Free Republic

The Virginia Citizens Defense League joined in the discussion over whether to bring firearms into town hall. A recently posted sign requesting that guns not be brought into Boones Mill town hall sparked controversy at a town council meeting Tuesday night -- and drew the attention of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. But, in the end, debate over the Second Amendment paled in comparison to other, more personal issues, the likes of which have repeatedly plagued the council's notoriously volatile meetings. Last week, incumbent mayor E.V. "Ben" Flora won re-election over challenger Robert Hogan by a vote of 40 to...

A Fort Worth man trying to scratch an itch on his back used a revolver and accidentally shot himself. Jorge Espinal, 44, was drinking beer and playing poker around 3 a.m. Sunday morning in his home in the 3500 block of Montague Street, when he got up from the table and walked into another room, said Fort Worth police Lt. Kenneth Dean. “He told officers he had an itch on his back and grabbed the first thing he could get a hold of which was a revolver,” Lt. Dean said. “The gun went off."

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - In one corner an aggressive panhandler. In the other a disabled, wheelchair-bound Vietnam veteran who turned out not to be the underdog. When the two met up five days ago in northeast Albuquerque the attacker became the attacked. Gary Gould said the attempted mugging had him fighting for his life reminding him of what it was like fighting for his life in Vietnam. "I can't walk; I'm paralyzed," he told KRQE News 13 today. "I got blown up in Vietnam. "I've been in a chair for 38 years." Gould, 58, is safe at home now miles away...

"Geeks On Caffeine" has hit another home run with its ongoing series on how to spend your stimulus money! In previous cartoons, the main character Joe Black made it very clear that the money should be spent on a 100% American product, which in this case was a gun. But what happens if others follow his lead? Find out...

The case of a Marion County man will go to the U.S. Supreme Court later this year, and a Charleston attorney will become one of a limited number of West Virginia lawyers to argue in that venue. Troy Giatras will defend Randy Hayes of Mannington, a contractor convicted of a felony gun possession charge, and ask the highest court to clarify Second Amendment right to bear arms. No matter the outcome of Hayes' case, Giatras will receive the coveted quill presented to all lawyers who come before the U.S Supreme Court. "It's an honor," Giatras said. "For 99 percent of...

A Montana man was mauled and severely injured in a run-in with a grizzly bear in Yellowstone National Park's Hayden Valley Wednesday, park officials confirmed Wednesday evening. The man, in his late 50s, was apparently taking photographs of a female grizzly and her cub along Trout Creek when he was attacked, park spokesman Al Nash said. Despite “severe facial injuries,” he was able to walk two or three miles to the Grand Loop Road, where visitors found him and alerted rangers. The man, whose name and hometown were not released pending notification of relatives, was taken by ambulance to West...

The owner of the Green Bay-based web site that sold guns a gun to the Virginia Tech shooter and gun accessories to the Northern Illinois University gunman plans to visit Virginia Tech on Thursday. Eric Thompson owns TGSCOM, the company that sold a gun to Seung-Hui Cho last year. Cho killed 32 students and staff at Virginia Tech's campus. Thompson announced Wednesday students invited him to campus to talk about concealed-carry laws. "What I'm really hoping to do is just lend a voice. Unfortunately, a set of coincidences and circumstances, I've been in the media, and I think with that...

Justin Webb, BBC's North America editor, reports to UK listeners and readers on the "paradox" that America is less violent (and feels much safer) than Britain, where private hand gun ownership is banned.

The following commentary was written in response to a New York Times article entitled "Guns on Campus: Could They Prevent a Repeat?" by David Codrea. Republished with permission. Interesting take, Mr. Codrea. I have worked on college and university campuses most of my adult life - first as a student, now as a professor. I have grown quite accustomed to the idea of citizen concealed carry. I know that such policies (now the norm in 48 states) do not increase crime; in contrast, data suggests these allowances deter all but the most brazen (or stupid) criminals. Most importantly, I also...

The owner of an Internet-based firearms store that sold a gun to Virginia Tech shooter Seung-Hui Cho says he is now offering a discount for students who want to carry guns on campus to protect themselves. The company, TGSCOM Inc., also sold two 9mm Glock magazines to Steven Kazmierczak, who killed five people at Northern Illinois University earlier this year. The owner of TGSCOM, Eric Thompson, announced today that for the next two weeks he will sell firearms at cost in the hopes of targeting students who may be on a tight budget. Customers will have over 5,400 different kinds...

