Free Republic

With little fanfare, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation Monday allowing residents to carry a concealed loaded weapon without a permit. DeSantis signed the bill in a nonpublic event in his office with only bill sponsors, legislative leaders and gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association, in attendance. It was a notable departure for a governor who regularly holds splashy news conferences and bill-signing ceremonies. Florida is now the 26th state to pass some form of permitless carry legislation. The signing comes one week after six people, including three children, were gunned down at The Covenant School in Nashville,...

There are many fierce, hungry tigers living near your home and they are stalking your children. How best to protect your young ones: declaw the tigers, or equip your home with strong defenses so they cannot enter, and if they do they will be stopped dead? This is the essential question tragically raised once again in the bloody wake of the Tennessee Christian elementary school massacre. Anti-gun media talking heads, Democrat legislators, government officials, teachers’ Union chieftain Randi Weingarten, and Democrat gun-haters in general as usual are claiming the only way to stop these horrific attacks is declaw the tigers...

An armed robber was shot in the chest while holding a CPL holder’s friend at gunpoint so he could steal a wallet outside a Detroit store, officials said. The shooting happened at 9:53 p.m. Feb. 8, but the details of the incident were revealed March 10 in a criminal complaint. CPL holder describes shooting On Feb. 8, Shot-Spotter detected three gunshots in the parking lot of Carmen’s Delicatessen in Detroit. Police officers rushed to the scene and were flagged down by two people, they said. One man approached officers with his hands over his head and told them he owns...

H3594, the South Carolina Constitutional Carry bill, is scheduled to be heard in the Judiciary General Laws subcommittee at 9 AM, Wednesday, February 8, 2023 in the Blatt Building Room 516. If you can't make it to the meeting, you can watch it streaming online at this link or listen to the audio only at this link. Written comments may be emailed to HJudGenLaws@schouse.gov. (More info at the video at the source document)

The question now, of course, is whether the shooter’s use of deadly defensive force to stop Washington’s armed robbery was justified on the legal merits.The answer? Yes, maybe, and almost certainly not.Confused yet? Let’s clarify. BASICS OF LEGAL JUSTIFICATION FOR USE OF DEADLY FORCE UNDER TEXAS LAWShooting someone dead is, of course, normally a crime. Under Texas law, and the law of every other state, however, the use of deadly force upon another might be legally justified, and not a crime, if it meets the conditions for deadly force defense of persons—meaning either defense of self or defense of others....

A customer at Ranchito Taqueria shot and killed a man who robbed the restaurant in southwest Houston late Thursday night, according to the Houston Police Department. It happened just before 11:30 p.m. Thursday at the restaurant on S. Gessner near Bellaire Boulevard. Houston police said the armed man in a mask came inside the restaurant, demanding money and wallets from customers. However, as he was leaving, one of those customers shot the suspect. The incident was caught on surveillance video. Houston police also released surveillance photos of the customer who shot the robber in the video. Investigators said he is...

An armed bystander intervened to stop a brutal attack on a pregnant woman at a Publix parking lot in Florida. ... Danisment continued his attack after the victim, who was 14 weeks pregnant with his child at the time, even after she fell to the ground, stomping on her head and upper body. Police say at the point a witness near the attack believed it was "so brutal in nature" that he feared for the woman's life, spurring him to intervene by pulling out his firearm on Danisment and causing him to stop the attack. Officers responding at the scene...

The 21-year-old man who shot and killed two men who were attacking him in the parking lot of the Steam Pub in Upper Southampton Township was justified in using deadly force, District Attorney Matt Weintraub announced on Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022. Liam Hughes and a friend were returning to Hughes’ car on the night of Oct. 7, 2022, after leaving the Steam Pub, 606 Second Street Pike, Southampton PA 18966, when a group of men gathered near his car confronted and attacked him, Weintraub explained. Three men pummeled Hughes during the attack, punching and striking him in the face and...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has so far randomly audited 24 sheriff’s offices in Missouri in search of concealed carry weapon (CCW) details, but they all refused to comply, according to law enforcement authorities. “None released anything pertaining to CCWs themselves, but some did partially comply by answering procedural questions on issuing CCWs,” said Moniteau County’s Sheriff Tony Wheatley. “They answered two of those standard questions but nothing, as far as I know, was given from any sheriff pertaining to any CCW files.” As previously reported in The Epoch Times, the FBI informed several Missouri County sheriffs that they...

The problem is that they’re in common use.. New York Congressman Jerry Nadler openly admitted at a House Judiciary Committee hearing this week that the point of gun control legislation being pushed by Democrats is to confiscate firearms in “common use”. When questioned by GOP North Carolina Rep. Dan Bishop if Democrats dispute that the “Assault Weapons Ban of 2021,” proposes to ban guns currently in “common use” nation-wide, Nadler, chairman of the committee, replied “That’s the point of the bill.” “So, to clarify, Mr. Chairman, you’re saying it is the point of the bill to ban weapons that are...

