Free Republic

or more than two decades, the system codified in federal law for ensuring that persons prohibited from possessing a firearm are not able to lawfully acquire one from a licensed firearms retailer has worked reasonably well. Since 1998 when the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or “NICS,” became operational, the FBI has completed hundreds of millions of background checks on prospective gun purchasers; 28.4 million last year alone. For some reason, however, the FBI recently has taken to playing games with NICS, and by bureaucratic fiat ignoring or overriding an important provision in the law. Neither firearms purchasers nor...

TORONTO (AP) — Canadians on Monday mourned the shocking rampage that left at least 18 dead in rural communities across Nova Scotia, after a gunman disguised as a police officer opened fire on people hunkered down in their homes, setting houses ablaze in the deadliest mass shooting in the country’s history. Officials said the suspect, identified as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, also died in the weekend attack. Police did not provide a motive for the killings. Royal Canadian Mounted Police Chief Superintendent Chris Leather told a news conference Monday that police expect to find more victims once they are able to...

Ressler: We have you on video advocating a sale of 30 semiautomatics to a 24-year-old woman you had to know was a straw purchaser. Kemp: I had to know? You guys are agents, right? Not lawyers. Elizabeth: It has to bother you that a young woman like Sofia Salgado was murdered using one of your guns. Kemp: I feel terrible about Ms. Salgado and every victim of gun violence killed by my weapons or any weapons. I make guns. I don't get to choose how people use them. Nobody goes after the carmakers when a driver intentionally runs someone down....

The Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition have filed a federal lawsuit against Cherokee County, Georgia and Probate Court Judge Keith Wood over the decision to not accept concealed carry applications while the coronavirus pandemic is taking place. The suit was filed on behalf of Lisa Walters, whose husband Mark Walters might be familiar to readers as the host of Armed American Radio. Unlike many states, even open carry in Georgia requires a “weapons license,” which means that if license applications aren’t being processed or even accepted, there’s no way for individuals like Walters to be able to legally...

The National Rifle Association has issued an alert that Democrats are using the worldwide coronavirus pandemic to push for more gun control. A bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., "would leave law-abiding Americans defenseless," the organization charged. "At a time when our nation struggles, everyone's first and foremost concern is the safety of themselves and their loved ones. However, this doesn't stop Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) from pushing a massive gun grab bill in the U.S. House of Representatives," the group said. The bill, H.R. 5717, the Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act, is nothing new, the...

Brady | United Against Gun Violence ✔ @bradybuzz First, the Trump administration declared gun stores "essential." Now, the ATF is promoting them to operate “drive-through” windows. Let's be clear, gun stores are NOT McDonalds. You shouldn't be able to buy an AR-15 like you do a burger and fries. https://www.bradyunited.org/press-releases/brady-condemns-atf-guidance-gun-stores-unsafe-indulgent … March For Our Lives ✔ @AMarch4OurLives The ATF is recommending gun stores operate using drive through windows. Support local restaurants, go to their drive throughs instead. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves @bradybuzz, “You shouldn’t be able to buy an AR-15 like you do a burger and fries.”

The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) on Friday issued a statement making it easier for federally-licensed gun dealers to stay open and provide essential services while "safe distance" protocols are still in effect. CTV News: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced on Friday that federally licensed firearms businesses could carry out transactions through drive-up windows and temporary booths in their parking lots or other parts of their property. Those transactions include verifying customer identity, completing paperwork, accepting payment and delivering firearms and ammunition. "An FFL may carry out the requested activities...

A bill submitted by Rep Hank ‘Guam-will-tip-over’ Johnson aims to infringe on the 2nd amendment with a plethora of new rules and regulations. HR 5717, or the “Gun Violence Prevention and Community Safety Act of 2020” is an extremely restrictive gun bill that has 18 sponsors so far. Instead of restricting criminals, it restricts ordinary citizens…the typical gun control bill. The HR 5717 bill was referred to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security on March 10. Of course, Congress has been a little busy of late, so whether it will go any further is anyone’s...

There is precious little in the way of good news or humor coming out of the global pandemic, but our colleague Kira Davis at RedState has a story that may bring a smile to your face. She’s interviewed Gregg Bouslog, the owner of On-Target Indoor Shooting Range in Laguna Niguel, California. His operation is also a gun shop, selling the normal range of firearms, ammunition, and accessories. With the pandemic raging around the world, Mr. Bouslog has been on the front lines, seeing a surge in sales and requests for background checks unlike any in his business’ history. And that...

A gun-safety group aligned with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is spending $1.5 million on a new virtual organizing program that aims to register 100,000 young voters. The push from Students Demand Action, shared first with CNN, replaces the group's planned in-person voter-registration efforts, which were derailed by the coronavirus outbreak and the widespread shutdowns it has triggered around the nation. The new program focuses on 13 battleground states and marks the group's first large-scale effort to use online-only tools to encourage young people to head to the polls. So, as most people know, political activity is prohibited in...

