Free Republic

The BDN’s recent series of stories on guns in Maine revealed, among other things, the chasm that lies between those who want to regulate gun ownership and use and those who believe gun ownership is as sacrosanct as the secret ballot and free speech. It’s unlikely the gap will be bridged in the near future, but both camps would do well to work at understanding that their extreme positions may undermine their goals. For the first 100 years of the nation’s history, the Constitution’s Second Amendment was generally understood as supporting the rights of states to keep militias. In 2008,...

While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president. In 2000 and 2001, while Barack Obama served as a board member for a Chicago-based charitable foundation, he helped to fund a pioneering carbon trading exchange that is likely to fill a critical role in the controversial cap-and-trade carbon reduction scheme that President Obama is now trying to push rapidly through Congress. During those two years, the Joyce Foundation gave nearly...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Before the Senate Judiciary Committee November 18th, 2009, Attorney General Eric Holder revealed a stunningly broad and aggressive anti-gun agenda. "The President of the United States asked that politicians not use the Ft. Hood attack to engage in 'political theater.' It appears those committed to attacking gun owners and the Second Amendment simply can't help themselves and are engaged in blaming guns and gun owners on the heels of this terrorist attack. Sadly it looks like 'politics as usual,'" said LEAA's spokesperson, Ted Deeds. After explaining and defending his decision to give enemy combatants constitutional...

Our interest in a single Supreme Court case has perhaps never been as high as it is in a case currently being briefed. The issues are fascinating on several levels, and the potential impact of a ruling is big. The case is McDonald v. City of Chicago, for which the court granted cert on Sept. 30. The petitioners in the case, a group challenging a gun-control ordinance in Chicago, filed their brief with the court earlier this week. Were the court to adopt their position — something well within the realm of possibility — we could be looking at a...

Englewood saw two homicides this week, bringing its 2009 murder toll to 17 victims. On Sunday, a 20-year-old man was found shot to death in the 500 block of West 58th Street, according to police information. The next day, a 21-year-old man was shot and killed about four blocks away. This year, Englewood has seen 16 shooting deaths and one fatal beating, a RedEye analysis of preliminary police data found. Fourteen of the 17 victims were male, 14 were under the age of 30 when they died and all victims were black, according to data from the Cook County Medical...

A new Violence Policy Center Press Release touts a claim that Concealed Handgun Permits lead to police killings and other murders. This Press Release claims that, “contrary to the false promises of the gun lobby the simple and deadly fact is that state concealed handgun systems are arming cop-killers, mass shooters, and other murderers." The VPC also says that Concealed handgun permit holders have killed 8 law enforcement officers and 77 private citizens over a 2 1/2 year period. That’s 85 people killed by CPL holders out of the hundreds of thousands of law abiding concealed handgun licensees in the...

The so called “Freedom States Alliance” (what an oxymoron) and other anti gun groups are trying to blame the gun, the bullets it fired, and the high capacity magazines that were in it for the murders of soldiers at Fort Hood. Perhaps they would have preferred an IED. Obviously, IEDs are illegal and banned in both Iraq, and Afghanistan, but they still seem to find a way to go off. Senator Richard Burr, accused the Bradys and Paul Helmke of using the killings to advance their own personal agendas. Here's FSA's Press Release: “...We would also like to encourage the...

Gun rights supporters are up in arms over a pair of moves the White House made last month to reverse longstanding U.S. policy and begin negotiating a gun control treaty with the United Nations.

30,000 seized guns were destroyed by the Venezuelan government last week. That's 5,370,000 to go. Visualize 30,000 guns picked up by a crane mounted electromagnet, and destroyed en masse by one of South America's tightest dictatorships. Some 30,000 guns were seized by police in 2009 so far. Venezuelan police used blow torches to chop up shotguns and pistols this week. Others were crushed into a five ton block, reminiscent of the way guns were destroyed in Australia. Police apparently did not get an artist to use destroyed guns to make a giant pretzel twisted barreled revolver statue like the one...

