Free Republic

Richard Mack is well known as the first of eventually six sheriffs to take on the Brady Law. And, much to the delight of pro-gunners around the country, the Supreme Court agreed with Mack in 1995 that the federal government did not have constitutional authority to force state officials to conduct background checks. Mack is no longer in office, but that has not stopped him from staying involved in promoting constitutional issues. He is now taking the lead in informing sheriffs of the authority they have as the chief law enforcement officer in their counties. While this has come as...

The Supreme Court yesterday unanimously sided with Gun Owners of America in finding that the placement of a Global Positioning Device on an automobile constitutes a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. The majority opinion in U.S. v. Jones was written by Justice Antonin Scalia and follows GOA’s reasoning to throw out the “reasonable expectation of privacy” test which has been thought to be the dominant Fourth Amendment standard in recent years. The Obama Administration argued that because the police could theoretically follow Antoine Jones’ car, he had no “reasonable expectation of privacy,” and thus, placing a GPS device...

At a campaign stop this weekend, in-the-spotlight GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum said he supports increased Internet regulation. According to Santorum, our rights aren’t “absolute� and stop at whatever point their exercise begins to infringe on the rights of others. Piracy represents an abuse of intellectual property rights — and that abuse should have consequences, Santorum says.So far, so good. Everybody agrees that piracy is a problem.But Santorum seems too ready to look to regulation for the solution to the piracy problem, suggesting that government interference might be an effective way to thwart piraters. That, to me, seems short-sighted, given...

Newt Gingrich has ramped up his attacks on Mitt Romney as a heartless leveraged buyout executive for his years at Bain Capital, asking reporters in Manchester on Monday, “Is capitalism really about the ability of a handful of rich people to manipulate the lives of thousands of other people and walk off with the money? Or is that, somehow, a little bit of a flawed system?” But Mr. Gingrich was himself on an advisory board for a major investment firm that had a similar business model, Forstmann Little, a pioneering private equity firm co-founded in 1978 by Theodore J. Forstmann...

In a press release this afternoon, Club for Growth criticized Newt Gingrich for his attacks on Mitt Romney’s career at Bain Capital, calling them unbecoming a “Reagan Conservative.” Club for Growth’s statement: Yesterday, Gingrich said “Those of us who believe in free markets and those of us who believe that in fact the whole goal of investment is entrepreneurship and job creation…we find it pretty hard to justify rich people figuring out clever legal ways to loot a company, leaving behind 1,700 families without a job.” Gingrich’s attack was echoed that same day that by the Democratic National Committee, which...

Mitt Romney: 36 Newt Gingrich: 25 Rick Santorum: 17 Ron Paul: 7 Other: 5 Undecided 10 Other: 5

Sarah Palin’s husband is endorsing Newt Gingrich for president, Todd Palin told ABC News today. But Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and John McCain’s 2008 Republican running mate, has yet to decide “who is best able to go up against Barack Obama,” Todd Palin said. Palin said he has not spoken to Gingrich or anyone from the former House speaker’s campaign. But he said he respects Gingrich for what he went through in the 1990s and compared that scrutiny in public life to what Sarah Palin went through during her run for the vice presidency.

GOP New Hampshire primary debate tonight on ABC at 9pm ET By Nate, on January 7th, 2012 Tonight will mark the first of two debates this weekend focused on the New Hampshire Republican primary. This evening's debate will take place at Saint Anselm College and is sponsored by ABC News, Yahoo! and WMUR. Sunday morning will feature a GOP debate broadcast on NBC at 9am ET (yes, am) but look for more details on that later today. Air Time: Saturday, January 7th at 9pm ET / 6pm PT on ABC Live Stream: WMUR and Yahoo! News Participants: Santorum, Romney, Paul,...

