Free Republic

Gun sales and permit requests have surged across metro Atlanta since the Connecticut school massacre last month, a trend many say will continue as Congress considers tougher gun control measures.

In a new report heralded by the NRA, the General Accountability Office finds that the numbers of Americans with permits to carry a concealed weapon has surged and virtually every state now allows pistols to be carried under garments or even in a car glove box. "The number of states allowing concealed carry permits is increasing," said the GAO. The report included two shocking numbers: -- There are currently 118 million handguns in America, either owned or for sale. -- Some 8 million Americans already have a concealed carry permit, about 1 million more than previously thought. The report found...

If you’re the owner of an ice cream stand in Massachusetts and you make building improvements without asking the state for permission, you may find yourself on the receiving end of a prohibition-style shutdown. An ice cream stand in Great Brook Farm State Park, MA (of course), was shut down by state officials this weekend after it was discovered that the owner had made building improvements without the appropriate permits, lowellsun.com reports. “Mark Duffy, who has operated the dairy farm at the state-owned park for 26 years and has a lease with the state to run the stand, said armed...

With hundreds of applications flowing in every day, the Department of Justice last week issued the 100,000th concealed carry permit in the state since the law passed last year, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen announced Friday. Van Hollen said the department has been flooded with applications, reaching the 100,000 milestone in just six months. Van Hollen estimated the state would approve 125,000 permits by the end of the first year. Making the announcement in one of the DOJ’s rooms where the permits are printed off, Van Hollen applauded the efforts of the DOJ staff and law enforcement officials for making...

Energy: Small- and medium-size businesses serving Louisiana's energy industry are shedding employees, dipping into personal savings or moving elsewhere to stay afloat. The administration's war on fossil fuels is taking its toll. The federal six-month moratorium on drilling that was issued in May 2010, after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, has been officially lifted, but it might as well still be in effect. The glacial permitting process put in place in the aftermath in the name of public safety is killing an industry pledged to wean us from the "energy of the past" will not mourn. A...

Tea Party vs Occupy: Are Cities Guilty of Double-Standard?Posted in Daily Dispatch Oct 27, 2011 Tea Party groups across the nation are accusing local and state governments of a double standard – charging them fees to hold rallies in public parks, while allowing Occupy protesters to set up camp for free. “I find it extremely frustrating and upsetting,” said Colleen Owens, a spokesperson for the Richmond Tea Party. “It is definitely a slap in the face.” Owens is demanding a refund of about $10,000 from the city of Richmond, claiming her group was charged for rallies at Kanawha Plaza but...

The Richmond Tea Party is demanding a refund from the city for $10,000 it spent on for permits, portable toilets, police presence and emergency personnel for three rallies held at same plaza where the Occupy Richmond squatters set up their camp. The Republic reported: The Richmond tea party is demanding a refund of about $10,000 from the city, claiming it unfairly charged them for rallies while allowing the Occupy protesters to use the same space for several weeks for free. The political organization is sending the city an invoice for the charges incurred for three rallies held in Kanawha Plaza...

RICHMOND -- The Richmond Tea Party wants its money back from the city of Richmond for the cost of permits and other fees to use the same area in which Occupy Richmond has settled for nearly the past two weeks for free. The local branch of the Tea Party says it should be reimbursed for all the fees accrued and paid over the past three years for use of Kanawha Plaza, a city-owned square across from the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank and a few blocks from Virginia state capitol buildings. Occupy Richmond, an affiliate with the Occupy Wall Street movement,...

A new study by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates shows the current (slow) pace of permitting for Gulf oil exploration and production continues to cost the country in jobs, government revenues and oil production. “The moratorium last year halted drilling activity, but since the moratorium was lifted last October, oil activity has been slow to restart and this has had a negative impact on jobs growth and U.S. oil production,” IHS CERA managing director of global oil James Burkhard said yesterday on a press call. “There is what we call an activity gap under the new regulatory environment and this...

Two important pro-gun bills need your immediate attention. As we reported last week, House File 1467 passed in the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee by a 10 to 7 vote. HB 1467, which is sponsored by state Representative Tony Cornish (R-24B), is now before the House Judiciary Committee and will be voted on during its hearing at 8:15 a.m. this Wednesday, May 4. The Senate companion bill sponsored by state Senator Gretchen Hoffman (R-10), Senate File 1357 Senate File 1357, is expected to be considered by the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee as early...

