Free Republic

White House hopeful Hillary Clinton sharpened her attacks on Democratic rival Barack Obama on Monday, criticizing him for failing to vote yes or no on a series of abortion and gun-control measures when he was in the Illinois Senate. Speaking in Iowa, Clinton singled out nine roll calls in which Obama voted "present." The votes dealt with abortion and gun-control initiatives. His campaign hits back "A president can't vote 'present.' A president can't pick and choose which challenges he or she will face," Clinton said. Obama's campaign shot back at the New York senator, touting his support of abortion rights...

The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution reads: "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." www.Dictionary.com informs us that "infringe" means "to commit a breach or infraction of; violate or transgress ... " and further refers us to _Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law_: "to encroach upon in a way that violates law or the rights of another." The latter specifically cites the Second Amendment as an example of the word's usage. The word "infringe" also carries a connotation of sneaking up,...

Tough measures to reduce knife crime are set to be introduced in Northern Ireland, under a proposed new law. The sentence for anyone caught carrying a blade will double from two years to four. The government is also looking into a licensing scheme to regulate the sale of knives. Criminal Justice Minister Paul Goggins said the powers "cover any implement that has a blade or point or that may be deemed as an offensive weapon."........ The government is also examining how to develop a code of practice on the sale of knives, and it is looking at other items like...

Anti-gun activists are again quarreling with the brilliance of the Founding Fathers. In answering them, I usually write for the non-gun owners and connect the intent of the Founders to modern times as they wished. My motto is that you never know who may be hearing the liberty message for the very first time. In challenging the Second Amendment, foes of our liberty want to make the Bill of Rights a living document, with all its confusing subjectivity. Liberals use this tactic a great deal in promoting ambiguity, which half the time goes to their advantage. It is the equivalent...

Does anyone know what happened to www.packing.org?

Cleveland's challenge of a state law that prevents Ohio cities from making their own gun laws faces a new opponent -- The National Rifle Association. The NRA reported Wednesday that it intervened in a lawsuit that Cleveland filed against the state in March in an attempt to overturn the law. "We have joined in this lawsuit as a defendant-intervenor to protect law-abiding gun owners in Ohio from harassment by an unreasonable and confusing patchwork of municipal gun laws," NRA chief lobbyist Chris W. Cox said in a statement. A new provision of the state's concealed-carry gun law voided local firearms...

FOLLOWING last week's tragic Virginia Tech shootings, how many times were we told that guns, and not people, kill people? When the media allocates blame, everyone except the actual perpetrator makes a good candidate. Pictures of actor Charlton Heston flashed across our screens, as if the former president of the National Rifle Association was responsible. The pundits never explain why massacres don't occur at sporting shooters' clubs. Or why, just four days before the Virginia Tech shootings, thousands of gun nuts descended on St Louis, Missouri, and not a single gunshot was fired in anger.

Go see the animation at the link.

PHILADELPHIA - A bloody, bullet-filled weekend left 11 people dead across the city, where drugs and disrespect have trumped brotherly love and the murder rate is on Philadelphia has seen more than one killing a day this year, totaling 127 as of Monday afternoon. New York, Chicago and Los Angeles — whose populations are much larger than Philadelphia's 1.5 million residents — have had fewer homicides this year. The spike over the weekend was partly blamed on the first warm weather of the season. But rain or shine, Philadelphia police say the chronic problems remain the same: poverty, lax gun...

FEW tragedies make their victims feel more helpless than multiple-victim shootings. Imagine the terror: unable to escape, simply waiting for the killer. With 32 murdered, the Virginia Tech attack this week left more people dead than the two previous most deadly shootings: the 1991 Luby's Cafeteria massacre in Texas, which left 23 people dead, and the shooting at a California McDonald's in 1984 in which 21 people were killed. Of course, these horrors are hardly unique to the US, and Australians need no reminding. In 1996 Martin Bryant killed 35 people at Port Arthur in Tasmania. In the last half-dozen...

Poll on more gun laws here Scroll down half way and you'll see it on right side http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/pollQuestion

_____________________________________________________________ This visitation of death against Virginia Tech University this week is a direct result of gun laws banning weapons within 1,000 feet of a school -- the victim disarmament zone is as advertised once more. Sure the shooter is to blame, but Congress shares the blame not only for shootings, but for any instance of disarming citizens who could have resisted with all legal authority and use of force. Why obfuscate or discourage this legal authority? We’ll never keep weapons – knifes, bare hands, brute force and guns – out of the hands of the criminal, but we sure...

