Free Republic

Quietly, with almost no attention from the old media, a strong second front has been opened in the fight to restore the Second Amendment. There can be no doubt that knives, tomahawks, and other edged weapons were meant to be included as arms protected under the Second Amendment. They were commonly used weapons in the militias of the Revolutionary War, and had been part of military equipment since the dawn of history. Opponents of individual rights have been able to dig up a few town safety ordinances regulating the storage of gunpowder or the firing of guns in urban centers....

Slaton police came to this woman's house, who wishes to remain anonymous, to arrest her son. But by asking one simple question, she found herself behind bars instead. "I told him, 'I will release my son to you upon viewing those orders.' Those were exactly my words," The complainant said. "He said, 'This is how you want to play?' He took two steps back, turned around to the officer and said, 'Take her.' They turned me around, handcuffed me, and took me in." The complainant said she was aware police would be coming to apprehend her 11-year-old son based on...

Although he implemented a flat tax in Russia, I don’t think of Vladimir Putin as a supporter of free markets. Heck, he was head of the KGB during the communist era, and he presides over a country that is more known for cronyism rather than competitive markets. So if he criticizes European nations for having excessive welfare states, it’s like being called ugly by a frog. Here are some of the amusing details from Euractiv.com. He’s no Milton Friedman, but he’s right about the welfare state Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking ahead of the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland on...

A D.C. police lieutenant has been charged with leaving a loaded gun where his son found it and took it to school. Prince George's County court documents show Mark Antonio Hodge of Glenn Dale has been charged with leaving a loaded firearm in a place where he would have known that a minor would gain access to the firearm. Officers were called to DuVal High School in Lanham March 27 for a report of a student with a firearm, according to court documents. Officers learned the 15-year-old had taken the gun from his home. He said his dad kept the...

Earl Walker Jackson, Sr Speaks at The Faith & Freedom Coalition, the 3rd day of its "Road to Majority" conference, June 15, 2013.

Knives are arms protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Some contend that the ban on knives that can be easily be opened with one hand, by the push of a button,(switchblades) was prompted by the play and movie "West Side Story". I call these sort of laws, "trendy laws", laws that make no sense logically, but are passed as a sort of trendy effect pushed by the media. The newtimes notes: Indiana's upcoming end to its decades-old ban on switchblades has spurred some of the state's gun stores to start taking pre-orders for the spring-loaded knives. State lawmakers...

The video quality is a bit sketchy [Updated Now]. We’ll (hopefully) update with something of higher quality when/if it becomes available. Anyway, this is a great speech. The Governor displayed her inimitable ability to tweak the Left and GOP Establishment for their latest idiocy de jure. Be sure to watch for her subtle dig at Jeb Bush’s bizarre immigrants are more fertile” justification for the Schumer-Rubio amnesty bill. Enjoy.

Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, billionaire, desiring to rewrite the constitution, and countrywide buttinski suffered a major "gun control" loss on Thursday in Nevada. He and his pet group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG), "spent hundreds of thousands of dollars" to buy passage of the Nevada state legislature's bill SB 221, another dangerous piece of gun control legislation dressed up to look palatable by applying the innocuous-sounding "background check" label to it. Bloomberg lost, and lost big-time, not because of a paid opposition wading in money, but because of a viral grass-roots effort organized by average Americans provided...

In the aftermath of another senseless shooting spree in Santa Monica last week, the outcry was somewhat subdued. Have we become immune to periodic episodes of violence? What better time to offer a judicious analysis of the Constitution's most debated amendment? (snip) Well regulated meant then as it does now -- government has a role in the gun debate. In fact, the original intent was far more intrusive than most gun advocates care to admit today. (snip) Each generation bears the burden to understand the Constitution through the lens of what was written but also by what it means in...

Jonathan Turley publishes some quite good stuff at his blog. There were two excellent pieces yesterday and one today, thus far. It's a grand old Constitution. Is it time for a wake? Today's article at Jonathan Turley's blog was authored by Mike Spindell. Titled Catch 22 and the Secrecy Debate, it is based in part on this quote from Joseph Heller’s Catch 22. There, Mr. Heller wrote  The “Catch-22″ is that “anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn’t really crazy” Hence, pilots who request a mental fitness evaluation are sane, and therefore must fly in combat. At the same...

