Free Republic

In a year of job losses, foreclosures and bag lunches, Americans have spent record-breaking amounts of money on guns and ammunition. The most obvious sign of their demand: empty ammunition shelves. At points during the past year, bullets have been selling faster than factories could make them. Gun owners have bought about 12 billion rounds of ammunition in the past year, industry officials estimate. That's up from 7 billion to 10 billion in a normal year.

Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by New York's Michael Bloomberg, is losing members after the National Rifle Association mounted a campaign against the group. The NRA and various gun proponents contend that the mayors' efforts represent a slippery slope. JACKI LYDEN, host: This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Jacki Lyden. Mayors Against Illegal Guns, led by New York's Michael Bloomberg, is losing members after the National Rifle Association mounted a campaign against the group. The NRA and other gun proponents contend that the mayors' efforts represent a slippery slope. WNYC's Arun Venugopal reports. ARUN VENUGOPAL: Pennsylvania has about...

In less than a year the U.S. government has gone from being one of the chief opponents of the proposed UN Small Arms Control Treaty to being a strong supporter. Elections do matter and have consequences. As many predicted, the United States has changed its United Nations Gun Control Treaty position by joining other countries in the UN’s General Assembly First Committee on Disarmament And Peace, with a resolution calling for the drafting of an International Arms Trading Treaty. This Treaty, which will be up for a final UN vote in 2012, will regulate small arms, as well as other...

Both past Attornies General, along with the current Republican nominee for Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, have all opposed banning private sales of guns at gun shows while supporting repeal of the Virginia ban on concealed carry in restaurants serving alcohol. But not Democratic AG nominee Steve Shannon – this Northern Virginia lawyer is sticking to his gun control. . . . But what irks gun rights organizers the most is Shannon’s lack of any articulable policy rationale for his positions. “Insisting that we need to fix something that doesn’t exist does not stir gun owners to support candidates” said Philip...

I’m putting my money on the notion that there was at least one gay-rights group that didn’t cheer when President Barack Obama signed the most recent “hate crimes” bill last week. That would be the group known as the “Pink Pistols.” They’re the one gay-rights group you can bet Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder and virtually every other liberal in the country have absolutely no use for, but more about it later. First, let’s get down to the real nitty gritty about what the new “hate crimes” bill will do, and what it won’t do. If you live in the...

<p>A New Jersey appeals court has concluded that Americans have no Second Amendment right to buy a handgun.</p> <p>In a case decided last week, the superior court upheld a state law saying that nobody may possess "any handgun" without obtaining law enforcement approval and permission in advance.</p>

USPS spokesperson Joanne Vito told the Examiner.com that 39 CFR 232.1(l) “applies to anyone coming into a Post Office or a Postal facility. The regulation prohibiting the possession of firearms or other weapons applies to all real property under the charge and control of the Postal Service. . . . Both open and concealed possession are prohibited, so storage of a weapon on a car parked in a lot that is under the charge and control of the Postal Service would be prohibited.” . . . Philip Van Cleave, President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League . . . said...

Copy and paste this link, its from the Tennessean they are too ashamed of their stuff to have it posted here... http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091028/NEWS02/91028067/TN+Attorney+General+says+landlords+can+ban+tenants++guns+

A recent article on New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's sting operation to expose the "gun show loophole" read like an editorial promoting gun control. In actuality, the sting exposed nothing. Under federal law, a private seller is under no more obligation to consider a buyer's eligibility to pass a background check when making a sale at a gun show than he is in his living room or anywhere else. Neither are beauty supply houses that sell hydrogen peroxide under an obligation to ask if the buyer is going to bleach hair or make a bomb. A gun show is a...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. --...

The CDC has been trying to get into the business of gun control for many years. The U.S. House cut off funds to the CDC for that almost 13 years ago after complaints that the CDC was trying to get support from the public for gun control and the appearance of joining hands with gun control groups... The House believed then that the CDC should spend more time on preventing and controlling serious legitimate health issues such as infectious disease. Their mandate may be changing on their own initiative. What actually is infectious now is the public's fast and furious...