We all know gun control is coming soon. Looks like it will be here sooner then we thought. Two weeks ago, in another reversal of policy, the U.S. joined a nearly unanimous 153-1 U.N. vote to adopt a resolution setting out a timetable on the proposed Arms Trade Treaty. Clinton said in a statement. "The United States is prepared to work hard for a strong international standard in this area." VIDEO AT LINK

-- Vote could come as early as MondayHe has been called "extreme" by some. But to others, he's beyond extreme... he's a "Radical's Radical."  Whatever he is, he could become President Obama's next choice for the federal judiciary. This radical is Judge David Hamilton, and he's been nominated for a position on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Hamilton has made many political enemies on the right, seeing that his politics are to the far left of the political spectrum.  Oh yes, judges aren't supposed to be political, but this one has engaged in quite a bit of leftist activism....

Group also wants overhaul of Mexican border agencies A binational task force on U.S.-Mexico border issues will call Friday on the Obama administration and Congress to reinstate an expired ban on assault weapons and for Mexico to overhaul its frontier police and customs agencies to mirror the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The recommendations are among a broad set of security, trade, development and environmental proposals that come as President Obama and his Mexicans counterpart, Felipe Calderón, move to deepen engagement on issues including economic recovery, climate change, illegal immigration and narcotics trafficking. Robert C. Bonner, the U.S. co-chairman of...

In a complete reversal of decades old beliefs in Motown, where the City Council was once dead set against everyone, including the law abiding, carrying guns there, five Detroit City Council members will have Michigan Concealed Pistol Permits, when they take office in January, 2010. Gary Brown, Charles Pugh, Kwame (no relation to the ex mayor) Kenyatta. and James Tate each already have their Michigan Concealed Pistol Permits. It is reported that Reverend Andre Spivey wants to get one by Thanksgiving. He used to have concerns that legally permitted permit holders would turn Detroit into the Wild West. But, apparently,...

The American Humiliation Buried at Fort Hood It’s now been seven full days following Thursday November 5, 2009, when U.S. Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, using only unremarkable handguns, murdered 13 fellow American soldiers and civilians, and wounding 30-odd others, including combat veterans. Hasan — an American-born-and-bred Muslim who initiated his attack by jumping on a table and in Arabic shouting the Muslim affirmation “God is Great!� — continued to shoot unarmed soldiers and civilians unopposed by any armed military personnel, and was finally stopped only when — after ten-minutes — two civilian police officers with no previous combat experience...

On Wednesday the Obama administration took its first major step in a plan to ban all firearms in the United States. The Obama administration intends to force gun control and a complete ban on all weapons for US citizens through the signing of international treaties with foreign nations. By signing international treaties on gun control, the Obama administration can use the US State Department to bypass the normal legislative process in Congress. Once the US Government signs these international treaties, all US citizens will be subject to those gun laws created by foreign governments. These are laws that have been...

Back in late October, I wrote "Brady Campaign hypocrisy," chiding the Brady Campaign--specifially, their Vice President for Law and Policy, Dennis Henigan--for his accusation that the "gun lobby" tries to hide the truth. This accusation positively reeks of hypocrisy, on a couple levels. First, Henigan himself, in arguing on a video clip that the Second Amendment did nothing to protect the individual's right to keep and bear arms, recited the amendment in its entirety--except for the "of the people" part--the very part that poses the biggest problem for the now discredited "collective rights" interpretation of the Second Amendment. Second, when...

Well, so much for the "scrapping the long gun registry is an appalling slap in the face of Canadian public opinion" narrative. A Canadian Press/Harris Decima poll released today finds 46% of Canadians believe abolishing the long gun registry is a good idea, while 41% think it's a bad idea. Sub-populations amongst which more people would prefer to scrap the registry than keep it include NDP voters, Green Party voters, Ontarians, and women. Ouch! The populists-of-convenience who embraced/twisted the hell out of that three-year-old Ipsos poll showing two-thirds of us would prefer to have some kind of gun registration process...

The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.

Four and a half years ago, three police organizations in the United States issued advisories to warn officers that a new handgun introduced into the U.S. market by a Belgium manufacturer of military firearms represented a unique threat to the safety of police officers.  It was a handgun that was designed to fire bullets through body armor.  A U.S. Senator and a U.S. Congressman urged a legal ban on civilian possession of the firearm, which began being referred to as the "cop killer gun."  The gun, manufactured by FN Herstal of Belgium, is lightweight and easily concealable, and was designed...

Why is it that when a so-called liberal opens his mouth about the Ft. Hood massacre by a Muslim jihadist I know that I’m going to feel less safe? The corrupt mayor of Chicago (and presidential patron) blames the shooting of 41 soldiers — at the deployment center for the wars against Muslim jihadists in Afghanistan and Iraq — on the alleged fact that “America loves guns.”As if the traitor Hasan had not clearly and unequivocally renounced his American citizenship and declared war on his own country because it was not a Muslim state. As if there were not in...

