Free Republic

What do you buy your daughter to mark her coming of age when she turns 21? If you are Republican Senate hopeful Kari Lake the gift of choice is a 9mm Sig Sauer P365-XL Comp handgun, finished with flourishes of rose gold. 'My baby girl is growing up. I won't always be there to protect her,' Lake told DailyMail.com.

Houston’s ABC 13 pointed to Texas’s permitless carry law for handguns following Sunday’s rifle attack inside Lakewood Church. Breitbart News reported the female shooter, who formerly identified by the name “Jeffery,” possessed two guns when she entered the church: an AR-15 and a .22 rifle. ABC 13 covered the story by noting, “Texas is coming up on two years since permitless carry passed in the State Legislature, which has allowed Texans to carry handguns without a license since September 2021.” They elaborated, “Before permitless carry was signed into law, Texans generally needed to be licensed to carry handguns openly or...

In the debate about effective defense methods against aggressive bears, some people claim extreme speed and accuracy are essential to stopping a bear attack with firearms. Here are some quotes.From Efficacy of Firearms for Bear Deterrence in Alaska:The need for split-second deployment and deadly accuracy make using firearms difficult, even for experts.From cowboystatedaily.com: Many experts seem to favor bear spray. One drawback of firearms they cite is the inability of many shooters to make accurate, quick-kill shots under the extreme stress of a bear attack. From backcountrychronicles.com:If you shoot something as big as a grizzly bear and are not lucky...

Police have confirmed a legally purchased 9mm handgun was used by the attacker in Wednesday’s University of Nevada, Las Vegas, mass shooting. CNN noted that Las Vegas Metro Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill indicated the handgun, a Taurus PT92 pistol, was purchased legally by the 67-year-old suspect in Las Vegas roughly 18 months ago. When law enforcement indicates a firearm was purchased legally, they are indicating it was purchased at retail via a background check.

Below is my column in The Messenger on Hunter Biden’s curious new defense in the federal gun case: he had a moment of sobriety just before he signed his gun form. It appears that the defense is lifting Hunter’s blackout dates on his long addiction defense. Here is the column: Hunter Biden returned to court today on the felony indictment for his possession of a handgun, including allegations that he lied on an Oct.12, 2018, form by denying that he was a drug user. His counsel is expected to continue to insist that the form was accurate because Hunter had...

An Ontario, Canada, man whose right to carry a gun in his country was revoked, allegedly swam across a river to the United States, where he stole a handgun from a pawn shop before getting arrested. FOX 2 Detroit reported that Jeremy James Wallace has been accused of visiting Metro Pawn & Guns in New Haven, Michigan, on Sept. 6, where he asked to see a .22 caliber pistol. After taking a look at the handgun, he asked to see another gun. Authorities said when the employee went to get the other gun, Wallace grabbed the .22 caliber handgun and...

On August 25, 2023, near Kingston, Massachusetts, a bear attack was stopped with a pistol. The bear started by attacking a goat. Bear attacks against animals that depend on people for their protection are much more common than direct attacks against people. From Kingston Police on Facebook: Shortly before 3pm this afternoon KPD responded to Hawthorne Road for a report of a black bear attacking a resident’s livestock (goat). Initial investigation appears to reveal the following:Upon the bear attacking the resident’s goat, the resident attempted to scare the bear away, the bear postured up towards the resident and the resident...

A Washington County man was fatally shot Monday evening during an incident southwest of Salem. According to a news release from the Indiana State Police, detectives with the Jasper Post were notified at 6:32 p.m. that Washington County 911 had received a phone call regarding a shooting at 7783 S. Organ Springs Road. Washington County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene and found Michael T. Chastain of Salem had been shot in the front yard of a residence at that address, according to a news release from Sgt. John Davis. Davis, the post’s public information officer, said the investigation yielded...

A plausible fourth failure of a defensive firing of a handgun against a bear has been discovered. The fourth incident was found in the incidents discovered in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for a polar bear and human conflict database. The incident occurred near Churchill, Canada, as part of two incidents from October 19 to October 26, 1986. Bear spray had recently become available. There are two separate incidents. The first involves bear spray, which marked the bear. The second involved “cracker shells” and a .44 caliber handgun, probably a .44 magnum. From the FOIA, incident 41:October 19-26,...

U.S.A. — Seven times as many people have been killed by bears when bear spray has been sprayed in defense than have been killed by bears when a handgun has been fired in defense. Any comparison of the efficacy of bear spray and firearms is difficult. There are many variables. The data is subject to selection bias. The analysis of the data is subject to confirmation bias. Similar problems exist with the defensive uses of firearms.Fatal bear attacks are less subject to selection bias because nearly all fatal bear attacks are recorded.We nearly always know when bear spray was sprayed...

