Free Republic

Second Amendment: A House resolution, as futile as it may be, represents growing opposition to another administration bow to the U.N. encroachment on U.S. sovereignty at the expense of its laws and even our Constitution. Treaties are ratified by a two-thirds majority of the Senate, and the final version of the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) may likely be signed by this president and ratified by this Senate, especially if presented as a "sensible restriction" on international arms trafficking with no impact on our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. But some House members are not going to...

Second Amendment: Within hours of re-election, the administration fast-tracked a treaty in the United Nations that transcends borders and tramples our constitutional right to keep and bear arms. It was no coincidence. Less than 24 hours after President Obama's re-election, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations helped move the U.N.'s Arms Control Treaty a step closer to enactment. America joined 157 other nations in voting Wednesday to finalize the treaty in March. None was opposed and there were 18 abstentions. U.N. delegates and gun-control activists had complained that talks collapsed in July largely because Obama feared attacks from Republican...

Second Amendment: The United Nations is putting the finishing touches on an Arms Trade Treaty that transcends borders and may even trample our Constitutional right to bear arms. Every indication is that the president will sign it. Like the New Start and Law of the Sea treaties before it, as well as the Kyoto Protocol and Agenda 21, the Arms Trade Treaty being finalized at the U.N. this month is one of those feel-good, can't-we-all-get-along pieces of parchment whose net effect is to accomplish little except to eat away at American sovereignty and freedom. Just as the world's worst human...

Second Amendment: The United Nations is putting the finishing touches on an Arms Trade Treaty that transcends borders and may even trample our Constitutional right to bear arms. Every indication is that the president will sign it. Like the New Start and Law of the Sea treaties before it, as well as the Kyoto Protocol and Agenda 21, the Arms Trade Treaty being finalized at the U.N. this month is one of those feel-good, can't-we-all-get-along pieces of parchment whose net effect is to accomplish little except to eat away at American sovereignty and freedom. Just as the world's worst human...

Gun-rights groups perceive President Barack Obama as a threat to unfettered access to firearms. They once had qualms about Mitt Romney, too. But times and circumstances have changed for Romney, the GOP presidential nominee now in tune with the National Rifle Association and similar organizations, whose members are motivated voters. In the tight White House race, every bit of support helps, especially in the most closely contested states and particularly from groups that claim millions of members nationwide...

FIVE men have been jailed after a sniper rifle was found in the boot of a minicab in South Croydon. Tyron Harding, 45, sold the .22 bolt-action rifle and hollow-point ammunition - designed to cause maximum injury - to his fellow defendants on November 1 last year. Armed police officers stopped Loyan Osman, 25, soon afterwards as he travelled along Brighton Road, South Croydon, in a minicab. In his possession he had 57 rounds of ammunition. When officers searched the boot of the vehicle they found the rifle with a sniper scope and silencer attached. It was loaded with a...

The National Rifle Association is airing a new television ad in four battleground states urging voters to defeat President Obama. The pro-gun-rights group is spending $1.3 million to air the ad in Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. A spokesman said the group will be on the air with ads through election day November 6. The NRA ad suggests Obama is "attacking our Second Amendment rights" and says a vote against the Democrat...

The National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsed Mitt Romney for president late Thursday. NRA Executive vice president Wayne LaPierre and NRA Political Victory Fund chairman Chris Cox will formally announce the endorsement at a Romney rally in Virginia later Thursday evening. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan will also be on hand. “In this election, there is no debate,” LaPierre said in a statement. “There is only one choice – only one hope – to save our firearms freedom and our way of life.” The endorsement is not surprising — the NRA has a history of supporting conservative candidates, who traditionally support...

Studies have shown that having a gun at home can increase the risk of firearm-related violence, and someone who lives in that house or visits it is 12 times more likely to be killed by that gun than a burglar. That said, many people own guns—a nationwide Centers for Disease Control survey found that 32 percent of Americans have one at home. What do you think? Would you care if your guy kept a gun at home? Would you be okay with your guy hiding a gun at home? * Yes. It makes me feel safe. 31% * No. It...

Gun Control: The gun-controlled Windy City is on a pace to have 450 murders this year, an Aurora every 10 days. Meanwhile, the mayor of New York ignores his own body count to say the police should go on strike. I don't understand why the police officers across this country don't stand up collectively and say we're going to go on strike," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told CNN's Piers Morgan. "We're not going to protect you unless you, the public, through the legislature, do what's required to make us safe." He was speaking about the massacre in Aurora, Colo.,...

