Free Republic

A gun law reform bill, HB1116, has been introduced into the South Dakota house.  The bill has 28 co-sponsors.  The house has 70 members, 58 of which are Republicans, and 12 Democrats.   36 votes will be needed to pass the bill.   In the Senate, there are 27 Republicans and 8 Democrats, a bit tighter ratio.   The South Dakota Governor is Dennis Daugaard, who has been in office since 2011.   Governor Daugaard vetoed a constitutional carry bill in 2012, citing concerns of law enforcement officials.   In 2013, Governor Daugaard signed a bill that specifically allowed school districts to...

The investigation into Saturday night’s alleged harassment of a Native American school group at a Rapid City hockey game is focused on a man from Philip, according to a source who was near the incident when it occurred. Meanwhile, that same person says the incident was ignited when some members of the school group reportedly did not stand for the National Anthem prior to the start of the Rapid City Rush game. That claim, however, was flatly denied by several of the adults who were with the school group and say the children from the Pine Ridge school did stand...

South Dakota's suddenly tight Senate race is suddenly not so tight again, according to the polls. Still, none of the four candidates has majority support. Polls released in recent days show Republican Mike Rounds with bigger leads than in the previous round of polling. A KELO/Sioux Falls Argus Leader poll conducted Oct. 20-23 showed Rounds with 42 percent support; Democrat Rick Weiland at 33 percent; independent Larry Pressler at 13 percent; and independent Gordon Howie at 2 percent. Another 10 percent of respondents were undecided. An NBC News/Marist poll conducted Oct. 19-23 showed Rounds at 43 percent, Weiland at 29...

The three-way race for South Dakota’s open Senate seat got more complicated Wednesday, when the Sioux Falls Argus Leader published a page one story alleging that former Governor Mike Rounds, the Republican candidate and current leader in the polls, had approved $600,000 in state assistance to a company that was about hire a member of his cabinet. According to reporter David Montgomery, then Secretary of Tourism and State Development Richard Benda requested the assistance for Northern Beef Packers about two weeks before he and Rounds were to leave office. Benda was about to go to work for a company with...

Virtually every major electoral forecaster had described the three-way race in South Dakota -- along with likely lopsided contests in West Virginia and Montana -- as a sure thing for Republicans hungry to win a Senate majority. Top Democrats have come to disagree with the conventional wisdom, however. And they’re betting serious money against it. Signs of Democratic optimism surfaced last week. RCP reported Public Policy Polling’s Tom Jensen assertion that the race “is just as competitive as the ones in places like New Hampshire and Michigan that have drawn far more attention.” Then the levee broke: Bloomberg Politics reported...

When an Oglala Sioux Tribal police officer used her Taser several times on a man lying helpless on the ground in Manderson on Friday afternoon, she was trying to get the man "to wake up and stand up," Ron Duke, chief of the OST Department of Public Safety, said Monday. The man, Duke said, was "lying on the ground, probably passed out, clearly intoxicated." The incident was caught on camera by a passerby who taped the officer repeatedly zapping the man who appears to never resist, defend himself or make any threatening moves. An expert in Tasers said using the...

Gordon Howie, a former South Dakota state senator, has filed a petition to run as an Independent for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Tim Johnson. In the June Republican primary former governor Mike Rounds will be running against Stace Nelson. November’s ballot will list the winner of the Republican primary, Howie, Democrat Rick Weiland and Independent Larry Pressler. Howie says he will withdraw from the race if Nelson wins the Republican primary.

The guns have been silent at American Clarion for the past two days, laid low by a devastating fall blizzard in West River South Dakota. Power has been intermittent and completely out during that time. The snow started Friday morning with overnight rain transitioning directly into snow. It was sticking and becoming slushy right away, and not long after daylight Friday morning, the power started to come on and go off, come on and go off. By late Friday afternoon, the snow was starting to pile up: more than a foot in many places in the Rapid City area. At...

