Free Republic

Violent crime has doubled since Labour came to power a decade ago. Stabbings and assault in Britain are now common, if not daily occurrences; at night city centers are generally regarded as no-go areas; “feral” youths and gangs loitering the streets – often drunk on cheap alcohol – make many people too afraid to go for a walk on a summer evening. Every week yields up plenty of reasons why people have good reason to be scared in modern Britain. On Saturday evening 60-year old Stan Dixon, a former soldier, was attacked by youths, for asking them not to swear...

“Obama’s alleged support of the Second Amendment is utterly cynical and false.”April 13th, 2008 by Bruno Behrend So says the NRA, and they are 100% correct. The above headline is from one of their recent blast e-mails, and I must say that I endorse their view in this situation. _____ To understand Barack Obama on the Second Amendment, you have to know about the clash of character between the then-Chicago state senator and an ordinary citizen who exercised his right to armed self-defense in violation of a local gun ban. That citizen was a 52-year-old resident of Wilmette, Illinois, who,...

The Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision upholding the right of the people to keep and bear arms, even in the District of Columbia, has made liberals across the country squeal even louder than they did when the Soviet Union collapsed. The case originated with a “Special Police Officer” named Dick Heller, who carries a handgun as part of his duties, when he requested a permit to store his firearm in his Washington D.C. residence for self-protection. The city denied Heller the permit. He sued, and the District Court ruled against him. But his appeal was granted by the D.C. Court of...

No, we don't suppose that's going to happen any time soon. But it should. The 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is evidence that, while the founding fathers were brilliant men, they could have used an editor. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. If the founders had limited themselves to the final 14 words, the amendment would have been an unambiguous declaration of the right to possess firearms. But they didn't, and it isn't. The amendment was intended to...

This year, about 12,000 Americans will be shot to death. It's a staggering figure, and even though lawmakers have continued to pass gun-control laws to try to bring the number down, they have not significantly reduced the murder rate. Indeed, for the last decade, guns have steadily remained the cause of about two-thirds of all homicides. Gun manufacturers insist that these deaths are not their fault, preferring to pin the blame on criminals and irresponsible dealers. They have fiercely resisted even minimal restrictions on sales and have simultaneously washed their hands of responsibility for this "collateral damage." On Thursday, the...

Everyone who has a TV, a computer, a newspaper, or a radio, knows that the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Heller case on Thursday, ruling that the Second Amendment provides a personal right to "keep and bear arms." Therefore it struck down the District of Columbia law that has banned citizens from owning new handguns after 1976. But the case is much more important than that. Cases concern more than just the parties involved. The Heller decision will affect the rights of millions of Americans to protect themselves, their families, and their homes. But the “why” of...

Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year — on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly with its wrongheaded and dangerous ruling striking down key parts of the District of Columbia’s gun-control law. In a radical break from 70 years of Supreme Court precedent, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, declared that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a “militia.” The ruling will...

Actually, Obama's writing was on the 1996 document, which was filed when Obama was running for the Illinois state Senate. A Chicago nonprofit, Independent Voters of Illinois, had this question, and Obama took hard line: 35. Do you support state legislation to: a. ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns? Yes. b. ban assault weapons? Yes. c. mandatory waiting periods and background checks? Yes. Q: You said recently, "I have no intention of taking away folks' guns." But you support the D.C. handgun ban, and you've said that it's constitutional. How do you reconcile those two positions? A: Because...

Here is Barack Obama's reaction today to the Supreme Court decision which struck down the D.C. Gun Ban and upheld 2nd Amendment Rights. Obama's statement is clearly politically calculated to minimize his being on the wrong side of this issue. Obama claims to have "consistently" supported the 2nd Amendment as an individual right . . . (see video) But listen to what Obama was saying just this past February about the D.C. Gun Ban . . . (see video)

There's one group of District residents absolutely unfazed by today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling shooting down the District's strict handgun ban: the dudes who have been blowing away their fellow citizens with abandon since the law was put on the books 32 years ago. Operating under the notion that it's better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission, our shooters long ago decided not to wait for the high court's thoughts on the matter. They simply arrogated to themselves the right to keep and bear arms and, with that right, license to shoot and kill, with impunity, whatever and whenever...