At Fort Hood “more guns” assuredly were “the solution to gun violence.” Pfc. Marquest Smith dove under a desk. A.P. reports that “he lay low for several minutes, waiting for the shooter to run out of ammunition and wishing he, too, had a gun.” Neither Smith nor the other victims of Hasan’s assault had guns because soldiers on military bases within the United States generally are not

Clinton-Bush Gun Control Enabled Fort Hood Massacre A Clinton Administration revision to Department of Defense Directive 5210.56 — Army Regulation 190-14, dated 12 March 1993 — permits the Secretary of the Army to authorize military personnel to carry firearms “on a case by case basis� for personal protection within the continental United States, but forbids military personnel to carry their own personal firearms and both requires “a credible and specific threat� before firearms be issued for military personnel to protect themselves. It further directs that firearms “not be issued indiscriminately for that purpose.�Thus did President Bill Clinton — Commander-in-Chief of...

Acts of Orwellian feminismBy: Tom Oleson 7/11/2009 1:00 AM My elder daughter spent Thanksgiving weekend with her boyfriend visiting his parents at their farm northwest of Winnipeg. For a young woman who had never had any previous taste of life in rural Manitoba -- aside from a walk in the woods at Clear Lake one year -- it was eye-opening. For her, at the time, the emphasis was first on taste. At home on Thanksgiving she gets turkey, mashed potatoes, a vegetable, and, if she's been good, which is not often, a piece of pie with, perhaps, some ice cream....

An anti-gun group is using the shooting rampage Thursday at Fort Hood as an example in its campaign against pending gun rights legislation, drawing accusations of exploitation from a Republican senator. Republican Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina is lashing out against the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, accusing the group of exploiting the deadly rampage to oppose his gun lobby backed bill -- which seeks to protect veterans' rights to gun ownership. In a statement issued Thursday, the group's president, Paul Helmke, said in light of what happened yesterday - a violent attack by an emotionally unstable soldier...

On December 6, 1989, a madman entered a Montreal University, segregated men and women in a classroom, and shot 14 women with a Ruger Mini 14. As the 20th anniversary of the shooting nears, Canadian gun control groups are frantically fighting the demise of the Canadian Long Gun Registry. It is set for a preliminary vote in the House of Commons today. If approved, a second final vote will be needed. The Firearms Registry Act was passed in 1995. Gun owners were required to obtain a permit by 2001. All guns had to be registered by 2003. The cost of...

Both past Attornies General, along with the current Republican nominee for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, have all opposed banning private sales of guns at gun shows while supporting repeal of the Virginia ban on concealed carry in restaurants serving alcohol. But not Democratic AG nominee Steve Shannon – this Northern Virginia lawyer is sticking to his gun control. . . . But what irks gun rights organizers the most is Shannon’s lack of any articulable policy rationale for his positions. “Insisting that we need to fix something that doesn’t exist does not stir gun owners to support candidates” said Philip...

Local gun shop owners say they're seeing an increase in the number of women shoppers right now. The reasons, they say, are many, including the downturn in the economy and violence on the street. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, about 48 percent of people taking their first handgun seminars this year happen to be women. CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports on the growing trend. "It's very dangerous out there. I mean, there's people getting robbed here and there," said Josie Santiago. "It's just for protection."

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. --...

The CDC has been trying to get into the business of gun control for many years. The U.S. House cut off funds to the CDC for that almost 13 years ago after complaints that the CDC was trying to get support from the public for gun control and the appearance of joining hands with gun control groups... The House believed then that the CDC should spend more time on preventing and controlling serious legitimate health issues such as infectious disease. Their mandate may be changing on their own initiative. What actually is infectious now is the public's fast and furious...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. The...

A majority of gun owners think President Obama wants to ban gun sales. A new Gallup poll shows 55 percent of those who own a gun, 53 percent who have a gun in the household, and 41 percent of all Americans believe he will attempt to ban the sale of guns while he is president. This concern is greater among Republicans and people living in the South and Midwest than among Democrats or those living on either coast. It also helps explain the sharp increases in sales of guns and ammunition. There are reports that U.S. bullet-makers are working around...

