Free Republic

Newsmax CDC: Armed Victims Less Likely to be Harmed by Attackers Saturday, July 20, 2013 10:24 PM By: Greg Richter A $10 million government report on gun violence ordered by President Barack Obama has concluded that people who are armed are less likely to be harmed by their attackers. President Barack Obama issued an executive order in January calling for the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Recent, highly publicized, tragic mass shootings in Newtown, Conn.; Aurora, Colo..; Oak Creek, Wisc. and Tucson, Ariz., have sharpened the American public's interest in protecting our children and communities from...

With the Department of Justice placing a hold on all evidence in the George Zimmerman trial, the neighborhood watch volunteer won’t be getting his gun back yet. But he could be getting a new one instead. A Volusia County gun shop has offered Zimmerman a free gun following his acquittal in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, according to TV station WKMG Local 6.

Nanny plutocrat extraordinaire, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has targeted yet another new windmill for his quixotic conquest besides the scourges of big bad sodas, trans-fats, salt, and elevators. Now he’s going after the Stand Your Ground or No Retreat laws to have them overturned. Hizzonor disparagingly refers to such laws as “Shoot First Laws.” From Bloomberg’s perspective such laws, “…can inspire dangerous vigilantism and protect those who act recklessly with guns,” adding that they, “…encourage deadly confrontations by enabling people to shoot first and argue ‘justifiable homicide’ later.” Got that? Apparently, the Mayor of New York City believes that the bad...

For the benefit of anybody who may not have figured this one out yet... Not that there is any shortage of middle class people who are into shotgun sports... But shotgun sports (trap, skeet, sporting clays) ARE in fact also a major hobby of the rich. Were team Obama/Holder to touch or appear to be playing any sort of games with shotshell ammo, I would assume that a significant number of the fat-cats who fund the dem party, not to mention dem pols themselves, would come down on them like a ton of bricks. Decent shotguns start around $1000 and...

The anti-gun crowd doesn't want "compromise." They want confiscation and control.In April, the Senate rejected the Toomey-Manchin gun control proposal. In the wake of its defeat many asked why gun owners and their organizations resisted so limited a measure. Granted, it would have had little but symbolic benefit. Its core was to require background checks at gun shows (which Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded involved a whole 0.8 percent of crime guns) and on Internet gun sales (a miniscule proportion, most of which probably go through licensed dealers anyway). But why not accept something so modest, in light of the...

GEORGE Zimmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter. The neighborhood watchman who shot and killed an unarmed teen in a Florida suburb on Feb. 26, 2012, was acquitted by a jury of six women this past weekend. Zimmerman is now free and his victim, Trayvon Martin, is still dead. Perhaps the irony – if irony is appropriate when an unarmed youth is killed – is that Florida has a stand-your-ground law and that Zimmerman supporters have used that as a justification for the shooting of Martin. But Zimmerman did not stand his ground; Martin did. The only...

Crime Man’s Defense Against Gun Charge: ‘I Did What Joe Biden Told Me to Do’ Jul. 17, 2013 7:00pm Jason Howerton A Washington man who fired his shotgun into the air to scare away alleged car prowlers pleaded not guilty on Wednesday, citing Vice President Joe Biden’s questionable gun advice as the reason he took that specific action. Jeffery Barton, 52, of Vancouver, Wash., is charged with one count of illegal aiming or discharging a firearm. He was arraigned in Clark County Court on Wednesday.

The Chicago city council voted unanimously on Wednesday to toughen its existing ban on assault weapons by adding more types of guns to the banned list and imposing stiffer fines for violations of the law. The nation's third-largest city is facing a wave of gang-related gun violence. Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago police have struggled to reverse the trend that has persisted even after they put more police on patrol in some neighborhoods. While official statistics show Chicago's murder rate has subsided somewhat from last year, injuries and deaths are common from gun violence, particularly in predominantly African-American and Hispanic...

In 1994, the United States was home to about 200 million privately owned guns. Today, that number has ballooned to between 270 million and 300 million. That's almost half of all privately owned guns worldwide, according to a new essay from the Brookings Institution.The essay, titled The Promise by Matt Bennett, looks back at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings and the way ahead for gun control. The piece breaks down some other big numbers surrounding the battle for more gun regulation: More than 10 firearm deaths per 100,000 Americans every year; 600 annual accidental shootings; 11,400 murders; about 31,000 total...

