Free Republic

Daniele Perazzi, president of the Italian Perazzi Shotguns firm, was taken into custody yesterday by Adams County Deputies [see update, below] along with several prototype shotguns. The executive was picked up in the parking lot of the Denver Merchandise Mart, hosting the high-end Colorado Gun Collectors show this weekend, after a taxi driver, likely reacting to a suspicious activity reporting outreach program conducted by law enforcement, told authorities he thought he could be transporting an armed “foreign speaking” terror suspect. “He loaded prototype shotguns into the cab on the way to the Merchandise Mart,” gun rights activist and newly-elected National...

In this video, a group of officers arrive at a home and, through a closed screen door, demand that the occupants come outside. The unidentified man inside, along with his female companion, demand that the officers produce a warrant, but they don’t. When the police continue to demand that they come outside, and order that both occupants raise their hands, the man responds that he doesn’t live in a police state with martial law. He also warns the police that he is video-recording everything. Eventually, the police breakthrough a side door and tase the man with the video camera. It...

Some days one can't help but look at the headlines and think of Ayn Rand. With all the destructive measures by desperate governments from Cyprus to Argentina, it seems sometimes like we're reading from the pages of her seminal work, Atlas Shrugged. But what we're seeing now seems to have far surpassed Atlas Shrugged. We're definitely into 1984 territory. We've recently learned that the US federal government has (a) secretly tapped the Associated Press's phone records, and (b) used the nation's tax authorities to target opposition political groups. This is the same sort of thing one would expect from Belarus...

The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies. For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing “War on Drugs.” For the average citizen watching events such as the intense pursuit of the Tsarnaev brothers on television, it would be difficult to discern between fully outfitted police SWAT teams and the military. The lines blurred even further Monday as a new dynamic was...

TAMPA BAY, Florida (WTSP) -- A subtle, but significant tweak to Florida's rules regarding traffic signals has allowed local cities and counties to shorten yellow light intervals, resulting in millions of dollars in additional red light camera fines. The 10 News Investigators discovered the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) quietly changed the state's policy on yellow intervals in 2011, reducing the minimum below federal recommendations. The rule change was followed by engineers, both from FDOT and local municipalities, collaborating to shorten the length of yellow lights at key intersections, specifically those with red light cameras (RLCs). While yellow light times...

Gregory Dean, Jr. was pulled over in New Lebanon, N.Y., Sunday for a light on his license plate being burnt out. But what began as a simple traffic stop ended up with Dean being arrested over two bullets in his registered firearm, which put him in violation of the state’s new law, the Journal News reported. Last month, a provision in New York’s strict gun control laws went into effect, making it illegal to have more than seven rounds in a magazine unless said firearm was being used at a range or in a competition.

A NICS check consists of a database individuals who have been judged criminally or mentally disqualified from owning a firearm and is made on a purchaser (who has already been investigated for a permit) at the point of purchase. In most states, this is a 30 second phone call. New Jersey State Police have been taking from 10 to over 15 days to do the exact same processing. Based on the recorded answer to our query, we can only determine that this delay represents a blatant disregard for the individual, constitutionally protected rights of previously vetted NJ residents.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is apologizing for inappropriately flagging conservative political groups for additional reviews during the 2012 election to see if they were violating their tax-exempt status. Lois Lerner, who heads the IRS unit that oversees tax-exempt groups, said organizations that included the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their applications for tax-exempt status were singled out for additional reviews. Lerner said the practice, initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati, was wrong and she apologized while speaking at a conference in Washington. Many conservative groups complained during the election that they were being harassed by the...

A schoolgirl was told off by police for drawing a hopscotch grid on the pavement, according to her father. Officers even warned the 10-year-old she might have committed criminal damage as she played the traditional game outside her house in Ramsgate, Kent. … The angry father has lodged a complaint with Kent Police about their heavy-handed behavior. Authorities are now investigating the incident, and admit that the officers may have gone too far when they accused Lilly of committing a crime. …

A few days ago, I noticed this piece at FDL: "’Homeland Security’ Spending Overtakes New Deal"TomDispatch: this country has spent a jaw-dropping $791 billion on ‘homeland security’ since 9/11. To give you a sense of just how big that is, Washington spent an inflation-adjusted $500 billion on the entire New Deal.Two indicators of the expanding security state that caught my attention in the last few days:1. Glenn Greenwald: "Are all telephone calls recorded and accessible to the US government?"2. A massive lockdown in the Madison WI area (where I live).A fugitive, Paris Poe, whom the FBI wanted for parole violation...

