote, and House Bill 2457 which passed unanimously. Both of these bills have already passed in the state House and are now eligible for a full Senate vote. HB 2729, sponsored by state Representative David Gowan (R-30), would amend various sections of the Arizona Revised Statutes to remove the current prohibition on entering a public establishment or attending any public event while carrying a weapon on one’s person and instead provide for regulation of firearms and ammunition on public property...

DOES THE Second Amendment protect an individual right to carry a gun outside the home? Last week, a federal judge in Maryland concluded that it does and in the process struck down a Maryland licensing provision for carrying concealed weapons in public. Judge Benson Everett Legg of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Maryland issued a thoughtful and measured decision but one that should be reviewed by the federal appeals court.