Free Republic

Across the country, laws that pertain to the use of deadly force have come under scrutiny in the wake of the George Zimmerman trial, but not all the laws are the same. That is why Indiana’s law likely won’t be changing any time soon. Indiana does have legislation in the Indiana Code that would be considered “Stand Your Ground.” It means that a person in Indiana does not have a “duty to retreat” and is allowed to use deadly force in certain scenarios. Indiana’s legislation is different than Florida’s in a few key areas, but it also shares a lot...

After nearly two decades of continual victories in state legislatures, gun-rights proponents have suddenly hit some turbulence. Despite paralysis on the issue in Washington, mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado, Sandy Hook, Connecticut, and elsewhere have led five states to tighten their gun laws. Four of those states are liberal bastions, but the fifth is the formerly red state of Colorado, home of not only Aurora but also the Columbine massacre. Unsurprisingly, the Centennial State is also where the gun lobby is looking to make a statement in return – with recalls set to take place September 10 against two state...

NYPD states that after reviewing its reports on Officers death involving shootouts. NYPD clearly understands sight shooting isn't required in close quarter shooting. In other words, all you have to do is instinctively point and shoot and you'll hit your target at 10 feet or less. So why did it take NYPD so long to figure this out? Were they just waiting to tally up the scores between cop vs bad guy before they make a decision to make the change. Money was being spent x amount of dollars per year on useless gun program that are suppose to be...

Artist Sabine Pearlman headed to Switzerland in 2012 on a unique mission. She was there to photograph 900 cross-sections of ammunition in order to expose the "otherwise invisible architecture" of some of the most destructive weaponry ever created. But in doing so, Pearlman made a conscious choice to not provide her audience with details about specifics: things like the names or purposes of the bullets themselves. "I wanted to keep them out of context, in order to make it possible for people who look at the images to appreciate them for many different reasons," she said....

Kahr Firearms Group announced Wednesday that it will relocate its corporate offices from New York to Pennsylvania, and blames New York’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act as reason why. “We’re looking for a more friendly environment for our business,” Frank Harris, Kahr’s vice president for sales and marketing, told the Associated Press. “Maybe we could have stayed here and built a plant, but the way the bill was passed left us feeling there were a lot of uncertainties going forward.” Kahr is the first gun company to announce that it will move out of New York. It’s relocating its...

Anti-gun politicians continue to promote falsified statistics that suggest we’re progressing towards a gun free country. You’ve probably seen the NRA’s map that shows every state’s concealed carry policy, but check out below how much we’ve gained over the last couple of decades. Isn’t that green a pretty sight to see? Here we are in 2013 during the “height” of firearm banning and yet only a handful of Northeast states (plus California and D.C.) have restrictions on concealed carry. It just reinforces the lesson that you can’t trust everything these legislators/reporters tell you about public opinion. Obviously our country still...

A controversial gun policy at an apartment complex for seniors has been thrown out after a 9Wants to Know report. The Douglas County Housing Partnership, a multi-jurisdictional housing authority, held an emergency board of directors meeting late Wednesday afternoon. Board members decided that the policy, which would have prohibited residents from having firearms in their homes, will not go into effect. Read the article: KUSA-TV

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Police can keep nearly 50 guns they seized from a man after he was found watching a Bloomington bar where an Indiana University student partied the night she went missing more than a year earlier, a state court ruled Tuesday. The 2-1 ruling by the Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a local judge's ruling allowing Bloomington police to keep 48 weapons they confiscated from Robert Redington's Indianapolis home in August 2012, including more than a dozen tucked under the sheets and pillows of his bed.

The editor of the New York newspaper that created a furor by publishing the names and addresses of gun-permit owners suddenly is out of a job. According to the Rockland Times, a competitor to the Gannett-owned Rockland County Journal News, editor Caryn McBride is among the casualties of a recent purge at the Journal News. The report said 17 journalists were among a total of 26 staff members at the Journal News who were let go. It was the Journal News that in 2012 published the names and addresses of all gun owners in Westchester and Rockland counties under the...

Renters at an apartment community just south of Denver are between a rock and a hard place, ordered by their landlord to either get rid of their weapons or move out. The manager at Oakwood Apartments in Castle Rock, Colo., sent a notice to renters last week advising them of the new rule banning all “firearms and weapons” from the premises, a local news station reported. Residents have until Oct. 1 to comply. The rule has one worried — and outraged. Art Dorsch, 77, a Marine Corps veteran and avid hunter with a concealed carry permit, said he lives on...