A former FBI counterterrorism agent has hinted at a vast and intrusive surveillance network used by the U.S. government to monitor its own citizens. Tim Clemente admitted as much when he appeared on CNN Wednesday night. Discussing the Boston Marathon attack and past telephone conversations of Katherine Russell and her now deceased husband, suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Clemente said that those conversations would be available to investigators. Clemente discussed the issue in this exchange with host Erin Burnett, as recorded by the CNN transcript...

Just when you thought the crap couldn’t get any creepier in Obamaland, BOOM, it does and things just got a little bit more … how shall I say it … peculiar. Can we still use the word “peculiar”? We can? Good. Cue Twilight Zone music, por favor, and allow me to proceed. So, what am I talking about you ask? Am I referring to the forced lesbian kissing class in a Red Hook, New York middle school? No, silly. That was like two weeks ago. Duh. That’s so yesterday. Or, as Jay Carney said of the Benghazi Massacre, “That was...

Additionally, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office was slammed for keeping secret police files on private citizens.

Mayor Bloomberg today unleashed an attack on The New York Times, accusing the paper of hypocrisy for publishing an editorial against the NYPD’s stop and frisk policy days after the “paper of record” didn’t bother covering of the murder of a black teenager.

ames Eades of Augusta is charged with obstruction of a police officer, stemming from an incident during Operation Thunder, but he says there is much more to the story than that. Eades says that he and a friend were driving down Alexander Drive early Friday morning when they came to an Operation Thunder Checkpoint on River Watch Parkway. What happened during that stop lead to Eades getting arrested... and he says it's all because he didn't roll down his window all the way "We saw what appeared to be an accident scene. A couple of police cars with blue lights,...

A doctor confirmed to the worried mother that her child should not have been given antibiotics; however, doctors told Anna they wanted to perform open heart surgery on Sammy as soon as possible. At that point, Anna thought she may need a second opinion for her son – a decision her doctors were adamantly against. “If [they made] one mistake after another, I don’t want to let my baby have surgery in the hospital where I don’t feel safe,” Anna told News 10.

A retired Army officer wrote to a U.S. senator Saturday about his concern that the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to arm itself against the people of the United States. Retired Capt. Terry Michael Hestilow posted his letter to Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, on his Facebook page, noting that Homeland Security has made a number of large ammunition, weapon and light-armored vehicle purchases recently and has refused to answer questions about them. Hestilow begins by noting the large ammunition, weapon and light armored vehicle purchases recently made by DHS, as well as that agency’s refusal to answer any questions...

“This country is becoming a police state, and it is very troubling to me,” the “Real Time” host said while showing pictures of police officers patrolling the city and searching for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

The YouTube channel Patriot News Organization on Thursday uploaded a training video from the Department of Homeland Security that depicts a fake news broadcast about a police SWAT team raiding an American house and arresting "extremist" members of a “local militia group” for possession of illegal firearms and planning to commit terrorist attacks. “Very disturbing video straight from DHS website - they use it to help train all of the deputized agencies during a crisis, even hospital administrators, media faces, everything and everyone that would be involved in such an event,” reads the Patriot News Organization’s description of the video....

On the Friday broadcast of his HBO show Real Time, host Bill Maher opined on the police force used in Boston following the twin bombings and during the manhunt for the younger Tsarnaev brother in the suburb of Watertown. "I want to talk about the police," Bill Maher said. "I want to talk about the police, who I am a supporter of and of course, obviously, we all are. We would be in big trouble without the police." Maher proceeded to show images of what the police presence looked like in a urban city like Boston. "I mean, if this...

A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house. Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They intended to raid the home next door. The two officers, 25-year-old Kyle Shedran and 24-year-old Greg Day, were placed on administrative leave with pay. “They need to get rid of those men, boys with toys,” said Adams’ 70-year-old widow, Loraine. John Adams was watching television when his wife heard pounding on the door. Police...