A south Sacramento man who told police he was defending his property was arrested early Wednesday after shooting a teenager who was allegedly trying to steal his car, authorities said. Police said 42-year-old Sou Saechin told them he accidentally shot the teen at about 3 a.m. on Rock Creek Way. But officials said Saechin went too far in trying to protect his red Honda. "What we try to stress to people is that deadly force, the use of a firearm, is never justified under any circumstances to protect property," said Sgt. Matt Young of the Sacramento Police Department. Police said...

It is looking increasingly likely Sen. Webb possessed, controlled, and carried a unregistered handgun around the District of Columbia, and was last known to had possessed a unregistered weapon and ammunition at an airport terminal before handing over possession to another individual (possibly a criminal offense as well because Webb was not a licensed firearms dealer). All serious crimes in the District of Columbia. No person or organization (other than law enforcement officers, members of the military or licensed dealers) may possess or control any firearm in the District unless the person or organization holds a valid registration certificate. D.C....

<p>BREAKING NEWS -- Divided three-judge D.C. Circuit panel holds that the District of Columbia's gun control laws violate individuals' Second Amendment rights: You can access today's lengthy D.C. Circuit ruling at this link.</p> <p>To summarize, we conclude that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. That right existed prior to the formation of the new government under the Constitution and was premised on the private use of arms for activities such as hunting and self-defense, the latter being understood as resistance to either private lawlessness or the depredations of a tyrannical government (or a threat from abroad). In addition, the right to keep and bear arms had the important and salutary civic purpose of helping to preserve the citizen militia. The civic purpose was also a political expedient for the Federalists in the First Congress as it served, in part, to placate their Antifederalist opponents. The individual right facilitated militia service by ensuring that citizens would not be barred from keeping the arms they would need when called forth for militia duty. Despite the importance of the Second Amendment's civic purpose, however, the activities it protects are not limited to militia service, nor is an individual's enjoyment of the right contingent upon his or her continued or intermittent enrollment in the militia.</p>

A Houston-area family was mourning the death of their 4-old-son who was killed by two pit bulls that attacked as he was playing with his 2-year-old brother. Pedro Rios died of his injuries Tuesday afternoon in a mobile home park east of Houston, the Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday. He and his brother were playing when the dogs approached. The younger boy managed to escape. The boys' mother heard screams and raced to the boy and tried pulling the dogs off but they wouldn't let go until lights and sirens of sheriff's deputies' cars startled them, the report said. Deputies killed...

I just got done reviewing the Ohio State link at packing.org. To say I am slightly confused is an understatement. How does some punk city government write laws that usurp Federal and State Firearms laws? Are not laws regarding firearms Federal and State Issues? What if we started writing laws regarding who can practice law or medicine on a city-by-city basis? What about driving privileges on a county-by-county basis. This is absolutely flipping NUTS! What say you FR lawyers, any advice?

thought gang was going to shoot my dad dead A GIRL of 11 woke in terror as a masked gang gunned down her dad and threatened to shoot her as they stormed their Sheffield home. Little CJ Roberts was asleep in the living room when the mob "knee-capped" 39-year-old Christopher with a silenced pistol after spraying him with CS gas. They then robbed the family - who were hours away from flying abroad on holiday - of cash, mobile phones and sentimental jewellery. Speaking exclusively to The Star brave CJ, who attends Wybourn School, said: "I was screaming. I thought...

Australian Gun Law Update Here's a thought to warm some of your hearts... I hope this article makes it's way clear across America, and I hope we learn from it! From: Ed Chenel, A police officer in Australia Hi Yanks, I thought you all would like to see the real figures from Down Under. It has now been 12 months since gun owners in Australia were forced by a new law to surrender 640,381 personal firearms to be destroyed by our own government, a program costing Australia taxpayers more than $500 million dollars. The first year results are now in:...

