Free Republic

We are not better than that, and this is who we are. We’re fighting back, no matter how much and how shrilly the Fredocons complain. We’re Normal Americans and we’re done being the guests of honor at the liberals’ witch burnings.Case in point, one James Gunn. He’s a tiresome lefty jerk who jumped on Twitter to cheer Rosanne’s recent defenestration by the SJW mob. Except it turns out he had a whole bunch of icky tweets from a decade ago lurking on the Interwebs, and some conservatives dug them up. Oops. He just had his pointy head stuck on a...

When convicted bank robber Luis Marty Narvaez walked into the Far East Side Madison branch of Chase Bank on the morning of March 1, 24-year-old Charles Daehling was just weeks into his position as an armed, undercover security guard working without a state license and under contract to an unlicensed and now-defunct Nebraska security firm. Narvaez’s head and face were covered with a black cap and black mask as he briskly stepped to a window where a teller was already helping a customer, stuck a bag under the window and demanded money but never displayed a weapon, according to a...

Saying he “can’t think of a worse crime for someone to commit” in a city besieged by violence, a federal judge on Wednesday sentenced an Arkansas man to more than seven years in federal prison for selling military-style semi-automatic rifles and other guns to a felon in Chicago. In handing down the 87-month sentence, U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman told Klint Kelley that his actions undoubtedly contributed to the city’s “intolerable level of gun violence,” even though the guns he trafficked weren’t directly connected to a shooting. As more than a dozen of Kelley’s relatives and supporters — most of...

Police in New Jersey have officially crossed the [thin blue] line and literally attempted to confiscate guns from an army veteran without a warrant. But it didn’t go as planned, because Leonard Cottrell Jr. refused to comply with the orders of the cops. Eventually, all gun confiscation will be carried out by the police; who of “don’t make the laws, they just enforce them,” and Cottrell found this out the hard way. After serving two tours in Operation Iraqi Freedom overseas, Cottrell found himself at end of the state’s tyrannical oppression and gun elimination scheme.

'Why do teachers have to die protecting their students? Why can't we live protecting our students?' In the weeks and months since the school shootings in Parkland, Florida, and Santa Fe, Texas, the debate over whether teachers should be able to carry firearms in schools has received a great deal of attention. A number of states have allowed teachers to carry firearms in schools for years and provide some insight into how such programs work in practice and what motivates teachers who want to be armed. In Colorado, local school districts have the authority to but are not required to...

DOUGLAS COUNTY, COLORADO — A man went on a wild ride after stealing a vehicle, shooting at passing vehicles as he drove, and then ended up at a camp ground to continue his crime spree. He wasn’t prepared for what he was about to encounter, but the other person was. The suspect, a 29-year-old male, drove the stolen vehicle into the Pike National Forest, shooting at passing vehicles. He ultimately stopped the vehicle at a Devil’s Head Campground and approached an unsuspecting camper with a rifle, which began a confrontation. As the confrontation ensued the rifle was pointed at the...

"I thank God that the one waitress had a concealed carry and pulled out her gun. I shudder to think what might have happened had she not been able to do that. What this guy would've done," Donovan said. Another worker, who pulled out a gun and pointed it at the man to get him away from the victim, has quit

FASTER Colorado's active shooter training for teachers. Last week I went through the training many of the teachers who are authorized to carry a gun in Colorado schools go through. In the wake of the devastating school shootings in Parkland, Fla., and Santa Fe, Tex., many different solutions have been proposed for how to stop or at least curb the violence inflicted by active shooters. Among the most prominent solutions—thanks in large part to President Trump's advocacy—is arming teachers. Most, however, don't understand how arming teachers works in person or that a number of states already allow certain teachers to...

Gun sales have remained strong during the Trump era. Through the end of May, 2018 is trending to be the second highest year on record. The NICS checks through May of 2018 are 97% of those of 2016. Political writers and gun industry writers, and those who are both, have speculated that politics have been the major driver of guns sales for the last decade. The latest Rassmussen poll shows evidence of a deeper reason people would fear to be disarmed. From rasmussenreports.com: Thirty-one percent (31%) of Likely U.S. Voters say it’s likely that the United States will experience...

<p>After her graduation photos with an AR-10 rifle went viral, Kent State graduate Kaitlin Bennett received countless death threats online from leftists. While many of these threats have come from incensed, anonymous liberals from all over the country, this past weekend Bennett received a much more credible one from just across a restaurant booth.</p>

A store owner in Australia recently proved an ax-wielding robber was no match for tuna fish and Pringles. Baz Rizk, who owns the Friendly Grocer, fought back against an assailant. The masked man walks up an aisle demanding cash only to have Rizk pelt him with cans of tuna fish and Pringles until the suspect runs away. Rizk said his coworkers chased the man away from the store using baseball bats. He previously has defended his store from robbers, pelting one would-be thief with a jar of Vegemite in an incident 10 years ago.

