Free Republic

This is a big week for the Virginia Tech chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. It's Defense Education Week, and the student group, which has 100 to 200 members, has organized a week's worth of seminars and gatherings in support of concealed carry on Virginia college campuses. Monday night's featured speaker was Philip Van Cleave, president of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League. Earlier Monday, I spoke to Ken Stanton, 32, a serious-sounding engineering graduate student and the vice president of the Virginia Tech chapter of the concealed carry group. Here's his argument in favor of guns on...

A Multnomah County jury Monday ordered the city of Portland to pay three men a total of $175,000 for a 2007 encounter with police at a downtown parking garage in which the men accused officers of battery, assault and false arrest. The jurors found the testimony of two independent witnesses especially compelling. The witnesses, a young college couple, saw the entire episode and corroborated the stories of the three men: Harold Hammick, Ri'Chard Booth and Alex Clay. "Justice does work," Clay said after the verdict. "The system does work." A city attorney had argued last week during the trial that...

When the city's top cop and county's top prosecutor want to open the door for a concealed-carry gun law in Wisconsin, it seems the writing may be on the wall. Police Chief Edward Flynn and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm told a City Hall committee last week that allowing concealed-carry permits in Wisconsin could ultimately make things safer for everyone. Specifically, they said, if the state issued such permits under a tough eligibility process and coupled that with more stringent background checks for all gun purchases, the number of illegally sold weapons could be cut across the board. The...

John Lennon’s observation that happiness is a warm gun may be more true now than ever if membership at the Tri-County Gun Club is any indication. The club has picked up an average of 70 new members a month through most of this year, according to George Pitts, Tri-County’s public information officer. The credit for that spike in membership falls on the Barack Obama administration, Pitts says. “We took in 77 new members this month,” Pitts said on a sunny afternoon last April, as sporadic gunfire echoed through the hills of the 230-acre club nestled in the hills between Tualatin...

It has become increasingly politically incorrect to be a firearms owner. This is because trends tend to be set by the fashionable and the media-connected in metropolitan environments. Gun ownership per capita is well under 50% in urban areas of this country. Nationwide, it is estimated that one half of all homes contain at least one firearm. As the demographics move into rural areas, gun ownership well exceeds that 50% margin, and on the frontiers and in the true backwoods home, gun ownership will generally be found to reach the 90th percentile of the population. When your beliefs and values...

Whatever significance is attached to Chicago’s failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics, it is of small importance to the rest of the country. More far-reaching and frightening is the Supreme Court’s decision to take up a case challenging the city’s ban on handgun ownership in the court’s new term, which begins this week. The case is best considered a preview of coming attractions. The gun lobby, if it wins in the Supreme Court, is prepared to challenge every gun control law enacted at any level of government. It will usher in a scary season of assault on the common...

Some of the readers here have received a response from Holden Thorp, the UNC Chancellor who canned a gun-owning professor for stating in an email he was prepared to defend himself in response to political enemies posting hateful fliers with his home address.

www.iowacarry.org. Iowa Carry, an organization devoted to preservation of Second Amendment rights, will hold a rally noon Saturday in Library Square in Estherville. A free lunch will be provided. According to Larry Walders, Iowa Carry Emmet County coordinator, Saturday's rally is to acquaint local citizens with the concealed carry law in Iowa. "There's 99 counties and there's 99 different policies," Walders said. Walders said a bill will be introduced in next year's Iowa Legislature to change the law from stating that county sheriff's "may issue" to "shall issue" concealed weapons permits to applicants. Walders said the legislation will provide that...

Apparently the population of stupid children and even dumber parents has grown so large in North Carolina it is now necessary to ban the retail sale of novelty cigarette lighters. EVERY novelty cigarette lighter that resembles a cartoon character,toy,gun,watch, musical instrument, vehicle, animal, food or beverage, or SIMILAR articles( Heaven only knows what THAT means!) is banned for retail sale. So that clever .50 Caliber Cartridge you keep on your desk to light cigars? Gone baby, gone.

LONDON– A campaign warning girls not to stash or carry guns for their boyfriends was launched by London police Wednesday. The hard-hitting adverts, which are aimed at 15 to 19-year-olds of African and African Caribbean heritage, are designed to combat a worrying growth in the number of young women being arrested and convicted of possessing weapons. "This year's campaign has been designed to tackle an emerging and concerning trend," "Sadly, young women have always been involved in carrying and storing firearms," said Claudia Webbe, chairman of Trident's Independent Advisory Group. "We are deeply concerned, however, that this involvement seems to...