During my second term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, I received a call from then Speaker Thomas McGee to meet with him regarding legislative matters. He got to the point quickly. "There is a State House Library Board of Trustees comprised of members from various learning institutions and prestigious libraries. Members include the secretary of state or his designee, governor or his designee, director of JFK Library, state librarian and Haverhill library director and other archivists. Two of the seats on that board have been assigned to the Speaker and the Senate President or their designees. I have noticed...

For a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been forbidden by Congress from doing research on gun-control issues. Such piddling hurdles as federal law don't matter to the Obama administration. With a wave of a hand, the CDC has simply redefined gun-control research so the ban no longer applies. They're not researching guns; they're researching alcohol sales and their impact on gun violence, or researching how teens carrying guns affect the rates of non-gun injuries. "These particular grants do not address gun control; rather they deal with the surrounding web of circumstances," wrote National Institutes of Health...

Sales of guns and ammunition soared when Barack Obama became president because of fears that he and the Democratic-controlled Congress would pass anti-gun legislation, and that concern still shows up in a Gallup poll conducted Oct. 1-4. Forty-one percent of Americans believe Obama will try to ban the sale of guns while in office, according to the poll. While Gallup put the question in the framework of a ban on all guns, it notes that "Obama has never said, either on the campaign trail or after taking office, that he intends to push for a ban on the sale of...

As the U.S. Supreme Court makes its stately way into the new term, a case over the horizon promises to hit the 20,000 gun control laws in this country with the impact of a 9mm round. The prep work came last year in District of Columbia vs. Heller. A narrow 5-4 majority struck down the gun control law in the nation's capital, and for the moment settled an argument over just what the Second Amendment to the Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, actually means. The Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of...

As noted in “British gun control: Coming soon to a country near you? ” seven countries, led by the United Kingdom, are attempting to revive U.N. efforts to restrict imports and exports of small arms. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the United States would reverse Bush administration opposition to international small arms control, potentially paving the way for the British-led effort, which calls for a vote by the U.N. General Assembly by year’s end. The U.S. would support the “Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty” as long as it was conducted under rules of “consensus decision-making,” interpreted...

So, how did YOU shoot today? Getting ready for when TSHTF (The Sh!t hits the fan) and had another great time. I took my friend Ray with me, he's the one with all the hair and we popped off an even 600!! rounds of 9mm personal protection. My focus today was to work on target acquisition and then trying to squeeze off five controlled shots fairly quickly. See pics below to see the best two sets. Then, I worked on strong hand/strong eye, see the black target for one of those sets. Felt REAL good to put holes in that...

Thank Obama (lyrics) If you can't find a job Thank Obama If you can't pay the rent Thank Obama If you have to ‘poligize for the good ole USA Don't thank Bush, or Dick Cheney, Thank Obama If you're fraid of getting nuked Thank Obama If you can't afford to drive Thank Obama If they take away your guns And make you watch Karl Marx re-runs Don't thank Bush, or Dick Cheney Thank Obama Obama wants to dictate what you put in your belly Obama wants to tell you what to see on your telly He wants to be your...

Its been predicted for a long time that if anti- gun groups can't get your guns, then they will go after your ammunition. Governor Arnold Swartzenegger has done exactly that in signing a new law regulating ammunition sales. The ostensible goal is to track the bullets used in crimes. Criminals will find another way to get their bullets. It will be where they get their guns...on the street. This is another gun law that will only affect the honest individual. The Governor said just the week before that he would veto the new ammunition law, thus preventing organized opposition to...

USA TODAY IS TAKING A POLL ON 2ND AMENDMENT - GUN CONTROL Obama's new Attorney General, Eric Holder, has already said this is one of his major issues. This takes literally 2 clicks to complete. Please vote on this gun issue question with USA Today. It will only take a few seconds of your time. Then pass the link on to all the interested friends you know. Hopefully these results will be published later this month. This upcoming year will become critical for gun owners with the Supreme Court accepting the District of Columbia case against the right for individuals...

Sacramento, CA – Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law legislation that will help law enforcement officials track down and apprehend armed criminals and other prohibited persons. AB 962 by Assembly Member Kevin DeLeon (D-Los Angeles) had the support of law enforcement officials from across the state and was modeled after successful city ordinances, including the cities of Sacramento and Los Angeles. AB 962 was the Brady Campaign´s top priority bill in this year´s legislature. The law requires maintenance of purchaser records by handgun ammunition vendors. Local law enforcement can use these records to find illegal guns. "The purchase records will...