What is the best way to push gun control? According to a newly leaked document that gives Democrats advice on that very subject, national tragedies are the answer. The document, “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging,� is more than 70 pages long and was created by a group of Washington, D.C., consultants who did research for a Washington state gun-control advocates. It was written in 2012 before the Sandy Hook shooting tragedy. The document states that "The most powerful time to communicate is when concern and emotions are running at their peak ... The debate over gun violence in...

A dear friend (a flag-waving gun-toting conservative) who is unfortunately going through a bitter divorce informed me yesterday that their court proceedings took a very amusing turn. The soon-to-be-ex-wife's lawyer was attempting to paint my friend as unstable and unfit to care for their four kids (two their own, two from her previous marriage). To accomplish this, the liar-for-hire cited this very blog as evidence!Why?Because the profile pic at VM's Facebook page is this:Yes, it's true: This pic features ... gasp ... guns! (Not that it makes any difference that my friend and his truly unstable wife are themselves gun owners.) This...

But the stunt instead earned him a visit from armed police — who arrived during a wedding demanding to inspect his collection of 150 firearms. Three officers turned up at the home of Sir Benjamin Slade after a member of the public reported that they felt threatened by the image, which appeared in The Telegraph, of him dressed in camouflage and holding a semi-automatic rifle. The 67-year-old baronet said he had to intercept the officers at the gates of Maunsel House, near Bridgwater, Somerset, as he had hired the venue out for a wedding and feared that the guests would...

Hypothetical situation; you have just been sent to some brutal, Stalinist, dictatorial place where you can’t bring your gun. Think Uganda, Somalia or Illinois. Upon arrival your host properly adheres to good gun owner-guest protocol and offers you your choice of one of his two guns for your bedside piece. Those guns are a Ruger 10/22 in .22 rimfire or a Walther PP in .32 ACP. Which do you choose? Now you know what a bedside piece is designed to do and that’s keep you and your patch safe against bad guys. It could be inside the home or outside...

ST. LOUIS (AP) – A federal appeals court has refused an urgent request by gun rights advocates to let Illinois residents immediately tote firearms in public under the state’s fledgling concealed-carry law, though the panel has decided to give the matter a speedy review. The Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the request last Thursday and said it expects both sides to submit written briefs by Aug. 14 regarding whether the months-long wait to implementing the law is unreasonable and illegal, as critics insist. No oral arguments on the matter had been scheduled as of Monday. Mary Shepard...

An apartment complex in Colorado has news for tenants: get rid of your guns, or get out. Colorado Apartment Building Tells Tenants They Have to Get Rid of Their Guns or Leave Art Dorsch said he’ll either have to give up his guns or move out of his apartment. (Image source: KUSA-TV) The Oakwood Apartments in Castle Rock, Colo. sent notice to residents last week of a new provision banning all “firearms and weapons” from the premises, KUSA-TV reported. Tenants have until Oct. 1 to comply. Art Dorsch, a 77-year-old retired Marine Corps veteran, told KUSA he’s afraid he’ll lose...

As a Conservative, I hold these truths to be self evident: (in no particular order) * Life begins at the moment of conception. Abortion, for any reason, real or imagined, is murder. * The Right to Bear Arms is an unalienable right that the government cannot infringe on in any way. Background checks, "assault weapon" bans, magazine capacity rules, and the like are completely unconstitutional. *Global warming is as much of a fraud as the "Next Ice Age" scare was in the 1970's. *Illegal aliens are criminals and should be treated as such. There should be no amnesty for illegal...

The National Association of Town Watch will hold its 30th annual National Night Out celebration, otherwise known as "America's Night Out Against Crime," on Tuesday. The event, which celebrates crime prevention throughout the country, encourages communication between communities, police and neighborhood watch groups. While National Night Out is intended to be a fun event, filled with celebratory block parties and cookouts, one might wonder whether the George Zimmerman case has cast a shadow on neighborhood watch groups and influenced how they are perceived. "Everyone uses the neighborhood watch umbrella for what [Zimmerman's] group is, when really there is a severe...

Later denied knowing about Operation Fast and Furious Attorney General Eric Holder has denied under oath that he had any involvement in Operation Fast & Furious and claims he only became aware of the scandal in 2011 – but newly obtained Department of Justice documents reveal Holder traveled to an April 2009 “US/Mexico Arms Trafficking Strategy Meeting” concerning gun-running between the U.S. and Mexico. In June 2012, the Obama administration invoked executive privilege to stop disclosure of documentation to Congress following Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-walking scheme that resulted in the deaths of more than 200 people, including U.S....

