Free Republic

Rahm Emanuel does not plan to run for governor of Illinois. Not in 2014. Not ever. His proposal last week to register all Illinois handguns made it obvious. I'm sure that Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, wouldn't consider taking the step down to governor anyway — not any more than his predecessor, Richard M. Daley. You can be sure that Chicago mayors do see it as a demotion. Only one has ever stooped down to the Governor's Mansion and that was almost a century ago: ex-Mayor Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne served as governor from 1913-17. No wonder. Chicago mayors wield enormous...

The Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation has banked another check to cover legal fees in a federal gun rights lawsuit, this one for $12,000 from the City of Omaha, NE. While the amount is a fraction of the $399,950 payment received last week from the City of Chicago and anti-gun mayor Rahm Emanuel, it represents an equally-important victory to SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb. This column discussed the Chicago pay-out with a photo image that raced across cyberspace. The Omaha lawsuit was dealt with rather quickly late last year. It involved a legal resident alien, Armando Pliego Gonzalez...

Illinois state Sen. Jeff Schoenberg (D-Evanston) has endorsed Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposal to create a statewide gun registry in order to decrease gun violence, according to a news release issued Friday. Emanuel proposed requiring gun owners to register each handgun in their possession at a fee of $65 per gun. Currently, Chicago's gun control laws ban weapon sales in the city and prohibit people from taking guns out of their homes. For 28 years Chicago banned gun ownership entirely, until the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that policy in June 2010. Prospective Illinois gun owners must obtain a firearm owner's...

Rahm Emanuel proposes $65 per-gun fee and registry BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com Updated: February 10, 2012 2:19AM Illinois handgun owners would be required to register their weapons with the state — and pay a $65-per-gun registration fee — under a mayoral plan proposed Thursday to arm police with the information they need to solve crimes and reduce illegal firearm transfers. --- It comes at a time when the National Rifle Association and its allies among Downstate lawmakers are making a major push for concealed carry legislation. Illinois is the only state in the nation that does not...

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants lawmakers to require that all handguns in Illinois be registered with the state, or gun owners could face felony charges. A statewide gun registry is key in helping solve Chicago crimes that involve handguns from outside the city, and would also help crack down on gun trafficking, Emanuel is expected to argue Thursday. Under Emanuel's proposal, handgun owners would have to pay $65 for a registration certificate from the state, which would function much like the title to a car. Illinois law currently requires that gun owners and shooters have a firearm owners identification card,...

I finally got my gun in Washington, D.C. I brought it home today from the District’s firearms’ registry office. After months of aggravation, hundreds of dollars in fees, countless hours jumping over hurdles, I am now a gun owner and finally exercising my second amendment right to keep arms (bearing arms is still illegal in the nation’s capital). When I first started the “Emily Gets Her Gun” series, I thought I would be waiting in long lines and filling out lots of paperwork. I never could have imagined that the D.C. gun laws made it so unearthly difficult to get...

Two elections supervisors are taking action after an NBC2 investigation uncovers flawed record keeping and human error allowing people who are not citizens of the United States to vote. No one knows how widespread this problem is, because county election supervisors have no way to track non-citizens who live here. So NBC2 did something election officials never thought to do, and found them on our own. "I vote every year," Hinako Dennett told NBC2. The Cape Coral resident is not a US citizen, yet she's registered to vote. NBC2 found Dennett after reviewing her jury excusal form. She told the...

Owning a gun in the District of Columbia can be dangerous, because the city’s hastily drafted rules are putting the innocent in jeopardy. A gun owner who has cleared the District’s 17 registration hurdles still isn’t home free. To continue exercising the Second Amendment right to keep arms, individuals have to renew registration certificates every three years and show up at the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) every six years to be fingerprinted. The citizen is responsible for the fees in each case. The city council hastily drafted these requirements after the Supreme Court smacked down D.C.’s handgun ban in the...

The Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that a glitch in the state elections database is causing some Wisconsin voters to be listed in the wrong wards, municipalities, or school districts following the switch to the new, Republican-drawn maps in the state voter registration system. The GAB has known about the potential for error since at least Nov. 18, when the board sent a memo to county clerks saying it was related to the Census Bureau data by which voters’ locations were tracked. Previously, districts were assigned based on ranges of street addresses, which could be a problem if communities had...

I have often heard the antis bleating that “we register cars, why not guns”, and it might surprise people to know that I’m perfectly willing to go the “license and register guns just like cars” route. Under this plan, gun safety and handling courses will be available to all students 15 and over in the public schools, and kids will be encouraged to take Carriers’ Ed. Also, when they turn 15 they will be eligible for their learner’s carry permit which will allow them to carry concealed as long as they are under the supervision of a licensed adult. Parents...

Phillip Foster, 73, a retired Canadian diplomat, has been sentenced to house arrest after a 2010 self-defence incident in his home. Foster was attacked in his home by a drunk former romantic partner of one of Foster’s daughters. The attacker, Richard Dean Cantwell, assaulted Foster and was smashing Foster’s possessions. Foster armed himself with a .22-calibre revolver — a potent, if relatively low-powered, firearm. Cantwell attacked Foster, knocking him to the ground, and Foster shot Cantwell in the leg. Cantwell was able to wrest the gun from Foster, but fled the scene. He survived his injury. It’s hard to imagine...

The right to keep and bear arms only applies to certain people in the nation's capital. One of the 17 steps that I still have in order to register a gun in Washington, D.C. is filing out a “Statement of Eligibility.” The form contains 10 yes-or-no questions intended to weed out those ineligible to legally possess a pistol. Some of the barriers to gun ownership are expected. It's easy to choose ‘no’ for: conviction (or indictment) of a violent crime or weapons offense; conviction in the past five years of serious drug charge, assault, threat to do bodily harm; acquitted...

Canada’s firearms classification system was first created in 1969, and classifies guns in three categories: non-restricted, restricted and prohibited. • The non-restricted category includes most long-guns, such as ordinary hunting rifles and shotguns, ranging from simple bolt-action rifles to more sophisticated semi-automatic ones. Included in this category are many “civilianized” military rifles, such as large-calibre anti-material rifles powerful enough to pierce body armour, shoot down helicopters or penetrate armoured cars. These weapons can be transported at will, and even kept in the back seat of a car. To legally own a non-restricted firearm, one must pass the Canadian Firearms Safety...

Omaha, NE – Some gun owners are saying “no” to proposed changes to Omaha’s gun registration rules, and the city of Omaha says “yes” to a new health care program. The city’s proposal to revise Omaha’s gun registration rules had gun owners from inside and outside city limits showing up in city hall—all hoping to convince the city council to shoot down what some say is “redundant” to current state and federal law. Omaha currently requires every handgun purchased within the city to be registered for a fee. “It duplicates the investigating that the state does with their purchase permit,”...

NEWTOWN, Conn --(Ammoland.com)- Urge ‘Yes’ Vote on Hatch Amendment No. 770 to Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Bill Now Being Debated on the Senate Floor. BACKGROUND Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) is seeking to offer an amendment to the Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill now being debated on the Senate floor. Hatch’s amendment would permanently enshrine 10 different appropriations “riders” — essentially directions from Congress to the administration about how they must spend, or not spend, funds — into permanent law. Traditionally, each “rider” had to be reauthorized on a year-by-year basis. Some of these riders go back 30 years....

Today is the deadline to register to vote in Virginia, in time for the Nov. 8 general elections. Also, there is a new website for people wanting an absentee ballot: http://www.gopabsentee.com

Manassas, VA --(Ammoland.com)- I’ve long been fascinated by Australia and its people. A visit to that country has been high on my bucket list since I was just a kid, but more and more as I read about present-day Australia I am disappointed and saddened. It seems that the days of rugged individualism and self-determination are gone from the land down under and the heroic characters of the past like Ned Kelly and Banjo Patterson have faded into the realm of myth and fairytales. It wasn’t so long ago that the reputation of Australia included the belief that one Australian...