While Biden set to jumpstart push for gun control next week ...Stunning victory for gun rights in Nevada!You guys did a tremendous job bombarding Governor n Sandoval’s office with phone calls, and he has listened to your appeals.Governor Sandoval vetoed the Universal Background Check bill yesterday, and now, the anti-gun Left is in full-mourning.The Associated Press reports that, “It is a significant defeat for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's gun control advocacy group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns [MAIG]. The organization spent hundreds of thousands of dollars working to get the bill passed through to the governor.”Despite Bloomberg’s fortune, his...

"We the Politicians of the Democrat-Republican Party, in Order to destroy the Union, establish Injustice, insure domestic Planned Parenthood Violence, provide for our common national surrender to Islam and Communists, buy votes and control the people through individual Welfare Entitlements, and erase the Blessings of Liberty for ourselves and our Posterity via abortion, the homosexual agenda, and the creation of debt that we cannot possibly repay, do disdain and disestablish this Constitution of the United States of America."

War is hell and should be else there would be more of it, but there are things that are far worse. Living in a godless tyrannical Marxist/fascist hell with no liberty, no religious, political or economic freedom for one. No thank you. I'll stand by the constitution and defend my God-given unalienable rights, including the rights to free speech, free religion, to be armed, to be free from government spying, freedom from over-reaching tyrannical government, etc., etc., etc. The corrupt democrat politicizing of our government agencies must stop NOW!! The government snooping programs MUST be shut down NOW! Our borders...

Some months back, a young entrepreneur of Indian origin co-founded a company that, to oversimplify its expertise, reads your mind. Moninder Jheeta's Silicon Valley-based Expect Labs has introduced an app that can listen to an eight-person conversation, a virtual babble, glean sense from it, and suggest information that speakers may want to see or pursue — even as they are conversing. Jheeta, who is the chief technology officer of Expect, calls it "anticipatory computing". In time, the app can reside in devices ranging from your cell phone to your refrigerator to your car, instantly and constantly crunching data it gathers...

Those who once defended the Patriot Act are shocked that it has been abused by Obama; they should’ve realized the act itself is a standing abuse. The Path That the Patriot Act Paved The New American 11 June 2013 Regardless of how it is constituted, whether it is "democratic" or otherwise, no government poses a larger threat to liberty than a government that is at war. War is the mother of all crises and, as Rahm Emmanuel memorably -- and rightly -- said, crises are pregnant with opportunities for politicians and activists that they otherwise wouldn't have. It is in...

The government has sought to “reassure” us that it is only tracking “metadata” such as the time and place of the calls, and not the actual content of the calls. But technology experts say that “metadata” can be more revealing than the content of your actual phone calls. ... What [government officials] are trying to say is that disclosure of metadata—the details about phone calls, without the actual voice—isn’t a big deal, not something for Americans to get upset about if the government knows. Let’s take a closer look at what they are saying: They know you rang a phone...

A MODERN AMERICAN DELCARATION OF LIBERTY In establishing this Republic, our forefathers taught that man made institutions have no authority to grant or deny that which has been endowed upon us by God. They taught that unalienable rights are thus given to mankind by God, the Creator, and that governments exist not to grant or deny these rights, but to protect them. They stated that it becomes necessary in the course of human events from time to time for a people to dissolve themselves from the political bonds that hold them. They recognized and warned that a overburdensome central government...

The notorious “civil rights” lawyer William Kunstler, in addition to his work on “political” cases (i.e., anti-American radical-leftist and terrorist cases), gladly made himself available to mobsters, too — after all, someone had to pay the bills. Invited to a dinner once after a job well done for a mafia don, he hoisted a glass to the assembled capos and button men, toasting them, “Here’s to crime!” Gleeful crooks across the country could be giving the same toast if Senator Rand Paul gets his way. The self-styled libertarian Republican from Kentucky, firmly in his father’s tradition of overreaction to imagined...

As part of our “Next 10 Amendments” debate series, we’re asking our readers if it’s time for a constitutional amendment to protect their privacy. The furor in the past two weeks over government eavesdropping on the media and citizens has raised a lot of questions related to the First Amendment and the Fourth Amendment.