Ready, aim fire. That’s apparently Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s idea of relaxation before returning to the campaign trail this weekend. Ahead of Saturday night’s ABC News-Yahoo-WMUR debate in New Hampshire Perry took a few moments to himself at an Austin-area shooting range. “Just relaxing a bit @ Red’s Range before we leave for New Hampshire!” @governorperry tweeted Friday along with a photo of himself wearing a green sweatshirt and a baseball cap with a firearm in hand. On the campaign trail, Perry, a staunch defender of second amendment rights, has not been shy about talking about his “long love affair”...

"It has recently come to our attention that your station has either been asked to run, or may soon be asked to run, various advertising spots produced by the Mitt Romney aligned SuperPAC “Restore Our Future” or Romney for President, the principal campaign committee of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Included among the Romney advertisements submitted to your station for broadcast are likely to be various advertisements which specifically mention Speaker Gingrich and purport to quote or reference the findings of a 1997 report issued by the House Select Committee on Ethics (the “Report”). The content of these advertisements state...

As the results of the Iowa caucus dribbled in, Americans got to see how the GOP candidates greeted victory and defeat. Top vote-getter Mitt Romney was gracious toward Rick Santorum, who came in second by eight thin votes, but uninspiring as he pledged to get America back to work. Santorum pronounced, "Game on," then hailed his Italian grandfather's decision to leave Italy to dig coal, if that's what it took to bring his family to the United States. Ron Paul, who came in third, saluted the work of his enthusiastic volunteers and credited his success to his role as a...

Perry is nearly perfect with regards to his gun record.

BILL WHITE: GUN GROUPS SEE STEADY BLEED INTO MILITIAS; DOMESTIC UNREST STILL GROWING IN UNITED STATES When agents of America’s US Marshals surrounded the Indiana Baptist Temple, accusing the church and its parishioners of violating US tax laws by refusing to pay social security taxes on non-clergical employees, they didn’t charge in with guns blazing, as they did at Waco. Concern about bad publicity was there, but there was a more serious concern just under the surface – the Southern Indiana Regional Militia, a 250-man “unorganized” citizen’s militia unit, had pledged to defend the church – and their threats were...

In the recent Presidential debate, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann said America’s voters did not need to “settle” for the moderate candidate. Amen to that. And gun owners do NOT want candidates who talk out of both sides of their mouths. As the Gun Owners of America’s Board of Directors looks at the Republican candidates running to unseat radical anti-gun President Obama, we see several who have strong pro-gun backgrounds. Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman all have solid pro-gun records and deserve a hard look from pro-gunners. At least one frontrunner candidate stands in contrast with a decidedly mixed record on...

As Wisconsin heads toward lifting a ban on carrying concealed weapons, researchers at the University of California-Davis have turned up some unsettling information about those who may take advantage of the law. In a study using 15-year-old data -- the most recent available -- published online in the journal Injury Prevention, the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program says those who carried concealed weapons or who had confronted someone with a gun were twice as likely to be heavy drinkers than non-gun owners. Gun owners who drove with loaded weapons were four times more likely to hop behind the wheel...

Gun Owners of America worked with Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on legislation to exempt 4473’s (the form all buyers fill out when a gun is purchased from a licensed dealer) from that statute’s broad provisions. Sen. Paul will offer that amendment this week, assuming Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is not able to block the amendment from being offered. Here’s a major concern: Assume the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) goes to the “secret court” (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or “FISA” court) and argues, without anyone else in the room, that ALL 4473’s should be seized...

(February 23, 2011) “Two months after the shooting death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office remain silent. But family members, and others, are speaking out.” -- William Lajeunesse, “America’s Third War: Agent Brian Terry, A Policy of Silence?,” Fox News (February 22, 2011) at www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/22/agent-brian-terry-policy-silence/ Summary According to recent press reports -- such as Fox News -- the ATF has enabled gun smuggling by telling gun dealers in the southwest to sell weapons to known straw purchasers (people who buy guns for others). Even worse, one of those guns became the murder weapon...