Cops are hunting [for] a knife-wielding suspect who stabbed a young dad to death after a seemingly minor altercation outside the main post office in Manhattan. Christopher Gutierrez, 20, bumped into his killer along Eighth Ave. near W. 33rd St. early Sunday evening and, after just a few words were exchanged, the man flew into a rage, police said. He twice plunged a knife into Gutierrez's chest - and then calmly walked away. Bleeding profusely, Gutierrez collapsed on the steps of the James A. Farley Post Office, police said. He died soon after. The victim's mom was devastated that her...

The UN General Assembly has been in session, and if typical of them, nasty things are probably in store for American gun owners as a result. The Citizen's Committee For The Right To Keep and Bear Arms (CCKRBA), in a recent mailing, said that The UN is still actively pursuing the guns you own, and the ones you want to buy. Don't count out associated non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as The International Network On Small Arms (IANSA.) IANSA's Rebecca Peters was largely responsible for the disarming of Australians and the associated increase in violent crimes there as a result of...

Derrion Albert, 16, Was Killed In Thursday Attack Caught On Tape ....Silvonus Shannon, 19; Eric Carson, 16; Eugene Riley, 18; and Eugene Bailey, 18, allegedly kicked and punched Derrion, an innocent bystander in a fight between two groups of students near the South Side school Thursday afternoon, according to Cook County prosecutors... The assault, which was captured on videotape, was not gang-related but arose from a disagreement between students who live in Altgeld Gardens and another group who live in an area known as the "Ville," according to Assistant Cook County State's Attorney Jodi Peterson...

Here is the flier circulating on UNC-Chapel Hill Campus about which Chancellor Holden Thorp HAS NOTHING to say! Apparently to falsely label a Professor Emeritus in good standing as a White Supremacist and “suggest” neighbors and friends “contact him” at his home address is just ordinary campus rhetoric-all in good fun. When the Professor *all in good fun* “suggests” he is a crack shot he is summarily reprimanded and removed as advisor to a student group! Good Grief! The Chancellor of a major University no longer feels compelled to even go through the motions of impartiality any

Published : Saturday, 26 Sep 2009, 10:00 PM EDT * By Darlene Hill, FOX Chicago News This is the hard lesson some students at Fenger High School have to deal with after a day of learning. For them it's a hard lesson of reality on the streets. Thursday after school, two rival gangs got into a fight three blocks from the high school. In all four students were beaten in that melee -- one was released from the hospital Friday morning.

GREENVILLE S.C. -- A candidate for South Carolina’s Adjutant General found a high-powered way to appeal to supporters over the weekend. Dean Allen held a drawing for an AK-47 at a fundraiser in Greenville on Saturday. The event, called a “Machine Gun Social,” was held at Allen Arms Indoor Range on Poinsett Highway. For $25, donors were given a barbeque lunch and twenty shots with a machine gun. A free drawing determined the winner of the semi-automatic AK-47, valued at $700.

“Thanks for your concern; I have a Colt 45 and I know how to use it. I used to be able to hit a quarter at 50 feet 7 times out of 10.” Those were the words from Professor Emeritus Elliot Cramer to a student concerned about the Professor’s safety that prompted UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp to demand Cramer’s resignation as advisor to the Youth For Western Civilization Student Group. Apparently discussions about prowess in matters of self defense are not protected speech in the enlightened corridors of North Carolina’s Taxpayer Funded Public Universities. Send your expressions of outrage and...

While a remarkable surge that began late last year is starting to ease, Americans' demand for firearms and ammunition -- driven largely by economic concerns and the fear of new regulations -- remains brisk as double-digit sales increases continue to fill the financial coffers of gun and ammo makers alike. In August, the number of background checks performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Instant Criminal Background Check System was up 12.3% from the same month in 2008 to about 1.1 million. That is down from the nearly 42% increase of November but is still a growth rate that would...

D.C. Circuit Hears Fourth Amendment Case On Withdrawn Warrant A federal appeals court heard arguments today in a Fourth Amendment case that has united civil libertarians and gun rights advocates against the District of Columbia government. At issue before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was the question of whether a plaintiff could sue the city for wrongly targeting him with an arrest warrant, even though it was quickly withdrawn. The case was dismissed by a district court judge, who found that the man, Robert Ord, lacked standing. Ord’s attorney, Matthew LeFande, told today’s three judge panel...