Gun-control advocates across the country reacted with shock and outrage at the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns today, saying the ruling would threaten gun-control measures in other states. If there was any doubt that other bans would be in peril, the National Rifle Association quickly put those questions to rest when it announced shortly after the ruling that it would file a flurry of lawsuits challenging restrictions in San Francisco, Chicago and several Chicago suburbs. The law in Washington, which spelled out rules for the storage of weapons and made it extremely...

Statement Of Brady President Paul Helmke On Supreme Court Second Amendment Ruling Washington, D.C. - Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, issued the following statement: “Our fight to enact sensible gun laws will be undiminished by the Supreme Court’s decision in the Heller case. While we disagree with the Supreme Court’s ruling, which strips the citizens of the District of Columbia of a law they strongly support, the decision clearly suggests that other gun laws are entirely consistent with the Constitution. “For years, the gun lobby has used fear of government gun...

In an eagerly anticipated and strongly worded decision, Justice Antonin Scalia this morning led the Supreme Court to discover and define the Second Amendment as a guarantee of an individual's right to own firearms. In a stunning but narrow 5-4 rebuke to liberal dogma of the past 30 years, where penumbras carried more weight than words, SCOTUS has confirmed what is known as the standard view of the amendment, that it means what it says. While the decision does not automatically expand Second Amendment protections and prohibitions to affect state laws, it will immediately change the terms by which those...

Banning handguns is all the rage. Mayor David Miller's push for a national ban has been joined by other Canadian big-city mayors. Yet, dissatisfied with progress at the national level, Miller successfully asked city council this week to approve measures to further discourage gun ownership in Toronto, such as shutting down city-owned gun ranges. While it may seem obvious to many people that banning handguns will save lives and cut crime, the experience in the United States suggests differently. Two major U. S. cities -- Washington, D.C., and Chicago --have tried banning handguns. (The U. S. Supreme Court is soon...

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on whether Washington, D.C.'s decades-old handgun ban is constitutional. It's been nearly 70 years since the high court has heard a firearms case that tests the scope of the Second Amendment. The outcome of this one, D.C. v. Heller, will have extraordinary implications —- not just for the District, but for the ability of cities to respond effectively to gun violence. If more evidence is needed that the stakes could not be higher, a steady drumbeat of headlines is supplying it. In the first few days of March alone, just before the justices...

A decision in Heller vs. The District, the landmark Second Amendment case before the Supreme Court, will be announced tomorrow. RELATED LINKS: Heller Will Win Big In June. How Big?

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper will consider tougher gun laws and adjusted nightclub operating hours after a child was shot in the Curtis Park neighborhood and a gunfight erupted in Lower Downtown over the weekend. The shootings have alarmed community members who fear a "summer of violence," he said. "Let me be clear: This community will not accept violence — not a day of it, not a week of it, not a month of it — and certainly not a summer of it," the mayor said Monday. Hickenlooper will look at Denver's gun laws to ensure they are as effective as...

Just a theory, but so tantalizing that it warrants a post all its own....

The conventional punditry on McCain's call to end the ban on offshore oil exploration has focused on whether President Bush's suppport for the idea will hurt McCain in the fall. But that could change, and soon, if what's happened in just the past few days develops into a real trend: Sen. Jim Webb announced he now supports exploration off the coast of Virginia. Ex-Gov. Mark Warner also supports opening up the Virginia coastline to possible drilling. Meanwhile, the latest Gallup survey shows Democrats are split on offshore drilling, with 39% in support while 59% still oppose. Better yet, it's an...