Gun Control: Colorado is a concealed-carry state, as a noted film critic points out, but so was Virginia when a college campus there was racked by violence. Like the school, the theater chain was also "gun-free." In December 2007, two church members were shot to death and three others injured after a gunman opened fire outside the New Life Church in Colorado Springs as Sunday services were wrapping up. That tragedy could have been much worse, but the gunman was shot by a church security officer and was found dead when police arrived at the scene. On April 22 of...

Second Amendment: The United Nations is putting the finishing touches on an Arms Trade Treaty that transcends borders and may even trample our Constitutional right to bear arms. Every indication is that the president will sign it. Like the New Start and Law of the Sea treaties before it, as well as the Kyoto Protocol and Agenda 21, the Arms Trade Treaty being finalized at the U.N. this month is one of those feel-good, can't-we-all-get-along pieces of parchment whose net effect is to accomplish little except to eat away at American sovereignty and freedom. Just as the world's worst human...

Less than three months after he was robbed at his vacation home in the Caribbean, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has been targeted again -- this time by burglars at his Washington, D.C., house. Breyer's property was raided May 4, The Washington Post reported Thursday, with cutlery and candlesticks worth about $3,500 take

This case calls upon the Court to determine whether the State of Maryland's handgun regulaton statute violates the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution insofar as it requires an applicant to demonstrate "good and substantial reason" for the issuance of a handgun permit.

INDIANAPOLIS -- A bill that would allow property owners to use deadly force to resist police is facing increasing resistance of its own. The proposed legislation would provide property owners the right to use deadly force to stop an illegal entry by law enforcement officers. Current Indiana law gives homeowners the right to use whatever force they deem necessary to defend themselves and their property against unlawful entry. However, Senate Bill No. 1 is aimed directly at the police and would give property owners the same authority to use deadly force against officers perceived to have made unlawful entry. The...

NDIANAPOLIS -- Reaction online to an Indianapolis Kroger employee who police said fatally shot a man who was trying to rob the store Monday evening was swift and overwhelmingly in support of the worker. Indianapolis police said the worker shot a man who came into the grocery store on West 71st Street and demanded cash. A Facebook page was created in support of the as-yet-unnamed employee. Most posters said they believe the grocer will move to fire the employee and that they are trying to build a groundswell of support for that worker.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Six months after Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot, the White House is preparing to propose some new steps on gun safety, though they're likely to fall short of the bold measures activists would like to see. Spokesman Jay Carney said that the new steps would be made public "in the near future." He didn't offer details, but people involved in talks at the Justice Department to craft the new measures said they expected to see something in the next several weeks. Whatever is proposed is not expected to involve legislation or take on major issues, like banning...

Gun Control: Chicago's new police superintendent blames Alaska's ex-governor for inner-city gun violence and crime, and says gun-rights advocates are racist. Disarming victims doesn't prevent crime, sir. Speaking to the choir, literally, about gun control, Garry McCarthy, former police chief of Newark, N.J., told an audience at St. Sabina Church in the Windy City about leaving a homicide scene in Newark, returning home and flipping on the TV to find an episode of "Sarah Palin's Alaska." "She was caribou hunting and talking about the right to bear arms," McCarthy said. "Why wasn't she at the crime scene with me?" We...

Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy told parishoners at Saint Sabina Church earlier this month that the easy availability of guns in the United States is the extension of a tradition of "government-sponsored racism" that began with slavery and Jim Crow. McCarthy -— like many urban police officials an advocate of strict gun control -- was speaking at a liberal, activist church whose priest, Father Michael Pfleger, drew national attention for mocking Hillary Clinton in 2008. "This is sensitive. You know, because everybody’s afraid of race. Have you noticed that? Everybody’s afraid of race," McCarthy, a former New York and Newark...

Scandal: Rather than a botched attempt to catch criminals, was the ATF program actually an attempt to advance gun-control efforts by an administration that has blamed Mexican violence on easy access to U.S. weapons? If "Operation Fast and Furious" was merely a botched attempt at law enforcement, why was a supervisor of the operation, David Voth, "jovial, if not, not giddy but just delighted about" marked guns showing up at crime scenes in Mexico, as career Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent John Dodson told Rep. Darrell Issa's House Oversight Committee? Perhaps because all was going as planned...