Freepers, as they refer to themselves, are at best a wild and woolly bunch whose message board discussions can evoke images of barroom brawls as portrayed in a John Wayne Western. (You know, the visiting Ingénue sits on the bar with a teapot as she waits for a chance to smash it on the head of an evildoer as they coast past her position while Granny knits quietly in the corner and trips everyone who comes within range) And Codrea is a professional gun magazine writer whose online commentary frequently includes obscure sentences of the *We discussed that HERE(HTML Link)...

I finally got some of my images gathered, resized, and tweaked. Many of them are posted at our local tea party web site at http://www.chattanoogateaparty.com/resources/photo-gallery/washington-dc-september-12-2009/. Here's a few of them... The crowd... A true patriot... Joe was quite popular... No left turn... Some of my local cohorts with our banner... Who is John Galt... And my personal favorite... The march and rally was an amazing event. Just amazing! So many friendly people, all with a common cause!

GRAND VALLEY STATE UNIVERSITY -- Someone walks into your classroom with a gun and threatens to open fire. Your best defense is to try to escape the room or take out your cell phone and call for help, but under a proposed change to Michigan legislation, you may have another option. Sparked by the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007, Michigan Sen. Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, has proposed a change to Michigan law to allow permit holders to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. Currently, the open carry of weapons is permitted anywhere, so long as the owner has a license...

Jellyfish tossing helps land Madeira Beach man in jail By Brant James, Times Staff Writer Posted: Sep 08, 2009 02:27 PM MADEIRA BEACH — A 41-year-old man who witnesses said had been drinking since 9 a.m. was arrested Monday afternoon after authorities say he created a disturbance by pretending to drown and throw jellyfish on teenagers. Keith Edward Marriott, of 100 154th Ave. in Madeira Beach, faces charges of disorderly intoxication and carrying a concealed weapon after a pocketknife was found in his shorts, Pinellas County sheriff's deputies said. Marriott repeatedly submerged himself and floated to the surface, "causing concern...

The Violence Policy Center has a long record of cooking data to try to build a national case against civilian ownership of firearms. They’ve failed, of course; more Americans own guns today than ever, while the idea of a link between crime and the demonstrably law-abiding armed citizen is almost too specious for modern physics to measure. Gun control is a third rail like few others in American politics. Which doesn’t mean they won’t try; the VPC - the very definition of an astroturf group - has masters with deep pockets to obey. And so they keep cranking out the...

One Milwaukee Federal Judge has recused himself from cases which elevate street crime to Federal Offenses. His recusal was triggered by a gun possession prosecution. Is it possible the National Rifle Association’s insistance on enforcing existing Gun Control laws (rather than insist the Constitution be honored and criminals be convicted of criminal behaviour) has had the unintended consequence of prison overcrowding?

Here is a surveillance video of a 71 year-old gas station clerk that was beaten for refusing to sell cigarettes to a teenager. (Watch Video)

I do not understand how a gun buy-back (CR, Aug. 27) “paves the way to peace.” Five previous efforts offer no indication of doing so. Would not putting easy gun buy-back money in the hands of criminals that have guns just encourage them to steal guns? We can blame guns for a lack of peace, but if we want to respect humanity’s dignity we have to blame criminals. Crime is a choice. I do not know how to cure criminals. I do know that we need to protect ourselves from them and that a gun is a reasonable thing to...

George Boggs thought he was doing police a favor last week when he handed over the firearm he kept in his car after he was in a wreck. Boggs has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, and he wanted his handgun secured while he went to the hospital, he said. The permit requires him to notify police of his weapon. On Monday, when he went to the Fayetteville Police Department to retrieve his gun, he couldn't get it back. He was told that police first wanted to fire the gun to see if the spent shell casing and round...

In the Olympics of car ownership, Rachel Veitch of Orlando, Fla., is a marathoner of the first order, with a record virtually impossible to match. For one thing, Veitch is still driving at the age of 91. For another, she has had her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente for 45 years, racking up about 559,000 miles on it. Together, Veitch and her car have outlasted her three husbands -- a feat surely worth of a footnote in the annals of automotive history. This happened for a simple reason: A retired nurse, Veitch likes to keep things in good working order --...

