Free Republic

The GAO found that federal offices have challenges like the private sector. In comparing building capacity to employees, none used over 50% and some used only 9%. WASHINGTON – The Agriculture Department is headquartered at the gateway between Washington and Virginia in a building rich with history – but on any given day, roughly 90% of it sits empty. That’s not an anomaly. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) surveyed two dozen federal agencies and found they averaged a roughly 80% vacancy rate during the study period earlier this year. Not a single agency topped 50% use, GAO reported.

Alongside the amendment, many Republican lawmakers have opposed adding an open carry amendment to the legislation, with Senate President Kathleen Passidomo saying she does not support open carry because the Florida Sheriffs Association (FSA) is against it. “Republicans are showing their true colors on restoring our Second Amendment rights here in Florida. Whether it’s repealing gun free zones that only put innocent people in danger, or having the guts to pass Open Carry, they are failing miserably.” GOA Florida State Director Luis Valdes told the DCNF.

Gun Owners of America Senior Vice President Erich Pratt says that the Biden administration is going after gun owners and using the ATF to try to shut gun shops down. "Biden has implemented a zero tolerance policy," Pratt said on the Wednesday edition of the "Just the News, No Noise" TV show. "If a gun store makes one mistake, the ATF skips the traditional warnings and goes straight to license revocation. These could be just simple clerical mistakes. Licensing revocations are up anywhere from 300 to 500 percent. This is the most since the early 2000s." Pratt said he received...

Two new lawsuits over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) controversial pistol brace rule were filed yesterday, with over half the states and the country joining in suits challenging the ATF’s rule. Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, and the state of Texas teamed up to sue the ATF. over what they see as an unconstitutional rule that violated the American Procedures Act (APA). The lawsuit highlights that both pistols and short-barreled rifles (SBR) are protected arms. It points out that SBRs are also no more dangerous than any other firearm and that the length doesn’t...

Washington, D.C. – Today, in their latest assault on the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, the Biden ATF issued their final rule to reclassify millions of commonly-owned pistol braced firearms as illegal short-barreled rifles and shotguns under the antiquated and draconian National Firearms Act of 1934. President Biden’s executive action will force gun owners to register guns with the federal government and will infringe on the Second Amendment. The rule has faced significant opposition within the firearms industry and Second Amendment community, as the independent Congressional Research Service estimates that up to 40 million of these braces are currently...

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and FBI coordinate to track the gun purchases of specific individuals through the federal background check system, according to documents that Second Amendment advocacy group Gun Owners of America obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. Shared exclusively with the Epoch Times, the documents include communications in which ATF agents request the monitoring of specific gun purchasers by means of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in a system the FBI dubs the "NICS Monitoring Services." Federal agents, at the behest of the ATF, then manually check the...

The plaintiffs asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) until the court could rule on the coalition’s request for an injunction. A Western New York Federal District Court judge found that the plaintiffs would likely succeed on the case’s merits and suffer irreparable harm by the law. New York appealed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the TRO, which the Second Circuit did relent to the State’s request. Before GOA and New York State faced off in Circuit Court, the District judge issued a preliminary injunction against the CCIA, finding most of the law...

Gun Owners of America Labels 18 Republican Senators ‘Turncoats’ Lobby group slams members who voted to pass Omnibus spending bill that it says funds Biden gun-control programs' Gun Owners of America (GOA), the Virginia-based Second Amendment rights advocacy group, issued a scathing rebuke of the 18 Republican senators who voted for the 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Act. In a Dec. 22 press release, GOA accused the group of advancing the Biden administration’s anti-gun agenda. “Unfortunately, 12 gun-control items just passed the Senate with the help of these 18 Republican turncoats,” the press release states. The Republicans who voted for the bill...

A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by Gun Owners of America (GOA) secured release of information surrounding a form which was used by the FBI in an effort to secure forfeiture of Second Amendment rights. Ammoland.com warned of the FBI effort in 2019, after GOA discovered the “NICS Indices Self-Submission Form” in December 2019. The form gave Americans the opportunity to “voluntarily” give up their Second Amendment rights, allowing no means by which the forfeited rights could be resecured. GOA filed a FOIA suit for information related to the form and its use by the FBI. On September 6,...

John Crump at Ammoland reports thatGun Owners of America (GOA), Bridge City Ordinance, and North Dakota resident Eliezer Jimenez have sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over its new rule on unfinished frames and receivers.After Joe Biden became president, he tasked the ATF to come up with new regulations surrounding privately manufactured firearms (PMF) and pistol stabilizing devices. Biden’s ATF unveiled new rules for a public comment period. Gun owners flooded the comments, but the Bureau moved forward and unveiled the new rules in the White House Rose Garden.The rule is due to go into effect...