Remember day before yesterday when Larry Pratt came out swinging on the Gunwalker scandal? Last night, just before the CBS piece ran, Chris Brown at the collectivist "analysis" chop shop Media Matters slammed Larry Pratt as a conspiracy theorist. On February 22, Gun Owners of America (GOA) president Larry Pratt appeared on America Live and presented a variety of misleading reasons for his opposition to Andrew Traver, President Obama's nominee to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Pratt's objections during the segment were political in nature, wholly ignored Traver's distinguished record as a law enforcement...

Eric Holder to Lanny Breuer, pointing at the 800 pound gorilla sitting on its ass: "What about him?" Breuer: "Don't worry, that's the NRA, he's tame." As previously reported, FOX had two pieces on the Project Gunwalker scandal today. The better of the two was Larry Pratt's commentary on the Traver nomination which of course is intimately intertwined now with the Gunwalker scandal. Larry came out swinging, and apparently the ATF had declined to provide anyone to defend Traver, for it was Larry vs. Megyn Kelly, who was spinning out the administration meme as best she could. I want to...

As discussed in an earlier Gun Rights Examiner report today, Larry Pratt, the Executive Director of Gun Owners of America, appeared on the Fox News’ “America Live” program with Megyn Kelly today to discuss the nomination of Andrew Traver for Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Believing it relevant to the discussion, Pratt introduced key points involving “Project Gunwalker,” allegations about gun monitoring operations by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) gone awry. Host Kelly quickly tried to steer away from that, claiming it unfair to talk about because ATF was not there to...

As Election Day 2010 approaches, there is much to be found in the media about the National Rifle Association and its political grades and endorsements. There's another, albeit smaller organization out there working hard to bring us candidate evaluations that gun activists are well aware of, Gun Owners of America, designated "The only no-compromise gun lobby in Washington" by Rep. Ron Paul. Because GOA takes a somewhat different approach that can yield different performance assessments, tensions sometimes arise between its supporters and NRA's, along with often acrimonious, even bitter debate. And because this election has such potential to impact gun...

What gets a Tea Party activist going? A good way of answering that is to browse the stalls at a Tea Party rally, as I did in Richmond, Virginia. Let's start with this: they very much like their guns. Stickers were being handed out saying: "Guns save lives" -- an interesting twist on machines designed to kill. One stall was occupied by the Gun Owners of America, a lobby group online magazine Slate describes as "well to the right of the National Rifle Association" -- which many of us would have assumed impossible. They like the 50 individual states and...

This Bureau of Justice Assistance (U.S. Department of Justice) document is entitled "Investigating Terrorism and Criminal Extremism - Terms and Concepts” and includes a reference to GOA, a gun rights lobbying organization. I have seen GOA mentioned on threads here, but I am not personally familiar with GOA. I believe that the right to self defense is a God given right. The Constitution should protect "the right to keep and bear arms" (firearms and other weapons usable for self defense), but that right is currently being "infringed" at all levels of government.

A recent Department of Justice guide for investigators of criminal and extremist groups lists “constitutionalists” and “survivalists” alongside organizations like Al-Qaeda and the Aryan Brotherhood. The 120-page, “Law Enforcement Sensitive” guide to “Investigating Terrorism and Criminal Extremism – Terms and Concepts” describes itself as “a glossary designed primarily as a tool for criminal justice professionals to enhance their understanding of words relating to extremist terminology, phrases, activities, symbols, organizations, and selected names that they may encounter while conducting criminal investigations or prosecutions of members of extremist organizations.” Constitutionalist, defined by Random House’s 2010 Dictionary as an “adherent or advocate of...

