Free Republic

I finally got my gun in Washington, D.C. I brought it home today from the District’s firearms’ registry office. After months of aggravation, hundreds of dollars in fees, countless hours jumping over hurdles, I am now a gun owner and finally exercising my second amendment right to keep arms (bearing arms is still illegal in the nation’s capital). When I first started the “Emily Gets Her Gun” series, I thought I would be waiting in long lines and filling out lots of paperwork. I never could have imagined that the D.C. gun laws made it so unearthly difficult to get...

A depressed Army reservist who made a phone call for help says dozens of police responded by surrounding his home and arresting him, vandalizing and searching his place without a warrant, seizing his dog and killing his tropical fish. Matthew Corrigan, who lives alone with his dog, sued the District of Columbia in D.C. Federal Court. Confronted with a massive police presence after his plea for help, Corrigan says, he denied officers permission to enter his house, but they entered and trashed it anyway, saying, "I don't have time to play this constitutional bulls**t!" Corrigan says the debacle started on...

Nearly 90 city employees were suspended Monday and face potential firing and prosecution for receiving unemployment benefits while holding their city jobs, District officials said. In addition, about 40 former city workers cashed unemployment checks they were not entitled to and also face sanctions. In all, the city estimates it has paid out as much as $800,000 in unemployment benefits to working city employees since 2009.

I gave the police department my application to register my gun in Washington, D.C. one week ago. So I called today to find out whether the application had been approved. It has. This means that I can soon take possession of a gun that, though I technically own it, has been sitting in a locked safe in the offices of the city’s only gun dealer. Yet things are still not as simple as they seem. I must delve further into D.C. convoluted and undocumented laws and rules before I can actually bring my gun home. To get to this point,...

At Noon on January 31, 2012 a non supporter named Paul Ferro attempts to tear down the Tent of Dreams erected around the General McPherson statue. In this video Paul explains the reasons he hates Occupy and why he tried to tare it down.

Yesterday, I attended a public hearing of the D.C. Council’s Committee on the Judiciary regarding a new piece of gun-related legislation, Bill 19-614, the “Firearms Amendment Act of 2011.” The hearing provided a perfect snapshot of the way gun politics operate in the District, with the usual cast of characters in lead roles on the pro-gun side. Everyone is familiar with the District of Columbia’s tough gun laws, but the “Firearms Amendment Act” would actually address many of the criticisms of pro-gun activists and eliminate some existing regulations. Specifically, Bill 19-614 would: -- Allow D.C. residents to take their guns...

Owning a gun in the District of Columbia can be dangerous, because the city’s hastily drafted rules are putting the innocent in jeopardy. A gun owner who has cleared the District’s 17 registration hurdles still isn’t home free. To continue exercising the Second Amendment right to keep arms, individuals have to renew registration certificates every three years and show up at the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) every six years to be fingerprinted. The citizen is responsible for the fees in each case. The city council hastily drafted these requirements after the Supreme Court smacked down D.C.’s handgun ban in the...

I testified on Monday before the District of Columbia Council’s Judiciary Committee about my experiences and reporting on the gun registration process in the city. Below you can watch the video of my oral testimony, followed by the extensive grilling I got from the committee’s chairman, Phil Mendelson, Democrat at-Large. If you want to watch the whole six-hour hearing, click here. The text of my statement is below the video. Mr. Chairman and committee members, thank you for giving me this opportunity to share my experiences with you. My name is Emily Miller. I’m a District resident, and I want...

While my new gun was being transferred to the District from Virginia, I returned to D.C.’s Gun Registry Office to turn in my registration application. As you will see in what follows, this should have been simple step, but it took all day. Like everything else in my effort to get a legal handgun in this city has been far more complicated and time-consuming that it needed to be. DOORMy gun dealer in Virginia provided the UPS tracking number of my package so I knew that it was going to be delivered to our one gun dealer, Charles Sykes, sometime...

In the interview below with Natasha Barrett of Newschannel 8, Emily Miller explains the events that convinced her to want to buy a gun and then her efforts to actually purchase a gun since she is a D.C. resident. If you have been following her series in the Washington Times, you know it has been a long and arduous process. It has also been expensive. In addition to the price of her new Sig 229, Emily has had to spend $435 in fees and other expenses to meet the District of Columbia's gun regulations. She is now having to wait...

