Free Republic

The parents of Iowa school shooter Dylan Butler — who killed a sixth-grader and wounded several others before turning the gun on himself — said they had “no inkling he intended the horrible violence” when they dropped him off at school last Thursday. Jack and Erin Butler, whose 17-year-old son opened fire inside Perry High School just before 8 a.m., expressed their sorrows over the shooting in a statement released by their attorney on Monday. The Butlers said they talked about the future with their son on the drive to school that morning and that “it felt like he was...

Senators John Barrasso (R., Wyo.), Rick Scott (R., Fla.), Steve Daines (R., Mont.), Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.), Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), and Cindy Hyde-Smith (R., Miss.) joined Kansas’s Marshall in urging the “immediate withdrawal” of the DOJ’s rule, which would amend current Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) regulations. “This latest action by the Biden administration is yet another step in their campaign to attack law-abiding gun owners,” the group of U.S. senators wrote to U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland, who signed ATF’s notice of the proposed rule on August 30. Marshall and his colleagues further warn the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment is upending gun laws across the country, dividing judges and sowing confusion over what firearm restrictions can remain on the books. The high court’s ruling that set new standards for evaluating gun laws left open many questions, experts say, resulting in an increasing number of conflicting decisions as lower court judges struggle to figure out how to apply it. The Supreme Court’s so-called Bruen decision changed the test that lower courts had long used for evaluating challenges to firearm restrictions. Judges should no longer consider whether the...

An attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse on Friday indicated outside the presence of the jury that his client has PTSD as a result of the deadly shootings in Kenosha, Wis., on Aug. 25, 2020. Mark Richards, the attorney, made the revelation as Judge Bruce Schroeder asked Rittenhouse whether he agreed that the jury should be allowed to consider lesser included offenses for some of the crimes charged. During a lengthy and meandering hearing on Friday, defense attorneys objected to some, but not all, of the lesser included offenses prosecutors offered in the case against Rittenhouse. The judge agreed to jettison some,...

PIERRE | A Republican state lawmaker plans to sponsor a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would allow people who can legally carry a concealed handgun in South Dakota to do so without a permit. Right now, it's a misdemeanor under state law for someone to carry a concealed pistol or to have one concealed in a vehicle without a permit. Rep. Lynne DiSanto said Monday that her bill is about personal protection. "I just hope this opens the door to people considering being gun owners and having the opportunity to protect themselves and their families as it was...

In a series of meetings in recent days, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Police Chief Edward Flynn have challenged state and community leaders to launch a conversation to address the gun violence that has hammered some of the city's most troubled neighborhoods this spring. With 46 homicides as of Friday (a 170% increase over last year), violence has reached a level that no one in the city — or the state — should tolerate. Barrett and Flynn make a good point. We think Flynn has a sound targeted, data-driven strategy that can and has worked, at least until this spring,...

A viral video that shows a student turning in his parents' gun at school has roiled both sides of the gun debate, with the right out for blood and the left crying conspiracy. The director responds to her haters below.

The Missouri Legislature has followed Oklahoma in placing an amendment to strengthen the right to keep and bear arms on the ballot for this November, 2014.  The wording on the ballot will read: Shall the Missouri Constitution  be amended to include a declaration that the right to keep and bear arms is an unalienable right and that the state government is obligated to uphold that right? The current amendment reads as follows:  Section 23. That the right of every citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person and property, or when lawfully summoned in aid...

Patrons at a planned Dave & Buster's in Vernon Hills might be able to play shoot-'em-up video games in the venue, but village officials have decided they don't want people bringing real weapons into the restaurant and arcade, despite a recent state law allowing concealed weapons. Representatives of the company appeared before the Vernon Hills village board recently as part of the effort to open a new location for the national entertainment chain of the Westfield Hawthorn Mall. The bar and restaurant bills itself as a kind of Chuck E. Cheese for adults, a location that includes arcade-style games, drinks...