<p>WASHINGTON — More than 30,000 firearms are unaccounted for in gun dealers’ inventories nationwide, according to a new study by a gun control group.</p> <p>Further, the group, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, says its finding most likely undercounts the missing firearms, since the data used, from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, are drawn from the compliance inspections that were conducted at gun dealerships in the 2007 fiscal year. Just 10,000 dealers were inspected, one-sixth of the nation’s total.</p>

While waiting for the Supreme Court's decision in the Heller case to come down, check out this article by a gun control lawyer, who used to work for Brady Center against Handguns, saying "gun free" zones like in D.C. or at Virginia Tech aren't successful.

The weapons were banned in 1994 but that ban expired in 2004. Monday, Kirk joined local law enforcement leaders to push for new legislation that would get assault weapons off the streets. Kirk says, without the ban, even police officers in full body armor are in danger. "They can feel somewhat protected from a normal pistol, but against weapons like these body armor offers no significant protection for a police officer," said Rep. Mark Kirk, (R) Illinois. The proposed legislation would make it illegal to manufacture, transfer or possess semi-automatic assault weapons and ammunition. Opponents say the law will not...

An Illustrated Guide to Obama’s Gun-Grabbing The Democratic nominee wants to take away your guns — specifically, these guns. June 15, 2008 - by Bob Owens Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has come under fire in recent days for anti-Semitic comments posted at my.barackobama.com, a portion of the first-term senator’s website where almost anyone can create a user account and post their own content. Once the offending content was flagged by bloggers, it came down. Obama defenders point out that the offensive comments were not posted by the campaign, which is undoubtedly true. As Andrew Romano notes at Newsweek’s Stumper,...

Brady Center review used ATF data, but agency disputes conclusion. Georgia gun stores supplied more guns that were later recovered at crimes in other places than any other state in the nation, according to a Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence review of 2007 federal data. As a source for guns, Georgia outranked much more populous states such as Florida, which was second, and Texas, which was third. According to the Brady Center, federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives data showed 2,631 crime guns recovered in other states were traced to Georgia stores. Georgia, as in virtually every...

Acknowledging that public opinion is against them and that a loss in the Supreme Court of the United States is likely eminent, gun control groups are regrouping and preparing to try new tactics to accomplish their unpopular goals. "We've lost the battle on what the Second Amendment means," campaign president Paul Helmke told ABC News. "Seventy-five percent of the public thinks it's an individual right. Why are we arguing a theory anymore? We are concerned about what we can do practically." He later went on to say, "We're expecting D.C. to lose the case, but this could be good...

Local background checks are more effective at reducing suicides and homicides than federal checks. There's nothing simple about gun control, a tangle of legal, political and public-health issues complicated by cultural preferences and regional biases. Passions run high on all sides. Lifelong hunters who grew up with firearms, urban victims of gun violence, Second Amendment scholars, NRA lobbyists, chiefs of police—they've all got cases to make and they make them well, often contentiously. For the past 15 years, much of the debate has centered on the effectiveness of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, the federal gun-control bill that was...

Rev. Michael Pfleger still on forced hiatus after mocking Clinton With Rev. Michael Pfleger on a compulsory hiatus, St. Sabina Catholic Church parishioners carried on their beleaguered leader's fiery brand of activism at a gun-control demonstration Thursday in the wake of the death of the 26th Chicago Public Schools student killed this school year. St. Sabina has organized a protest at the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago for each of the previous six slain Chicago Public Schools students, and Pfleger attended all of them. But the demonstration Thursday for 16-year-old Ignacio Montano, who was gunned down Monday, went...

Letter to the Editor: It's about time we get real about gun control in our cities. If we can have sobriety checkpoints and now motorcycle checkpoints, why don't we have cops creating gun checkpoints? Have them create checkpoints in the city where the gun violence is running rampant. Give the cops metal detectors and make people stop and get checked for guns. They are illegal and they are a lot worse than drunken drivers, and motorcyclists without the correct credentials. Let's get real here and start doing something about all these guns on our streets. If it's legal to stop...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   On the Second Amendment, Don’t Believe Obama!   Friday, June 06, 2008   On the Second Amendment,Don’t Believe Obama! The presidential primary season is finally over, and it is now time for gun owners to take a careful look at just where apparent nominee Barack Obama stands on issues related to the Second Amendment. During the primaries, Obama tried to hide behind vague statements of support for “sportsmen” or unfounded claims of general support for the right to keep and bear arms. Print PDF version But his real record, based on...