The victim of a robbery in Queens fatally shot one of the three intruders early Tuesday morning with a gun they left behind, police said. A man and his girlfriend were returning to their Middle Village apartment about 4:50 a.m. when they were confronted by three men, police said. According to the victim, the men forced the couple into the apartment, where they tied them up with plans to rob the place, cops said. Somehow, the victim was able to get loose and grab a gun one of the suspects had left unattended, he told police. He shot one of...

Please freep the poll that you find at the url listed. They are not getting much attention, and it is two to one against concealed carry.

Bob Owens of Confederate Yankee has another case of agenda-driven media coverage. This time, it's ABC's Brian Ross and a story they did about Mexican drug gangs getting a hold of American firearms at gun shows and other venues that are perfectly legal but that Ross and ABC see fit to "prove" what a bad thing the Second Amendment is: U.S. gun stores and gun shows are the source of more than 90 percent of the weapons being used by Mexico's ruthless drug cartels, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials. "It's a war going on in Mexico, and...

Recently on the popular internet site called YouTube, a person named Glazlad has been attacking users who post videos about hunting, fishing, and trapping. He has been trying to get them and their videos kicked off of the site. What people do when they don't like (or get offended by) a video of some sort is they do whats called "flagging" or report it to YouTube staff. YouTube comes in and sometimes take it down if nessesary. They also have a protocol as many believe that takes the "flagged" video down automatically. That has been Glazlad's aim for the past...

Hartford police officers recovered about 400 illegally acquired firearms last year. Those weapons didn't pop up out of thin air. People who owned or had access to legal firearms either lost them or sold them to convicted criminals, the mentally ill and other people who were unauthorized to own guns. Many violent urban crimes and college campus shootings could be prevented if Congress would pass laws to impose foolproof methods of stopping legal guns from getting into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, efforts to pass such laws are often thwarted by the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby on grounds that...

Obama board funded gun control efforts By: Kenneth P. Vogel April 19, 2008 05:38 PM EST Barack Obama’s presidential campaign has worked to assure uneasy gun owners that he believes the Constitution protects their rights and that he doesn’t want to take away their guns. But before he became a national political figure, he sat on the board of a Chicago-based foundation that doled out at least nine grants totaling nearly $2.7 million to groups that advocated the opposite positions. The foundation funded legal scholarship advancing the theory that the Second Amendment does not protect individual gun owners’ rights, as...

BUFFALO, Minn. -- Steve Remer chased burglars from his Buffalo, Minn home with a gun after finding his bedroom door tied shut and unfamiliar noises around the house. “It really makes you mad thinking that somebody came in like that while you were sleeping,” Remer said. Remer was startled out of his sleep by some strange creaking noises he thought were caused by the wind. When he tried to open his door, he found it had been tied shut. “I could see the rope there and thought, who the hell is playing this joke on me,” Remer said. Then, Remer...

Respect the Second Amendment: Millions of hunters own and use guns each year. Millions more participate in a variety of shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet, target and trap shooting that may not necessarily involve hunting. As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he greatly respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting. He also believes that the right is subject to...

Imagine an election race of Pat Robertson versus James Dobson, each of them appearing at organic grocery stores and Starbucks throughout Massachusetts, with each candidate insisting that he alone deserves the vote of gay-marriage advocates... --snip-- However, having the right to arms and the liberty to hunt is worthless if you can't buy a gun. In 1999, Mr. Obama urged enactment of a federal law prohibiting the operation of any gun store within five miles of a school or park. This would eliminate gun stores from almost the entire inhabited portion of the United States. As a state senate candidate...

WASHINGTON, April 16 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA) announced the endorsement of Senator Barack Obama on a national conference call this morning organized by the Obama for President campaign. AHSA President Ray Schoenke made the following statement in his endorsement of Senator Obama: ...As a gun rights organization we have not come to this decision lightly. We were formed two years ago because our research shows that millions of gun owners wanted a change. They not only wanted an organization that would protect their gun rights but an organization that was also committed to the protection...

Australian Gun Law Update After One Year Here's a thought to warm some of your hearts... From: Ed Chenel, A police officer in Australia ! Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Down Under. It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in: Australia-wide, homicides are up 6.2 percent, Australia-wide, assaults are up 9.6 percent ;...