“Do they even understand the founding of this nation?…Look at the Constitution!” So begins another Mark Levin radio show in which the third most popular talk show host in the land ( behind Rush and Hannity) does his distinctly unique brand of radio, a brand that is focused on educating Americans about the nation’s founding document: The Constitution of the United States. A brand that includes a lengthening series of bestselling books discussing a subject that many once considered arcane at best if not embarrassingly irrelevant. Mark Levin has become the Constitution’s Churchill. Churchill, recall, the man who for years...

The public meeting in Manchester, Tenn., about 70 miles from Nashville, was supposed to address and tamp down discrimination toward Muslims there. But instead it turned into a shouting match. Bill Killian, the local U.S. attorney who organized the meeting, told the people in attendance that hate speech was not protected by the First Amendment. Over the last few years, there have been tensions between Muslims and many Christians in Tennessee. A Coffee County commissioner recently posted a picture on Facebook of a man with one eye looking down the sights of a shotgun, with the caption: "how to wink...

Scandal: An administration that has attacked our freedoms of speech and the press, and to peacefully assemble and petition for redress of grievances is drawing a bead on our protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Since the beginning of the war on terror, we have heard various iterations of a famous statement by Ben Franklin from 1755: "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." The Bush administration kept us safe after 9/11 through targeted use of the Patriot Act and its surveillance offshoots. If a phone number turned up...

A subset of visitors to New York City looks, on the surface, just like the rest. Some are high profile, like the boxer this year, and the football player, and the Tea Party leader from California. They are joined by the anonymous: the military wife from Minnesota, and the hazardous waste expert. There was a minister, and a surgeon, and someone in pest control. What sets them apart is what each brings along on a visit to the city. A handgun. The guns are legally owned, with the home state permits all in order. The visitors have locked the gun...

I’d say it’s official; President Obama’s Watergate has arrived.  And the witty question originally formed for Nixon’s big scandal can now be re-applied to President Plausible Deniability, “What did he not know and when did he not know it?”  While I do think that IRS-Gate spells the end of this President’s ability to effectively advance the liberal agenda, I do not see an impeachment on the horizon; at least not for Barack Obama – but perhaps for the Sixteenth Amendment.The recent parade of citizen witnesses to congressional hearings has laid bare the raw suffering that inevitably comes from tolerating the...

As a lawyer/lawmaker, I respect the rule of law in our nation, and I took an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution. The law is designed to encourage good conduct and deter wrongful conduct. It’s not intended to criminalize law-abiding citizens simply exercising their constitutional rights. Unfortunately, laws can be interpreted in ways that are contrary to these principles. Under prior interpretations of Mississippi’s firearms laws, law-abiding people – even “concealed carry” permit holders-- could be charged for breaking the law simply by carrying a lawful pistol or revolver in a holster. House Bill 2 becomes effective July 1,...

A Texas high school silenced its Valedictorian’s microphone during his speech when he diverted from his pre-approved remarks and instead spoke about the Constitution.

The personal data and private online conversations that the National Security Administration is accused of mining could be stashed in a one million square-foot, $1.9 billion facility in the Utah Valley. Concerns over what the government will store at the Utah Data Center have been reinvigorated by the revelation that U.S. intelligence agencies have been extracting audio, video, photos, e-mails, documents and other information to track people's movements and contacts. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and the lesser known Internet company PalTalk are all involved with the PRISM program, which the government insists is for national security....

Holder says he won't resign until he accomplishes all his goals. I guess there are still some amendments in Bill of Rights left unviolated…

On May 8, Maria Melendez, Melendez's daughter, Melissa Quair, and Quair's boyfriend reportedly witnessed about a half-dozen Kern County, Calif., highway patrol officers beating and kicking 33-year old David Silva in front of Kern Medical Center. Silva, the father of four young children, died early on the morning of May 8, presumably from the injuries he sustained from the incident. Melendez recorded the entire episode on her phone, as did her daughter's boyfriend. But before she could send the videos to news media outlets, she later told reporters, detectives from the Kern County Sheriff's Office, acting without a warrant, confiscated...

Conservatives tout the importance of the traditional family to our society. Father, mother, children, the family is the building block, the foundation of society. This isn’t news to any civilization. Radical Leftists tell us it doesn’t matter. A family is whatever one or two or more people of any sex wish it to be. After almost fifty years of the Great Society, in which many fathers were replaced with a monthly stipend to mothers, we conservatives know the results. Directionless, violent and barbaric boys grow into felonious men. Absent the proven institution, the structure of traditional marriage, women still have...