After days of calls, emails, tweets, comments and posts, I finally bought the exact gun I wanted, the two-tone version of the Sig Sauer P229 9mm. I’m so excited to shoot my new purchase, but in the nation’s capital, it's not that simple. Buying a gun doesn’t mean you get to have the gun. Washington, D.C. has a list of firearms that are eligible to be registered. The make, model and even the color (two-tone) of the gun I wanted was on the list, but I had a bear of a time finding one with a D.C.-legal 10-round magazine. The...

After days of calls, emails, tweets, comments and posts, I finally bought the exact gun I wanted, the two-tone version of the Sig Sauer P229 9mm. I’m so excited to shoot my new purchase, but in the nation’s capital, it's not that simple. Buying a gun doesn’t mean you get to have the gun. Washington, D.C. has a list of firearms that are eligible to be registered. The make, model and even the color (two-tone) of the gun I wanted was on the list, but I had a bear of a time finding one with a D.C.-legal 10-round magazine. The...

The Washington Times editorial board praises, sorta, the D.C. government for updating an out-of-date list of gun training instructors, and councilmember Phil Mendelson for introducing legislation that would allow D.C. residents to get that training in District limits. In July, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals smacked down the city of Chicago over instructional requirements similar to the District’s. The Second Amendment Foundation and Illinois State Rifle Association sued the Windy City for requiring training at shooting ranges that were banned by city ordinance. As The Washington Times has exposed, Washington has created the same impossible situation, requiring residents...

The nation’s capital is home to some of the most restrictive gun laws in the country. Washington city leaders intentionally crafted convoluted regulations to make it difficult for citizens to own firearms legally. Now that these obstructionist rules are in the spotlight, the D.C. Council realizes it needs to clean up its act. The Washington Times’ Emily Miller has been closely documenting each step required in the process of exercising her Second Amendment right to keep arms. One of these is the mandatory gun “safety” course consisting of four hours of classroom instruction and one hour on the shooting range....

It’ll take more than exasperated politicians and appeals to institute rudimentary sanitary practices to stop the violent, dimwitted dirtballs of Occupy DC from ruining public spaces for everybody else. And they even put out a press release about it. Isn’t that cute? They can’t clean up after themselves, but they can put out a press release justifying it… Occupy DC Is Not Leaving McPherson Square, Will Not Cave to Mayor Gray’s Political Posturing Mayor Gray’s call for the National Park Service to unconstitutionally evict Occupy DC is more dangerous than the problems it would purportedly solve. As Bill Line with...

<p>Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he is worried that a new District of Columbia law that governs how pest control operators must handle rats may result in entire rodent “families” being relocated across the Potomac River into Virginia by D.C. pest control personnel.</p>

The real property of the landlord class is being liquidated, slowly but steadily, in one odd corner of America, with the nation as a whole blissfully unaware of the slow-motion seizure underway. In Washington, D.C., before the very eyes of the world's media, the rental property of landlords is being handed over to their tenants, step by careful step. After Congress granted the District home rule in 1973, its elected officials found thumbing their nose at the city's former overseers more rewarding than trying to run a competent and honest government. Since then, several city agencies and programs have been...

I walked into my editor’s office on Monday, a few minutes before our weekly staff meeting at 11 a.m. He was working on his computer. “Whatcha doin’?” I asked. “Buying a gun.” He’s a man of few words, so I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. “Seriously?” “Yes. I’m doing it before the meeting. Look at this,” he said, pointing at his screen. I peered over his shoulder at the website called Gallery of Guns. “You just put the gun you want in this box and it pulls up all the options.” He selected a Kahr PM9. “Why...

CNSNews.com) -- Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says he is worried that a new District of Columbia law that governs how pest control operators must handle rats may result in entire rodent “families” being relocated across the Potomac River into Virginia by D.C. pest control personnel. Lately, there have been reports of growing rat infestations around the Occupy DC protests at Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square. Cuccinelli said D.C.'s new rat law--the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010 (Wildlife Protection Act of 2010.pdf) --is “crazier than fiction” because it requires that rats and other vermin not be killed but captured, preferably...

Big Government highlights this Washington Post report today: An infant’s cries rang through the Occupy DC encampment in McPherson Square Wednesday morning, and when a group went to investigate they found only a baby girl alone in a tent, wearing a onesie and mittens… D.C. Fire/EMS workers checked on the girl around 10:30 a.m. She was fine, according to Sgt. David Schlosser, a U.S. Park Police spokesman, and is now with the District’s child protective services department. About 30 minutes later, Schlosser said, a man returned to the encampment and identified himself as the baby’s father. Police arrested the man,...