The National Symposium on Handgun Violence was held at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, on April 9, 2008. Ten of the leading gun-control advocates in the nation were scheduled for a coordinated review of “reasonable” limits on the right to keep and bear arms, led by Jim Brady himself, along with David Hemenway of Harvard and a host of others. News of the event and its surprise ending (covered at the end of this report) has not made national headlines. A courageous decision was made to provide “balance,” which meant the organizers eventually found me (thanks to a referral from Alan...

Yuma police have identified the Yuma man shot Monday morning during a reported vehicle burglary. Robert Cuen, 23, of Yuma was shot once in the lower back after he allegedly attacked another man whose car Cuen allegedly was burglarizing in the 3200 block of Rome Street, police said in a news release. Police said the shooting occurred after Ian Laughlin, 23, was awakened around 5 a.m. by a noise outside his home on Rome Street. Laughlin said he went to investigate and confronted two men trying to burglarize his vehicle, police said. Laughlin told police he was armed with a...

Gun owners insist that they need to carry a concealed weapon that is handguns for self-protection from criminals. Now that is saying that it is not safe for anyone to walk/drive to work at anytime of the day or night without fear of being attacked, robbed, raped, murdered for money etc. I am told that you cannot make any enemies in the United States for fear of being shot. In addition, that the only way of preventing this is to carry with you, a handgun of one form or another. I am also told that a well arm society is...

A resolution supporting a person's right to "keep and bear arms" was approved by the Kankakee County Board, but not by a wide margin. The resolution, supplied by the Illinois State Rifle Association in retaliation of anti-gun legislation coming out of Cook County, passed the county board by a 14-9 vote on Tuesday. For some county board members, the rub lies in the fact that the resolution indirectly opposes a legislative bill that would ban the possession and sale of assault weapons, among other things. County board member Ann Bernard, the resolution's main opponent, also pointed out the resolution opposes...

City Council passed five gun control measures today that are expected to still face a legal challenges. Mayor Nutter has said he will sign the bills into law. The five bills limit handgun purchases to one a month; require lost or stolen firearms to be reported to police within 24 hours; forbid individuals under protection from abuse orders from possessing guns if ordered by the court; allow removal of firearms from "persons posing a risk of imminent personal injury" to themselves or others, as determined by a judge; and outlaw the possession and sale certain assault weapons. Council members Darrell...

The parents of a Somerset County man shot and killed when he knocked on the wrong door looking for a party have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the man who said he shot to defend himself. Jay and Carolyn Zimmerman of Central City, the parents of the late Perry Zimmerman, are seeking unspecified damages against Matthew Eperjesi, 29, formerly of Somerset, in connection with the April 8, 2006, shooting outside Eperjesi's former apartment.

Nutter defiantly signs five gun laws Council's measures appear to fly in the face of state law and legal precedent. The NRA says it will sue. By Jeff Shields Inquirer Staff Writer Mayor Nutter likened himself and City Council members yesterday to the band of rebels who formed this country as he signed five new gun-control laws that defy the state legislature and legal precedent. "Almost 232 years ago, a group of concerned Americans took matters in their own hands and did what they needed to do by declaring that the time had come for a change," Nutter said as...

Facing the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun on a dark West Baltimore street, Roland Scott fought back. He pulled out his own weapon - a fake handgun - and wrested the shotgun away from his attacker, city police said. Scott ordered the man to strip naked in the middle of Laurens Street, took $800 from him and forced him to march into the laundry room of a nearby apartment building. "He starts beating him, telling him to get more money, saying, 'Get me a cell phone .......

NEW PORT RICHEY - Bill Bunting expects more than 40 University of Central Florida students to attend his gun class Saturday. In addition to a shared interest in guns, Bunting, chairman of the Pasco County Republican Club's executive committee, agrees that college students in Florida should be able to carry concealed handguns on campus if they hold the proper permit. Under state law it is illegal to bring a firearm onto a school campus. The students in Bunting's class are members of UCF's Republican club; some also are members of the Knight Rifle Association, a group of students who educate...

HOUSTON -- A southeast Houston homeowner shot a burglary suspect Thursday afternoon after he was victimized twice in a week, officials told KPRC Local 2. Thomas Williamson lives in the 6000 block of Bois D'arc. He said he stayed home from work on Thursday after a burglar hit his home twice in a few days. Williamson said he looked out his window at about 1 p.m. and saw a man walk across his back yard. The man went into Williamson's garage and tried to steal an air compressor, worth about $400, he said.