With the racist ruling by that all-white Zimmerman jury and Stand your Ground laws making Florida open season on our children, Moveon(.org) and Stevie Wonder are calling for you to boycott the state and not even go on vacation there. ‘We all are Trayvol Martin’ now and Florida will be sorry when we refuse to visit the state to spend our $$$. But that is not enough. All of you who live in Florida and joined the Martin injustice protests are still contributing to the racism by living there and supporting $$$ the economy by buying your hoodies and skittles...

RENO (AP) — A young man who bought a handgun from a Reno police sergeant was adjudicated as mentally ill by a judge and prohibited from purchasing a weapon, but his name was never entered into a background check system because of a coding error, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported Tuesday. Although background checks are not required for private gun sales, a coding error by the Washoe County clerk’s office prevented his name from being entered into state and federal databases, the Gazette-Journal (http://on.rgj.com/13gYX0L ) reported Tuesday. That means the 19-year-old would not have been flagged even if a background check...

Two Milwaukee men — each with a state permit to carry a concealed weapon — traded dozens of shots in a rolling shootout through two sides of town and down a freeway, the kind of scenario concealed-carry opponents feared would turn road rage incidents deadly. No one was killed or injured in the June 26 incident, according to a criminal complaint that charges just one of the men, who says he feels like he's being punished for being a victim. "I can assure you, he was definitely the aggressor," said Eric Adamany, 27. "It absolutely blows my mind he's not...

Since the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial, countless journalists and pundits have attempted to blame Florida’s laws for the outcome. All of these references seem to share a misunderstanding of those laws and the relevant facts. Salon’s Emily Bazelon claimed that people should “blame the state’s bad laws for Trayvon Martin’s death.” An even better example is the Washington Post’s Wonkbook: Florida’s gun laws, for instance, makes cases like this one likely and even inevitable. Would Zimmerman have left his car and followed Martin without the comfort of the cold steel strapped to his body? It’s unlikely. But Florida’s...

I keep read fools say 'what if tray was white and zimmy black?' Well, Carl Rowan got a pass even with an illegal gun!

An armed man dressed in black fatally shot one of the managers at the Family Dollar store at 4900 North 40th St. on Sunday morning during a robbery, according to Tampa police. About 9 a.m., the gunman demanded money from an employee behind the counter, when Horsley Shorter Jr. ran out of the store's office to help his co-worker and was shot, police said. The gunman then took the other employee outside to the victim's vehicle and ordered them into the trunk, police said. The employee pleaded with the gunman, who eventually left the other worker, shut the trunk and...

Police are investigating after three people were injured in a drive-by shooting in northwest Miami-Dade Monday morning. The shooting happened in the area of Northwest 21st Avenue and 62nd Street. One witness said she was woken up by gunshots around 5 a.m. The three victims were taken to Ryder Trauma Center,where they were in stable condition, police said. Police said one of the victims was 15 years old and the others were two men. According to Miami-Dade Police, officers had been at the scene and had broken up a crowd of about 20 people just an hour before the shooting.

President Obama called on the nation to honor Trayvon Martin a day after George Zimmerman was acquitted of his murder by asking "ourselves if we're doing all we can to stem the tide of gun violence." His comments came as family members of Zimmerman and Martin, as well as pundits, celebrities, and court observers had strong reactions to Saturday’s not guilty verdict, with those reactions taking various forms — from joy and outrage to Shakespearean references and calls for peace. "I now ask every American to respect the call for calm reflection from two parents who lost their young son....

Fla. mom gets 20 years for firing warning shots CBS News) JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - A Florida woman who fired warning shots against her allegedly abusive husband has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville had said the state's "Stand Your Ground" law should apply to her because she was defending herself against her allegedly abusive husband when she fired warning shots inside her home in August 2010. She told police it was to escape a brutal beating by her husband, against whom she had already taken out a protective order. CBS Affiliate WETV reports that Circuit...

Dallas Independent School District Police Chief Craig Miller announced that his district will not be participating in a new program permitting school employees to be deputized and trained to assist in providing security. “If schools are concerned about deterring armed assailants they should be hiring more police, not arming the teachers,” Miller asserted. “The notion that part-time amateurs could substitute for full-time professionals disrespects our profession. The use of deadly force ought to be restricted to fully qualified police officers.” The new law is predicated on the belief that attackers would be dissuaded by the fear that a widespread possession...