Pursuant to Cook County Judge Patrick Roger’s order, I was permitted to bring my four SKS rifles down to the Chicago Administrative Hearings office (400 W Superior Street) to admit them into evidence along with my own expert witness (big thanks goes out to Andre Queen of Fidelity Investigative Training Academy) and, most importantly, my lawyer (Joel Brodsky), who represented me at the Cook County Court appeal. Around 11am, I picked up my four SKS rifles where I had them stored (Article II Gun World), where they have been safely stored in order to protect Chicago from the threat of...

MARTINSBURG, W. Va. — No signs mark the outside of the hidden 1960s-vintage government facility in the bucolic countryside of West Virginia's panhandle. Even the parking lot is obscured by black tarps lining a cyclone fence. But just inside the warehouse-like brick building is the National Tracing Center, the epicenter of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' effort to combat and control illegal gun use. When police need to trace a captured gun - be it from Durango, Mexico, or Durango, Colo. - the request lands here, where 375 ATF employees and contractors handle more than 340,000 gun...

The concealed weapons file maintained by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation will be purged by June 30 under the "sunset provision" of Colorado statute 18-12-206(3)(b) by the 2007 Colorado General Assembly. Information previously submitted by law enforcement agencies regarding concealed carry weapons permits statewide will no longer be available, Chaffee County Sheriff Pete Palmer said recently. Palmer said the Colorado bureau will no longer accept or maintain future data. "All other provisions of the state law remain in effect," he said. Colorado residents will be allowed to receive concealed handgun permits and previously issued valid permits remain valid. The database...

LAS VEGAS -- Gun rights advocates held a form of a victory rally to celebrate a new concealed weapons law signed by Nevada Governor Sandoval. Their next target is repealing Clark County's requirement for gun owners to register their weapons with local police. The sounds of gunfire ring out inside Discount Firearms and Ammo's gun range. But the sounds that bring the most attention here are outside the range, at a rally held by the citizen's committee on the right to keep and bear arms. "There are laws in Congress trying to ban a lot of semi-automatic firearms by type...

I am a loyal reader of Guns & Patriots every week living in Brazil. As I watch what is happening in America, I am compelled to reach out my friends in America to share my story. What is happening in America, has already happened in another country, here in Brazil. If fall asleep on watch and let Hillary make the UN treaty gun control and you will see this coming soon. My personal story is simple, I have always loved guns, my father have always loved guns, I learned from him how to shoot when I was 8-years-old, and ever...

If you’re one of the nearly 71 million Americans who live in the four southwest border states, some of your gun purchases could soon be reported to the federal government. If you don’t like that—and no gun owner should—read on, because this may be our first big head-on gun control battle against the Obama administration. The fight began with a bureaucratically worded “Emergency Notice of Information Collection Under Review,” published in the Dec. 17 “Federal Register”—the daily publication where all proposed federal rules make their debut. It announced that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives plans to require...

AB508 would require moped riders to register their vehicles at the DMV (oh, joy!), pay a new Government Regulation Tax (license fee) and wear a government-approved safety helmet all under penalty of law. Yet another example of the nanny state running amok under Democrat leadership in the Legislature while Nevada continues to “enjoy” the nation’s highest unemployment and foreclosure rates. And some people want these busy-body yahoos to meet EVERY YEAR? Alas, as is all too often the case, we have some nanny-state Republicans who are only too happy to vote with Democrats to force adult citizens in the supposedly...

Do you like this article? “Comments for multiple rifle sales reporting re-opened,” Chris Knox of The Firearms Coalition reported yesterday. The comment period for the ATF’s proposed “temporary,” emergency regulation requiring firearms dealers to file reports every time someone purchases more than one semi-auto long gun was reopened, but that comment period closes this Tuesday, May 31. They share some disturbing, inexcusable news: During the last comment period on this gun owners were outnumbered by the prohibitionists. That should NEVER happen! We outnumber them 10 to one and our response to outrageous proposals like this should reflect that numbers advantage....