The United States Army has blocked the website of the Southern Baptist Convention from government computers, saying the Christian site contains "hostile content." An Army officer assigned to a U.S. base said he tried to access SBC.net from his government computer, but instead, he got a message that said the site was being blocked by "Team CONUS": Team CONUS protects the computer network of the Department of Defense. "So the Southern Baptist Convention is now considered hostile to the U.S. Army...it just corroborates the recent string of events highlighted by AFA," the officer wrote in an email to American Family...

The terrorist attack in Boston and ensuing events in Watertown had everyone on edge, but shocking new home video from Massachusetts show law enforcement officers trampling over the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution – which guarantees “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures… and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” A video recently uploaded to YouTube by residents whose home was searched...

How is it at all legal for the police to have coerced people from their homes during the house to house search that was conducted in Watertown MA last week? By 'coerced', I mean being told to leave their residence by police SWAT teams. When you have 10 police pointing rifles at you, yelling at your to get out of your house, I'd consider that coersion. These people were removed from their homes and forced to go someplace else. It appears that they were not 'allowed' back into their homes for hours. How is that possible in America? Were homeowners...

The lesson for the rest of us is this: once a free people allows the government to make inroads into their freedoms or uses those same freedoms as bargaining chips for security, it quickly becomes a slippery slope to outright tyranny. And it doesn’t really matter whether it’s a Democrat or a Republican at the helm, because the bureaucratic mindset on both sides of the aisle now seems to embody the same philosophy of authoritarian government. Increasingly, those on the left who once hailed Barack Obama as the antidote for restoring the numerous civil liberties that were lost or undermined...

Here’s how same sex marriage will lead to a police state: First this article on Slate calls for the legalization of polygamy. The call for polygamy sort of springboards from the argument for same sex marriage. The piece argues from various viewpoints, but the underlying principle is the same: “Let us decide what marriage is.” Here is the defining last paragraph: The definition of marriage is plastic. Just like heterosexual marriage is no better or worse than homosexual marriage, marriage between two consenting adults is not inherently more or less “correct” than marriage among three (or four, or six) consenting...

Video warns military, too – D.C. lawmakers about to commit 'treason' “This is a message to every member of law enforcement and the military,” a sizzling new YouTube video begins. “You know you have a choice to make.” The video, produced by a man identified on Facebook as Aaron Hawkins, is a challenge to those who enforce America’s laws, warning them the day is coming when gun-control legislation will undermine the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and police forces will be asked to restrict or even confiscate American citizens’ firearms. On that day, the video warns, America’s lawmakers will have committed...

Governor Andrew Cuomo and his gun-grabbing allies are making some major moves in their efforts to violate the privacy of residents in New York, reportedly issuing subpoenas demanding psychiatrists turn over patient records to the State in the name of controlling firearms. There have already been reports of New York gun owners having their firearms confiscated in the State due to a provision buried in the State’s recently implemented draconian gun legislation, which permits denying 2nd Amendment rights to those who have been prescribed psychotropic drugs. A mental health provision in New York’s Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement (SAFE) act...

Is N.Y.'s Gun Confiscation Scheme Tied to Larger Federal Plan? Written by Dave Bohon A report from TheBlaze.com alleges that the state of New York is using its recently enacted NY SAFE Act as justification to confiscate firearms from law-abiding citizens — specifically individuals who have been prescribed anti-anxiety medication. But some Second Amendment advocates allege the scheme is part of a larger federal gun control plot. According to the Blaze, on April 1 a legal gun owner in upstate New York, later identified by a Buffalo newspaper as 35-year-old David Lewis, “received an official notice from the state ordering...

I just got off the phone with Army Master Sergeant. C. J. Grisham, a serving American soldier and veteran of the the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, who recently was illegally disarmed by the Temple Police Department while out for a walk with his son. “We live out in the country in Texas, near Temple,” he told me. “My son and I were on a ten-mile hike so that he could earn his hiking merit badge – it’s the last badge he needs to become an Eagle Scout.” But half way into the hike, Grisham said, “a police officer pulled...

ANDREA MITCHELL, MSNBC: Congressman briefly, do you think that this will lead to more cameras? I know it's controversial, there are privacy issues. Boston does have a lot of cameras. European cities, led by London, have the most. Are Americans going to have to get used to more surveillance on a daily basis?

