Free Republic

Prominent Australian gunshop in Brisbane, Queensland image courtesy Dean Weingarten In Australia, the various governments are using the coronavirus emergency to stop sales of firearms. One of the stated purposes of those who plotted to disarm Australians was to reduce the number of Australians who had guns. That was unsuccessful. More people have guns in Australia today than before the extreme gun laws were put in place in 1997.  The thinking that one purpose of gun laws is to reduce the number of people with guns continues.During the current emergency, on 31 March, the Daily Mail quoted the national police...

I was chatting with a friend of mine recently and the topic of gun sales came up. My friend’s father owns a gun range near me and she said he’s seen a huge amount of liberals coming in to purchase weapons in recent weeks. How does he know they’re liberals? “They’re shocked to discover they can’t just walk out of the store with a gun.” We’ve all heard about gun sales skyrocketing recently, but I hadn’t considered some of the tangential effects of the phenomenon until I spoke to my friend. Not only are many liberals suddenly learning to love...

Adam Lankford (2016) claims that the United States accounted for 31 percent of the world’s public mass shooters over the 47 years from 1966 to 2012. After four years of extensive worldwide media coverage, Lankford—in response to our paper (Lott and Moody 2019)—finally made one of his datasets available. In doing so, he revealed that he used a definition of public mass shootings that is inconsistent with those of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the New York Police Department that he had claimed to be following. We find that his dataset does not even follow his own...

On 2 April, 2020, a three-judge panel from the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments in the Duncan v. Becerra case. The District Court had decided the outright ban of magazines with a capacity of more than 10 rounds violated the Second Amendment. The opinion, by Judge Roger T. Benitez, was brilliant and extremely well written. The video lasts over an hour, with strong questioning by the judges. Judge Consuelo Callahan presides and does most of the questioning. Judge Kenneth K. Lee asks some pointed questions, and Judge Barbara M. Lynn asks a few questions.The appealing attorney for the State of...

Another Armed Samaritan came to the assistance of police during a gunfight. This example is somewhat unusual. It occurred in California, which routinely infringes on Second Amendment rights. In Fresno, California, at about 5:30 p.m. on 24 March, 2020, near the area of Belmont and Valeria, officers noticed a 2006 Nissan which was speeding. They attempted to pull over the car. Instead of pulling over, the car accelerated.  Only a few blocks south, near Valeria and Grant, the car crashed.  Inside the car was a driver and one passenger. The driver exited. He was armed. From kmph.com: After the crash,...

FBI figures released Wednesday show March 2020 shattered the single month record for the number of National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) checks conducted in one month. FBI numbers account for 3,740,688 background checks last month, shattering the record of 3,314,594, set in December 2015; the only other time NICS checks crossed the three million threshold for a single month. Moreover, the number of checks conducted in March 2020 represent a nearly 30 percent increase over the number conducted in March 2019, and that period witnessed the second highest number of checks of any March in history up to...

The coronavirus pandemic may be fueling a buying frenzy of guns and ammunition nationwide, but a sheriff in California is ordering all gun stores in his county closed, calling them non-essential businesses. Gun stores nationwide have had long lines this month of customers worried about possible social unrest amid the COVID-19 pandemic. "There’s a lot of unknown. Family first and friends," Brian Thompson told FOX11 earlier this month in a line outside of LAX Ammunition in Los Angeles. "I know what I have in my house and somebody might want to take that. I’ve been robbed before and who says...

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has come under fire for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic and examining what they devote their limited resources toward shows that the anger that has developed toward the bureaucracy is well-deserved. Journalist Daniel Greenfield noted in Front Page Mag that the CDC has focused on liberal causes du jour rather than their mandate of actually keeping Americans safe from legitimate public health crises. Greenfield noted that one of the social justice causes that have been pushed by the CDC are unconstitutional gun control schemes.

the city council of Bellingham, Washington, will vote Monday on various “emergency” proposals that include a curfew; banning the possession, transfer, and carrying of firearms as well as banning alcohol sales; closing city streets, businesses, and community buildings to the public; and prohibiting the sale of fuel in any container other than a fuel tank properly affixed to a motor vehicle. . . . Most disturbing of all, the meeting notice declares, “There will be no public comment taken at City Council meetings until further notice.”