Missouri officials are slamming a planned FBI audit of various sheriff’s offices in the state, saying the audit is an attempt "to illegally obtain" information on concealed carry permit holders. One sheriff, in particular, said that even under a threat of federal arrest, he will not comply and release the concealed carry information."As the sheriff of Scotland County, I want all my citizens to know that I will not allow, cooperate or release any CCW information to the FBI, ‘even at the threat of a federal arrest,’" Republican Scotland County Sheriff Bryan Whitney wrote to residents of his community on...

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that justifiable homicides are rising in Philadelphia as concealed carries surge in the city. The Inquirer lists three recent incidents in which individuals legally carrying concealed firearms shot and killed their assailants. The paper then noted, “These sorts of deadly clashes in which the intended victims survive and assailants die are rare in Philadelphia, but are becoming more common as a growing number of people have legally armed themselves amid rising numbers of carjackings, shootings and homicides.” The Inquirer observes that “justified homicides jumped 67 percent from 2020 to 2021.” And 2022 is on pace to...

Back on Monday, April 11th, the Newton County Quorum Court in Arkansas voted unanimously to remove restrictions on the concealed carry of weapons by County employees who have a concealed carry permit. From ky3.com:JASPER, Ark. (KY3) – The Newton County Quorum Court, by unanimous vote, will allow county employees to carry their concealed firearms while on the job.The quorum court felt it is essential for each county employee to be able to defend themselves or others when the need arises. As long as the employee has a valid concealed carry permit, they can carry their gun.A now-famous drive-by shooting rattled...

<p>PHILADELPHIA - Police say a robber is dead after being shot by the man he was trying to rob in South Philadelphia Wednesday night.</p><p>A 24-year-old man was smoking a cigarette outside his house on the 2200 block of South 6th Street when a man approached on a bicycle, according to police.</p>

Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that he will sign a bill allowing constitutional carry in Florida before he leaves the governor’s office. Right now, people need concealed weapons permits to walk around with a gun in Florida. Constitutional carry means that permit requirement goes away.

On April 21, 2022, the Tennessee House voted 64 to 28 to pass HB 1735. A similar bill in the Senate is known as SB 2291. The bill is an incremental step toward restoring Second Amendment rights to young adults. The bill requires the department of safety to issue an enhanced handgun carry permit to people who are at least 18 years of age, and meet the other requirements which apply to people 21 and older. Previously, the minimum age was 21. From legiscan.com, bill text: (b) Except as provided in subsection (r), any resident of Tennessee who is a...

On March 9, 2022, the Missouri House voted to eliminate the gun-free zones which had been placed on Missouri public transportation by the legislature. Amtrak is excluded. The vote was 101 to 40. Five House members voted present. From HB 1462 at mo.gov: Notwithstanding any provision of this chapter or chapter 70, 577,or 578 to the contrary, a person carrying a firearm concealed on or about his or her person who is lawfully in possession of a valid concealed carry permit or endorsement shall not be prohibited or impeded from accessing or using any publicly funded transportation system and shall...

Parkland High alum David Hogg has not done much with his life since experiencing an admittedly horrific and unfathomable terror. Look, politics aside, what Nikolas Cruz did that day is horrendous. Full stop. I am sorry for the victims and the families of victims.However, it’s been really hard to sympathize with some of the survivors since almost the very beginning. People process traumatic events differently, but when kid victims lecture the entire nation over Constitutional rights with which they disagree and have no historical or contextual understanding of – nor grasp basic human nature and common sense – it comes...

Republican Senator Wilton Simpson is the current state Senate President in Florida. He is running to become the Agricultural Commissioner, who administers the Concealed Weapons Permit system. Marion Hammer excoriated Simpson and 16 other Republicans when he helped pass a major gun control bill in Florida, in a knee-jerk response to the mass murder at Marjorie-Stoneman high school. The mass murder highlighted major failures of the school administration and the Obama administration.Simpson was one of 17 Republicans who were targeted by Hammer in a memo dated April 18, 2018, to the United Sportsmen of Florida, which is an NRA affiliate...

In a recent article about the intricacies of passing a Constitutional Carry bill in Nebraska, it was noted people with a recognized permit to carry concealed in Nebraska was not required to register their handguns in Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha, specifically the Omaha Police Officer’s Association, was lobbying hard to keep the Omaha requirement of registration of handguns. Under current Omaha regulations, people who do not have concealed carry permits which are valid in Nebraska, are required to register handguns in Omaha.Commentator Jon Anderson of the Nebraska Firearms Owners Association noted:Omaha ALREADY requires registration of all handguns possessed inside city limits...