Biometric Database tucked inside Gang of Eight immigration bill by Conservative Action Alerts on May 31, 2013 ALERT: The Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration plan will destroy individual privacy via biometric database. American Conservative, Last Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed their markup of the Gang of Eight’s “immigration reform” bill – a version that not only preserves most of the bill’s original problems, but also contains 233 additional pages of rules. Senator Ted Cruz says that the bill only makes our current immigration problems “worse.” Sadly, he holds the minority opinion as he was one of only five Senate...

Why is Justice blindfolded? I am speaking of the allegorical Justice, also known as “Lady Justice.” She is usually represented holding a balance and sword, the former symbolizing fairness and the latter her power. Altogether, she represents the moral authority of law, or rather, that the law ought to observe morality. She is also blindfolded. The blindfold represents the impartiality of Justice, that she is subject neither to prejudice nor influence. The second one – influence – is most significant in terms of our discussion. It has been pointed out that the Boston Tea Party was carried out over confiscatory...

For the last five years, the number of homicides from sniper attacks in the United States has averaged a bit less than three. In 2010, the last year I have data for, there were three. To put this in context, the number of children killed by their babysitters in that year were 36. In a nation of over 300 million, your chance of being killed at a distance by a rifle shooter are less than one in 100 million. Rifles are ubiquitous in the United States, with about 100 million in the hands of citizens. So, why does Justin...

Ever since he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has become a lightening rod for media criticism. At the same time, he has become a favorite among conservatives across the nation. On Tuesday, Cruz had a message for the media that is “so hysterical” over what he is doing in the Senate. “Let me say that the fact that the mainstream media and the New York Times is so hysterical about what I’m doing – to me frankly suggests that maybe we’re doing something right,” Cruz said on Mark Levin’s radio show. “Because I...

This is a critical time in American history. I think we all know that something big is happening in America. The steady stream of news out of Washington the past couple weeks is just a fresh reminder of this. We are learning more about how far our Department of Justice went in digging through the phone records of members of the press. We are also learning about how our own government targeted conservative groups by delaying or denying their tax-exempt status. And we are all waiting for the other shoe to drop on Obamacare -- the rate increases, the religious...

For at least half a century, judicial restraint has been the clarion call of the conservative legal movement. After the Warren Court era, Roe v. Wade, and very nearly a “right” to welfare benefits, it was not surprising that conservatives would seek to rein in judicial self-aggrandizement. The principal conservative response was to promote judicial deference: Judges should resist the temptation to legislate from the bench and “defer” to the political branches. Unfortunately, time has shown that this response was too blunt. Particularly in constitutional cases, judicial deference has led to a steady expansion of government power. This, in turn,...

According to the United States Constitution, Article 1 Section 8: Article 1 - The Legislative Branch Section 8 - Powers of Congress The Congress shall have Power To lay and COLLECT Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; --------------------------------------------------------------- If I read this correctly, ONLY THE CONGRESS CAN COLLECT TAXES, NOT THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH. Ergo, the IRS is a creature of CONGRESS, not the EXECUTIVE BRANCH. The President, any president, does not...

I've concluded we can't fix America.

Watching the celebration at the NRA convention over the defeat of background checks was the most nauseating experience of the day. I am not a New York gun control liberal, either. I support a shotgun for home defense, a handgun for limited conceal/carry, and an assortment of hunting rifles to balance West Virginia's exploding deer population (as evidenced by hourly collisions with cars). So, I am hardly out of the mainstream. But, the gun safety debate is B.S. This foaming at the mouth, Obamar is coming for the guns, Nanny Bloomberg is a bad billionaire, and most despicable of all,...

As all of his fans know, Mark finished another book. Every night it seems, he wants to bust out and talk about it, but his publishers have put the ixnay on too much disclosure. Still, he shows a little leg now and then. That happened in the second hour of his show last Thursday, May 30th, 2013. I suspect he was actually reading some excerpts from it. Mark Levin: We the people must have as a goal, the reestablishment of our founding principles. How can a people incapable of selecting their own light bulbs and toilets, possess enough confidence to...