Copy the text of the email below or rewrite it in your own words and email it to: oira_submission@omb.eop.gov The comment period for the ATF’s proposed “temporary,” emergency regulation requiring firearms dealers to file reports every time someone purchases more than one semi-auto long gun was reopened, but that comment period closes this Tuesday, May 31. During the last comment period on this gun owners were outnumbered by the prohibitionists. That should NEVER happen! We outnumber them 10 to one and our response to outrageous proposals like this should reflect that numbers advantage. The ATF claims the reporting is necessary...

Do you like this Article? “IMMEDIATE ACTION ALL GUNS READERS,” an alert in the May issue of GUNS Magazine begins: A bill, HR 613, introduced by Congressman Anfuso, New York, in the Congress, would require everyone who owns a pistol to register it with the Director of the F.B.I. Every pistol would be registered separately, as to caliber, maker, serial number, number of cartridges held, and from whom the gun was obtained, plus "Such other information as the director may by regulation prescribe." What could be the reason behind such an effort? A purpose of the bill (Sec. 2, ff2)...

Assembly Bill 809, introduced by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D- Los Angeles), would require the state to keep registration information for all firearm transfers. Currently, California law requires persons who purchase or transfer a handgun to register the gun with the state. These gun owners are required to provide personal information that includes: name, address, place of birth, telephone number, and occupation. The law also requires gun owners to provide a detailed description of the handgun and the gun’s serial number. Under AB 809, the handgun registration requirements would apply to all firearms, including rifles and shotguns commonly used by sportsmen...

Do you like this Article? “A legally binding, global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is being prepared in the back rooms of the UN,” a new analysis by researchers Paul Gallant, Alan Chwick and Joanne D. Eisen warns. “One goal of the Treaty's proponents is to create national weapon databases, leading to regional databases, and then to an eventual global database.” “Countries will be charged with the duty to keep track, not only of all transfers,” we are told, “but also of the locations of all arms and ammunition, from manufacture to destruction.” What will the database contain and track? [S]mall...

The Obama administration on April 29 announced it will seek another round of comments on its proposal to require gun dealers in four states on the U.S.-Mexico border to report the sale of multiple rifles. Under the proposal, dealers would have to report sales of two or more rifles to the same person at one time or during any five business days if the rifles are semi-automatic, have detachable magazines and are a caliber greater than .22. The proposal was published in the Federal Register on April 29 seeking comments for 30 days. It was initially published in December and...

One gambit of gun banners is to promote “sensible gun laws” that increase firearms costs, ensuring that fewer Americans can afford guns. Yesterday, Congressman Mike Quigley (D, IL-5) announced his “TRACE (Trafficking Reduction and Criminal Enforcement) Act.” Ostensibly, this will “give the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) a greater ability to identify the source of illicit guns and choke off the supply to traffickers.” TRACE requires: * “A second, hidden serial number on every gun”. * “Maintaining background check records for 60 days”, instead of the current 24 hours. * “gun dealers to perform inventory checks to report...

The Assembly Public Safety Committee approved on party lines today two controversial gun bills that failed last session, including legislation targeting the "Open Carry" protest movement. Assembly Bill 144, by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, would make it a crime to openly carry an unloaded handgun in public. The bill language contains a number of exceptions, including exemptions for peace officers, military gatherings, gun shows and hunting. Former Democratic Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña introduced similar legislation last year in response to reports of gun brandishing people gathering in public places to protest gun-control laws. An amended version of the bill...