SEATTLE -- Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has signed an executive order that asks all departments to come up with a plan within 30 days to ban guns at all property owned by the city.

During one week in March of this year, 13 homicides took place in Washington, D.C. On a per capita basis that was higher than most weeks in Baghdad. Chicago was not far behind, as they witnessed a crime spree that left 12 Chicago citizens shot dead in a six-day period in April. Blame was quickly placed on gun owners with Chicago School Superintendent Arne Duncan leading the way, commenting the murders resulted from ...

TOKYO - A man who police said "was tired of life" drove into a crowd of pedestrians Sunday and then went on a stabbing rampage in Tokyo's top electronics and video game district, killing seven people and wounding 10, authorities said. The deadly lunchtime assault paralyzed the Akihabara neighborhood, which is wildly popular among the country's youth. The killings were the latest in a series of grisly knife attacks that have stoked fears of rising crime in Japan. A 25-year-old man, Tomohiro Kato, was apprehended in the attack, authorities said. "The suspect told police that he came to Akihabara to...

The presidential primary season is finally over, and it is now time for gun owners to take a careful look at just where apparent nominee Barack Obama stands on issues related to the Second Amendment. During the primaries, Obama tried to hide behind vague statements of support for “sportsmen” or unfounded claims of general support for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. But his real record, based on votes taken, political associations, and long standing positions, shows that Barack Obama is a serious threat to Second Amendment liberties. Don’t listen to his campaign rhetoric! Look instead to what he...

Like a plague, murder by knife has taken London by storm. Gang members have said that killing someone is like a status symbol. It's in fashion. Taking little to no provocation this so called fashion of knife murders gives no warning.

PROVO, UTAH -- For years, Kevin Jensen carried a pistol everywhere he went, tucked in a shoulder holster beneath his clothes. In hot weather the holster was almost unbearable. Pressed against Jensen's skin, the firearm was heavy and uncomfortable. Hiding the weapon made him feel like a criminal. Then one evening he stumbled across a site that urged gun owners to do something revolutionary: Carry your gun openly for the world to see as you go about your business. .....

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels wants to review city rules regulating firearms on city-owned property, try to tighten those rules, and continue pushing for state legislation to strengthen gun laws,

After being assailed by the police officer whose satiric videos earned him and nearly two dozen others suspensions in 2005, San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong acknowledged that she has gone years without taking the target practice required for officers who carry guns. The head of the city's Police Commission said today that the panel was likely to take disciplinary action against Fong, which could range from a letter of reprimand to something more severe. Department rules require all police officers who carry guns to pass shooting range tests every six months. Fong said in a statement this week that...

A Philadelphia judge today sided with the National Rifle Association and struck down city ordinances banning assault weapons and limiting handgun purchases to one a month. In a blow to the city's attempt to write its own gun laws, Common Pleas Court Judge Jane Cutler-Greenspan ruled that Philadelphia should be permanently prevented from enforcing the laws that the City Council passed unanimously in April. But Greenspan gave city officials a consolation prize by declining to strike down three other laws on procedural grounds, indicating that the NRA and other plaintiffs did not have legal standing to challenge those laws. Lawyers...

Do guns kill people or do people kill people? This is the question that will be kicked around Queen's Park for the next few weeks as the provincial government debates a Private Member's Bill, introduced by Oakville MPP Kevin Flynn, which would attempt to make firearm manufacturers and importers more responsible for the actions of their products. If passed, the Handgun Manufacturers' and Importers' Liability Act 2008 proposed by Flynn would allow the victims of handgun shootings, or their families, to bring legal action against the handgun's manufacturer or importer in cases where negligence could be proven on their part....