How Liberalism May Be Hurting Comic Book Sales by Darin Wagner If you are a conservative like me, you’ve been reading fewer and fewer comic books over the last 12 years. For those of you who know what I’m talking about, the weekly visit to the comic book shop has become either an exercise in irritation or a monotonous drill. You pick up a superhero comic book featuring a childhood favorite of yours, hoping to reignite some of that magic you felt way back when and you see that the opening sequence in the comic deals with an oil rig...

Over the past couple months, I’ve been trying to get a legal gun in the District. I always knew this would be a challenge, but I had no idea how time-consuming it would be to complete all 17 steps the city requires. I’m not even halfway done. My quest started in October at the D.C. Gun Registry at the police department. I met with Officer Brown, who put piles of paper on the desk between us. “Here’s everything you need to know,” she said, pointing to a stack about a quarter-inch thick. I asked where I could buy the gun....

You Won't Believe How Corrupt, Lazy And Stinking Rich Our Congress Critters Have BecomeDecember 28, 2011 If our founding fathers could see the cesspool that the U.S. Congress has become today, they would roll over in their graves. Most Americans don't realize this, but we already have a "part-time Congress". Members of Congress only "work" a little over a third of the days on the calendar. The rest of the time they have off. It is no wonder why so many members of Congress are involved in so much corruption - they have so much free time on their hands...

Inside the RingBy Bill Gertz - The Washington Times Wednesday, December 21, 2011 **SNIP** INSIDE OCCUPY D.C. People monitoring the Occupy D.C. movement tell Inside the Ring that the two encampments are fast becoming health hazards. Numerous protesters also recently were sickened with unusual respiratory illnesses. The major emerging problem for the leftists camped out in tents at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza is rats. The rodents appear to be moving into the area by the hundreds, and their numbers are increasing daily. The McPherson camp appears be where more radical leftists are based. An observer familiar with the McPherson...

The District has gained more than 16,000 residents since last spring, growing at a pace that outstripped anything seen in the boom years preceding it. Census figures released Wednesday estimated the city’s population was 618,000 in July, up 2.7 percent from the census figure in April last year. The current growth spurt is so rapid that the District is on track to draw more newcomers in two years than it did in the entire decade before. The District’s expansion is all the more remarkable when compared to the rest of the country, which is experiencing its slowest growth since the...

For anyone in the DC area who relies on metrorail, a wheel fell off one of the trains on the Orange Line this morning and the entire system is snarled, with people still stuck on the train. Those who made it off are reporting that Metro still made them pay exit fare and somehow find their own alternative transportation.

D.C. Police Sgt. Dale Sutherland’s high-tech headquarters in a stylish Northeast rowhouse welcomed some of the city’s most notorious gun-runners and drug dealers. Sutherland made deals for revolvers, shotguns, ammunition, crack cocaine and heroin from black leather couches. His suppliers kept coming back, authorities say. Then, in June, one offered Sutherland hand grenades and a rocket launcher, and he had to act quickly. What the dealers didn’t know at the time: The house, dressed up as a recording studio, was wired by the FBI, and Sutherland — and all his buyers — were undercover officers. When an officer listening in...

It took weeks of research and dozens of phone calls to finally find a suitable place to take the required gun safety class to register a handgun in the nation's capital. Thanks to a referral from Atlantic guns, I found Donna Worthy -- even though she's not on the list of certified instructors given out by Metropolitan Police Department. Mrs. Worthy is a retired Baltimore police firearms training instructor. She is now the owner of Worth-A-Shot , which is located in Millersville, Maryland, about a 45 minute drive from Northwest D.C., without traffic. When I pulled up to her office,...

President Barack Obama has declared Washington, D.C. a major disaster zone, but it’s not because of the red ink flooding from his pen. It’s not due to the president’s collapsing approval ratings. And it has nothing to do with the mud-slides and verbal infernos that he has loosed on his political rivals. Obama declared D.C. a disaster zone Tuesday because of the August 23 earthquake that damaged some pinnacles and a gargoyle on an Episcopal cathedral, frightened some zoo animals, dropped some bricks into an alleyway alongside Ecuador’s embassy, and cracked the stones near the top of the Washington Monument....