Alleged gun smuggling leader arrested in TucsonBy: The Associated Press Updated at: 04/04/2008 02:16:41 PM PHOENIX (AP) - Arizona authorities have arrested a Tucson man accused of being the leader of a gun smuggling network that supplied a Mexican drug cartel with weapons. Authorities on Thursday announced the arrest of 23-year-old Victor Manuel Varela Jr., who is accused of supplying the Juarez cartel in Palomas, Mexico with rifles and guns. Tom Mangan, a spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, says Varela’s network illegally bought the firearms in Arizona, transported them to New Mexico and then took...

The political action committee of the National Rifle Association spent more than $73,000 this week on mailings in support of Michael Gableman's campaign for Supreme Court. Gableman is challenging incumbent Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler in Tuesday's election. According to documents filed with the Government Accountability Board, the NRA Political Victory Fund spent more than $14,000 on postcards and more than $59,000 on postage on March 27. Because the expenditure was made on March 27, the cost was not recorded on the most recent campaign finance reports filed with the GAB; the cutoff for those filings was March 17. Gableman...

Democrat Barack Obama on Tuesday insulted millions of legally-armed American citizens when he told a Pennsylvania newspaper that concealed carry poses a threat to innocent people, and he should immediately apologize for that remark, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. Senator Obama, quoted by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, admitted, "I am not in favor of concealed weapons. I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations." "American citizens have been responsibly carrying concealed handguns for years in 48 states," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, co-author of America...

Pa. House defeats lost-and-stolen gun bill By Amy Worden Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau HARRISBURG - The House yesterday rejected a measure aimed at curbing illegal handgun trafficking, the first substantive gun restriction considered by the full chamber in more than a decade. By a vote of 128-75 the House defeated an amendment - attached to a separate gun crime bill - that would have made it mandatory to report lost and stolen handguns. The amendment won overwhelming support from Philadelphia-area lawmakers, where polls show majority support for the reporting requirement. House Speaker Dennis O'Brien, a Republican, was the only representative from...

CARVER — Regarding the Scripps Howard column of March 24, 2008: “Is gun ownership really an individual right?” Ben Boychuck got it right in the column. The Second Amendment protects an individual right. Mind you, it does not give one a right. It protects a pre-existing, inherent right of self-defense. It is impossible to view it as anything else, given all other individual rights protection guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. To say the Second Amendment is some sort of group right is preposterous. Joel Mathis, on the other hand, made an interesting point bringing up O.W. Holmes’ observation that...

Ted Nugent's March 31st WMU RKBA Speech 2008/04/01 by MCRGO member Skip Coryell -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The below review was written by MCRGO member Skip Coryell after attending the Ted Nugent speech at Western Michigan University which was sponsored by the WMU Republicans. Skip was able to spend time backstage with Ted as well as with MCRGO Executive Director Chuck Perricone and MCRGO Board of Directors member, Sheriff Dar Leaf of Barry County. "Amen Brother! Preach it!" People were shouting, clapping, and raising their hands to the sky, some sitting in the pews, others standing, but if there had been decent aisles...

...Since the first court hearing about the lesser charges filed against Rodriguez, Kallas said he had felt victimized all over again. That's when he told authorities he would be contacting ABC15. About an hour after our arrival at John's home on Monday, he received a phone call from detectives, telling him the stricter charges were back in place and that Rodriguez would indeed be facing aggravated assault and burglary. ...

Palestinian attempting to stab people standing at hitchhikers' station near Shiloh shot to death by Israeli citizen; 7.5-inch knife found on terrorist's body Efrat Weiss Published: 03.31.08, 17:53 / Israel News An Israeli citizen shot dead a Palestinian man who attempted to stab people standing at a hitchhikers station near the West Bank settlement of Shiloh on Monday evening. The Magen David Adom emergency services, there were no Israeli casualties in the incident. A 20-centimeter (7.5-inch) knife was found on the terrorist's body, in addition to the knife he used to try and stab the citizens. An initial IDF inquiry...