Forty-four percent favor stricter laws on firearm sales PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup finds a new low of 44% of Americans saying the laws covering firearm sales should be made more strict. That is down 5 points in the last year and 34 points from the high of 78% recorded the first time the question was asked, in 1990.Today, Americans are as likely to say the laws governing gun sales should be kept as they are now (43%) as to say they should be made more strict. Until this year, Gallup had always found a significantly higher percentage advocating stricter laws....

Meleanie Hain, the pistol-carrying Lebanon mom who received national attention for taking a loaded gun to her daughter’s soccer game, was shot to death Wednesday night with her husband in an apparent murder-suicide, police said. Hain, 31, and her husband, Scott, 33, were pronounced dead by Lebanon County Coroner Dr. Jeffrey Yocum shortly after 8:30 p.m. at their home at Second Avenue and East Grant Street, police said. more at http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/10/gun-toting_soccer_mom_is_shot.html

Michael Bloomberg hired undercover investigators who traveled to 7 gun shows in Tennessee, Ohio, and Nevada to secretly videotape firearm purchases. Bloomberg says that the sales were illegal. These investigators had audio recorders in their watches and video cameras in their caps. They would negotiate a gun purchase and tell the seller that they likely couldn't pass the instant check. The guns were sold anyway in 19 of 30 purchase attempts. 11 sellers knew the current state of the law. He also complains that these states have not closed the "Gun Show Loophole." Occasional gun sellers can sell guns. Even...

Gun Control: The Supreme Court agrees to decide if the Second Amendment applies to all of us, or just Washington, D.C. Why would the Founders put in the Bill of Rights something applying only to a federal enclave? In a 5-4 decision last year written by Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court overturned a draconian District of Columbia gun ban enacted 32 years ago that barred private ownership of handguns at all. Scalia wrote that an individual's right to bear arms is supported by "the historical narrative" both before and after the Second Amendment was adopted. The court ruled that...

In a first-of its-kind study, epidemiologists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that, on average, guns did not protect those who possessed them from being shot in an assault. ~snip~ “This study helps resolve the long-standing debate about whether guns are protective or perilous,” notes study author Charles C. Branas, PhD, Associate Professor of Epidemiology. “Will possessing a firearm always safeguard against harm or will it promote a false sense of security?” What Penn researchers found was alarming – almost five Philadelphians were shot every day over the course of the study and about 1 of these...

Charles Babington of the Associated Press reported yesterday about the Senate Democratic leadership's latest sleazy maneuver to pass the anti-gun health care bill. And this is contemptible even by their admittedly low standards: White House and Democratic officials are quietly talking with key senators, hoping to craft a thread-the-needle strategy on health care with little or no help from Republicans. The officials are asking a handful of moderate Democrats to do something that might be hard to explain to voters: Cast a Senate vote that could be interpreted as favoring a bill that the lawmakers ultimately plan to oppose on...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to decide whether strict local and state gun control laws violate the Second Amendment, ensuring another high-profile battle over the rights of gun owners. The court said it will review a lower court ruling that upheld a handgun ban in Chicago. Gun rights supporters challenged gun laws in Chicago and some suburbs immediately following the high court's decision in June 2008 that struck down a handgun ban in the District of Columbia, a federal enclave. The new case tests whether last year's ruling applies as well to local and state laws. The 7th...

Sometimes the National Rifle Association needs to know when it’s time to lighten up. It pains us to say that, because the NRA has fought hard to keep the state and federal governments from denying responsible, law-abiding Americans from possessing and enjoying guns. But the organization jerked the trigger recently when it targeted Easthampton Mayor Michael A. Tautznik and other Western Massachusetts mayors because they had the temerity to join Mayors Against Illegal Guns, a national organization that works to deny irresponsible and criminal citizens from getting their hands on guns. It would take the logical skills of Aristotle to...

The UN General Assembly has been in session, and if typical of them, nasty things are probably in store for American gun owners as a result. The Citizen's Committee For The Right To Keep and Bear Arms (CCKRBA), in a recent mailing, said that The UN is still actively pursuing the guns you own, and the ones you want to buy. Don't count out associated non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as The International Network On Small Arms (IANSA.) IANSA's Rebecca Peters was largely responsible for the disarming of Australians and the associated increase in violent crimes there as a result of...