If you own a gun in Illinois, take precautions. The state attorney general, Lisa Madigan, wants to release the names of guns owners in response to an Associated Press request. Publication of that list would tell the criminal class where the guns are, which could be useful to two different sorts of lawbreakers: gun thieves who want to know where the guns are and burglars who want to know where they are not. New York City released its list recently at The New York Times' request. It included "dozens of boldface names and public figures: prominent business leaders, elected officials,...

The National Rifle Association has met its match in its pursuit of the Second Amendment: The First Amendment rights of doctors and the Florida Medical Association. So the NRA and FMA have agreed on a compromise to remove what many say was objectionable language in a gun bill that sought to punish medical professionals from inquiring about firearms in the home. To many on the Senate Health Regulation Committee, the bill was a violation of free-speech rights. So this week, it opted not to take the measure up. The FMA approached the NRA's Marion Hammer right after the meeting to...

Bill Introduced In U.S. Senate To Block Unauthorized Record Keeping on Gun Owners Last week, U.S. Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and John Ensign (R-Nev.) introduced. National Rifle Association National Rifle Association FAIRFAX, Va. --(Ammoland.com)- S. 570 — “a bill to prohibit the Department of Justice from tracking and cataloging the purchases of multiple rifles and shotguns.” The bill would prohibit the use of federal funds for a multiple sales reporting scheme proposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted an amendment with similar language. That amendment to an omnibus spending...

Obama used the op-ed to call for "instant, accurate, comprehensive and consistent system for background checks" and better record-keeping to "stop the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun."

President Obama on Sunday called for gun-rights advocates and proponents of gun control to find common ground two months after the shooting which killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The Arizona Daily Star published an op-ed by Obama on Sunday calling for stronger restrictions on gun sales to buyers suspected of mental instability. “A man our Army rejected as unfit for service; a man one of our colleges deemed too unstable for studies; a man apparently bent on violence, was able to walk into a store and buy a gun,” Obama wrote of Jared...

“Gun grabbers” is an inflammatory name for gun control advocates. After all, these firearms-focused folk don’t want to prise guns from [the cold, dead fingers of] Americans lawfully exercising their Second Amendment right to bear arms. No, they want to change the laws so that most Americans can’t get their hands on guns in the first place. Or if they can, these not-gun grabbers want to make sure that privately owned guns aren’t too dangerous; from the way the weapons fire bullets (never automatically) to the amount of bullets they can fire without reloading (no more than 10). And they’d...

First they came for our bicycles. Now they’ve come for our guns. One day after word leaked of a New York State plan to require license plates and annual fees for bicycles, information has gotten out about pending legislation that would register and attach a fee to every firearm in the state. Already one of the most anti-gun states in the country, New York’s move would all but nullify the Second Amendment. At issue is Senate Bill 2994, which is linked in its entirety at the bottom of this column. It would require every gun owner in the state to...

Gun rights blogger Thirdpower notes today the Catch-22 that some legislators in Illinois (and elsewhere) would like to impose on firearms commerce: When I've countered that while the same time the push is for all sales to go through FFL dealers, there is a simultaneous drive to reduce and eliminate as many firearm dealers as possible, I'm called paranoid. He refers to the nexus of bills like HB 1296/SB 2026, to require all gun sales (the bills say they refer only to handgun sales, and not long guns--more on that in a bit) to go through licensed dealers, and bills...

The Senate Judiciary Committee met this morning, February 16, 2011, to discuss three bills before it; SB29, SB88, and SB126. The most interesting of the three was SB126 which revises certain provisions relating to permits to carry concealed firearms. The bill was introduced by Senator James A. Settelmeyer (R – Capital Senatorial Dist.) and Senator John J. Lee (D – Clark County 1) in a bipartisan effort to bring Nevada into alignment with other “Shall Issue” states regarding conceal carry permits. Under existing law, a person who applies for a permit to carry a firearm concealed is required to list...

In a show of strength, approximately 4000 homeschoolers descended on the Illinois Capitol Tuesday morning to demonstrate their opposition to State Senator Ed Maloney's proposal to mandate the registration of homeschool students with state bureaucrats (SB 136).