I recently wrote an article for Shotgun News making the argument that while open carry of firearms is legal in many American cities, it may not be particularly wise. Open carry in a number of states is not just legal, but protected by the state constitution. But just because something is legal, even constitutionally protected, doesn’t mean that it is wise. Carrying a gun openly in a city can — and does — offend people who might not have a strong opinion one way or the other about gun control. Boise, Idaho, is about as pro-gun as any big city...

Based on legislation and case law, the U.S. government's attitude toward increased rights for gun owners has been more favorable in recent years than ever before. In the 2008 case District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment to the Constitution protects an individual's right to possess a firearm for private use. It was the first Supreme Court case in U.S. history to directly address whether the right to keep and bear arms is a right of individuals in addition to a collective right that applies to state-regulated militias. As a result, additional pleas...

In 2008 an enraged, deranged known drug dealer/crack cocaine smoker attempted a violent attack on a Central Illinois man. The FOID-carrying victim pulled his legally owned, legally carried, unloaded, disassembled, non-functioning, encased semi-automatic pistol, inserted the magazine, readied a bullet and stopped the attack abruptly. The crackhead had a spiritual awakening, a "Come to Jesus" moment. Possible instant death creates instant deep thinkers. Police responded. Police rejected the gun owner's vehicular carry methods. Plus, the gun wasn't unloaded immediately after the event. Police arrested the gun owner on a questionable felony and several questionable misdemeanors. The legitimate, recordless, lawful defender...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. The...

A majority of gun owners think President Obama wants to ban gun sales. A new Gallup poll shows 55 percent of those who own a gun, 53 percent who have a gun in the household, and 41 percent of all Americans believe he will attempt to ban the sale of guns while he is president. This concern is greater among Republicans and people living in the South and Midwest than among Democrats or those living on either coast. It also helps explain the sharp increases in sales of guns and ammunition. There are reports that U.S. bullet-makers are working around...

During my second term in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, I received a call from then Speaker Thomas McGee to meet with him regarding legislative matters. He got to the point quickly. "There is a State House Library Board of Trustees comprised of members from various learning institutions and prestigious libraries. Members include the secretary of state or his designee, governor or his designee, director of JFK Library, state librarian and Haverhill library director and other archivists. Two of the seats on that board have been assigned to the Speaker and the Senate President or their designees. I have noticed...

October 22, 2009, 4:00 a.m. Be a Good VictimUnder current law, the Second Amendment ends at your front door. By David Rittgers In August, a man shot two people to death on a bridge near San Francisco. At the moment of the killings, two on-duty Marin County sheriff’s deputies were within 100 yards of the shooter. One was close enough to see the muzzle blast of the shotgun. The police officers, however, did not move against the culprit. One, stuck in traffic, called in a description of the killer’s vehicle as he fled. The other positioned her car to...

For a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been forbidden by Congress from doing research on gun-control issues. Such piddling hurdles as federal law don't matter to the Obama administration. With a wave of a hand, the CDC has simply redefined gun-control research so the ban no longer applies. They're not researching guns; they're researching alcohol sales and their impact on gun violence, or researching how teens carrying guns affect the rates of non-gun injuries. "These particular grants do not address gun control; rather they deal with the surrounding web of circumstances," wrote National Institutes of Health...

Officials say a law signed by President Obama in May will allow gun owners to openly carry firearms in Grand Teton and the Wyoming portions of Yellowstone when the law goes into effect in February. Several National Park Service employees and legal experts who interpreted the legislation say it extends to all, not just those with concealed weapons permits. When U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., attached a rider to a credit card reform bill earlier this year, almost all reports indicated it applied to concealed weapons only. While federal officials are trying to figure out the nuances of the law...

Ohio has joined with several other states, including Montana and Tennessee, in asserting independence from federal gun laws with the introduction of House Bill 315. This bill, sponsored by Representatives Morgan and Martin, would make all guns manufactured wholly within the state of Ohio exempt from federal gun regulations provided sales are within state boundaries. The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco, and Explosives has claimed that they have the authority through the right to regulate interstate commerce because even exclusive intrastate sales of guns have an effect on gun sales nationwide. With two states already having passed similar bills, and...