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals bizarrely ruled that Lori Rodriguez had no right to keep her firearms, though they also noted that there was nothing illegal about her buying a gun either. The court argued that because police believed that her husband (who according to Rodriguez did not have access to her firearms) could pose a threat to public safety, firearms that had been seized from their home when her husband was taken into custody under a mental health hold did not have to be returned to her.

some of his language about the giveaway has ruffled some feathers. With the coronavirus pandemic spreading, a Georgia Republican running for Congress is giving away a semiautomatic rifle to one “lucky” supporter who can use it to shoot “looting hordes from Atlanta.” Broun told The Guardian in a Tuesday phone interview that his reference to “looting hordes from Atlanta” was “not racial.” “Only the liberal press would take that kind of position. There are a lot of white people in Atlanta as well,” Broun said to The Guardian. “Ma’am, I have been a keynote speaker at an MLK Day Celebration.”

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence suggests that gun sales pose a greater long-term risk to Americans’ health than does the coronavirus. Newsweek reported that Brady Campaign President Kris Brown spoke to the surge in first-time gun buyers witnessed during March 2020, warning of the danger she believes now exists because of guns being in many homes for the first time. She lamented that those guns will be in homes long after the coronavirus passes: “We will get a vaccine, we will get immunization for this [virus] in the longer term but there is no immunization for that gun...

Ilya from Michigan writes . . . If you’d have met me three weeks ago, you’d unequivocally know my stance on guns. I was not only against the ownership of AR-15s, I was in the minority of folks who thought all private gun ownership should be illegal. Fast forward to today: I own a GLOCK 19 Gen5. I’m still in a bit of disbelief that there is a dangerous weapon in my house: one that more frequently contributes to accidental deaths, violent homicides, and suicides, rather than the romanticized personal protection experiences. What happened? The world changed overnight and my...

The coronavirus pandemic is so scary that even liberals are buying guns. The blog Bearing Arms points to reports by the left-leaning New Yorker magazine, the New York Times and others indicating the record number of firearms sold in March "weren't all purchased by Trump-loving Republicans in red states, despite claims by gun control activists that the surge in sales is all due to fearmongering on the part of the NRA." "As it turns out, the desire to protect yourself and your loved ones is non-partisan, and even the New Yorker is recognizing that many of the 1-million or more...

A parody in the voice of Sen. Chuck Schumer: Gun owners, do you struggle with an addictive urge to buy firearms on the fly while goose-stepping through gun shows and pawn shops? If so, my fellow Democrats will happily relieve you of all your guilt … and your guns. Forget wasting time plugging silhouettes of bad guys with bullets – blast your addiction publicly on social media by plugging these two pending Track 'n Grab gun bills: The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Data Integrity Act would amend my original Brady Bill. Sponsored by my partner in crime,...

A “good guy with a gun” fatally shot a woman who had allegedly began to open fire on customers at a shopping plaza in Oklahoma on Friday evening. The woman had reportedly got into an altercation in the parking lot of the shopping center in Tulsa and returned with a gun a few minutes later. “A man with a concealed carry permit reportedly told arriving officers that he shot the woman after she started shooting at customers outside the shopping center,” Tulsa World reports. “Video reportedly showed the woman was involved in an earlier altercation in the parking lot. The...

President Trump’s Department of Homeland Security released updated guidelines naming gun manufacturers and retailers as essential on Saturday, which means they are to stay open and operational nationwide during a Chinese coronavirus shutdown. The DHS guidelines list as essential: Workers supporting the manufacturing of safety equipment and uniforms for law enforcement, public safety personnel, and first responders. Workers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, retailers, importers, distributors, and shooting ranges. The Second Amendment Foundation’s Alan Gottlieb commented on the DHS declaration, saying, “Every freedom loving American owes President Trump and his administration a very big thank you...

On March 24, 2020, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (D) augmented his list of “life-sustaining” businesses to include gun dealers, allowing them to remain open as long as they adhere to certain restrictions. The new language was added under Trade, Transportation, & Utilities, in the subsection Sporting Goods, Hobby, Book, & Music Stores. It says: Firearms dealers may operate physical businesses on a limited basis to complete only the portions of a sale/transfer that must be conducted in-person under the law, subject to the following restrictions: 1) all such sale/transfers will be conducted by individual appointment during limited hours only so...

Police say a disabled Texas woman shot and killed an intruder and fended off another during an attempted home invasion at her Houston apartment this past week. Citing investigators, KHOU reported that on March 14, two teens attempted to enter the woman’s northwest Houston apartment through a patio door during a brazen, daylight home invasion. After shattering the woman’s glass patio door, one of the would-be intruders then reached inside and attempted to unlock a door, police said. That is when the resident reportedly fired one shot with her firearm — hitting one of the teens. The outlet did not...