Wildlife officials have killed a grizzly bear in Wyoming and a grizzly bear in Montana to head-off potential lawsuits. The Montana grizzly killed and partially consumed Kevin Kammer at a Gallatin National Forest campground near Cooke City, Mont. on July 29. The Wyoming grizzly killed 70 year-old botanist Erwin Evert on June 17 on the Shoshone National Forest near the East Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The circumstances were quite different, but the decision to kill the bears was undoubtedly influenced by a 1996 court case over the terrible bear mauling of 16 year-old Anna Knochel at a U.S. Forest...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 NRA-ILA Exec. Dir. Chris Cox Responds to Internet Rumors Wednesday, June 30, 2010 The NRA has received a number of questions about blog posts that claim I issued a “gag order” to NRA board members on the nomination of Elena Kagan to the U.S. Supreme Court.  This is absurd and wrong.  This claim shows complete ignorance of how the NRA operates.  NRA staff, including everyone (myself included) at the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, work for the NRA Executive Vice President, who in turn works for the NRA board, which in turn...

NRA exemption shows campaign disclosure bill's cynical, fatal fl By Cleta Mitchell Thursday, June 17, 2010 The cynical decision this week by House Democrats to exempt the National Rifle Association from the latest campaign finance regulatory scheme is itself a public disclosure. It reveals the true purpose of the perversely named Disclose Act (H.R. 5175): namely, to silence congressional critics in the 2010 elections. The NRA "carve-out" reaffirms the wisdom of the First Amendment's precise language: "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech." Congress can't help itself. Since 1798, with the Alien and Sedition...

McGlowan is a "conservative" Fox News Analyst running for Congress in Mississippi. This was from a radio interview she gave. I only post this because some Freepers could hardly contain there excitement over the prospect of voting for her. She reveals her true self here: ____ MCGLOWAN: But when you have crazies out there that are stockpiling guns because they believe that we are gonna have SOME TYPE OF RACE WAR, I think that that’s a problem. McGLOWAN: .. You’ve had conservative talk show radio [shows] where I’ve heard .. people who want to overthrow the government, people who don’t...

By Stefanie Geisler, Globe Correspondent A Manchester-by-the-Sea man arrested for stockpiling weapons and ammunition in his home allegedly told police he was preparing for Armageddon. Gregory D. Girard, 45, was arrested Tuesday night for allegedly storing approximately 20 weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Just before 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, Manchester-by-the Sea police executed a search warrant at 23 Bridge St., police said. Girard faces four counts of possession of an infernal device and four counts of possession of a dangerous weapon. Additional charges are pending, police said. “Mr. Girard indicated he was preparing for ‘Armageddon,’ which he felt was...

Angela McGlawon is a big friggin GUN GRABBER!!!! Listen to Angela, in her own words - youtube

Election 2010: Illinois Republican Primary for Senate Illinois GOP Senate Primary: Kirk 53%, Hughes 18% Thursday, January 28, 2010 Republican Congressman Mark Kirk is well ahead of his closest challenger in the race for the Republican Senate nomination in Illinois. GOP voters will pick their candidate on Tuesday. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely Republican Primary voters in the state finds Kirk leading attorney Patrick Hughes 53% to 18%. Twelve percent (12%) prefer some other candidate, and 18% are still undecided. Conservatives have been critical of Kirk for some of his positions in the House, and Hughes, chairman...

"Two held with fake papers" Manju V , TNN, 23 January 2010, 04:48am IST SNIPPET: "MUMBAI: Hours before Indian intelligence agencies put all flights operating from India on a high alert against possible hijack attempts, two Sri Lankan nationals — one flying to New York and the other to London — were arrested by immigration officials at the Kochi airport on Thursday for carrying forged Indian passports and travel documents." The two Sri Lankan nationals were being assisted by two employees of a private multinational ground-handling company. SNIPPET: "One of the employees fled the scene when the passengers were caught."...

Lawyers are being positioned even over the weekend to file a legal action quickly in support of the GOP candidate in the Massachusetts special election to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy should he succeed in defeating a hand-picked Democratic successor. There is concern that since a victory by Republican Scott Brown over Attorney General Martha Coakley in the battle to replace Kennedy would threaten President Obama's health care plan in the U.S. Senate – Brown has promised to be a key vote against the plan – Democrats in power would delay certifying...