David Edwards had no beef with the guy who killed him. On March 1, 2017, Jordan Sharlow allegedly fired several bullets into the 31-year-old father of three at an east Madison gas station, reportedly confusing him with Riccardo Simms, the man he intended to kill. Simms was gunned down five months later. The murders of Edwards and Simms contributed to a grim milestone for Madison: 12 homicides in a single year, counting one in the town of Madison, a soon-to-be-annexed pocket on the city’s south side. That’s the most on record. Nine of those homicides were by gunfire, again a...

Since Illinois began issuing permits to carry concealed firearms in 2014, state government has generated considerable evidence of how its 265,000 permit holders use their weapons. There have been dozens of shootings by licensees. At least 11 people have been killed. These episodes might confirm the value of armed citizens in stopping violent criminals. Or they could reveal a pattern of trigger-happy amateurs blasting away without a good reason. So which is it? We can’t say — and neither can law enforcement. As the Tribune’s Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and Jennifer Smith Richards report, “The state police know nothing about the nearly...

A political action committee backing former state Sen. Michael Johnston of Denver for the Democratic nod for governor has received another $1 million dollars from Michael Bloomberg, bringing the wealthy former New York mayor’s total donations to the committee to $2 million. ... The $1 million contribution was the largest that any campaign committee received in the most recent reporting period from May 31 to June 13, according to the secretary of state’s office’s TRACER campaign finance system. Second on the list: another $750,000 from fellow Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Polis of Boulder to his gubernatorial campaign, bringing his total...

Two children stood outside a home within the crime scene where four people were shot in the Little Village neighborhood on the West Side Sunday night. They watched police shine flashlights across the sidewalk, and place evidence markers near shell casings. The children caught Annette Hernandez’s eye as she walked by the scene in the 2200 block of South Sacramento Avenue. “You see, there are kids running around,” Hernandez said. “Every night, it’s the same stuff.” The four were standing on the street around 9:30 p.m. when a male shooter approached on foot and began firing, critically injuring a 21-year-old...

(snip)The Tribune combed through police files, court records and news reports to compile its own list. The analysis shows that: Most of those shot by CCL holders have been armed robbers. Others include carjackers, a burglar with a crowbar, a robber with a gun to a clerk’s head, neighbors, an ex-girlfriend, a father-in-law, an unarmed teen stealing a Jeep, a passenger in a car during a road rage attack and a naked man acting “aggressively.” They were shot by homeowners, customers, security guards, store clerks, a Chicago police dispatcher, a Chicago fire lieutenant, a Chicago Park District worker, a tow-truck...

Jeffrey Scott Kirschenmann attempted to register an AR-15 with the California Department of Justice last month but instead found himself in significant legal trouble. The California DOJ accused Kirschenmann of illegally modifying the rifle he attempted to register. Law enforcement officials raided his home in Bakersfield before ultimately confiscating a dozen firearms and a few hundred rounds of ammunition, then charging him with a dozen felonies . . . The National Rifle Association said Kirschenmann's ordeal is proof that even those who attempt to comply with California's gun laws can still get caught up in them. "California residents attempting to...

This Sept. 2003 photo released by Christian Zebrasky shows his then eight-year-old daughter Brittany Zebrasky hunting in New Mexico. In an effort to keep hunting alive in Wisconsin, state senators were scheduled to vote Tuesday on a bill that would allow children as young as 10 to hunt with a rifle. The bill, S.B. 167, would allow 10-year-olds to hunt, provided that a parent or guardian with a hunting license accompanies the child, that he or she is always within "arm's reach" of the child, and that the duo carry only a single firearm. State Sen. Jim Holperin, D-Conover, said...

The gradual, incremental, persistent, unrelenting “other”-ing of guns and those who sell, shoot, broadcast and write about them continues apace. The latest victim: Brownells. Yes, the notoriously radical, fire-breathing Iowa-based retailer has had their YouTube page deleted by the don’t-be-evil types who run YouTube, the Google-owned video platform. Brownells just announced the move on their Facebook page and had this to say on Twitter (while both of those social media channels remain open to them): Brownells’ YouTube channel has been terminated w/oout warning or notice. If you’re opposed to the attacks on our communitys 1st & 2nd Amendment rights, please...

We are shouting from the outside. Shout loud and long enough, though, and we can prevail. We can civilize our gun laws. One month ago, this editorial page launched a campaign called “31 bullets” to promote 31 ways to curb gun violence in our nation, and with each proposed action we did our best to include a simple way that you, personally, could make it happen. We presented our 31st and last bullet — a call for federal design safety standards for American-made guns — on Tuesday. EDITORIAL We have called the campaign, which we are conducting in partnership with...