Free Republic

Canada bankrolled man's aid agency during that time U.S. authorities have tied a Canadian aid worker to the al-Qaeda terrorist network as far back as 1988, almost a decade before the Canadian government cut off funding to his Ottawa-based Muslim charity. Evidence unsealed by a U.S. judge in Chicago shows Ahmed Said Khadr had dealings with senior al-Qaeda leaders while being financed by the Canadian International Development Agency. Although CIDA stopped giving aid money to Mr. Khadr in 1997 after he was arrested for allegedly bombing an embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, the documents allege he was working with al-Qaeda long...

AP Sources: 1 rampage gun purchased legally By LARA JAKES and DEVLIN BARRETT (AP) – 20 minutes ago WASHINGTON — A 5.7-millimeter pistol used in the Fort Hood shooting was purchased legally by suspect Nidal Hasan at a Texas gun shop, law enforcement officials said Friday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Records indicate Hasan bought the FN 5.7 at store called "Guns Galore" in Killeen, Texas, well before the attack that left 13 people dead, one of the officials said. The pistol has been dubbed a "cop killer" by...

I asked this question last week of the candidates for President now campaigning in Iowa, and I think that for most of the American people [pdf] the answer is clearly “no.” In the last ten days, two states in the heart of the country have sustained mass shootings by people armed with military-style assault rifles – two attacks with assault weapons in less than a week. One shooter attacked a mall full of employees and Christmas shoppers in Omaha. The other attacked a church in Colorado. Together, they left twelve people dead.Yet today assault weapons remain perfectly legal to buy...

The growing traffic congestion in Texas is a multipronged problem that cannot be solved by one policy. At a time when toll roads appear to be state leadership's primary answer to the dilemma, a bill proposed by Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, has merit. The legislation would index the gas tax to the Highway Cost Index, or the cost of highway construction over time. According to Carona's office, the bill by 2030 would generate about $16 billion in gas tax revenue — or 31/2 times more than the current gas tax would. Not only would more money be available for transportation...

September 5th , 2006 Contact: Sue Peschin CeaseFire MD Board Member (301) 802-4850 BALTIMORE, MD:One semiautomatic assault rifle was traced to a Maryland crime every 48 hours, according to a study by CeaseFire Maryland, Inc. released today. The data, from the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) show that 789 assault rifles were traced to crime in Maryland from January 2, 1998 to December 31, 2001, but the actual number of assault weapons traced to crime in the state is likely to be higher. “With assault weapons being traced to crime in Maryland an average of every...

NEW YORK -- The Bloomberg administration today announced a federal lawsuit against 15 out-of-state gun shops where it said firearms are sold illegally, and in some cases, end up in the hands of New York City criminals. The city is suing gun dealers in Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Virginia that it says supply a significant portion of the guns that flow into New York. The suit asks the court to halt illegal sales and requests supervision and extra training for the dealers. It also seeks some damages and compensation. The lawsuit is being Monday in federal court in...

A NATION OF COWARDS Jeffrey R. Snyder OUR SOCIETY has reached a pinnacle of self-expression and respect for individuality rare or unmatched in history. Our entire popular culture -- from fashion magazines to the cinema -- positively screams the matchless worth of the individual, and glories in eccentricity, nonconformity, independent judgment, and self-determination. This enthusiasm is reflected in the prevalent notion that helping someone entails increasing that person's "self-esteem"; that if a person properly values himself, he will naturally be a happy, productive, and, in some inexplicable fashion, responsible member of society. And yet, while people are encouraged to revel...

<p>An arsenal of exotic weapons - including a sniper rifle, a spear and a set of 8-inch metal claws - were seized from a 23-year-old Jersey City man after his worried father called cops. When South District cops responded to the Greenville home yesterday morning, they found the sniper rifle - with a powerful scope and a laser sight - as well as three Glock handguns and more than 1,200 rounds of ammunition, reports said. Among the bullets were illegal "hollow-point" rounds, police said. In addition to the spear and metal claws, cops found a number of savage-looking knives, including one that had blades coming out of each end of its carved wooden handle. The owner of the weapons lived with his father, his brother and two younger brothers, police said.</p>

This 4th of July, while you and your family celebrate the 230th Anniversary of the founding of our great nation, there’s one party you won’t be invited to... ...And that’s the party that Kofi Annan is throwing at United Nations headquarters in New York — using your tax dollars — for nearly fifty dictatorships, six terrorist states, governments that endorse execution based on religious faith, and a multitude of other nations from around the globe. You see, this party isn’t to honor your freedoms -- but to conspire to take them away. That’s right. Over our 4th of July holiday,...

Handling a gun stirs a hormonal reaction in men that primes them for aggression, new research suggests. Psychologists at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., enrolled 30 male students in what they described as a taste study. The researchers took saliva samples from the students and measured testosterone levels. They then seated the young men, one at a time, at a table in a bare room; on the table were pieces of paper and either the board game Mouse Trap or a large handgun. Their instructions: take apart the game or the gun and write directions for assembly and disassembly. Fifteen...