Fellow Freepers, I have a question for those in the know. Is it legal for one person (with a CT CCW permit) to buy ammunition for an out-of-state person (MA resident w/ MA CCW permit)? Thanks in advance. Andonius

It was only a matter of time. On Nov. 13, The Hartford Courant carried a compelling article on a 9mm Glock that police have tied to 11 shootings in Hartford in 2002. An anti-gun screed was sure to follow on the Courant's editorial page, but when? Nov. 17 brought "Get Guns Off The Street." It recounted the exposé that traced the Glock from its manufacture in Georgia, to its purchase in Virginia in 1991, to its arrival in Hartford "where it was passed among an unknown number of hoodlums who used it to wound 11 men, two of them fatally."...

North Carolina's concealed handgun law, which becomes 10 years old next month, has worked well. Even gun-control advocates concede that point.Now one gun-rights group - Grass Roots North Carolina - hopes the law will be expanded so that people with concealed handgun permits will have fewer restrictions on where they can carry their weapons. We think that there is some merit in the organization's idea. For example, the group's president recently suggested that permit-holders should be allowed to carry their weapons in public parks. It would provide protection for joggers from potential attackers. Gun-control advocates would likely balk at this...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Tuesday put off until fall completing a $491 billion defense bill to act this week on the National Rifle Association's top priority: shielding gun manufacturers and dealers from liability suits stemming from gun crimes. On a 66-32 test vote, the Senate indicated there's plenty of support for Republican leaders' determination to pass the gun bill before lawmakers leave at the end of this week for a monthlong vacation. "The only reason it is coming to the floor, in a time of war to interrupt the debate on the Defense Authorization bill is that members...

Sao Paulo, Brazil, May 22 (AP): Churches in Brazil joined the government's disarmament campaign on Saturday, hoping to call attention to an upcoming national referendum that could completely ban the commercial sale of firearms. Catholic, Orthodox, Presbyterian and Lutheran churches across Brazil opened their doors to allow people to voluntarily turn in their guns, the official Agencia Brasil news service reported. The churches will be taking the firearms until the end of the nationwide disarmament campaign on June 23. Hoping to curb violence, the government and several nonprofit organizations launched the disarmament campaign in July last year. In October, Brazilians...

Click to learn more... A bill allowing more law-abiding Minnesotans to legally carry a handgun easily passed the House on Wednesday and now goes to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who said he will sign it. The Republican-controlled House voted 86-47 to reinstate the so-called conceal-carry law, which has been overturned by the courts. The 2003 law allowed adults with a clean record, no mental illness and proper training to get a permit to carry a gun.

I kept bumping into people referencing “Unintended Consequences” by John Ross. It sounded impressive so I decided I should read it. It is impressive – and massive – 860 pages, and a novel. The main character is Henry Bowman and the book follows him from youngster to present day. The theme of the book is the gun culture in America. It outlines the US Government’s relentless and irrational war against the gun culture in general – and the private ownership of firearms in particular – in this country, for most of the 20th century. It was impossible to read this...

Assembly Bill 352 was not heard today.  Instead, AB 352 is now expected to be heard on the Assembly floor this Thursday, May 12.  AB 352 expands the definition of "unsafe handguns" to include semi-automatic pistols that are not designed and equipped with an array of microscopic characters, which identify the make, model, and serial number of the pistol, etched into the interior surface or internal working parts, which are then transferred by imprinting on each cartridge case when the firearm is fired. Please continue to contact members of the Assembly before Thursday, May 12, asking them to oppose AB...

I have been doing a little transcendental meditation on the subject of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, the one that says “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." Yet many people among us claim the right to infringe this right of the people. And while meditating my way through the pages of the May issue of America’s First Freedom, the Second Amendment magazine from the NRA, and the excellent ChronWatch article by Matthew...

The Minnesota Court of Appeals today upheld a lower court's ruling that struck down a law that expanded access to concealed weapons permits because the Legislature passed the law improperly. The enacting bill was tacked onto another piece of legislation to get it through the state Senate, which had resisted voting on the measure as a standalone bill.... More than 25,000 people took advantage and got a permit before Ramsey County Judge John Finley declared the law unconstitutional. His ruling suspended the new law and reverted the permitting process back to the prior law. Five-year permits issued under the 2003...

Law Expands Right to Kill in Self-Defense Tue Apr 5, 1:58 PM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters By Michael Peltier TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - People in Florida will be allowed to kill in self-defense on the street without trying to flee under a new law passed by state politicians on Tuesday that critics say will bring a Wild West mentality and innocent deaths. The Florida House of Representatives, citing the need to allow people to "stand their ground," voted 94-20 to codify and expand court rulings that already allow people to use deadly force to protect themselves in their homes...