The world the people behind Mayors Against Illegal Guns inhabit seems to be mighty black and white. With maybe a slight green tinge to the sky. Mark Glaze, executive director of MAIG, believes that someone should only be allowed to use a gun to defend themselves if their attacker also has a one. In his opinion, the lack of a gun indicates that the attacker “just wants to have a fistfight.” Yeah, well, tell that to the two people per day in this country who are beaten to death with their attackers’ bare hands.

 A homemade submachine gun Obtaining a gun without a background check in the United States (and much of the world) is a fairly easy process, and is becoming easier all the time.  Here are some of the common methods of obtaining a gun without a background check. 1. Have someone who can pass the background check buy it for you.  This is illegal to do for someone who is forbidden from possessing guns.  It is known as a straw purchase.  The BATFE says that it is the most common method for criminals to obtain guns.   In most states it...

When a friend asked Matt LeBow to repair a video camera, LeBow worked on it and then set it on the top of his refrigerator to let it run for a while to make sure it was filming properly. The unexpected footage it captured was shocking and led to the arrest of a man from Melvin, a small community west of Brady. The Brady police officer who investigated the crime was unavailable for comment. The video allegedly shows James Ray Pierce Jr., 35, coming into LeBow’s home, shooting his dog with a pellet gun, ripping boards off a wall and...

Philip Rucker leads the Post today with a story about a study that claims there is a “vast” gun market thriving online that allows gun buyers to evade the background check system. Rucker’s story is full of misleading statements. The marketplace for firearms on the Internet, where buyers are not required to undergo background checks, is so vast that advocates for stricter regulations now consider online sales a greater threat than the gun show loophole. Misleading statement #1: Buyers are only not required to undergo background checks if they’re not buying from a licensed firearms dealer. If you buy...

Cleveland police officials said Friday they're disciplining 75 of officers for their involvement in a police chase that ended in the shooting deaths of an unarmed man and woman, The Plain Dealer reports. The pair were shot at 137 times while in their car, parked in a middle school parking lot. No officers were injured in what police called a "full blown-out" firefight. Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine told reporters in February that "there is nothing normal about this case. ... This is a tragedy." In November, about 60 police vehicles pursued the two suspects in a 25-minute chase spanning...

Some weird, decidedly left-wing politics were espoused by Ross Township, PA shooter Rockne Newell. Newell killed three before being shot by his own gun. His facebook profile paints the picture of a left-wing ideologue. He ranted about environmental issues and voted for Barack Obama.

Ammo is getting scarce! But this morning I lucked out and was able to buy two boxes of ammo. I placed the boxes on the front seat and headed back home, but stopped at a gas station where a drop-dead gorgeous blonde in a short skirt was filling up her car at the next pump. She glanced at the two boxes of ammo, bent over and leaned in my passenger window, and said in a sexy voice, “I’m a big believer in barter, old fella. Would you be interested in trading sex for ammo?” I thought for a few seconds...

For you Kindle owners. A little dated, but it's supposed to be some kind of classic. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004BDORIS

Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford announced Friday that he will order hearings this fall on the state’s “stand your ground” law, a victory for the young protesters known as the Dream Defenders who have spent the past two weeks protesting at the Capitol. . . They shouldn’t celebrate too hard. Weatherford assigned the task of chairing the hearings to a staunch supporter of the law, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach. “I don’t support changing one damn comma of the stand your ground law,” Gaetz said Friday. “It would be reactionary and dangerous to make Floridians less safe to pacify...

“Don’t be scared,” was Crazy Dave’s advice as I set out to document some of San Francisco’s sexual quirks (writing can be a dirty and dangerous profession). It was and remains good guidance that applies to most matters, especially politics. But politicos and their propagandists have long recognized the value of fear for creating herd mentality and inciting reaction ahead of thought. The Lie of Fear (“creating a false sense of fear in order to motivate people to action while easing them past critical thinking”) was the very first entry in the Catalog of Canards included in Shooting The Bull....

George Zimmerman’s attorney has formally thanked the Buckeye Firearms Foundation for the $12,150.37 check the Ohio gun rights group mailed to the exonerated Florida “stand your ground” man. Mark M. O’Mara of Orlando said the money would be forwarded directly to Zimmerman “to replace items necessary for him to protect himself and also to accomplish security systems for his house.” The Buckeye group started out raising money to buy a new gun for Zimmerman because the one he used to kill Trayvon Martin is still being held by authorities as they await a decision by the U.S. Department of Justice...