On June 13th, 2023, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to overturn the proposed rule of the BATF, which is set to make the possession of pistols with a pistol brace installed a federal felony, punishable with up to a $10,000 fine and or ten years in prison. The vote was almost entirely on party lines, passing 218 to 210. Two Democrats voted for the resolution, and two Republicans voted against it. On Thursday, June 22nd, 2023, the Senate voted against H.J. Resolution 44 by a razor-thin margin of 50 to 49. Three Senators, who were considered possible swing votes,...

On August 17, 1993, Stephen Smith had crawled into his sleeping bag a little before midnight, exhausted from a long day of research hanging in a harness, high above ground, banding sea birds. Only 15 minutes later, a polar bear emerged from the sea and was attempting to enter the tent. From Up Here magazine Jan/Feb 2013:Things were shaking, rumbling, vibrating – a space encapsulated, tumbling uncontrollably, like a car rolling off a highway. A roar beyond the edges closing in; unrelenting confusion; craziness. And then the instant where my stifled scream broke free and the dream was gone. Sitting...

Handguns have been shown to be effective tools when used to defend against bears. Seven years ago, whether handguns were effective when used to defend against bears was in dispute. In October 2016, someone on the Internet claimed pistols were ineffective as a bear defense. He claimed there were “legions” of incidents where they failed. He failed to provide a single documented case where a handgun, when fired in defense against a bear, failed to stop the attack. A group of people I worked with and I started to look for instances where pistols were fired in defense against a...

In the previous article, Allen Schallenberger, who did bear research in Montana for many years, recounted an incident where he fired his .357 Colt Python in defense against a large aggressive grizzly that refused to leave the area of his camp in 1976. In two other incidents, he fired his .357 in defense against bears. Allen recounts them in his own words below:In spring 1977, I was flying with a small plane pilot out of the Choteau airport to check on the location of radio collared grizzly bears. My spring helper Roy Jacobs and I had a few snares set...

Firearm purchase is at the center of a Justice Department investigation into the troubled first son In the 48 hours before Hunter Biden's handgun purchase that is now under investigation by federal prosecutors, President Joe Biden's troubled son was being hounded about hundreds of thousands of dollars he owed in debts, juggling texts from his brother's widow and her sister, who were also his lovers, and coordinating what appears to be a drug deal at a local 7-Eleven with a man saved in his phone only as "Q." Justice Department prosecutors are reportedly investigating the younger Biden for several potential...

On March 29, 2023, the North Carolina legislature overrode Governor (D) Roy Cooper’s veto, eliminating the unconstitutional state requirement to obtain a permit to purchase a pistol. The permit system was put into operation in 1919, with a resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan and racism, during the Woodrow Wilson presidency. It was in place for 103 years. It is a classic example of a statute that effectively chills the exercise of a Constitutionally protected right. To see how effective the statute was in chilling rights protected by the Second Amendment, consider handgun sales, as measured by the NICS system,...

One warm afternoon in May, Dwight Jackson was getting dressed for a visit to his favorite cigar lounge. He slipped his holstered SIG Sauer P320 pistol onto his belt, put on a button-down shirt and leaned across his bed for his wallet. Suddenly, he said, the gun fired, sending a bullet tearing through his right buttock and into his left ankle. "I heard 'bang!'" said Jackson, 47, a locomotive engineer who lives in Locust Grove, Ga. "I looked down and saw blood." His wife heard the shot from down the hall and screamed. She called an ambulance while Jackson hobbled...

A San Diego federal judge has issued a ruling that blocks four provisions of California’s strict handgun law, becoming the second U.S. district judge within two weeks to rule that parts of the state’s Unsafe Handgun Act likely violate the Second Amendment. Judge Dana Sabraw’s ruling in the San Diego case could potentially open the door for Californians to purchase hundreds of types of semiautomatic pistols that state officials currently deem “unsafe” and thus do not include on a roster of approved handguns. But the judge issued a stay on his decision, giving Attorney General Rob Bonta time to appeal...

A bit after noon on February 27 at Vestpynten in the Svalbard Archipelago (administered by Norway), far north of the arctic circle, a polar bear was shot during a conflict with people and dogs. Vestpynten is a small village in the Archipelago roughly 90 miles North and a bit West of Longyerbyen.The incident report was uncovered with a Freedom of information Act (FOIA) request by AmmoLand. Individual names have been redacted. The report was translated into English, so it has been edited for readability, and fictitious names have been substituted. From the FOIA account, incident 162:The bear was observed around...

As the research into how effective pistols are when used as a defense against bears has progressed, a startling progression has been observed. The recorded use of pistols in defense against bears has grown by two orders of magnitude in recent decades.As pistols came into common use, they were almost certainly used in defense against animal attacks. Portable, reasonably reliable pistols, which could be used as a defensive weapon against an unexpected attack, were unavailable until about 1534 when wheellock pistols became available. They were relatively expensive. Arms of the period were commonly privately owned. Some were likely used in...