Pennsylvania State Rep. Thomas Murt (R) is pushing a permit requirement for ammunition purchases throughout the state. His legislation — HB 2344 — has been referred to the PA’s House Judiciary Committee and is filed with the memo, “Addressing Gun Violence and Enhancing Public Health and Safety.” Page 21 of the 25-page bill sets forth details of Murt’s proposed “Ammunition Purchase Authorization Permits,” saying, “A person holding an ammunition purchase authorization permit issued under this section may purchase or otherwise seek the transfer of ownership of ammunition from a retailer that sells ammunition.” The proposed permits would be valid for...

A Pennsylvania state lawmaker has introduced legislation that would require individuals who wish to purchase gun ammunition to first obtain a permit. GOP State Rep. Thomas Murt introduced HB 2344 and filed it with the memo “Addressing Gun Violence and Enhancing Public Health and Safety,” . . . The bill says that the cost of the permit will not exceed $50 and also adds a tax on gun and ammunition sales. Residents would also be barred from bringing in ammunition bought from other states without coordinating with a licensed dealer.

Guns and ammunition have been flying off shelves at Lehigh Valley firearms businesses, just as supermarkets and other stores have been stripped bare by Americans panicked by the coronavirus crisis. "I think everybody’s running scared, that’s pretty much it,” Eric Koehler, owner of Eagle Arms Sports Shop, said Wednesday from his Upper Macungie Township store, blaming in part the COVID-19. "The markets are collapsing, the virus is here, and blah blah. It’s just too many things for people to accept at one time, you know?

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof predicted a nationwide surge in gun sales during the coronavirus outbreak will lead to more deaths across the country. "One way in which the coronavirus will lead to more deaths," Kristof tweeted. "It is leading to a rush to buy guns, which will lead to more murders, suicides and accidents."

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell (D) signed a coronavirus emergency order last week allowing her to ban the sale and transportation of firearms. She signed a follow-up proclamation on March 16, 2020, further emphasizing her emergency powers to “suspend or limit the sale, dispensing, or transportation, of alcoholic beverages.” The declaration declaring the mayor’s power to restrict gun sales and transportation says she is “empowered, if necessary, to suspend or limit the sale of alcoholic beverages, firearms, explosives, and combustibles.” On March 16, 2020, the Second Amendment Foundation responded to Cantrell’s claims of emergency powers over firearms by reminding her...

The mayor of Champaign, Illinois, gave herself the power to ban the sale of guns and alcohol after declaring a citywide emergency to address the coronavirus. Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen signed the executive order on Thursday declaring a state of emergency for the city. That executive order, which is in line with municipal code, comes with extraordinary powers for the mayor to enact over a short period of time as the city combats the spread of the coronavirus.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) at the weekend retweeted a post on Twitter which said in part “F**k a National day of prayer,” in relation to President Trump’s call for Americans of all faiths to pray for all those affected by the coronavirus outbreak. Late Saturday, anti-gun activist David Hogg posted a tweet, saying, “Don’t let this administration address COVID-19 like our national gun violence epidemic. F**k a National day of prayer

The mayor of Champaign, Illinois has declared a town emergency over the Wuhan coronavirus that includes a potential ban on the sale of firearms and ammunition. According to a local report from WAND 17, Champaign Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen has issued an executive order that would give her office "extraordinary powers." She has issued the order despite the town and surrounding area not having a single case of the disease.

The Detroit construction worker who got into a shouting match with Joe Biden said the former vice president “kind of went off the deep end” when he asked a question about his intent to ban assault weapons. “I thought I was pretty articulate and respectful. I didn’t try to raise feathers,” Jerry Wayne said Wednesday during an interview with “Fox & Friends.” “He kind of just went off the deep end. … Once he got caught in a lie, I kind of wanted to ask him why he wanted to take our long arms rather than the handguns,” Wayne continued....

King stated before playing a clip of Biden calling that man a “horse’s a**” and saying he was “full of sh**” for saying Biden was trying to take away people’s guns. At the same time, Biden said he was going to take certain guns away. After downplaying the interaction as Biden “defending his position on gun control” King seemed amused by the exchange and tried to spin Biden’s demeanor as “charming”: “Some people see that as charming that a candidate is willing to air it out face-to-face with a guy on the floor.

Source: @RepKenBuck/Screenshot Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) had a simple message for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and failed candidate Beto O'Rourke: If they want to start confiscating AR-15s from law-abiding gun owners, then they can try and take the one that hangs up in his Washington, D.C. office. "I have a message for Joe Biden and Beto OÂ’Rourke, if you want to take everyoneÂ’s AR-15s in America, why donÂ’t you swing by my office in Washington, D.C. and start with this one," Buck said as he took the AR-15 off of the wall. "Come and take it." "I have...