In Boston, all politics is ’Loco A simple city event wound up pitting mayoral pique against a burrito maker’s overheated tweetIt seemed like a feel-good idea: Boloco, the hip burrito chain, would provide free burritos to the first 200 people who showed up wearing a bike helmet at Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s unveiling of the city’s new bike-sharing program.

This is not new information for those of you in Iowa, but since the Hawkeye State became “shall issue” at the beginning of the year, permit applications are up almost 400 percent and the anti-gun nuts are freaking out. It’s public information, they demand the “right” to know who’s packing. Since I pay a significant amount of tax dollars to the town, state and federal government, I must have “the right” to have provided to me a list of everyone who is receiving food stamps, enrolled in the Housing Choice Voucher Program (aka Section 8), receives subsidized school breakfasts, and/or...

As more permits are approved, fight over offshore oil drilling heats upBy Andrew Restuccia - 03/27/11 06:30 AM ET The rhetoric about domestic oil drilling reached a fever pitch in Washington this week with the Obama administration touting the approval of more Gulf deepwater drilling permits and Republicans countering that the pace of permitting is still too slow. The stakes are high for both sides of the issue, as pressure to address high oil and gas prices mounts amid continued unrest in the Middle East and North Africa. This week was packed with Obama administration announcements about drilling permit approvals....

While President Obama promotes offshore drilling in Brazil, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar now promises to revitalize America's oil and gas industry. It's like Jack "Dr. Death" Kevorkian promoting himself as a lifesaving CPR specialist. This week, Salazar announced that the administration has just approved the first deepwater-oil- and gas-exploration plan since last spring's BP/Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Mind you: This is not a granting of permits, but a green light for Shell Offshore to seek drilling permits for three new exploratory wells off the Louisiana coast. Shell first submitted and received approval for its original exploration plan in 1985. Salazar's...

Concealed handgun license holders would become anonymous under a bill approved by the Oregon House on Thursday. House Bill 2787 prohibits public bodies from releasing information that identifies who is licensed to carry a concealed handgun. The proposal cleared the House by a wide margin, 42 to 18. Oregon's public records law allows for public inspection of handgun license applications, which ask for character references, previous crimes and drug use. The application authorizes the sheriff's office to run a background check. Currently, applicants can claim personal safety reasons to keep information private. Privacy advocates say gun ownership is no one...

Two weeks ago, we asked whether Interior Secretary Ken Salazar considered himself above the law by ignoring court orders to resume the permitting process for deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Now we learn that Salazar may have misled Congress and the public on the number of drilling permit applications he is ignoring. Yesterday, Senator David Vitter (R-LA) accused Salazar, along with Michael Bromwich, the director of the new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Regulation and Enforcement, of using bogus figures. During Congressional testimony on March 2, and on other occasions, Salazar and Bromwich used much lower figures...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The housing market just can't seem to catch a break. The number of permits issued in February for future housing construction fell to a new all-time low, according to a government report released Wednesday. Building permits fell to an annual rate of 517,000 permits last month, down 8.2% from a revised 563,000 in January, the Commerce Department said. That was the lowest level seen since the government started tracking the figures in 1959, and much worse than economists had expected. Uncertainty about the job market and rising gas and food prices are still keeping potential homebuyers...

As Congress considers the Interior Department's funding levels, Salazar also said his department needs a larger budget to pick up the permitting pace. Without more funding, "we may never return to the pre-Macondo rate of permitting," Salazar said, referring to the spill at BP's Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico last year...

Blowout Containment Part of Drilling Permit SnagHead of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management Says Oil Industry Can't Prove It Could Contain Another Major Blowout Feb. 4, 2011 (AP) ATLANTA - Deepwater permits in the Gulf of Mexico have been withheld largely because the industry is unable to prove it could contain another major blowout at the bottom of the sea, the head of the agency that oversees offshore drilling said Friday. Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, made the disclosure in a letter he sent to executives at Exxon Mobil, Chevron and Helix...

Sen. David Vitter blocks NOAA nomination to protest slow pace of offshore drilling permitsBruce Alpert, Times-Picayune Published: Friday, December 10, 2010, 7:00 AM For the second time in recent weeks, a Louisiana senator is blocking Senate confirmation of an Obama administration nominee to protest the slow pace of permits for offshore drilling in the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This time it is Republican Sen. David Vitter, who is holding up the nomination of Scott Doney to be chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Just before Thanksgiving, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., dropped her nearly...