— Trumpets recent victory to be grateful for this Christmas “Score one for the Gun Owners of America ….” Slate, December 20, 2009 Wednesday, December 23, 2009 You guys have a lot to be thankful for this Christmas. Our efforts together in lobbying against ObamaCare have netted some positive gains, and that has the political left up in arms. The writers at the ultra-liberal Slate magazine are beside themselves that an organization like the Gun Owners of America was able to move the Senate to include protections for gun owners. According to Slate on December 20: Score one for the...

SNIPPET: "The Centre has warned the citizens against possible terror attacks in five cities of India, which are expected to take place around the first anniversary of Mumbai terror attacks. "The Intelligence Bureau has received some inputs from state governments that terrorists were trying to infiltrate through the Indian west coast and target vital installations in the country’, revealed a Home Ministry official to a news channel. The state governments have been given the orders for boosting the security in and around railway stations, airports as well as other significant places." SNIPPET: "This Home Ministry alert is based on the...

GOA-PVF Supports Doug Hoffman in New York Special Election October 27, 2009 Dear Friend of the Second Amendment, You may have heard about a special Congressional election taking place next week in upstate New York. The race features a Nancy Pelosi Democrat and a Republican with long-standing ties to ACORN against a genuine pro-gun leader named Doug Hoffman. Gun Owners of America Political Victory Fund is proud to endorse Doug Hoffman in this race. Doug Hoffman is a 100% gun rights supporter who will be a leader in the battle to defend the Second Amendment. Doug Hoffman Mr. Hoffman believes...

-- All pro-gunners urged to join this critical fightMonday, June 29, 2009 Gun Owners of America applauds immediate past NRA President Sandy Froman, who stepped up to the plate last week with a call to arms for all NRA members to vigorously oppose the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. (See the article below). GOA has been calling on our members to oppose this nomination since it is clear that Sotomayor is anti-Second Amendment and wants to legislate from the bench. The official position from current NRA leadership is to take a "wait and see" approach to the...

Associated Press Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor told a senator Thursday that she would follow a historic ruling affirming Americans' right to own guns for self-defense, but pro-gun activists said they still believe she'd work to limit gun rights if confirmed for the high court... --snip-- If it were up to Sotomayor, DeMint said Thursday, Heller would only apply to federal jurisdictions. "(H)er opinion was that the hundreds of millions of Americans in the 50 states do not have a fundamental right to bear arms. She refused to back away from that opinion in my meeting with her," DeMint said...

Interview of Gov. Ed Rendel saying civilians only need revolvers and have no use for "assault weapons". He is also stating there is no slippery slope. He is also demanding the banning of high capacity clips.

WEEKNIGHTS at 9 ET on BLOG TALK RADIOPROGRAM SCHEDULE Next Show: Thursday, April 16 at 9 pm ET. THE ANDREA SHEA KING SHOW - TONIGHT AT 9 ET. Pour yourself a stiff one. Preferably straight up. Haven’t you gotten the memo? The War on Terror has been won! Now the Obama administration has a new enemy in its sights: Right-wing Extremists! But exactly who are these extremists? Can we really believe that we are being told to be more suspicious of each other as law-abiding Americans, rather than on the alert against the true enemies of our country? Is our...

Gun Owners of America has put together an email campaign to get Congress to approve the repeal of most of DC's gun control. The measure has passed the Senate and now is to be considered in the House, if Speaker Pelosi doesn't block it. If you want to take action on this matter by sending a prewritten email to your Congressman, click here: Alert your Congressmen

Just got this from Gun Owners of America. If you are not a member and you are interested in protecting your 2nd Amendment rights then you should give them a look. ================================================================================================================== Senate Repeals D.C. Gun Ban by Large Vote -- But the fight in the House is just beginning Monday, March 2, 2009 By a resounding vote of 62 to 36 last week, the U.S. Senate has approved an amendment, offered by Senator John Ensign of Nevada, to repeal the D.C. gun ban. Congratulations! But the battle is not over. This week, the House will take up the D.C....