The Oath Keepers’ motto is “Not on our watch!” Last March Stewart Rhodes realized it’s up to every American to step up and shout “No” to Barack Obama’s plans to socialize and destroy our nation. As a lawyer and Army paratrooper who has taken oaths to “defend and support” our Constitution Rhodes knew what he had to do. He founded Oath Keepers and asked other men and women who have taken an oath to support and defend our Constitution to step forward with him. Oath Keepers has grown to an organization of thousands of American patriots who are pledged to...

Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia. In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find. Most Popular Stories READY TO REVOLT: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States U.S. SENATE SEAT: Two could beat Reid, poll finds NORM: Garth Brooks, Wynn to team up NORM: Yearwood exacts her recompense Woman struck, killed by car while crossing street Friends, co-workers honor fallen police officer Friends, co-workers honor fallen police officer NORM: Rumor about ring wrong, Fator says...

As the U.S. Supreme Court makes its stately way into the new term, a case over the horizon promises to hit the 20,000 gun control laws in this country with the impact of a 9mm round. The prep work came last year in District of Columbia vs. Heller. A narrow 5-4 majority struck down the gun control law in the nation's capital, and for the moment settled an argument over just what the Second Amendment to the Constitution, part of the Bill of Rights, actually means. The Second Amendment reads, "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of...

For shock value, they may not rank with the videos released last month showing ACORN workers giving tax advice to a couple of undercover investigators posing as a prostitute and her pimp. But New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's covert recordings of what really goes on at gun shows are appalling nonetheless.Gun shows are thought to be a key supplier of guns used in crimes, though how big a role they play is the subject of heated debate. To understand why they're considered a problem, one first has to understand the contorted nature of federal gun laws. New-gun retailers are...

As noted in “British gun control: Coming soon to a country near you? ” seven countries, led by the United Kingdom, are attempting to revive U.N. efforts to restrict imports and exports of small arms. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the United States would reverse Bush administration opposition to international small arms control, potentially paving the way for the British-led effort, which calls for a vote by the U.N. General Assembly by year’s end. The U.S. would support the “Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty” as long as it was conducted under rules of “consensus decision-making,” interpreted...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Important Pro-Gun Bills to be Considered in Michigan on Tuesday!   Friday, October 16, 2009   On Tuesday, October 20 at 10:30 a.m., the House Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Committee will consider House Bill 5302 and House Bill 5303. HB5302, introduced by State Representative Paul Opsommer (R-93), and HB5303, introduced by State Representative Joel Sheltrown (D-103), would prohibit employers from firing employees who safely and lawfully store their firearms in locked vehicles while at work. Please contact the members of the House Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources Committee TODAY and...

Despite atheists' attempts to keep our national motto ("In God We Trust") from being engraved on the walls of the new 580,000 square-foot Capitol Visitors Center, or CVC, the inscription was indelibly etched recently in large, bold and deep letters. And the Pledge of Allegiance will soon follow. As Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Va., noted, "This was accomplished due to the efforts of so many individuals in Congress and across the country who were willing to stand up on behalf of our nation's religious heritage. Thousands of visitors will walk through the center each day. The efforts of the individuals that...

[Part 1 of this series.][The frustration of most Americans with the systematic destruction of their country, its society, and its economy, by a handful of corrupt politicians grows daily. It is not that they are not willing to do anything about it, but the fact they do not seem to know what to do. The growth of the tea-party movement and the huge march on Washington are evidence of their eagerness to do "something," but it is equally obvious that demonstrations and a millions articles have done nothing at all, and the leftist "Destroy America" railroad roars on without even...

When the city's top cop and county's top prosecutor want to open the door for a concealed-carry gun law in Wisconsin, it seems the writing may be on the wall. Police Chief Edward Flynn and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm told a City Hall committee last week that allowing concealed-carry permits in Wisconsin could ultimately make things safer for everyone. Specifically, they said, if the state issued such permits under a tough eligibility process and coupled that with more stringent background checks for all gun purchases, the number of illegally sold weapons could be cut across the board. The...