Leo Buchignani, junior in communications and president of The Orange and Blue Observer, calls the winner of the AK-47 raffle Thursday afternoon on the Quad. The Orange and Blue Observer, a conservative journal at the University, will use the raffle money to buy the gun and to help fund their paper. The Orange and Blue Observer (OBO), a conservative political journal at the University, staged a controversial raffle Thursday - first prize was an AK-47 assault rifle. Michael Hooper, a police officer from Mattoon, Ill., was announced the winner of the firearm by OBO members at a booth outside the...

PHILADELPHIA (KYW) Police and prosecutors concerned with a spate of killings in the city begged the public Monday for more help identifying murderers. District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham vowed that her office will protect witnesses, even if it means sending a moving van to their home to take them to safety the day they come forward. “We cannot only move you out of the city, we can move you out of the state; we can move you across the country,” Abraham said. Within the past eight days there have been 21 homicides in Philadelphia, including three in the late-night and...

NEWS RELEASE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms 12500 N.E. Tenth Place Bellevue, WA 98005 ILLINOIS ANTI-GUN ACTIVIST ARRESTED, CCRKBA SAYS 'WELCOME TO THE PARTY' For Immediate Release: March 1, 2005 The arrest of a Springfield, IL anti-gun activist by police who allegedly found an illegal handgun and drugs in her home during a contested search prompted the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to bid Annette "Flirty" Stevens a "welcome to the party." Stevens became an activist with the Million Mom March after her son was gunned down in 2002. She...

Looking for a ranking of states with liberal gun laws. Ideally, I would like to cross-reference them with states having excellent medical care (a la U.S. News). Alas, it seems the states with good hospitals/doctors tend to have the most restrictive gun laws. Yeah, thinking about retirment. I'd like to move to New Hampshire, but it is not famous for medical excellence. Thanks--

January 29, 2005 -- These are the thugs cops are seeking in connection with the senseless murder of an aspiring actress and playwright gunned down on a Lower East Side street in a botched robbery. Cops believe the white-hooded man fired the single fatal shot into Nicole DuFresne's chest. The bullet pierced the Minnesota native's heart and a lung, police sources said. Police yesterday released images from a surveillance camera showing five men and two women walking a block from where, just five minutes later, DuFresne, 28, was killed at Clinton and Rivington streets.

NBC News has been getting the vapors about the FN Herstal 5.7 mm pistol,a not-quite-new military weapon that has made its appearance in the US. The "Five-Seven" appears to use a cartridge somewhat reminiscent of the old Remington .221 Fireball: a fast-stepping smallbore of the 60's,designed for handgun hunting. The Five-Seven was specifically designed to defeat Kevlar helmets and light body armor,and,according to the FN-Herstal website,is intended for military and police use. The hefty pistol that launches it sports a 20 round magazine,and appears to come in single action or double- action-only.(FN calls it "simple action".)At $795 per copy,and with...

The City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed legislation that would allow crime victims to sue gun manufacturers and dealers who do not follow a set of selling and distribution guidelines. The sponsors of the gun safety package say that by restricting and punishing members of the gun industry, New York's streets will see significantly less gun violence. "Starting today, if they don't clean up their act, they're going to face stiff penalties in courts of law and have to pay compensation to the victims," said Councilman David Yassky, the legislation's main sponsor. Guns used in New York crimes are usually...

In the March 11 New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar notes in passing, "Most Iraqi households own at least one gun." This comes as a shock to those of us who've been hearing for years from the gun lobby that widespread firearms ownership is necessary to prevent the United States from becoming a police state. Here, via the National Rifle Association's Web site, is Bill Pryor, attorney general of Alabama, decrying the "war on guns": "In a republic that promotes a free society, as opposed to a police state, one of the basic organizing principles is that individuals have a right...

Police discovered a cache of weapons in the Rockaway home of a man pulled over for speeding, police said yesterday. ...Stephen Maloney, 45, has no links to any criminal groups, police said. Rather, they said, it appears that he collects guns and that he was carrying one in his car because he felt threatened by local teens with whom he had a recent dispute. advertisement advertisement When Maloney was pulled over Friday night at Beach 100th Street and Rockaway Beach Boulevard, he had a loaded Derringer -- an old-fashioned weapon -- police said. Later, as he was being questioned at...