<p>EFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri schools will be encouraged to teach first-graders a gun safety course sponsored by the National Rifle Association as a result of legislation signed Friday by Gov. Jay Nixon.</p> <p>The new law stops short of requiring schools to teach the Eddie Eagle Gunsafe Program. But by putting it in state law, Missouri is providing one of the stronger state-sanctioned endorsements of the NRA-sponsored firearms safety course, which the group says is taught to about 1 million children annually.</p>

An old man lived alone in West Virginia. He wanted to spade his potato garden but it was very hard work. His only son, Bubba, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his predicament. "Dear Bubba, I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my potato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me. Love,...

Patrick Hayden expresses our appreciation to all involved in raising money for the Officer Ellis Memorial Fund and announces the winner of the rifle raffle.

One of the downsides of being famous is that folks pay far more attention to you than they should. American celebrities are constantly under surveillance, and every word they say is subject to scrutiny. So be careful what you wish for if you desire fame. No human being should be a goldfish. That being said, some celebrities simply cannot keep their mouths shut, weighing in on topics they know little or nothing about. And when that happens, the famous person often undergoes even more scrutiny. You may remember that in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., shootings, comedian-actor Jim Carrey...

The American Rifle and Pistol Association wants to be a nonpartisan alternative to the NRA, but critics are calling it a Democratic gun control group. When the American Rifle and Pistol Association launched July 4, it hoped to attract gun owners across the political spectrum who were looking for a "sane" alternative to the NRA. So far, that effort doesn't appear to be going well. [READ: New Gun Group Aims to Be Nonpartisan Alternative to the NRA]On various gun forums and blogs, the reception has been anything but friendly. Instead of being depicted as the new and improved NRA, the...

Ron Kelly, a 20-year Army veteran, recently tried to buy a .22-caliber rifle at the Wal-Mart in Tomball, Texas. He was turned away because he failed the FBI background check. He appealed the rejection, and last month he got a Justice Department letter explaining that he was legally disqualified from owning guns, after handling them in defense of his country for two decades, because of a 42-year-old marijuana conviction. As a high school student in Durham, North Carolina, he had been caught with a small amount of pot and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession, receiving a sentence of probation because...

DENVER, CO.  A Colorado federal district court ruled today in favor of a Colorado man and a national gun rights group holding that a U.S. Postal Service regulation barring firearms in its parking lots violates their right to keep and bear arms under the Constitution.  The district court ruled, “openly carrying a firearm outside the home is a liberty protected by the Second Amendment [and the] parking lot adjacent to [Avon’s Post Office Building] is not a sensitive place [such that] an absolute ban on firearms is substantially related to [Defendants’] important public safety objective.”  Tab Bonidy, who is licensed...

The number one goal of the United Nations is to become the political entity that rules all nations or in other words, the one world government. (SNIP) One of the key pieces of international law that needs to be in place before the UN can take over the world is to control all weapons, including handguns, rifles, shotguns, semi-automatic and automatic weapons and ammunition. Over the past few years, the UN has been pushing one treaty that will help to accomplish that goal. It is the UN Arms Trade Treaty. The UN Arms Trade Treaty is a treaty that would...

Guns: Illinois has become the last state in the union to allow citizens their full Second Amendment rights, and officials in the murder capital of America worry about the consequences of citizens defending themselves. Illinois' legislature on Tuesday voted to let gun owners carry concealed weapons. The action followed a violent and bloody Fourth of July weekend in President Obama's hometown during which 74 people were shot and 12 were killed. Permission for concealed carry in Illinois was prompted by a ruling late last year by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. It found that...

Post #10 by ScouseSniper on Illinoiscarry.com, under a thread titled "What is up with the Bloomberg Bus tour? ": "I have a cousin who lives outside of Phoenix who ran out to the grocery store the evening after the MAIG bus stop there and he saw the bus parked outside of a hotel. He was curious so he pulled in the parking lot to take a look at it. What struck him was that they had three, yes three, security guards who were FULLY ARMED with SEMI-AUTO PISTOLS keeping people at a distance from the bus. "So...let me get this...

Police searched the Northern Virginia home of libertarian activist Adam Kokesh Tuesday evening and took him into custody, according to a news release posted on Kokesh’s Web site.

