Free Republic

Don't talk to me about passing a single new gun law if you aren't fighting to make sure criminals are being prosecuted to the fullest extent of our existing laws. Criminals who commit crimes involving firearms are routinely allowed to cut plea deals on every level, even after people are killed with stolen or straw-purchased weapons. A gun thief in Minnesota who is receiving probation after stealing more than 85 guns is just the latest example of our nation's continued failure to put those committing gun crimes behind bars.

Moscow (AFP) - Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny announced he had filed a lawsuit against President Vladimir Putin on Thursday over alleged graft, accusing him of ordering huge loans to a firm owned by his son-in-law. "I sued Putin over Putin's son-in-law and I am sure that I will win," Navalny wrote on his blog, accusing the Russian leader of violating anti-corruption legislation to benefit Kirill Shamalov, who recently married the Russian leader's daughter Katerina. Citing public records and statements, Navalny said that Shamalov came to own a stake in petrochemical company Sibur shortly before Putin allegedly ordered that it...

Strapped with a suicide bomb vest and sent by the extremist Boko Haram group to kill as many people as possible, the teenage girl tore off the explosives and fled as soon as she was out of sight of her handlers. Her two companions, however, completed their grisly mission and walked into a crowd of hundreds at Dikwa refugee camp in north-east Nigeria and blew themselves up, killing 58 people. Modu Awami, a self-defence fighter who helped question the girl, said: “She said she was scared because she knew she would kill people. But she was also frightened of going...

Nazareth's Mediterranean Restaurant COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — One person is dead and several injured after a machete attack at a restaurant in northeast Columbus. Four people were taken to the hospital with injuries, including one person who was taken to Grant Medical Center in life-threatening condition. The person had surgery and has been downgraded to stable condition, Columbus Police said. This happened at the Nazareth restaurant, which is in a shopping center on North Hamilton Road. Sgt. Rich Weiner said there seemed to be “no rhyme or reason” to the attack. The FBI is assisting Columbus Police, according to spokesperson...

Economists' and Criminologists' Views on Guns: Crime, Suicides & Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun Laws Abstract: Economists and Criminologists have very different models of human behavior. A total of 74 out of 130 academics who published peer-reviewed empirical research on gun issues in criminology and economics journals responded to our survey. That was a 57% response rate. Looking at their views on gun control, our survey finds that these two groups have very different views on gun control that vary in systematic ways that we expected. While economists tend to view guns as making people safer, criminologists hold this position less strongly....

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) - One person is dead and several injured after a stabbing attack at a restaurant in northeast Columbus. Five people were taken to the hospital with injuries, including one person who was taken to Grant Medical Center in life-threatening condition. This happened at the Nazareth restaurant, which is in a shopping center on North Hamilton Road.

Investigators with the State Department issued a subpoena to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation last fall seeking documents about the charity’s projects that may have required approval from the federal government during Hillary Clinton’s term as secretary of state, according to people familiar with the subpoena and written correspondence about it. The subpoena also asked for records related to Huma Abedin, a longtime Clinton aide who for six months in 2012 was employed simultaneously by the State Department, the foundation, Clinton’s personal office, and a private consulting firm with ties to the Clintons.

Venezuela's Supreme Court has overruled the opposition-controlled congress and granted broad decree powers to President Nicolas Maduro. Congress last month had refused to approve Maduro's declaration of an economic emergency. The court ruled in a decision made public Thursday night that Maduro did not need congressional approval after all. The court said the declaration of emergency is now in effect, granting Maduro greatly expanded authority over the economy for 60 days. ...

NEW YORK (AP) -- A rookie police officer who shot an unarmed man dead in a darkened public housing stairwell was convicted Thursday of manslaughter in a case closely watched by advocates for police accountability. The courtroom audience gasped and Officer Peter Liang, who had broken into tears as he testified about the 2014 shooting of Akai Gurley, buried his head in his hands as the verdict came after 17 hours of jury deliberations. The manslaughter charge carries up to 15 years in prison. Liang's sentencing is set for April 14.

His "Cruz Crew" mobile app is designed to gather detailed information from its users' phones -- tracking their physical movements and mining the names and contact information for friends who might want nothing to do with his campaign. That information and more is then fed into a vast database containing details about nearly every adult in the United States to build psychological profiles that target individual voters with uncanny accuracy. Cruz's sophisticated analytics operation was heralded as key to his victory in Iowa earlier this month -- the first proof, his campaign said, that the system has the potential to...