Hundreds of armed people filled a Hudson park Saturday afternoon as part of an anti-tax and pro-second amendment rally.

Ready to Revolt: Oath Keepers pledges to prevent dictatorship in United States Group asks police and military to lay down arms in response to orders deemed unlawful Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia. In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find. Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution. More specifically,...

What don’t you understand about gun control? When thinking about this subject, two words come to mind that relate to our condition or position on the subject of gun control. Some of us fall into one category, and others may slip into the other. Unfortunately, most of what we think of and how we behave as the average American certainly falls into one of these categories. I believe that we are very fortunate to live in the best of times, in the best country and finest society that has ever existed since time began. But I also believe that it’s...

John Lennon’s observation that happiness is a warm gun may be more true now than ever if membership at the Tri-County Gun Club is any indication. The club has picked up an average of 70 new members a month through most of this year, according to George Pitts, Tri-County’s public information officer. The credit for that spike in membership falls on the Barack Obama administration, Pitts says. “We took in 77 new members this month,” Pitts said on a sunny afternoon last April, as sporadic gunfire echoed through the hills of the 230-acre club nestled in the hills between Tualatin...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto. The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would support the talks as long as the negotiating forum, the so-called Conference...

SEATTLE -- Seattle Parks and Recreation on Wednesday put into effect a new rule banning the possession or display of firearms at playgrounds, community centers and other places where children are likely to be.   Firearms will be prohibited at designated facilities once signs are posted notifying people of the new rule. The first signs are to be posted Friday, with the rest up by Dec. 1.   In all, the rule will be applied at more than 500 parks, recreation centers, pools, beaches and golf courses.

It has become increasingly politically incorrect to be a firearms owner. This is because trends tend to be set by the fashionable and the media-connected in metropolitan environments. Gun ownership per capita is well under 50% in urban areas of this country. Nationwide, it is estimated that one half of all homes contain at least one firearm. As the demographics move into rural areas, gun ownership well exceeds that 50% margin, and on the frontiers and in the true backwoods home, gun ownership will generally be found to reach the 90th percentile of the population. When your beliefs and values...

The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote on Chairman Max Baucus' socialized healthcare bill Tuesday, October 13, and Gun Owners of America (GOA) is warning the bill contains language that could be used to ban firearms. In a statement Friday, GOA gave highlights of the unnumbered bill based on a summary of the legislation published recently. The pro-gun organization complains that the actual bill has not been released to the public yet. It is listed on the Senate Finance Committee website simply as "an Original Bill providing for Health Care Reform." The legislation would require individuals to maintain a...

Forty-four percent favor stricter laws on firearm sales PRINCETON, NJ -- Gallup finds a new low of 44% of Americans saying the laws covering firearm sales should be made more strict. That is down 5 points in the last year and 34 points from the high of 78% recorded the first time the question was asked, in 1990.Today, Americans are as likely to say the laws governing gun sales should be kept as they are now (43%) as to say they should be made more strict. Until this year, Gallup had always found a significantly higher percentage advocating stricter laws....

We reported recently that the California Legislature passed AB 962. This bill would require anyone buying pistol ammo to provide drivers’ license #, address, and a thumbprint. And, because AB 962 requires all pistol ammo sales to be “face to face”, the law would effectively ban mail-order ammo sales in California. While AB 962 targets pistol ammo sales, it could also apply to any type of rifle ammo that has been used in pistols (including single-shots). That would include 22LR, 22 rimfire magnum, .223 Rem, 6BR, 30-30, .308 Winchester, and more. Opposition Efforts Gain Strength Right now, unless CA Governor...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Montana’s Congressman, Denny Rehberg, has joined the bipartisan Second Amendment Task Force (SATF). Members of this group act as a unified and proactive force to promote legislation that protects the Second Amendment and to fight legislation that poses a threat to citizens’ Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. "Now, more than ever before, it will be necessary to maintain a vigilant eye against real efforts to disarm the American people," said Rehberg, a member of the House Appropriations Committee and the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus. "Montanans sent me to Washington, D.C. to represent them. And as their...