Older men are at high risk of suicide, and they're far more likely to kill themselves if they have access to firearms. Doctors should ask relatives of older people with depression or cognitive problems if there are guns in the home, much as they might ask about whether it's time to take away the car keys, an academic paper says. "There's been so much attention to the role of physicians and the safety of young children when there are guns in the home," says Marshall Kapp, a professor and director of the Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine and Law...

The Washington Examiner has posted “20 bizarre pro-choice signs protesting the Texas abortion bill.” I already posted one of them, but here’s another that caught my eye, bringing new meaning to the term, “concealed carry”: r960-4389113ec6a7332e2a4abec9d07212cd The woman was obviously wishing she could quife a round at pro-life legislators. Perhaps she was responding to Texas Congressman Steve Stockman’s tweet… 2013-07-08_1715 Babies shooting their mothers from the uterus, pro-abortion women shooting politicians with their uterus… it’s the feminist era of the Wild West. It’s all a bit zany, but the reality isn’t. The umbrella sign above was unwittingly ironic. The uterus,...

Washtenaw County officials are anticipating a record year for the office that handles gun permits — and are responding in turn by requesting increased hours for staff. Since 2008 an increasing number of people have been filing applications for Concealed Pistol Licenses (CPL) in Washtenaw County, records show. In the first quarter of this year, there have been nearly double the number of applications during the first quarter of last year. Washtenaw County’s Elections and Administration Division processes the CPL permit applications. Staff is requesting the Board of Commissioners approve turn a part-time administrative coordinator into a full-time position to...

New gun group just like an old gun group? gun rights July 3, 2013 By: Dave Workman The newly-formed American Rifle and Pistol Association (ARPA) will officially launch on July 4, but already skeptics are wondering if this organization is not just a new incarnation of the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA), which turned out to be a front group for Democrats and soon vanished after the 2008 elections. The Shall Not Be Questioned (former Snowflakes in Hell) blog already suggests that ARPA is “the latest not-really-pro-gun group.” Washington Whispers notes that the Texas-based group “hopes to set itself...

As NewsBusters previously reported, actor Jim Carrey back in March called gun owners "heartless motherf--kers." On Sunday, Carrey tried taking it back writing on Twitter, "Asslt rifle fans,I do not agree wth u,nor do I fear u but I do love u and I'm sorry tht in my outrage I called you names": Asslt rifle fans,I do not agree wth u,nor do I fear u but I do love u and I'm sorry tht in my outrage I called you names.That was wrong. 3^{ — Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) July 7, 2013 Carrey followed that up with: Btw I don't need...

The current 'Gun control' push A cop's eye view By Massad Ayoob Issue #142 • July/August, 2013 First, a word of explanation. The reason "gun control" is in quotes in the title and in this sentence is because, for a very long time, the prohibitionists have made it more about control of the general public than about controlling criminal misuse of lethal weapons. Of late, the prohibitionists have played their word-spin again, changing the name of their product to "firearms safety" and "firearms responsibility." Um ... sorry. You'll have to look long and hard to find, among the ranks of...

In my first post, I mentioned that I grew up in a staunchly liberal family in the northeast reading comic books. I thought of the police as comic book superheroes that kept me safe and secure under the rule of law. Since we had these superheroes enforcing the rule of law, we were safe and secure with no need to have a gun. As an adult, my dad was getting older and he was living alone. Like many retired adults today, he was living on a fixed income and he was having trouble making ends meet; so, I moved in...

My last post talked about my epiphany that the police were not primarily responsible by law for protecting me or my family from criminals. The law says that I am primarily responsible for protecting myself and my family. I also began reading a pro-gun website called Keep And Bear Arms.com that featured firearms-related news. Among those news items were always stories about police officers that were accused of breaking the law. I found those stories offensive at first because I did not understand why they were included. Then, I read about “The Only Ones” Movement. That movement is a liberal...

Confessions of an Ex-Liberal Gun Owner – Part V – Lessons LearnedThus far, I have explained my journey from being raised an anti-gun liberal to becoming a gun owner. This change took time as I learned some important lessons following a violent incident near my home. Here are some of those lessons: 1. I am responsible to protect myself and for the security of my family and my property. 2. The police are not legally responsible for protecting an individual or their personal property. 3. The police have a legal duty to keep the peace in a general sense, not...