Manasquan, NJ --(Ammoland.com)- Since breaking the story of NY State Gun Owner Daivd Lewis being ordered to turn in his gun’s by NY State Police skyrocketed to the center of the National conversation on Gun Control/Gun Rights last week, going viral overnight and being discussed as the lead story on “The Blaze“, “The Glenn Beck Show”, NY State talk radio, local NY State News Stations and the Megyn Kelly Show on Fox News on Friday. But now, even more disturbing revelations have come to light. NY State Talk Radio Host Tom Bauerle discussed on his program that several sources inside...

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The union representing New York State Police say they believe the state's stricter gun laws could put law enforcement officers at risk. In an email release on Monday, the New York State Troopers PBA said its 6,000-member group "holds widely shared concerns" about the NY Safe Act. Nonetheless, the union takes exception to some state lawmakers accusing the troopers of failing to enforce the law. "The individual members of this union did not write the terms of the bill nor vote on its passage," the release said. "We urge the citizens of New York state to remember...

<p>The two explosions at Monday’s Boston Marathon will lead to drastic changes in how large-scale public gatherings, particularly sporting events, will be secured, experts told FoxNews.com.</p> <p>Mike DeCapua, director of Public Safety Consultants NW, said major changes to how law enforcement officials prepare for and respond to emergencies at events with thousands of participants, supporters or bystanders will “absolutely” occur following the two bombs near the finish line of Monday’s marathon, which killed at least three people and injured at least 176 others.</p>

The Rhode Island General Assembly is considering a nine-bill package of gun control legislation ­— including a statewide assault weapons ban — that Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 announced with other legislative and community leaders at a press conference last Tuesday afternoon. “This is a conversation that’s taking place right now in every state and at the national level,” said Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport. The bills are the product of months of collaboration between legislators and law enforcement officials, she said. The call to action was in part inspired by the Dec. 14 elementary school shooting in Newtown,...

Key measures of New York's tough new gun law have kicked in, meaning owners of firearms now reclassified as assault weapons are required to register their guns. There are also new limits on the number of bullets allowed in magazines. The new provisions took effect Monday. New York's affiliate of the National Rifle Association says it expects to ask a federal judge late in the afternoon to immediately halt the magazine limit. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association says the law violates the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens "to keep commonly possessed firearms." Association president Tom King says...

So, about that "we'll never come take your guns thing." From The Blaze: On April 1st, a legal gun owner in upstate New York reportedly received an official notice from the state ordering him to surrender any and all weapons to his local police department. The note said that the person’s permit to own a gun in New York was being suspended as well. The gun owner contacted attorney Jim Tresmond (a specialist in gun laws in New York) and the two visited the local police precinct. Mr. Tresmond reportedly went into the precinct and informed the officers that his...

Joe, who is deployed to Honduras serving his country, was recently able to meet Beth and their 6 year old daughter in Pennsylvania for a family visit. He also wanted to show her the Philadelphia neighborhood where he grew up. It was to be a happy family reunion between a soldier and his girl. What could be more American than that? But now, she has an arrest record and is facing a felony charge that could imprison her for up to 15 years. How could this happen in a supposedly ‘free’ country? It is simple really. Beth took her husband’s...

The Internal Revenue Service doesn't believe it needs a search warrant to read your e-mail. Newly disclosed documents prepared by IRS lawyers says that Americans enjoy "generally no privacy" in their e-mail, Facebook chats, Twitter direct messages, and similar online communications -- meaning that they can be perused without obtaining a search warrant signed by a judge. That places the IRS at odds with a growing sentiment among many judges and legislators who believe that Americans' e-mail messages should be protected from warrantless search and seizure. They say e-mail should be protected by the same Fourth Amendment privacy standards that...

Yeah, this makes sense: A 10-year-old suggests a bully should be shot with a water pistol, so the police confiscate his father’s firearms and the State revokes his concealed-carry permit. It happened in New York, a State that is notorious for the difficulty it causes its residents who want to legally carry a gun and that recently suspended the U.S. Constitution and passed draconian gun restrictions. The father posted news of his plight April 1 on the Longislandfirearms.com forum. As much as he’d like it to have been a bad April Fool’s joke, it’s not. In addition to having his...