During the last two decades I have read everything I could get my hands on pertaining to health care policy. I also spent the longest two weeks of my entire life reading the PPACA – Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act – shortly after it was passed into law on March 23, 2010. I have also appeared on television,radio, and written expert commentary on health care policy on this blog and for professional business journals around the country. If there is one thing I know it is health care policy and if there is another thing I know it is...

John Lott: Even Liberal Academics Are Turning Pro-Gun Ownership From the left and right, people are bombarded with diametrically opposing claims on guns. But most of this bombardment isn’t coming from the National Rifle Association. Michael Bloomberg is spending far more money — hundreds of millions of dollars — trying to convince Americans that guns should be kept out of the hands of even law-abiding citizens. And yet, by double-digit margins, Americans say that they feel safer if more people in their neighborhood own guns. The answer is the same on concealed carry. Most of the media are doing their...

Secretary of state John Kerry has tonight announced a deal that will see a ceasefire in Syrian within a week following a meeting of The International Syria Support Group in Berlin. Earlier in the day, Kerry tweeted that he had spoken with Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, about the need for an end to fighting in the Middle Eastern nation. However, it is unclear which of the multiple forces fighting in Syria have signed up to the ceasefire, or how it will be enforced.

**SNIP** "I think Hillary Clinton, for the good of the country, should step down and let this FBI investigation play out," Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn (Ret.) told The Daily Caller. Flynn led the DIA from July 2012 until August 2014. He said anyone who compromised intelligence at this level of classification has no business running for president. The documents "had to be moved off electronically or removed out of the secure site physically, then it had to be put onto an unclassified email system," Flynn said. "Someone who does this is completely irresponsible, but totally unaccountable and shows a...

Jeffrey Epstein underage abuse victims sue government saying they were kept in the dark about 'sweetheart deal' giving billionaire immunity after he pleaded guilty to hiring teen for sex A decade after police began an investigation into claims that financier Jeffrey Epstein had solicited teenage girls for sex, two women who the government designated as underage victims at the time have filed a lawsuit over his 'sweetheart deal.' The women, identified as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2, claim in court papers filed Wednesday that they were unaware of the secret deal being made between the defense team and...

Didarul Sarder lost his job for pulling a gun to rescue a woman who was being stabbed to death, but he never regretted his split-second decision. "I would do it all over again,"he told Fox affiliate WJBK. "If I could save this woman's life over a job. I can get another job." The 32-year-old has been offered his job back after his bosses at a General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Mich., reversed their unpopular decision, allowing the valet service supervisor to return to work. The decision was praised by Warren Mayor Jim Fouts, who called Sarder a "hero" in...

ABINGDON, Md. (AP) — A gunman fatally shot a sheriff’s deputy inside a crowded restaurant at lunchtime Wednesday and killed another deputy in a shootout nearby, authorities and witnesses said. The suspect was killed in the shootout not far from the shopping center where the restaurant was situated, Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler said. Remarkably, no bystanders were hurt. Police haven’t released a motive for the shooting, but the sheriff said he believed the first deputy who approached the gunman was shot because he was wearing a uniform. The shooter, 67-year-old David Brian Evans, had warrants out for his arrest...

Rubio is the candidate of open borders, Obamatrade and mass immigration, making one last attempt to pull off one big con. A vote for him is a vote for open borders, unlimited refugee resettlement and much more, read on... Eagle Forum THE 'BIG CON' BEGINS To win in the 2010 Tea Party Wave, Rubio ran as the anti-amnesty candidate despite an aggressive pro-amnesty record. Politico reports: "Arturo Vargas, the executive director for the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles born in Miami, blocked 'scorched-earth' legislation that sought to clamp down on...

We are the country that $20 trillion in debt,he warned. We are the country that has papered over this with $5 trillion in printed money, and zero percent interest rates. We are the country where taxes, and mandates, and regulations are going up, and government is taking over our life. Its a combination of China, and Europe, and its socialist states and their massive debt, and our country which has gone from a great, market-based, free market economy into something that is controlled by these big, power-hungry, power-centric maniacs that present a looming crisis for the American taxpayer which, of...

A federal judge has ordered the State Department to make four additional releases of Hillary Clinton's emails between Saturday and the end of February. U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras issued an order Thursday requiring State to release batches of the still-undisclosed portion of Clinton's emails on Feb. 13, 19 and 26 with "all remaining documents" released by "the close of business" on Feb. 29. Contreras had publicly discussed the possibility of releasing some of the messages directly to the Freedom of Information Act litigant whose case the judge is overseeing, Jason Leopold of Vice News. However, the judge's order...