HOUSTON -- A woman shot and killed an intruder and accidentally wounded her husband in a northeast Harris County home invasion, investigators told KPRC Local 2 Thursday. According to deputies, a couple found themselves staring down the barrel of a gun in their apartment in the Northshore Meadows complex in the 300 block of Audrey Lane shortly before midnight. A man had just broken into their apartment and was making demands. According to investigators, he wanted cash and drugs, and made the couple remove all their clothing. Then, gunshots rang out. However, the would-be robber wasn't the one squeezing the...

BELLEVUE, Wash., March 27 --The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today is calling for an independent investigation of an in-flight discharge of a pistol carried by an armed U.S. Airways pilot to prevent any whitewashing, cover-up or scapegoating in the incident. CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said the incident is alarming because of allegations that the pilot may have been following strict Transportation Security Administration (TSA) rules when the mishap occurred. Those rules came under fire today from the Airline Pilots Security Alliance (APSA), which represents thousands of commercial airline pilots. "We have a keen interest...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans have a right to own guns, U.S. Supreme Court justices declared in a historic and lively debate that could lead to the most significant interpretation of whether the U.S. Constitution guarantees that right since the document's ratification two centuries ago. On the other hand, a majority of justices seemed to agree, governments have a right to regulate those firearms. There was less apparent agreement on the case they were arguing: whether the national capital's ban on handguns goes too far. The justices dug deeply Tuesday into arguments about one of the Constitution's most hotly debated provisions...

Today, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of Heller v. District of Columbia, a suit brought by several D.C. citizens contending that the ban on the possession of operable firearms inside one's home violates the Second Amendment. The Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. agreed and held the ban to be unconstitutional. However it is decided, Heller is already historic. For the first time in recent memory, the Supreme Court will consider the original meaning of a significant passage of the Constitution unencumbered by its own prior decisions. The majority and dissenting opinions in this case...

Preparing to hear oral arguments Tuesday on the extent of gun rights guaranteed by the Constitution’s Second Amendment, the U.S. Supreme Court has before it a brief signed by Vice President Cheney opposing the Bush administration’s stance. Even more remarkably, Cheney is faithfully reflecting the views of President George W. Bush. The government position filed with the Supreme Court by U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement stunned gun advocates by opposing the breadth of an appellate court affirmation of individual ownership rights. The Justice Department, not the vice president, is out of order. But if Bush agrees with Cheney, why did...

Okay, dudes and dudettes... I need some help. I'm looking for an inside the waistband, tuckable holster for my Springfield XD SubCompact. I'd LIKE to buy the Tucker holster (pic below), but I don't want to wait 4 or 5 months. I know I've seen some other, similar holsters that have a shorter delivery time, but can't remember 'em or where I saw 'em. I'd rather have leather than the plastic-y stuff, so if you know of somewhere I can look and you've got some reviews of the holster, I would really, really, really appreciate your direction.I live on the...

Thousands of gun rights activists march on state hill Firearm owners from around Illinois rally against gun control legislation at the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, Ill., Tuesday, March 11, 2008, (AP Photo/Seth Perlman) Tuesday, March 11, 2008 8:16 PM CDT By Mike Riopell mike.riopell@lee.net SPRINGFIELD -- The issue of gun regulation excites thousands on either side of the debate, but lawmakers acknowledge political realities in Springfield mean changes in state gun laws could be tough to achieve this year. Tuesday brought thousands of activists to the Illinois State Capitol asking lawmakers to resist putting more restrictions on gun ownership....

POLL: How Do You Feel About Guns on College Campuses? Increase Safety More Trouble

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080310/NEWS/80310045 rules-link only----suspended for wearing shirt with gun on it.

CHEYENNE -- Gov. Dave Freudenthal on Friday signed into law a bill that prohibits government officials from confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens. Sponsor Allen Jaggi, R-Lyman, has said House Bill 57 was prompted by the confiscation of guns by police in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Freudenthal said afterward that he was pleased to sign the bill, although he didn't think it addressed any real problem. But Freudenthal, an avid hunter who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in his re-election campaign in 2006, said he can understand why supporters want the bill enacted here. "It's not understandable on...

The sordid details: In March of '07 my house in Homestead, FL was broken into by a thug gang-banger and a handgun was taken. I called Homestead PD and they came right out and filed a report. A Homestead detective followed up a week late to gather more info. I didn't figure to ever see the gun again, so I gave up on it. Late September I received a letter from the State Attorney's office requesting that I call in. They had arrested the thug up in Miami and needed to ask me some questions. I called and answered all...