For one group of women, Saturday was the first time they ever shot a gun, but it was for a good reason! A special group was in Humbolt to help teach the group about self-defense when using a firearm. At Hunter's Point Shooting Club, over 50 women of all ages were taking safety to a whole new level. “I don't want to be scared, I want to be prepared,” said Kara Williams, Brandon. Williams and her friend Candace Berndt were just two women taking part in Saturday's firearms self-defense class. The woman said they've wanted to learn how to safely...

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard has signed a bill making concealed weapons permits valid for five years, up from the current four years.

When South Dakota’s former two-term Gov. Mike Rounds made it official last week that he would seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator in 2014, it was national news. After an election year in which Republicans began with high hopes of winning a majority in the Senate only to end with a net loss of two seats from their ranks, news that Rounds was poised to challenge Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson was truly something to cheer for the dispirited GOP. “Instantly competitive,” is how the Hill characterized the likely contest between conservative Rounds and two-term liberal Democrat Johnson (lifetime American...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota Ellsworth Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base near Rapid City in Meade County and Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It is home to the 28th Bomb Wing of the Air Combat Command (ACC), operating the B-1B Lancer.As host wing, the 28th Bomb Wing includes an operations group, a maintenance group, a mission support group, and a medical group. The base controls all air space 40 miles (64 km) around its area, including all landings at nearby Rapid City Regional Airport,...

CUSTER (AP) — A rural Custer man who discovered a mountain lion lounging on his porch shot and killed the animal.

RAPID CITY, SD - A North Rapid City neighborhood is in shock after an early morning shooting. Police say it happened during a home invasion where the home owner shot and killed the intruder shortly before 5 a.m. When police arrived they found at 21-year old Dallas Two Bulls' body. He was shot three times by a homeowner acting in self defense. Residents in the neighborhood woke up to an unfamiliar sight. "A couple of police cars and the crime tape spread across, there. And we were just scratching our heads wondering what was going on," neighbor Byford Avery said....

South Dakota has joined other states in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in a federal appeal involving Maryland's requirements for getting a permit to carry a gun.

SIOUX FALLS, SD, July 24, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – South Dakota won a critical legal battle today, as the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the last contested portion of a 2005 pro-life law. The law, H.B. 1166, requires that women considering abortion be told critical biological information and directed to alternate means of help before undergoing an abortion. By a 7-4 vote, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a portion of the law that tells women abortion leads to an increased risk of depression and suicide. “On its face, the suicide advisory presents neither an undue burden on abortion...

Gun advocates are celebrating Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether’s announcement rescinding an Executive Order banning guns on city property. The city attorney said the policy would not hold up if challenged in court. Representatives from Open Carry South Dakota, a group in favor of open weapons laws, say the repeal expands personal freedoms. “The people doing this legally are not the people you'll be afraid of. The people you'll be afraid of are the ones doing it anyways,” Open Carry South Dakota Spokesman Don Hixon said. The group made the announcement Wednesday night in front of City Hall. Before the...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The president of the University of Sioux Falls is suing Delta Airlines over an incident last fall that ended with him spending a night in a New York jail.

--a tree-hugger gets caught--- Brian Brademeyer is charged with painting over markings to trick Forest Service crews into cutting down trees. Black Hills environmentalist Brian Brademeyer has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of illegally marking trees to be cut in a U.S. Forest Service timber sale. Brademeyer agreed prior to a proceeding scheduled for Thursday in federal court to pay a $475 fine, plus a $25 processing fee. The maximum penalty for the charge, a federal petty offense, was $5,000 and six months in jail. Contacted by email Friday, Brademeyer confirmed that he was paying the $500 but did...

The Old West re-enactor who fired four bullets into a crowd of tourists in downtown Hill City in June 2011 was sentenced Monday to 7-1/2 years in federal prison. Paul F. Doering had earlier signed a plea agreement where he admitted that he concealed evidence after a June 17 Old West re-enactment of a gun fight on a Hill City side street in which three out-of-state visitors were injured, two seriously. Federal marshals placed handcuffs on Doering immediately after U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Viken sentenced the 49-year-old Summerset man. A six-time convicted felon, Doering was arrested last summer after authorities...