Free Republic

Two gunmakers who challenged Congress' authority to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of semiautomatic assault weapons lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday. The court, without comment, rejected an appeal that said Congress exceeded its power to regulate interstate commerce when it outlawed such weapons in 1994. The 1994 law, an amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968, defines semiautomatic assault weapons to include a list of specified firearms and ``copies or duplicates of the firearms in any caliber.'' Navegar Inc. and Penn Arms Inc. challenged the federal ban in 1995. Florida-based Navegar, doing business as Intratec, manufactures two...

Caliber: 5.56x45 mm NATO Action: Gas operated, rotating bolt Overall length: no data Barrel length: no data Weight: 2.67 kg empty Rate of fire: no data Magazine capacity: 30 rounds (STANAG) The development of the XM8 Lightweight Assault Rifle was initiated by US Army in the 2002, when contract was issued to the Alliant Techsystems Co of USA to study possibilities of development of kinetic energy part of the XM29 OICW weapon into separate lightweight assault rifle, which could, in the case of success, replace the aging M16A2 rifles and M4A1 carbines in US military service. According to the present...

Ensuring the Bans DIE! Need help listing ALL the rational reasons the bans are unconstitutional or illegal. I would think that one of the professional RKBA lobby groups would have already done this, but if they have I have not seen the list. Just a couple I have not seen discussed are; 1. Fails the "reasonable man" test. Even L.E. has a hard time understanding all the details of these bans. Civilians, particularly those who were too young to catch the details when they were enacted, have little chance of complete understanding without a comprehensive course of study. I often...

With the 04 elections right around the corner, I'm sure many of us are receiving donation letters from the Republican National Committee, asking us for our hard-earned money in order to stave off the Democrat onslaught. This is all fine & good, except for one thing... with Pres. Bush's stance on the AW ban, and without any real assurances from Republican lawmakers that the ban will be allowed to wither away & die, I'm not really in the giving mood! Thus, when I received a letter in today's mail from the RNC's Treasurer Mike Retzer, I decided to enclose a...

Ellett Brothers, one of the largest firearm distribution companies in the U.S., has suddenly instituted a new policy for all firearms dealers who do business in any state which borders Kalifiornia! They are calling all licensed dealers who have accounts with them and DEMANDING that the dealers send them pics of the inside and out side of their stores. They are allowing dealers thirty days to provide them with the pics. There is NO federal law requireing anything like this, I do not know if they came up with this on their own, or in response to some effort of...

Well, here we go again. Power-hungry cowards in Congress are once again seeking to ram gun control down our throats, and this time, our president – the man who was painted as a friend to the some 80 million-gun owners in this country by the National Republican Apologists (NRA) – says he will sign it if it reaches his desk. But my goal today is not to take aim at the NRA for its obsequious and quite obvious silence on the G.W. Bush promise to sign the odious legislation to expand and make permanent the Clinton “Assault” weapons ban of...

"The most critical improvement" to the federal "assault weapon" ban, according to the Violence Policy Center, "is to ensure that the term 'assault weapon' includes all guns that are, in fact, assault weapons." Don't think about that assertion too much; it might cause your head to explode. The gun banners at the VPC are unfazed by the fact that "assault weapon" is not an objective category: They know one when they see it. Legally, however, "assault weapon" means whatever Congress says it means. The 1994 ban, which is scheduled to expire next year but would be renewed by legislation recently...

So, now that the post-election dust has settled, how are things looking for us in the House, Senate, and White House? Let's start with the President. WHITE HOUSE Though President Bush did voice support for the "current ban" during his campaign, he appears to be backing away from this stance now. During recent Senate testimony, Attorney General John Ashcroft would not give a firm answer to the relentless ban renewal questioning from Sens. Feinstein (D-CA) and Schumer (D-NY), instead saying the White House intended to study the issue further (in Washington, "study" generally means "it's dead"). Feinstein was flabbergasted, but...

As the House of Representatives considers a bill by Rep. Charles Schumer, New York Democrat, that would outlaw certain semi-automatic firearms, three numbers are at the center of the prohibitionists' argument: 19, 100, and 20. As in, "The bill only outlaws 19 guns, 100 percent of law enforcement supports the ban, and assault weapons are 20 times more likely to be used in a crime than are ordinary guns." Such numbers have apparently convinced President Clinton that "assault weapon" prohibition is a "no-brainer." But if lawmakers cared to engage their brains before turning millions of American gun owners into felons,...

It could have been a scene from an action movie: The morning quiet of a neighborhood is torn by a throbbing, chunka-chunka wall of sound. A small helicopter appears over the houses and lands in a vacant lot. A man darts out from behind a tree to hop in as the helicopter lifts off the ground. Then comes the crack of an assault rifle. A man stands in the front door of his home shooting at what he thinks is a terrorist rendezvous. That was the picture that emerged in the days after a helicopter landed unexpectedly in Williamsburg's Fort...