Updated: May 30, 2008 06:44 PM EDT Reporting from KTVQ in Billings Chelsea Clinton told supporters in Billings that the country needs to do more with gun control laws, during the final visit on her two day tour campaigning on her mother's behalf in the Magic City. During a question and answer session before seniors and other supporters at the Yellowstone County Council on Aging Office Friday morning, Chelsea said, "We also need to do more with gun control. And my mom supports- naturally what she supported in New York. Which is: we have different gun control laws in New...

Registry not appropriate for all states. Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton told Montana reporters Friday that she no longer favors national handgun registration and licensing, even as she supports such measures in her adopted state of New York. "What I came out for was the New York law," the U.S. senator said in a noon conference call Friday. "I don't think there is any contradiction between defending Second Amendment rights and trying to keep guns out of the hands of" criminals and the mentally ill. In 2000, as she was beginning her campaign for senator from New York, Clinton...

Lawmakers who favor gun control are not optimistic about next year even though Democrats may be running Congress and the White House. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), the sponsor of legislation that would reinstate the expired federal assault weapons ban, dismissed the idea that her bill might pass in the 111th Congress. “It’s a pro-gun House, a pro-gun Senate and [Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.)] won’t want to deal with it,” McCarthy said. McCarthy stressed that she is not giving up on reauthorizing the weapons ban that sunsetted in 2004, but also made clear she is...

“Killing an Unarmed Man.” That is how the front-page headline in the New York Times characterized an incident in which a man tried to run over a policeman with his car and was shot by three policemen on the scene, including his intended victim. An automobile is a deadly weapon. If you are killed by an automobile, you are just as dead as if you had been shot through the heart. A phrase like “an unarmed man” makes a talking point— as if matters of life and death should be discussed in terms of how you can spin a talking...

The state's largest gun control group, CeaseFirePA, is getting a $350,000 grant to strengthen its advocacy efforts statewide. The Chicago-based Joyce Foundation is granting the organization the money over two years to aid its bid to build a statewide, grass-roots response to gun violence, CeaseFirePA's executive director Joe Grace said...

Every time there's a highly publicized shooting, out go the cries for stricter gun control laws, and it was no different with the recent murder of Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski. Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, in a letter to the state congressional delegation demanding re-enactment of the federal assault weapon ban, said: "Passing this legislation will go a long way to protecting those who put their lives on the line every day for us. ... There is no excuse to do otherwise." Gun control laws will not protect us from murderers. We need protection from...

A teenager has been found guilty of killing a care assistant who was caught in crossfire during a shoot-out. Magda Pniewska, 26, was shot in the head in New Cross, south London, in October last year. She was talking on her mobile to her family in Poland when she was shot. Her sister told the Old Bailey she heard Ms Pniewska's last breath down the phone. Armel Gnango, 17, was found guilty of murder, attempted murder and possessing a gun to endanger life. The court was told it was not Gnango's weapon which fired the fatal bullet but he was...

When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg stood at City Hall two years ago to announce that he had just filed suit against several gun shop owners, mainly in the South, it was in a certain fashion the capstone of a signature campaign. Mr. Bloomberg had already bashed the industry in several angry speeches, gone to Washington to pressure congressmen and lobbyists, and made his war against illegal guns a personal crusade. Now, however, Mr. Bloomberg is likely to answer verbally — and literally in person — for his personal crusade. City officials said on Wednesday that he was virtually certain to...

Leo McKinstry says the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history When I visited the National Archives at Kew last week the place was full of them, scurrying about with their plastic wallets in hand, a look of eager concentration on their faces. It was impossible to escape their busy presence as they whispered noisily to relatives or whooped over the discovery of some new piece of information. These were the followers of one of Britain’s fastest-growing craze, the mania for researching family history. Studying bloodlines...

About 90 percent of the people shot in the city last year were African-American. While figures are unavailable, it is assumed by most that close to 100 percent of the perpetrators of these shootings were African-American. Almost all the firearms used in these shootings were obtained, possessed and carried illegally by those who perpetrated the shootings. If, as is constantly claimed, we MUST DO SOMETHING to stop this violence, then why not ban African-American residents of the city from owning handguns? The answer is that that is patently unfair and discriminatory. To judge an entire group as a problem and...