Illinois and Chicago have many laws concerning the sale, ownership, use and transport of firearms. But they are widely flouted by criminals who regard their weapons as essential tools of business. Illegal guns, often brought from states with looser laws, are easy to obtain through straw purchasers and other black-market suppliers. Many of those guns end up being used in crime, often with fatal results. Gun crime is concentrated among a subset of violent thugs who have serious criminal records. The challenge for law enforcement is how to identify and incapacitate these dangerous people to eliminate the threat they pose....

I have put a lot of thought into the debate about concealed-carry legislation in Wisconsin and have watched how this has played out, both in the media and with our representatives. I wanted concealed carry for the longest time and thought that this would be good for me and for others. I guess my thought process was that for criminals, not knowing I had a gun in my possession was good for deterrence, and I embraced this notion for personal protection. At least that was my justification for why we should have concealed carry in the state. Then came my...

Some Wisconsin law enforcement officers — and at least one Wisconsin police group — say they will urge lawmakers to make changes to concealed carry bills under consideration at the state Capitol. Two separate versions of concealed carry legislation were circulated last week by GOP lawmakers Sen. Pam Galloway, R-Wausau, and Rep. Jeff Mursau, R-Crivitz. One allows for what supporters call a "constitutional right to carry," and includes few restrictions on who can have a concealed weapon. The other creates a permitting process for those who want to carry concealed firearms. Neither requires carriers to undergo training. Currently, 48 states...

A Unitarian Universalist church might well be the last place you'd expect to find someone wearing a gun. Maybe that's why Krysta Sutterfield chose the Unitarian church in Brookfield for an open-carry demonstration on Sunday. If she wanted to bring attention to the gun rights debate, she surely succeeded, though she probably didn't plan on getting arrested in the process. Brookfield police said Thursday they were called to the church at 13001 W. North Ave. about 10:30 a.m. by a church staffer who said a woman was wearing a handgun in a hip holster. By the time three squad cars...

John Browning's Model 1911 pistol, an engineering wonder for its day, still serves as a design platform for much modern pistolsmithing. Old examples, especially with military markings, are now highly prized on the collector market, where they can bring hundreds or even thousands of dollars each. Yet 16 years ago, early in the Clinton administration, the politicians declared our government would no longer sell into the civilian after-market pistols being retired from military armories. Instead, "Guns & Ammo" magazine reported in 1996 that since Bill Clinton took office in 1992 the government had resumed for the first time in 15...

When a scary experience hits home, some seek security by purchasing their first handgun In this expanding, population-busting, rapidly urbanizing valley, Southern Nevadans do all sorts of things to avoid becoming crime victims, from installing home alarm systems to signing up for self-defense classes. Sometimes, they do something that surprises even them: buying a gun. Teasing out how many of Southern Nevada's gun owners are new owners is difficult. So is figuring out how many guns are purchased strictly for self-protection as opposed to recreational uses. However, the number of handguns in Southern Nevada has grown in recent years. Las...

Colorado is certainly gaining a worldwide reputation these days. But it's not for our magnificent mountains or fantastic skiing. It's for our horrific murders, first in schools and now in churches. What a reputation! Columbine shook us to the core. Wherever I travel, when I say I'm from Colorado, that's the first thing people ask about. Then we had Platte Canyon. And now the Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada and the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Children mowed down by severely depressed classmates and demented adults. Where will this stop? Of course, we're not the only ones. We've seen...

It seemed like a curious question to pose to a presidential candidate. But given current events, it wasn't totally irrelevant. During last week's debate among Democratic candidates for president, NBC News anchor Brian Williams asked for a show of hands: How many had ever kept a gun in their home? After the massacre of 32 innocent people at Virginia Tech University by a deranged gunman, it seemed like a timely - albeit "loaded" - question for the men and woman vying to become the country's next chief executive. Five of the eight - former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel, Ohio Rep....

Israeli border police are testing an robotic vehicle for some patrols. The AvantGuard is a militarized version of the two seater all-terrain "Tomcar" vehicle. It contains sensors and software that enables it to patrol along planned routes, and is capable of some cross country operation as well. The AvantGuard can mount a remote controlled gun turret with a 7.62mm machine-gun. The vehicle has cameras facing every direction, which use pattern recognition to identify potential threats (like people sneaking around where they are not supposed to be), or obstacles on the road. With AvantGuard, a pair of human operators can control...