Thanks to Gay Martin the Illinois Family Institute for sounding the warning about a new and ridiculous attempt on the part of state government to meddle in private education. The IFI's release: Bill to Require Parents to Register Their Children with State SB 136 has been proposed in the Illinois General Assembly by State Senator Edward D. Maloney (D-Chicago) that will affect all children in non-public schools, including home schools. If SB 136 were to pass, it would compel all parents or legal guardians of home or privately schooled students to register with the state. Registration that is now voluntary...

Arizona has common sense gun laws. The concept that the government could or should only “allow” certain people to have guns stands the very concept of American jurisprudence on its head. It presumes that the government knows all, controls all, and should be doing so. It is wrong and ineffective. It is crazy to set up a huge expensive bureaucratic system, require everyone to jump though hoops and prove that they are *not* criminals in order to try, ineffectively, to prevent the few individuals who are not responsible, from having legal access to guns. This is a failed paradigm, and...

Members from the Mayors Against Illegal Guns coalition gathered in New York this morning to advocate for a simple solution to cutting down on gun violence: just adhere to the existing laws already on the books. The group, lead by Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, released a press statement this morning calling for the government to crack down on background check loopholes. They are pushing for a stricter enforcement of the 1968 gun law that prohibits people with a history of drug abuse, criminal activity, or mental illness, from buying guns.

The defense authorization bill also contains a gun-control section that prohibits the defense secretary from requiring military personnel or civilian Defense Department employees to register privately owned guns stored in their homes outside military installations. It seems that in the wake of the Fort Hood shooting, a Defense Department independent review recommended a look at registering privately owned firearms by military personnel. Commanders of several bases, including Fort Campbell, Ky., and Fort Bliss, Tex., required registration of guns of personnel living off post. At Fort Riley, Kan., regulations required registration of guns owned not only by military personnel living off...

More on ATF Multiple Sales Reporting December 29, 2010 By Larry Keane An editorial in today’s Washington Post discussed the recent decision by ATF to require federally licensed firearms retailers along the Southwest border to report multiple sales, or other dispositions, of most semi-automatic rifles. Specifically this would impact .22 caliber or larger semi-automatic rifles that are capable of accepting a detachable magazine and are purchased by the same individual within five consecutive business days. Though the Post supports this ill-advised proposal, it did acknowledge the legitimacy surrounding one of industry’s objections: “When reports of its plan surfaced, the administration...

To stem the flow of guns to Mexico, federal firearms regulators are proposing an emergency requirement that certain gun dealers along the southwestern border report bulk sales of so-called assault weapons beginning as soon as January. Dealers would be required to alert authorities when they sell within five consecutive business days two or more semiautomatic rifles greater than .22 caliber with detachable magazines, according to the draft obtained by The Washington Post. Semiautomatic rifles such as AK-47s and AR-15s are favored by drug-trafficking organizations fighting the Mexican government. ATF chief spokesman Scot Thomasson declined to comment. The plan by the...

“Mayor Richard Daley expressed frustration today that the Chicago Police Department has not set up a database to let police officers and firefighters know how many firearms are registered in each home in the city,” the Chicago Tribune reports. “A key piece” in the mayor’s response to a loss in the McDonald case, where the Supreme Court ruled the Second Amendment is applicable against state and local infringements, “[t]he mayor said it would help protect first responders by letting them know what kind of situation they might encounter when they went to calls in Chicago residences.” That, of course, is...

While Republicans and the Tea Party movement are poised to win a sweeping victory on November 2, a large and growing cloud hangs over the entire election process. While it has always been with us to some extent, new technologies, new forms of voting and a Justice Department that plays favorites with Americans’ voting rights now threaten our electoral system and our expectations of free and fair elections. In an exclusive in-depth interview, Accuracy in Media talked to Hans von Spakovsky about the various forms of voter fraud that are happening today, with specific examples, and the potential for massive...