Remember all those who denied that firearms confiscation as a result of New York’s new gun laws was too “insane” to even consider? That it was strictly in the realm of paranoid conspiracy theorists and the “it cant happen here crowd”? Those were and remain some of the standard replies to anyone who even thought about the possibility, let alone gave voice to it, despite the fact that Gov Cuomo and numerous other officials made public comments about such a plan, as I discussed in my article “Feinstein & Cuomo Admit Planning Australian Style Government Gun Buy Back” . Elected...

And so this is how it begins: a man with no criminal record and no mental health issues is told by the state that he must turn in his legally-purchased arms to the state because they somehow accessed his medical records. Reader LC Scotty dropped this admission of tyranny into the comments of today’s earlier post: The NYS SAFE Act is billed as a necessary law to protect the public and keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people. But Hamburg attorney Jim Tresmond says his client was notified by letter that his gun permit was suspended upon...

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) - The NYS SAFE Act is billed as a necessary law to protect the public and keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people. But Hamburg attorney Jim Tresmond says his client was notified by letter that his gun permit was suspended upon the recommendation of State Police, who learned the man is on anti-anxiety medication."Claiming that he had taken some psychotropic medications, and that he no longer could be eligible for the pistol permit," Tresmond said.The permit holder lives in Amherst and Tresmond accompanied the man as he turned in his seven handguns used...

Long security lines, ever changing rules about what is and is not allowed, manhandling pat-downs... Thanks to the TSA, air travel is unpleasant enough as it is and now we have to worry about TSA agents stealing from us? And there's no way to NOT have them go through your luggage.They go through your checked baggage and rifle through your carry-on. You have no choice but to submit to this if you want to be able to board your flight.So what is a law abiding air traveler to do in order to protect his or her belongings from the very...

I'm presently looking to buy a WWII German Luger. Having just moved to the state of Illinois, I checked into the specific laws pertaining to the purchase and ownership of firearms. Of the many Draconian gun laws in this state there is one that is particularly onerous....Obtaining a FOID(Firearm Owners Identification) card. The law that the legislature passed states that the card must be either issued or declined within 30 days of receipt of application. The FOID sight states within 30 days of your application fee of $10.00 being cashed. An immportant distinction being that it took them 2 weeks...

Under the Patriot Act” the DHS has the absolute right to seize, without any warrant whatsoever, any and all customer bank accounts, to make “periodic and unannounced” visits to any bank to open and inspect the contents of “selected safe deposit boxes.

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper is expected to sign into law a bill that would give the U.S. Secret Service "limited" police power while operating in the state of Colorado. The bill, SB 13-013, which has already been passed by both the Colorado House and Senate, has sparked a firestorm of controversy because of fears that the proposed power could be used by Secret Service agents, acting on behalf of the Obama administration, to arrest sheriffs in Colorado who refuse to enforce unconstitutional federal gun controls.

Four Nebraska cops were fired over an incident in which they tried their best to conceal, including beating a man and chasing his brother into a home to steal his camera all while unknowingly being recorded by another citizen from an upstairs window. And another three officers were placed on leave and an additional officer was reassigned, according to the Associated Press. However, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer refused to release any of the officers’ names, meaning they will likely get hired at another police department in the near future.

A recent notice from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms reveals that the agency intends to acquire an online database capable of bringing up many of an individual’s personal characteristics and connections with just a few keystrokes. On March 28 the federal law enforcement organization, which is a branch of the US Department of Justice, filed a solicitation notice for a “massive online data repository system” for its Office of Strategic Intelligence and Information. The solicitation is hosted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, where vendors and developers can offer their services to the government in a competitive reverse...

A recent solicitation from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) reveals that the agency is seeking a "massive" online database capable of pulling up individuals' personal information, connections and associates. On March 28, ATF posted the notice on FedBizOpps.gov, entitled "Investigative System." The solicitation was updated on April 5 with a few minor changes. The document says that the system will be utilized by staff "to provide rapid searches on various entities for example; names, telephone numbers, utility data and reverse phone look-ups, as a means to assist with investigations, and background research on people, assets and businesses."