Free Republic

"I will vote for assault weapons ban because maintaining law and order and saving lives is more important than preventing imagined tyranny."

Key measures of New York's tough new gun law have kicked in, meaning owners of firearms now reclassified as assault weapons are required to register their guns. There are also new limits on the number of bullets allowed in magazines. The new provisions took effect Monday. New York's affiliate of the National Rifle Association says it expects to ask a federal judge late in the afternoon to immediately halt the magazine limit. The New York State Rifle & Pistol Association says the law violates the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens "to keep commonly possessed firearms." Association president Tom King says...

The Rhode Island General Assembly is considering a nine-bill package of gun control legislation ­— including a statewide assault weapons ban — that Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 announced with other legislative and community leaders at a press conference last Tuesday afternoon. “This is a conversation that’s taking place right now in every state and at the national level,” said Senate President Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport. The bills are the product of months of collaboration between legislators and law enforcement officials, she said. The call to action was in part inspired by the Dec. 14 elementary school shooting in Newtown,...

BRISTOL — A Connecticut gun-maker has announced Wednesday it intends to leave the state following the passage of gun control legislation it says tramples on the rights of citizens and does not show enough consideration for the industry. Bristol-based PTR says in a statement posted on its website that it has not decided where it will move, but it has commitments from most employees to relocate. The company makes military-style rifles and employs more than 40 people. PTR Vice President John McNamara said Wednesday that it expects to make a more formal announcement about a move within six weeks. The...

What appears to be the gun-control crowd's most winnable argument is as irrational as the rest. The Hartford Courant reports that on April 1, Connecticut legislators reached bipartisan agreement on what they say could be the “nation’s strongest gun-control bill,” and that easy passage is expected. One of the bills provisions: scary-looking semi-automatic rifles (“assault weapons”) will now need only one frightening feature (such as a pistol grip or flash suppressor) instead of the current two to make the banned list. A second: future sales of “high-capacity magazines” of over 10 rounds will be banned. This is the one element...

Pay attention, Connecticut. You’re next. Colt Competition, a manufacturer of high end Colt AR-15 rifles in Canby, Oregon, is moving its firearms production to the 2nd Amendment supporting state of Texas. According to CBS DFW, A firearms company that makes AR-15 style rifles for the iconic brand Colt, will open a plant in Breckenridge in Stephens County. Oregon company Bold Ideas confirmed the development Friday. Bold Ideas goes by the name Colt Competition, making high accuracy rifles for competition shooting. --snip-- This move follows on the heels of Magpul’s recent decision to pull their manufacturing of the company’s highly popular...

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy had some harsh words for NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre on Sunday, comparing the gun lobby chief to "clowns at the circus." Appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" with Candy Crowley, Malloy hit back at LaPierre over his dismissal of Connecticut's strict new gun laws. "Wayne reminds me of the clowns at the circus. They get the most attention," Malloy said. "And that's what he's paid to do. But the reality is is that the gun that was used to kill 26 people on Dec. 14 was legally purchased in the state of Connecticut, even though...

The sale of military-style weapons in Maryland has skyrocketed because of the concern they'll will be banned once the strict gun control bill passed by the Maryland General Assembly on Thursday goes into effect. At Engage Armament in Rockville, there are only a few assault weapons left because so many have been sold in anticipation of gun restrictions. Ammunition has gone up in price -- that is, if you can even find bullets in stock. "Everything's been bought up and we've had ammunition that came right off the trucks," said A.J. Wynne, an employee at Engage Armament. "They'd say, 'What...

Finally, some sanity, and from a somewhat unexpected source. The ACLU is concerned about the civil liberties implications of the new Harry Reid Senate bill to establish so-called “universal background checks” for firearms purchases. The organization has tended toward silence on gun rights, but at least now it recognizes aspects of the problem with this terrible proposal. Ever since Sandy Hook, the Obama administration and its progressive choir have demanded a new Assault Weapons Ban (AWB). Now it looks like that plan is toast. California Senator Dianne Feinstein blames gun owners and the NRA, and in a sense we should...

Hillsborough County Commissioner Les Miller won board approval today to have the county attorney research whether the commission can ban assault weapon sales and high-capacity gun magazines, and require universal background checks for gun purchases. Miller had minutes before voted with the rest of the board to create a violence prevention committee and spending $150,000 to hire a California nonprofit to help the committee develop a strategy to reduce violence. Commissioner Kevin Beckner, who came up with the idea for the violence prevention committee, said he was worried that even researching significant gun control measures would arouse controversy that would...