A shooting on Saturday that claimed the life of a 25-year-old Olympia man “appears at this time to be a legitimate act of self-defense,” Grays Harbor Undersheriff Rick Scott said this morning. Westin Wolff was shot and killed at a remote campsite on Wynooche Lake early Saturday morning. The name of the person who shot Wolff is not being released. While the Sheriffs Office is investigating Wolff’s death as a homicide, Scott said the shooting appears to have been justified. “Homicide takes many forms, including justified homicide to criminal homicide. In criminal homicide there are varying degrees,” Scott added. No...

Attorney David T. Hardy sums it up nicely: The courtroom equivalent of "the dog ate my homework. Five times."... The prosecutor is trying to dodge and weave on why certain important documents were not disclosed to the defense, despite a court order, and neither the judge nor the defense attorney is giving him an inch of slack.

Gun control organizations claim that shall-issue concealed carry laws are a menace to society. For example, in License to Kill IV: More Guns, More Crime, Violence Policy Center (VPC) cited Texas Concealed Handgun Licensee (CHL) arrest data to insinuate that CHLs were violent criminals, and that these laws are a failure. However, such reports ignore the fact that our justice system is based upon the principle of “innocent until proven guilty,” because arrests do not prove that a crime was committed. Also, the VPC report made no attempt to compare CHL arrest rates to corresponding rates for the non-CHL population....

Fear stalks Merced, California – fear of the government. The mass media never told Americans what really happened in Merced. But the tale of the Merced Pitchfork Murders will not die. Through talk radio; through the Internet; by word of mouth, the story gathers momentum with each passing year. Like the tale of the Boston Massacre in 1770, passed from patriot to patriot over tankards of ale, the Merced Pitchfork Murders live and burn in the hearts of millions of Americans.

A road-rage incident late Wednesday night in Lancaster led to a scuffle that ended when one of the combatants pulled out a gun and accidentally shot himself in the leg, Lancaster police said today. Detectives believe the incident started at about 10:30 p.m., when someone reportedly cut someone else off in traffic on Ransom Road. A chase ensued, involving two individuals on motorcycles and one in another vehicle. A short distance away on Ransom, at least one of the motorcyclists and the motorist confronted each other, and the motorist pulled out a gun. "The one male points the gun at...

California has long been a gun control breeding ground. It has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, and though has a process for obtaining a license to carry a concealed handgun, it is a "may issue" permitting process meaning California sheriffs can issue licenses but only if they want to. Most don't. That may be changing for on sheriff as budget cuts have forced him to realize that some people really are on their own and need to be able to protect themselves. "I think in the interest of doing right by the public and the...

<p>Detroit police say a man with a concealed pistol permit flipped the script on a 17-year-old attempting to rob him at gunpoint, shooting and injuring the teen in self defense.</p> <p>The Detroit News reports that foiled robbery took place at 5 a.m. Tuesday morning behind an apartment building at 1670 Oakman.</p>

17 year old pulls a gun on a 32 year old man in an armed robbery attempt. 32 year old victim has a MCPL (Michigan Concealed Pistol License) and responds accordingly. 17 year old thug gets the surprise of his life as he ends up critically injured. See The Link Above for the Complete Story

CORPUS CHRISTI — A man sleeping at his business in the 6700 block of Weber Road fired several shots at a man who busted the front door glass about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, police said. Police later found a maroon Chevrolet Suburban backed up to the shop’s door with a large flat screen TV on the ground, police said in a news release. Police suspect the man attempted to re-enter the store to get another TV when the owner shot at him, the release said. A witness heard the shots and a man shout that he was shot.

What an incredible weekend I had. The Steel Challenge was the BEST. My mom says my revolver is still “smoking!” I finished 8th out of 18 revolver shooters, all kindred spirits! I reached my goal to beat my personal best score shooting the main match with my revolver (over ten seconds off my last score!) And I am gaining on John Bagakis! Shhh, here’s a secret: Tina, his girlfriend sent me text messages cheering me on! Re-match next year John �? Same hot, dusty place, same hot dusty time!

Gun owners may be arguing among themselves and with gun-control activists about it, but for Mustapha Kassou, there’s no debate over the “open-carry” movement thrust into nationwide controversy this month when pistol- and rifle-packing citizens showed up near several public appearances by President Barack Obama. Kassou was working the cash register in the Richmond, Va., market he owns on July 11 when a gunman stormed the store with robbery on his mind. In an incident captured on surveillance video, the bandit ordered the eight customers to the floor and pumped two bullets from his snub-nosed pistol into Kassou, who...