Yesterday evening and this morning, we sent you two URGENT action alerts. And you all responded marvelously. The team here at GOA is so grateful for all of you who took action. Your loud voice makes it known to legislators on Capitol Hill that people back at home are truly watching what they’re doing. Yesterday our team in Washington, D.C., learned that anti-gunners in the Senate were trying to pass Universal Background Checks without a single senator voting. So-called Universal Background Checks are only enforceable if the government has a registry to check if a gun belongs to a gun...

In response to the recent tragedy in Oakland County, Michigan, what did the anti-gunners do? Following their standard course of action, they are politicizing the deaths of four high school teens in an attempt to undermine your constitutionally-protected rights. In fact, bowing to the will of their far-Left overlords, anti-gun senators are bringing H.R. 8 to the Senate floor—which is a bill to institute Universal Background Registration Checks (UBCs). And to make matters worse, they are trying to do this by unanimous consent—without an actual vote. Please, contact your Senators and make sure they know you’re opposed to H.R. 8...

Kyle Rittenhouse Awarded AR-15 for 'Defense of Gun Rights' Following Acquittal Accused shooter Kyle Rittenhouse has been awarded an AR-15 assault rifle from an organization called Gun Owners of America (GOA) for his "defense of gun rights" following his acquittal from homicide charges. "ALERT: GOA will be awarding Kyle Rittenhouse with an AR-15 for his defense of gun rights in America," GOA wrote in a Friday morning tweet. "Join us in saying THANK YOU to Kyle Rittenhouse for being a warrior for gun owners and self defense rights across the country!" ALERT: GOA will be awarding Kyle Rittenhouse with an...

In defence of its decision to administer Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine for the use as prophylaxis, to Covid-19 patients, the Goa government, in a statement, has claimed that the mortality rate is much lower in patients who take the medicine than those who don’t. In a statement filed before the Bombay High Court at Goa, which had asked the Goa government to explain its stand on Covid-19, the government referred to reports which said that the advice of the World Health Organization to not experiment with Ivermectin, as its efficacy is yet to be proved, is “flawed”. “Various studies conducted...

The Supreme Court unanimously rejected Biden administration arguments in a case from Rhode Island that police should be allowed to enter homes without a warrant to seize handguns. The ruling in the case, Caniglia v. Strom, court file 20-157, came May 17. Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America and the affiliated Gun Owners Foundation, praised the new decision. “The Supreme Court today smacked down the hopes of gun grabbers across the nation,” Pratt said. The case came before the high court for oral argument two months ago as President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats began pressing...

by about an hour ago The Supreme Court has dealt the Biden administration a defeat on a “caretaking” case. The case tested whether or not police could enter private property without a warrant if an individual was believed to pose a threat to himself or others. In the case Caniglia v. Strom, the Supreme Court ruled that “caretaking” did not justify entering a man’s home to remove firearms because he was believed to have expressed suicidal thoughts. The man was taken to a local mental health facility for psychiatric evaluation. “Police entered the home under a ‘community caretaking’ exception that...

All people above 18 years in Goa will finally be given Ivermectin drug irrespective of their coronavirus status to bring down mortality, state Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said on Monday. He said patients will be given Ivermectin 12 mg for a period of five days as expert panels from the UK, Italy, Spain and Japan have found a statistically significant reduction in mortality, time to recovery and viral clearance in COVID-19 patients treated with this medicine. "I have given instructions for immediate implementation of prophylaxis (action taken to prevent disease) treatment," Rane said. The minister said this treatment would not...

The National Rifle Association’s former second-in-command is breaking with the group’s orthodoxy and calling for universal background checks and so-called red flag laws in a new book assailing the organization as more focused on money and internal intrigue than the Second Amendment, while thwarting constructive dialogue on gun violence. The former executive, Joshua L. Powell, who was fired by the N.R.A. in January, reinforces the kind of criticism made of the organization by gun control groups and state regulators, but it is the first critical look at its recent history by such a high-ranking insider. He describes the N.R.A.’s longtime...

House Republicans were asleep at the wheel this week and missed a major piece of gun control legislation buried deep in the original text of H.R. 6395, a $740.5 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Tuesday—legislation they had unanimously voted out of committee. While the House Armed Services Committee vote to move the bill to the Floor of the House of Representatives two weeks ago went swimmingly for interested parties, the road to the finish line was brutal. Hundreds of amendments were proposed, and the parliamentary proceedings to sort through the mess forced members to physically stand on the...

They say one person can’t make a difference in politics. One person isn’t enough. Their vote doesn’t matter. Well—after this week’s Primary Run-off Election, you may want to think again. One Texan is poised to change the Texas Legislature in 2021. His name is Bryan Slaton. Bryan was a youth pastor in East Texas who decided he’d had enough of government intrusion in his life and wanted to do something about it. He showed up several years ago to a townhall and started asking questions. When the answers were not satisfactory, Bryan knew he had to do more. So, he...