TALLAHASSEE A bill being pushed by the NRA to allow people to keep guns in their cars on workplace parking lots faces a tough challenge from the powerful Florida Chamber of Commerce. TALLAHASSEE - The National Rifle Association is pushing a bill that would penalize Florida employers with prison time and lawsuits if they prohibit people from keeping guns in their cars at workplace parking lots. But the proposal is facing stiff opposition from a group just as powerful in the state capital as the NRA: Florida's biggest business lobby. Mark Wilson, a vice president of Florida's Chamber of Commerce,...

GERMANTOWN, Md. (AP) -- A gun brought to a day care center by an 8-year-old boy accidentally went off Tuesday, wounding a 7-year-old girl in the arm, police said. The boy had the gun in a backpack and was playing with it when it went off at the For Kids We Care center, Montgomery County police spokesman Derek Baliles said. The girl was taken to Children's Hospital in Washington, he said. Her injury was not considered life-threatening. There were six children in the center at the time of the shooting, which happened around 7 a.m. No one else was hurt....

Abdullah Khadr at large: Brothers were caught in Afghanistan, father is wanted for aiding Osama bin Laden The federal government released secret intelligence documents yesterday revealing that an al-Qaeda training camp in eastern Afghanistan was under the command of a Scarborough man whose two brothers are captives in the war on terrorism. Abdullah Khadr, 22, is described in a Privy Council Office intelligence report as a suspected al-Qaeda member who is thought to have "commanded an extremist training camp in Lowgar Province in Afghanistan." He is the fourth member of the Khadr family to come to the attention of Canadian...

I've grown up in Oklahoma and went through Boy Scouts (am an Eagle Scout) learning to shoot various types of firearms but haven't even touched one in 5+ years. Now that I'm about to leave college I'm thinking of getting a firearm of some kinda but don't know where to start. What should I be looking at and why?

A gun-control group and its political action committee have paid a $12,000 fine to settle a campaign finance case from the 2000 election. At issue were ads and endorsements by the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its Brady Voter Education Fund involving various Democratic candidates in 2000. The American Conservative Union, in a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, accused the Brady organizations of making illegal corporate contributions to the Democrats' campaigns. The FEC disclosed the outcome of the case Thursday. ===== The Brady Campaign is named after Jim Brady and his wife Sarah. Jim Brady, press secretary...

IF IT QUACKS LIKE A DUCK... The Capitol Hill newspaper, Roll Call, reported on May 2, on an upstart "centrist" advocacy (read: lobbying) group known as "Third Way." The group's co-founders, Matt Bennett, Jonathan Cowan, and Jim Kessler should be familiar to readers of the Grassroots Alert. All previously worked for "Americans For Gun Safety" (AGS), an organization that was founded in 2000 under the guise that it too would be a "centrist" group on gun issues. A little more background on each may give those who believe they are centrists a bit of pause (at least on gun issues)....

Every product has illegitimate uses and undesirable consequences, but even lawsuits have had their limits. In 2002 in the U.S., car accidents killed 45,380 people and injured another 3 million, 838 children under the age of 15 drowned, 474 children died from residential fires, and 130 children died in bicycle accidents. Fortunately, local governments haven’t started recouping medical costs or police salaries by suing auto or bicycle companies, pool builders or makers of home heaters. All sorts of products, including cars and computers, are also used in the commission of crimes. But again, no one yet seriously proposes that these...

This is a breaking news situation. A man entered a courtroom in the Fulton County Courthouse this morning and shot a Fulton County Sheriff's deputy, a clerk and a judge; there are reports from both WSB and WAGA, the judge is deceased. The perp has carjacked multiple vehicles -- now on his third -- and is still at large. I've just come from downtown Atlanta, and the city is a madhouse.

Jef Raskin, the human-computer interface expert largely credited with beginning the Macintosh project for Apple Computer, died Saturday at age 61. Raskin, the author of The Humane Interface, died of cancer, according to a man who answered the telephone Sunday at Raskin's Pacifica, Calif., home. Raskin joined Apple in January 1978 as employee No. 31, but left the company in 1982 amid a well-documented dispute with Steve Jobs. The Macintosh was launched in 1984. Reskin was an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, and a visiting scholar at the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the 1970s when...

Bill Summary - A03371 A03371 Summary: Rpld S265.00 sub 22 (e) sub (iv) & (v), amd SS265,00, 265.20 & 400.05, Pen L Adds semiautomatic rifles, shotguns or pistols or a replica or a duplicate thereof manufactured on October 1, 1993 and semiautomatic rifles, shotguns or semiautomatic pistols lawfully possessed prior to September 14, 1994 to the definition of assault weapon; provides for the superintendent of the division of state police to accept surrendered assault weapons; declares such assault weapons surrendered a nuisance. A03371 Actions: 02/02/2005 referred to codes A03371 Votes: A03371 Memo: TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the...