A video that runs approximately 13:00 minutes records an ironic incident that took place on Saturday May 18 documents the incident of Mark and Barb, a couple who were engaged in handing out flyers and talking about ending the Federal Reserve system in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were detained and hand-cuffed for passing out flyers and engaging in free speech. According to Mark Passio, “On Saturday, May 18th at 3:00 pm, I was walking with my wife Barb in Philadelphia from Market Street to Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets, and handed out a few...

Sen. Ted Cruz tells Eric Bolling, abolish the IRS and much, much more. June 1, 2013

It is an admirable expression of loyalty, of devotion and duty towards one's own country. A pledge, currently spoken throughout the nation countless times each and everyday- "To uphold and defend the Constitution of these United States of America." Though it is in truth, a hollow pledge, as it is without even modest contemplation, it is devoid of any meaning or substance. For if it only requires us to THINK, such a pledge could not today be even uttered free of base hypocrisy. For who among us would remain willing to uphold and defend that which has so often withered...

Feds suggest anti-Muslim speech can be punished By BYRON TAU | 5/31/13 5:26 PM EDT A U.S. attorney in Tennessee is reportedly vowing to use federal civil rights statutes to clamp down on offensive and inflammatory speech about Islam. Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, was quoted by the Tullahoma News this week suggesting that some inflammatory material on Islam might run afoul of federal civil rights laws. "We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights, and as long as we’re here, they’re going to be protected," Killian told the newspaper. Killian, along...

We already full-well know that President Obama has tried to severely restrict Americans' constitutional right to bear arms. Not only has he been pushing gun control at the national level, but he has also been working at the international level. On June 3, Obama plans to sign the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). He aims to cede American sovereignty to the corrupt United Nations, made up of many countries openly hostile to the U.S. How would you like your Second Amendment rights to be dependent on the likes of Venezuela or Iran? YOU CAN ACT NOW TO STOP OBAMA'S ATTACK...

If Illinois lawmakers cannot pass a concealed carry law acceptable to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals by June 9th, the constitutionally prescribed right to keep and bear arms will immediately take effect in the Prairie State. That is, just as codified in the 2nd Amendment, all Illinois gun owners will have the right to bear a weapon, anywhere they wish in the state. (1) On December 11th of last year, a 3 judge panel from the 7th Circuit ruled Illinois’ near total ban on the carry of firearms unconstitutional. The 47 page decision in Moore v Madigan gave the...

On Fox News Thursday afternoon, Sen. Ted Cruz indicated that President Obama should ask for Attorney General Eric Holder’s resignation. “Yes. Absolutely,” the Texas Republican said flatly, after he was asked by Fox News host Megyn Kelly if Obama should ask for Holder’s resignation. Cruz cited the “unprecedented” investigations of reporters and Holder’s response to the Fast and Furious scandal as examples of the Justice Department disregarding the law. “Unfortunately, I think it’s part and parcel of a pattern from this administration of not respecting the Bill of Rights,” Cruz added. “Not respecting the First Amendment, not respecting the Second...

<p>MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A Wisconsin appeals court says a law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls is constitutional.</p> <p>Republicans passed a law in 2011 requiring voters to show photo identification, saying the mandate would help fight election fraud. The League of Women Voters filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court in October 2011 challenging the law. Judge Richard Niess ruled the law was unconstitutional in March 2012, saying it would abridge the right to vote.</p>

Obama To Sign International Gun Control Treaty On June 3rd On June 3, President Barack Obama will sign the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The ATT passed in the U.N. General Assembly by a vote of 153-4 on April 2. This treaty is ostensibly aimed at putting an end to gun trafficking across international boundaries, and both Breitbart News and the NRA have argued that it will eventually require an international gun registry in order to be enforceable. The ATT also provides the executive branch of our government with broad powers for controlling which guns do and don't come into...

Dick Durbin isn’t sure if a federal media shield law should ensure Constitutional protection for bloggers and citizen journalists, The Daily Caller pointed out in its analysis of the Illinois senator’s appearance on Fox News Sunday. “[T]he media shield law, which I am prepared to support … still leaves an unanswered question, which I have raised many times: What is a journalist today in 2013?,” Durbin offered. “We know it’s someone that works for Fox or AP, but does it include a blogger? Does it include someone who is tweeting? Are these people journalists and entitled to constitutional protection? We...