HR 45 May be More Troubling Than the Average Anti-gun Bill -- Legislation may reflect Obama’s thinking by Mike Hammond Those of you who regularly peruse the GOA website know that there are dozens of anti-gun abominations which are introduced as legislation in the Senate and House each Congress. These include, particularly, national gun licensing and broad gun bans. GOA provides a summary of these bills for the benefit of our members and friends. But we do not focus on most of these bills because they are so extreme that they have no chance of passage. They are cynically introduced...

TONIGHT AT 9 ET on THE ANDREA SHEA KING SHOW Own a gun? You're probably among most gun owners who are concerned about what the Barack Obama presidency will mean for our 2nd Amendment protections. Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners of America (GOA), shares your concern. Of particular interest is Eric Holder, Barack Obama’s choice for Attorney General. Pratt does not consider Holder to be in support of the second amendment. "The President's choice for U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, is an anti-gun extremist who has assailed gun owners since his days in the Bill Clinton administration."BANG! Holder...

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 GOA wants to thank all of you for your hard work in opposing the extremely anti-gun Eric Holder for Attorney General. While we lost the battle on Monday (by a vote of 75-21), you guys registered your opposition loud and clear. There is no doubt that your activism truly made gun rights THE issue in this nomination battle. Every Senator who spoke against Holder mentioned Second Amendment fears. And even among many of the Senators who voted for him, there was tremendous concern regarding Holder’s stance on gun rights. As stated by The Washington Post yesterday,...

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) and gun control groups are concerned that some visitors attending President-elect Obama’s inauguration may try to pack heat because of a rule allowing concealed weapons in national parks. The Bush administration recently altered federal regulations to allow people with permits to carry concealed firearms while in national parks if the park falls within a state or district that allows concealed weapons. Washington D.C. does not allow concealed weapons, but Norton and other think confusion over the rule could lead visitors to bring guns to Obama’s Jan. 20 inauguration, which will be held on two miles...

National Geographic Channel ran a show last night entitled, "Gun In America." According to the program, there are millions of misguided gun owners across the nation. Why? Because your guns are supposedly more likely to harm you than to help you in an emergency. "As a society, we're totally out of control with weapons," said one Philadelphia cop who was interviewed during the show. "You need to limit access that people have to these type of firearms."

PANAJI: On their toes following specific inputs from intelligence agencies about a possible terror strike in Goa, the state police have launched a manhunt for a passenger believed to be a Pakistani student who went 'missing' after he arrived on a British charter flight here three days ago. At present, the only piece of evidence linking the missing passenger Asim Naz is a certificate issued by the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education based in Pakistan's Gujranwala region, which was found abandoned near the arrival lounge of the Dabolim airport. Police enquiry has revealed that the certificate was found near...

SNIPPET: "The Indian beach resort of Goa, a major destination for Israeli backpackers and holidaymakers, is at risk of being struck by al-Qaida, a local politician warned over the weekend." SNIPPET: ""Today, Goa faces serious threat from terrorists and there were specific inputs that al-Qaida would target certain [tourist] installations in Goa. Goa has a coastline of 105 km., major sea ports and beaches," the state's chief secretary, J.P. Singh, wrote in a memo, according to Indian media." SNIPPET: "Dr. Ely Karmon, an expert on Islamist movements and terrorist organizations, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that Israelis should reconsider...

Larry Pratt, the executive director of the Gun Owners of America, discussed the future of the battle over gun control and analyzed gun control as public policy this Thursday evening. Gun Owners of America is a right wing, no-compromise lobbying organization. The talk was sponsored by the William and Mary Rifle Club. During the speech, Pratt spoke about the recent landmark case, D.C. v. Heller, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to keep and bear arms. He also discussed the likely implications on gun control policy of the incoming Obama administration and...