JOE BIDEN: And lastly, but not least, the Assault Weapons ban and the limitation on the size of magazines, let me say this as clearly as I can: this is just the beginning. We believe that weapons of war have no place on our streets. That’s the message that the retired admirals and generals have spoken to us about. The comment one of them used was: if you want to learn how to use a semi-automatic weapon, join the United States military, but these are weapons of war, and we believe there’s no rational reason why someone would need a...

"I don't have the words to describe the cowardice of Congress or the depravity of the gun lobby, which conspired to kill the assault-weapons ban," writes Ron Fournier of National Journal. We rate that statement PANTS ON FIRE, for Fournier turns out to be at anything but a loss for words. "I can't explain the apparent impotence of President Obama who vowed to 'use whatever power this office holds' to convert the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School into commonsense common good," Fournier continues. Apparently Fournier needs a refresher course in the separation of powers. "I'm Just a Bill," the...

Amazing. I predicted once or twice in writing about the AWB that there might not be 50 votes but I felt silly about it afterwards. Of course there’d be 50 votes. The bill was doomed to be filibustered given the GOP’s solid opposition plus the skittishness of red-state Dems like Mark Pryor, Mark Begich, and Mary Landrieu, but Reid would be able to muster 50 if only because Senate Democrats would want to avoid humiliating Obama after his big gun-control campaign. That way, even when the bill failed on the cloture vote, O could still claim that it had majority...

ABC News really knows how to cause a coffee spit-take. All you have to do is introduce George Stephanopoulos talking to President Obama and put these hyperbolic words on screen: "No Holds Barred." Someone should tell the geniuses at ABC that's a term suited for competitive wrestling. It doesn't describe Democrat chitchat that demonstrates about as much as dramatic confrontation as other morning TV fare, such as "Bubble Guppies" and "Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends." To be fair, the questions were about policy, including budget matters and North Korea. But they weren't challenging. Ask any conservative Republican about "no holds...

A youth baseball league in central Illinois is in desperate need of cash – so they’ve decided to auction off an AR-15 assault rifle. Last year the Atwood-Hammond baseball league tried to raffle off half a hog. But they only raised $10 – and barely had enough to pay the local butcher. So this year a local gun shop provided the league with a Rock River Arms Tactical Operator Two – and the response has been massive. “My phone has been ringing off the hook,” said Charidy Bucher, co-owner of the Atwood Armory shop. “The response has been tremendous.”...

-- IMAGE HERE -- Illinois Democratic Congresswoman Janice Schakowsky wants to make one thing very clear … the attempt to ban so-called ‘assault weapons’ is only the beginning of the planned attack on the Second Amendment. Schakowsky made these comments to a reporter at the One Billion Rising Women’s Rights Rally in February. Referring to the Sandy Hook tragedy as “a moment of opportunity,” Schakowsky went on to say that “everything [is] on the table … There’s no question about it. We’re on a roll now, and I think we’ve got to … push as hard as we can and...

The battle rages on about whether this country wants to further restrict the availability of guns, the types of guns and the ammunition to be used in those guns. On one side is what is referred to as the Gun Nuts with the point being taken by the NRA. Then there are the Anti-Gun Nuts - you don’t hear that term do you? They are being led by many -- including our President -- who states he is just proposing “common sense” changes. Then there are those of us caught in the middle of a gun fight. There are plenty...

At a Senate judiciary committee hearing on Thursday, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein shot down a proposed amendment exempting veterans from her “assault weapons” ban, bizarrely arguing that it’s legal to hunt humans with high-capacity magazines. “The time has come, America, to step up and ban these weapons,” Feinstein said. “The other very important part of this bill is to ban large capacity ammunition feeding devices — those that hold more than 10 rounds. We have federal regulations and state laws that prohibit hunting ducks with more than three rounds. And yet it’s legal to hunt humans with 15-round, 30-round,...

“I don’t know why anyone would object to drying up the supply of these weapons over time,” Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said in defending her assault weapons ban proposal, asserting that “while gun homicides are down in this country, mass shootings are not.” For her this created a rationale for banning high-capacity magazines and assault weapons such as the AR-15, a semi-automatic variant of the M-16, which she said have a natural appeal to mass shooters. She also argued that the ergonomic “military features” which distinguished assault weapons make them uniquely lethal. “Members, this isn’t going to stop … and...

<p>At a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting on Thursday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) opposed an amendment to her Assault Weapons Ban legislation that would allow military veterans to continue to buy the firearms that would be banned. Feinstein says a veteran may be mentally ill and should be prevented from purchasing firearms.</p>