The biggest fashion spenders in America aren't New Yorkers, Los Angelinos or even Chicagoans. They're Washington, DC locals. A new list by Bundle.com focuses on different spending habits across the U.S. - and has thrown some less than predictable cities into the fashion spotlight. Focusing on average monthly spend on clothes, shoes and other wear, the figures show that DC - not normally associated with fashion - is packed with shopaholics who spend, on average, a massive $263 each month on clothes and shoes. Serious spending: As much as NYC is viewed as a shoppers' city, it is Washington DC...

WASHINGTON – Friday night, during the “Tribute to Ronald Reagan Dinner”, radicals with the Occupy DC and a coalition of liberal groups tried violently to crash the Americans for Prosperity Defending the Dream Summit. These radicals, some of whom carried black flags, wanted to supress rights of individuals to freely assemble and to intimidate conservatives into silence. Black flags often represent anarchy. Many “Dream” attendees captured the violence on their smart phones. and shared them with the mainstream media. By Saturday morning, the story had became national news. CNN was the first to go national with the story, followed by...

In addition to not arresting the hundreds of Occupy DC protesters who blocked the entrance of one of the city’s convention centers Friday to prevent those who disagree with them from exiting, several members who attended the Americans for Prosperity Foundation event say police ignored their 9-1-1 calls for more help to in order to protect event attendees from the mob. The foundation’s director of programs Katie Engdahi told the Daily Caller that Washington D.C. 9-1-1 operators hung up on the organization’s staffers four times as they asked for extra police Friday: “Engdahl said she called 911 in the middle...

Video at link. Other reports that the DC police did nothing to help. The woman, 78, revealed that she rode a bus for 11 hours from Detroit to attend the conference. Truly, she must be apart of the evil 1%.

The news media watchdog Accuracy in Media (AIM) released a video Wednesday that may denounce the notions from some that the Occupy protesters are primarily concerned with jobs. In it, “head hunters” set up a table full of job applications near the protest and start offering them to protesters. But the reception they get, according to the video, is less than warm. To many, that might seem odd considering the protesters have camped out in our nations capital for over a month following the Occupy Wall Street protest that began on September 17, partly because of no jobs. Accuracy in...

At the same time as I trudge through the Washington, D.C. bureaucracy in my attempt to get a legal handgun for self defense, I need to learn how to safely operate and shoot a gun. I have no experience with guns. Although my father had a handgun while I was growing up -- Baltimore is less safe than D.C. -- he hid it from us and never talked about it. I only know that he had it because as a kid, I found a revolver under the driver’s car seat. He told me never to touch it, and that was...

D.C. ethics board: Laws on behavior of government officials ‘not sufficient’By Tim Craig, Published: October 26 The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics said Wednesday that local laws governing the behavior of government officials “are not sufficient,” but D.C. Council members remain split over how to reform the system. With D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown (D) pledging that an ethics bills will pass this year, more than 30 people testified at a hearing Wednesday, offering suggestions for enacting more oversight over the city’s elected leaders. Until now, the authority for policing local elected officials has largely rested with three-member...

Received in email from Mark Levin: ~~~~~~~~~~ In just one week I will be speaking at AFP Foundation's 5th annual Defending the American Dream Summit in Washington, DC and I hope you will attend! I will be joined by GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain, Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Judge Andrew Napolitano, BigGovernment.com's Andrew Breitbart, conservative authors Dinesh D'Souza and Jonah Goldberg, and many more for this exciting two-day event. AFP Foundation wants as many of you to attend as possible. Right now you can sign up for 25% off the $169 registration cost using the code AFPF25. Click here to register...

The right to keep and bear arms only applies to certain people in the nation's capital. One of the 17 steps that I still have in order to register a gun in Washington, D.C. is filing out a “Statement of Eligibility.” The form contains 10 yes-or-no questions intended to weed out those ineligible to legally possess a pistol. Some of the barriers to gun ownership are expected. It's easy to choose ‘no’ for: conviction (or indictment) of a violent crime or weapons offense; conviction in the past five years of serious drug charge, assault, threat to do bodily harm; acquitted...

Key Bridge, 14th St. bridge among 215 D.C. area spans rated structurally deficientBy Ashley Halsey III, Published: October 19 Two hundred fifteen bridges in the Washington region are structurally deficient, including three of the five major bridges that cross the Potomac River into Washington, according to a report released Wednesday. The group Transportation for America said the Key Bridge, the Memorial Bridge and the 14th Street bridge all need immediate repair. More than 215,000 vehicles cross them on an average day. The 14th Street bridge is scheduled to undergo a complete overhaul in the next four years. **SNIP** “There are...