KEYSTONE — Summit County may soon have a new batch of licensed concealed weapon holders, after Sunday's well-attended firearms class at the Keystone Fire Station. Carrying a concealed weapon requires completion of the class, as well as two hours of training on a shooting range, said instructor Phil McFall, explaining that students also take a 50-question exam at the end of the session. After completing the course, people can apply with the Sheriff's Office for a permit. Colorado law authorizes citizens 18 years and older to carry concealed weapons as long as they don't have any felonies on their record....

28 year old Jesse Kelly of Tucson Ariz., a Republican seeking to boot Democrat Gabrielle Giffords from the U.S. House of Representatives. "If you're not going to get anyone's attention, you might as well not waste your time or money." “I'm tired of President Obama and the liberals who control Congress insulting us, calling us racist, and calling us a mob. I'm tired of their double-talk. I'm tired of their bait-and-switch shell games. I'm tired of being avoided by my public servants. They have forgotten that they work for us. ... “ Ronald Reagan once famously said, "Freedom is never...

It was repeatedly panned by the critics. But movie-goers loved it. And thirty-five years later, it remains a cult classic. “Death Wish” celebrates 35 years, this summer. It was released in theaters on July 24, 1974, and was directed by Michael Winner and produced by the Dino De Laurentiis Company I watched it again over the weekend, and it stands the test of time (thought it’s funny to take Jeff Goldblum seriously as a murderous gang thug). In fact, now in the Obama administration–with police called “stupid” and impliedly racist by the President and our Second Amendment gun rights under...

There are two universes of American gun culture. In one universe, the Second Amendment is a stanchion of protected American freedoms, as sacred as free speech. In this universe, when the right to bear arms dies, so does a free America. In another universe, guns make blood run in our city streets. They kill and maim criminals and innocent alike, make good people prisoners in their own homes. Last week in New Jersey, it wasn't hard to visit both universes. At the Riverdale Pistol Club Range in Passaic County, instructors from the National Rifle Association were teaching first-timers how to...

Here we go again! As posted on the in- state 2nd Amendment Civil Rights Organization Grass Roots North Carolina website Senator Soles voting record on the Right To Keep And Bear Arms was evaluated at *ONE* Star.

U.S. Border Patrol agents successfully thwarted an attempt to smuggle a semiautomatic handgun into Mexico, the agency reported Friday. Agents arrested a Mexican citizen who tried to pass through southbound inspections Thursday at the San Luis port of entry, according to a Border Patrol news statement. A Browning .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun was concealed in the subject's waistband, according to the statement. The subject was living in the United States as a legally admitted resident alien but did not have the proper documentation to carry a concealed weapon or export a firearm. Firearms and ammunition are illegal in Mexico. Since April,...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) - A state lawmaker wants to let Michigan residents who have permits to carry concealed weapons take them on university campuses. Legislation announced Thursday by Republican state Sen. Randy Richardville of Monroe would remove college campuses from the list of places where Michigan law does not allow permit holders to carry guns. Richardville says crimes occur on college campuses just like in other places. He argues people with the proper training and background checks to get a permit should be allowed to carry guns for their protection while on campus. The bill will face opposition from groups...

We are honoring a unique and creative patriot today, he is the President of Max Motors in Butler, MO. I first learned of Mr. Muller through my husband when he came home from work one day. He got me on the computer and told me to go to YouTube, saying there was something I had to see. There was Mark interviewing with a reporter on CNN. He was superb in his representation and extremely quick-witted. I would say he did an exceptional job and took over the interview, standing out far beyond the reporter. They interviewed him based on his...

Sorry, Mandatory Gun Registration Is Constitutional Posted by Declan McCullagh Mandatory gun regulation has long been the bête noire of Second Amendment advocates, who worry that it's the final step before firearm confiscation. The surprise is that, even after last year's landmark Supreme Court ruling on gun rights, mandatory registration could be constitutional. It may not be the wisest public policy. It may not be practical. But after the D.C. v. Heller decision, it also may not violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That question is at the heart of a second lawsuit underway against the city of...

THE woman known as the Dingo Lady has died a month short of her 109th birthday after a life of shooting and trapping wild dogs on her mountain property. Nellie Bowley killed hundreds of the animals that attacked her cattle, goats and geese on the place near Killarney where she lived until two years ago when she moved into an aged care facility. Mrs Bowley bagged her first dog when she was 18 and went on to achieve nationwide publicity. She was in her mid-90s when she shot her last dingo – failing eyesight made it difficult to aim.