Barbara Fair will be outside Toad’s Place Tuesday night picketing Ted Nugent’s appearance at the music venue, and she says she really wants is to talk to the controversial figure. Fair and others will be protesting statements Nugent made about immigrants, blacks, gays and Trayvon Martin. Some 70 people committed to joining the picket line and thousands signing a petition asking that Toad’s cancel the “Motor City Madman’s” concert. “I would want to have a conversation with him to get him to think about some of the things he says. . . . The New Haven Register this week stood...

Cap Black The Hood Conservative Anti Crime Activist Organizer Brothers Against Crime http://capblackhood.blogspot.com/2013/07/brothers-against-crime-flyer.html New Orleans   Press Release   Times Picayune article: Unarmed teen shot inside homeowner's fenced yard, but not breaking into home, NOPD warrant says http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2013/07/marigny_homeowner_shooting.html   Below is my post about this on nola.com:   "He would steal -- he was a professional thief, sure," David Coulter said. "But he would never pick up a gun, not in a million years. He was too scared to aim a gun at the grass, let alone aim it at a person. No way. Before he'll ever pick up...

There is a strange article by the Kansas City Star, known for its anti-gun editorials. At the end of  the article, it casually mentions that the restaurant manager comes out and shoots at the fleeing robbers, who just wounded a woman at an outside table: The gunman aimed and fired as Lacy flinched from the loud bang. The robbers then ran away. As the men fled with the purses, the pizza shop manager came out and fired shots at the robbers, police said. The police were not sure if the robbers were hit, or not, but it is clear ...

The house of San Juan City Councilor Ritchie Peralte is cordoned off by police after the reported robbery attempt by members of suspected Akyat-Bahay gang members on Friday Morning. The 2 would be robbers failed to take away any cash from Peralta's home as one of them was shot dead by a member of his household. (Francis T. Wakefield) Two suspected Akyat-Bahay gang members attempted to rob Friday morning the house of a San Juan City Councilor, but failed to take any cash or other items. Senior Supt. Joselito M. Daniel, chief of the San Juan City Police Station,...

HuntForTruth.org Launches New Media-Rich Website Designed to Combat the Misleading Campaign to Ban Lead Ammunition Throughout the U.S.To educate and assist lawmakers, regulators, hunters, recreational shooters and the general public about the efforts to ban lead ammunition nationwide, HuntForTruth.org has launched its new and improved website www.huntfortruth.org to make all updated facts about the lead ammunition debate available.This website incorporates extensive information regarding opposition to proposed lead bans while delivering the content in an engaging format including an interactive map, video, slideshows, social media, news feeds, wildlife info, a live eagle cam and a convenient method for opposing AB 711,...

But what has Obama himself been doing throughout 2013? Pushing gun control, and then pushing an immigration bill, and failing at both, in between vacations and rounds of golf. Whose eye is off the ball here? As the failures have piled up and the economic data isn’t getting any better, a frustrated Obama now critiques the system he leads as if he’s just a bystander and threatens to just bypass Congress to exert his will. Neither of those amounts to anything close to leadership, making deals, and compromising. His rhetoric in fact makes compromises all but impossible, because he resorts...

RUTLAND — Joshua Severance says his Second Amendment rights to openly carry a firearm were violated, but Rutland police say they were following the law when they handcuffed and briefly detained the Milton man this week. In a case that appears destined to end in a courtroom, Severance, 26, says he was walking down a residential Rutland street Monday afternoon with his shirt off and his 9mm Beretta semiautomatic handgun holstered on his hip when a city police cruiser stopped in front of him and an officer ordered him to place his hands on the hood. “I figured they wanted...

A man who was brutally stabbed by Brooklyn subway slasher Maksim Gelman two years ago had his negligence case against the city dismissed in court yesterday, despite the fact that two transit officers had locked themselves in a motorman's car only a few feet from him at the time of the attack. Gelman stabbed Joseph Lozito in the face, neck, hands and head on an uptown 3 train in February 2011, after fatally stabbing four people and injuring three others in a 28-hour period. Lozito, a father of two and an avid martial arts fan, was able to tackle Gelman...

The 2012 killing of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin has led to various rallies, boycotts, and even songs. Now, the NAACP is leading the way in an effort to force legal changes across the United States in an attempt to prevent another similar situation. The NAACP created "Trayvon's Law," a series of legislative policies that aims to "end racial profiling, repeal stand your ground laws, form effective civil complaint review boards to provide oversight of police misconduct, improve training for community watch groups, mandate law enforcement to collect data on homicide cases involving non-whites, and address the “school to prison pipeline,...