FAIRFAX, Va. --(Ammoland.com)- In a split ruling in an ongoing NRA-supported case challenging the restrictive gun laws established by the Washington D.C. government in defiance of the Supreme Court’s 2008 Heller decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a number of highly restrictive gun laws. Unfortunately, the court ruled that the District’s general handgun registration requirement is constitutional. However, the court reached that conclusion by misreading the Supreme Court’s Heller decision as presuming that any type of “longstanding” restriction is constitutional, so it only upheld the more traditional aspects of the registration system,...

Lois Lane shacking up? Superman graphically tortured in an electric chair? Batman and Catwoman having sex on a roof? DC Comics has relaunched 52 of its comic book series, with popular characters and story lines starting over from scratch and getting a decidedly edgy makeover. In the six weeks since the rollout began, more than 5 million copies have sold, stimulating a stagnant market. DC officials say sales are the highest in 20 years.

I went down to the Washington Monument this morning to check out the big Al Sharpton / big labor unions "Resist We Much" rally, which was essentially a Support Obama's Jobs Tax Increases Bill masquerading as a march and rally in honor of the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial being dedicated on the Washington Mall tomorrow. Seriously, did you think this rally was about jobs? There's nothing like being a labor union employee and being bussed to Washington DC... Getting shepherded off the bus toward the rally.... Given a union-made sign..... Your free t-shirt..... A boxed lunch...... You even got...

The D.C. Gun Registry office is not where you go for help getting a legal gun; it’s where you go to get more confused by bureaucracy. After going thorough the magnetometers at D.C Police headquarters on Wednesday, the first door I saw said “GUN REGISTRY.” That was easy, I thought. I went through the glass doors and entered a narrow office with a desk in front manned by a single female unformed police officer. “I’m here to get a gun,” I told her. I was the only one there. Her name tag said "D.A. Brown." “You want to register your...

Room 1140 on the DMV hallway is marked with a small sign “CS Exchange” and a taped-up paper that warns away anyone who might be looking to fight parking ticket. Behind the nondescript brown door is the private office of Washington D.C.’s only legal gun broker: Charles Sykes. You can’t just go out and legally buy a gun in the nation’s capital. If you purchase a pistol from another state, whether in person or over the Internet, you can’t ship it to your residence in the District, nor can you drive it back over the Potomac river. In the 21-page...

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A judge will decide whether a Virginia man accused of spying on U.S. citizens for Syria will remain jailed while he awaits trial.

Step 1: The first rule of the establishment is: Do not admit you are part of the establishment! Step 2: Disarm them with praise Step 3: Moderate whoever they pick as the 2012 nominee. Step 4: Teach them about compromise. Step 5: Never forget reality

Veteran's Day, November 11, 2011 A Foot Soldier’s Call to Save America In the infernal dark night the Obama Regime is hanging on America, the light switch will be turned back on for all to see on Friday, November 11, 2011-Veterans Day. That’s the day when the drums and fifes of columnist/patriot, JB Williams, retired U.S. Army Major General and senior military analyst Paul E. Vallely, Gathering of Eagles and Eagles Up! organizer U.S. Army (Ret.) Harry G. Riley and Company will drown out the phony bleatings and mindless chants of the Occupy Wall Street malcontents, leading the way to...

I want a gun. I don't feel safe living in Washington, D.C. and want to protect myself. I'm starting today by going down to City Hall to find the gun permit office to tell them, "I want a gun." This series will follow me as I navigate the city bureaucracy and outdated rules in order to legally buy a firearm. My desire for a gun started when I had to face down over a dozen criminals on an empty cul de sac in Washington, D.C., armed only with a Blackberry. SNIP I was alone in an empty house with a...

Link only - Occupy DC Protest Marches On

This week the notoriously dysfunctional and economically illiterate Washington, D.C. City Council rammed through an upper-income tax increase on District residents and small businesses. The measure, which passed by a 7-6 vote, raises the tax rate on incomes in excess of $350,000 by 5 percent, taking the rate from 8.5 to 8.95 percent, and leaving D.C. with the dubious distinction of having one of the highest marginal rates in the country. Foregoing normal legislative protocol, the proposal, which was hastily concocted behind closed doors, bypassed the tax and revenue committee and was approved without public input. Even the Washington Post...