A growing number of Americans are getting permission to carry firearms in public—and under their clothes—a development that has sparked concern among some law-enforcement authorities. Applications for "concealed-carry" permits are soaring in many states, some of which recently eased permit requirements. [snip] Research is split on whether more armed citizens deter or exacerbate gun violence. Economist John Lott, a conservative commentator and author of "More Guns, Less Crime," said data show concealed-carry laws reduce violent crime. [snip] n 2008 and 2010 rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the Second Amendment to the Constitution grants broad license to keep and...

Firearms sales have been on the up and up since President Obama was elected in 2008, and the federal government’s attempt to pass more national gun-control measures did nothing to quell the firearms industry’s personal economic boom. It isn’t merely gun sales, however, that have lately been experiencing a major surge; the WSJ has the numbers indicating an encouraging trend of more and more Americans taking the responsibility of carrying a concealed weapon upon their person. We’re only halfway through 2013, and it already looks like plenty of states are on track for their biggest permitting years on record: Since...

The FBI and Seattle authorities were investigating a Nevada man who was arrested after he was spotted on the University of Washington campus in a stolen truck carrying multiple explosive devices, stolen firearms and body armor, police said Thursday. The man was arrested a few blocks away after a police pursuit near Seattle Children's Hospital late Wednesday, said John Vinson, chief of the University of Washington police. He gave no further details of the pursuit, but he described the arrest as "high-risk." Justin Miles Jasper was arrested early Thursday and was being held without bail in the King County jail...

A man is beginning a 13-year jail term after a large stash of firearms and ammunition were found in his Salford house. Paul Gribbin (born 31/12/1970), of Lascar Avenue, Salford, pleaded guilty to nine offences of possession of a prohibited weapon. He was today, at Manchester Crow Court, Crown Square, sentenced to 13 years in total, six-and-a-half years each for possession of an assault rifle and the seven offences of possession of prohibited weapons and three years for possession of a Ruger rifle, to run concurrently.

Former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords kicked off a seven-state tour Monday to advocate for universal gun background checks. Giffords and husband Mark Kelly started their day in Las Vegas demonstrating that they, too, are gun owners. Giffords fired a gun at a shooting range. It's the first time she's used a gun since a deranged gunman shot her in the head in 2011. A dozen other people were also wounded and six more were killed. Giffords, who's still recovering from the attack, is speaking up for change....

<p>Tucson Gun Rights Examiner Chris Woodard alerted readers Friday to some of the most recently introduced federal gun bills (both anti-rights and pro-rights). In fact, his Constitution Watch blog is a great resource for keeping current on pending federal gun legislation. Today, we will focus on Representative Jackie Speier's (D-CA) H.R. 2566, the "Modernized Law Enforcement Officers Protection Act of 2013."</p>

Lawmaker says Quinn to amend concealed carry bill By Associated Press Gov. Pat Quinn will put an end Tuesday to weeks of speculation and waiting by using his amendatory veto powers to rewrite legislation allowing the concealed carry of weapons in Illinois, the bill's sponsor says. State Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Harrisburg Democrat, said the governor's office told him Quinn will sign an amended bill Tuesday — seven days before a July 9 deadline to legalize carry of weapons after a federal appeals court found Illinois' last-in-the-nation ban unconstitutional. Phelps said he was not told what will be changed but...

<p>A minor league baseball team in Alabama shot down a “Second Amendment Night” promotion after receiving national criticism for their plan to raffle three weapons.</p> <p>The Huntsville Stars canceled Wednesday’s night’s promotion after getting counsel from the Southern League and Minor League Baseball headquarters, a team spokesperson told Fox News.</p>

20-year-old Elizabeth Daly was driving out of the convenience store parking lot when one man jumped on the hood of her car while another PULLED A GUN ON HER. Turns out, they were agents with Virginia's Alcoholic Beverage Control, but because they were in plain clothes, Elizabeth and her roommates were completely confused and terrified.

Democratic Rep. Michael H. Michaud’s Thursday announcement that he is exploring a run for governor in Maine could spark crowded primaries for his competitive 2nd District. Michaud has won that district with comfortable margins for six terms, but his seat could be competitive if he launches a gubernatorial bid. President Barack Obama won it with 53 percent last year. “This obviously becomes a nationally targeted race if Michaud runs for governor,” said Erik Potholm, a Republican consultant who has worked extensively in Maine politics. “For Republicans, it’s a tremendous opportunity to pick up a new seat, because the … rural...