God and guns are what our country was founded upon. Any new student of the Revolutionary period quickly learns that. They are what keep us strong, or what should keep us strong. They are there for our defense. God and guns were so important to our founders that they established our protection to exercise them in the first two amendments to our Constitution – the uninhibited and unrestricted freedom to choose our own religion and bear our own firearms. But, more and more, these pillars of American life and liberty are being attacked and abandoned, not only out of sheer...

Just 39% of Americans now say the United States needs stricter gun control, as the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to review the constitutionality of state and local anti-gun laws. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 50% are opposed to stricter gun control laws, and 11% are not sure. In March, 43% favored stricter gun control laws. In previous surveys, voters have been narrowly divided on the question. Men by 23 points oppose stricter gun control laws. Women are evenly divided. Sixty-five percent (65%) of Democrats favor tighter control of guns, but 69% of Republicans and 62% of...

Our friend the Welshman from The Liberty Sphere has an excellent analysis of the Chicago 2nd Amendment Incorporation Case. The comments section offers some further intriguing thoughts. Stop by and add your two cents. Tantalizing Excerpt: Rationality, it would seem, would dictate that it is a no-brainer that the rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights automatically extend to all of the state and local governments. What good is free speech or a free press, for example, if the Constitution is meant only to restrict Congress from encroaching on those rights but leaves state and local governments with the power...

Whatever significance is attached to Chicago’s failed bid to host the 2016 Olympics, it is of small importance to the rest of the country. More far-reaching and frightening is the Supreme Court’s decision to take up a case challenging the city’s ban on handgun ownership in the court’s new term, which begins this week. The case is best considered a preview of coming attractions. The gun lobby, if it wins in the Supreme Court, is prepared to challenge every gun control law enacted at any level of government. It will usher in a scary season of assault on the common...

In the 1856 case Dred Scott v. Sandford, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the idea that Africans and their descendants in the United States could be "entitled to the privileges and immunities of citizens." To emphasize how absurd that notion was, Chief Justice Roger Taney noted that, among other things, those "privileges and immunities" would allow members of "the unhappy black race" to "keep and carry arms wherever they went." The 14th Amendment, approved in the wake of the Civil War, repudiated Taney's view of the Constitution, declaring that "no State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge...

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it would decide whether state and local gun control laws may be challenged under the Second Amendment. The court also agreed to hear nine other cases from among those that had piled up over its summer break, including one concerning the constitutionality of an antiterrorism law that is a favorite tool of federal prosecutors. The Second Amendment case, McDonald v. Chicago, No. 08-1521, addresses a question that was left open last year when the court decided that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to own firearms rather than a collective...

From Ex-Soldier commenting on Claude Cartaginese's One Scared Elderly Man is About to Make the Country Safer: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state; the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” Speaking as a veteran (20 years) social studies teacher in a public high school and as a former social studies Teacher of the Year (for my school), AND as a former US Army Officer, let me address this one: “Well REGULATED MILITIA” A lot of folks seem to think this is referring to some sort of...

BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. -- Drivers on Interstate 70 can barely see the billboard but once they do the message has been gaining attention. The billboard is located along I-70 between the Adams Dairy Parkway and the Grain Valley exits. The billboard reads, "How do you like your change now? Obama Nation. They are coming for you! The Taxpayer. First and Second Amendments are in jeopardy. Live free or Die." There is also a hammer and sickle on the sign. People said they might not agree with the sentiment of the sign, but they felt it was a matter of free...

It was an image that shocked the country. Could a case headed for the Supreme Court overturn gun laws in Chicago? A 16-year-old honor student in Chicago being beaten to death by teenagers. Derrion Albert, a high school sophomore was caught in a mob fight as he was walking to a bus stop. Despite not being part of either of the gangs, he was punched, kicked and struck by a board. And just a week and a half after the fatal incident, as residents demand safer streets, Chicago faces a new battle -- this time over guns. On Monday, the...