Sunday, November 07, 2004 Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: Another four years of collectivist denial Democrats have a good explanation for what happened Tuesday: George W. Bush found 60 million Halliburton executives who benefited from his "tax cuts for the rich, for the rich, for the rich" and had them all vote for him. My made-up explanation is not much weirder than the post-election ruminations of the Democratic 527 committee known as "television network news:" The problem was they "didn't have a candidate from the South." (That must have been a Minnesota accent VP nominee John Edwards was...

A federal judge issues a temporary restraining order against a new Oklahoma law. The law allows gun owners to bring a weapon to work if it's kept in a locked vehicle. Strongly supported in the legislature and signed into law by the governor, House Bill 2122 allows gun owners to bring their weapons to work if they're kept in a locked vehicle. But many workplaces have policies prohibiting firearms on the premises. And officials at major area employers like Whirlpool say it's their right to protect their employees. So they took their case to federal court, challenging the state law...

A service station employee found himself on the wrong side of the law when he allegedly shot a suspected robber and ended up behind bars. Michael J. Budd, 27, of Amherst Street, who was arrested Monday, is accused of grabbing the gun of Joseph P. Davis, 18, of East Ferry Street, chasing him and then shooting him in the left arm. Police said Davis was trying to hold up an Elmwood Avenue gas station Sunday night while Budd was working. Davis, who was treated in Erie County Medical Center, was charged with two counts of robbery and criminal possession of...

Knoxville made the national conservative airwaves today after news spread that someone had shot out the door windows at the Republican campaign office.

Im interested in purchasing the romanian SAR-1 and SAR-3 Are they legal in Tx now? I suspect they are. Any help is apreciated

A psychotherapist was jailed for murder yesterday, after she killed a man with a shot in the stomach when he interrupted her in an attempt to kill the girlfriend of her former lover. Heather Stephenson-Snell, 46, the former president of an all-female chapter of the Hell's Angels, had planned to murder Diane Lomax and frame her former lover, Adrian Sinclair. Yesterday a jury at Manchester crown court found her guilty of Ms Lomax's attempted murder and the murder of Robert Wilkie, who left a neighbouring house in Radcliffe, Manchester, to see what the disturbance was. She had denied both charges....

Dem presidential hopeful John Kerry was seen this weekend touting a gun which would have been banned if legislation he co-sponsored became law... KERRY COSPONSORED BILL BANNING GUN HE WAVES!

Description: "The Bias Against Guns," John Lott, Jr.'s second book opposing gun control, discusses Lott's belief that liberals, both in the media and in politics, make a conscious effort to promote gun control and deceive the public. In a discussion moderated by Foundations of Freedom president George Landrith, John Lott presents the findings and conclusions of his book, taking the position that less gun control allows for a safer country. Lott discusses what he perceives to be the bias in the media and among the American public against gun ownership as a means to prevent crime and violence in the...

When they heard that shots had been fired at a barbecue at a house in Highmoor Cross, near Henley in Oxfordshire, a police team of fit, young men arrived with helmets, bullet-proof vests and Hekler and Koch submachine-guns. They had all had special training for dealing with dangerous situations. They had a mobile incident centre and full back-up. Georgina Gibson lives in the house next door to where the shots were fired. She is a woman of 58 with no training about what to do when faced with guns and no experience of violence. She had nothing except her wits...

I used to support gun control, meaning civilian disarmament.  There was no reason, the rationale went, for a private citizen to own a gun.  The only ones who wanted guns had small genitalia, were paranoid crazies, and criminals.         All this was assumed, without any empirical or statistical research to base it upon.  Due to the influence of one of my clients who is a person of great honor, I began to research the issue of gun control on my own.  Having been a college boy who loved library research, I knew how to ferret out fact from fiction.  It...

MALL STABBING LEAVES MORE BLOOD ON HANDS OF ANTI-GUNNERS, SAYS CCRKBA Thursday's brutal murder of 1-year-old Ashley Hurt by a knife-wielding man at a Midlothian shopping mall outside of Chicago is just one more reason why Illinois citizens deserve a concealed carry law, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said today. "This horrible murder adds another layer of blood on the hands of anti-gun extremists who have fought so hard to keep law-abiding citizens unarmed," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "If a concealed carry law could save the life of just one innocent child...