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) -- A firearms manufacturer in New York, partially blaming the state's new gun control law, said Wednesday it's moving its corporate offices — and its plans for expansion — to Pennsylvania. Kahr Firearms Group of Pearl River is the first gunmaker to announce it's leaving because of the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act, which was put into law after closed-door negotiations in January. It was the first law in the nation prompted by the killing of 20 first-graders and six educators in Newtown, Conn., in December. "We're looking for a more friendly environment for our...

Just revealed Democratic anti-NRA talking points urge anti-gun advocates and politicians to hype high-profile gun incidents like the Florida slaying of Trayvon Martin to win support for new gun control laws. In talking points likely followed by top Democratic leaders including President Obama after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in December, the anti-gun "guide" urged gun foes to speak out when a shooting "creates a unique climate" to shout down the National Rifle Association."The most powerful time to communicate is when concern and emotions are running at their peak," said the 80-page document titled "Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective...

Virgnia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe did not want to tell reporters if he supports the passage of an "assault weapons" ban (AWB) in the commonwealth of Virginia. When asked by Breitbart News, he replied, "What I said in Virginia, what we ought to do--and I'm a strong supporter of the second amendment--I'm a gun owner. I take two of my sons hunting and skeet shooting. I think there are reasonable things we can do."

Well, the Washington Post is back to their usual tricks in distorting the facts about guns and background checks. On page A2 of today's print edition, staff writer Philip Rucker gave readers a story, which read pretty much like a press release for a left-wing pro-gun control group, calling itself Third Way. Rucker harped on the misleading “gun show loophole” and how, according to Third Way, criminals are taking to the Internet to arm themselves for murder and mayhem. That's far from the truth, as Rucker's colleague Brad Plumer noted in an August 5 Wonkblog post which cut against Rucker's...

In preparation for a previously announced hearing on controversial “stand your ground” laws announced after the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, Sen. Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., sent letters to more than 300 possible corporate backers of the American Legislative Exchange Council, requesting their position of such policies in states across the country.

Members of the New Haven community are up in arms as rocker Ted Nugent gets ready to play at the legendary Toad’s Place Tuesday night evening. More than 2,700 community members have signed a Change.org petition asking Toad’s Place to cancel Nugent's 7:30 p.m. show in the wake of several controversial remarks he has allegedly made about Trayvon Martin. The petition reads: “We, the undersigned, ask that out of respect of the New Haven community, which is experiencing a great deal of grief as a result of the Trayvon Martin verdict, you cancel the Ted Nugent show scheduled for...

During a May appearance on Rachel Maddow Lean Forward Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said gun rights are not "God-given" and any claim that the Founding Fathers wanted U.S. citizens armed so they could repel a tyranny "is insane." Murphy said, "The Second Amendment is not an absolute right, not a God-given right. It has always had conditions upon it like the First Amendment has." This is disturbing language from a sitting Senator, especially when you consider that the First Amendment opens with the phrase "Congress shall make no law" and the Second Amendment states that the right to keep and...

With non-fatal shootings in the city up 19% in June and July compared with last year, Police Chief Edward Flynn and Mayor Tom Barrett on Monday called on state legislators to pass laws boosting penalties for criminals who possess firearms. Three people were killed and eight others were wounded over the weekend, a toll more violent than the same weekend last year. Milwaukee police statistics also show that June and July this year have had the most non-fatal shootings since the same months in 2006. Flynn and Barrett said the linkage between firearms-related deadly violence and criminals was clear-cut. "The...

During an August 4 appearance on C-SPAN's Newsmakers, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said gun control failed in April and "has no chance of passage now" because of "some on the left like the mayor of New York City." As reported by Andrew Johnson at National Review, Leahy said, "[NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg] actually turned some people off that we actually might have gotten for supporters." He said that Bloomberg's ads were especially detrimental to the gun control push and he took issue with the rabid nature in which Bloomberg approached the issue. Earlier in the summer, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY)...

Lee's note: Nowadays there are a few too many gun groups that are willing to take your membership dollars and do nothing. One of the best ways to judge the mettle of a nonprofit is by their willingness to engage in litigation. By that standard, Florida Carry Inc., is off the charts. They sent out this 'action update' this week. Their efforts are impressive. Here's their release:No firearms signs short-lived at health departmentThe (anti-gun) signs were up for one day until Florida Carry Inc., a gun rights group, contacted the Health Department and said it had received bad legal advice,...

If I recall correctly, the gun laws in the national parks correspond to the state laws in which the park is found. Yes, no? I'm going to the GW National Forest in VA this weekend, and I'm told that there's a big "NO GUNS" sign at the entrance. This is bogus, yes? I have a CC permit in VA, and I've open carried there in the past. Who can help a poor gunslinger from the Old Dominion? Thanks