Free Republic

“There are always risks in challenging excessive police power, but the risks of not challenging it are more dangerous, even fatal.” - Hunter S. Thompson, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century I have known a lot of good cops, I have defended a lot of good cops, and I have been fortunate to call a number of good cops friends. So when I say that warrior cops - hyped up on their own authority and the power of the badge - have not made America any safer or...

Texas man whom authorities claim has a "dim" view of women was arrested this week, accused of firing shots at women drivers because he doesn't believe they should be allowed behind the wheel, officials said. Nicholas D’Agostino, 29, is linked to at least three road rage shootings, all occuring in the Houston suburb of Katy, officials said. He appeared before a judge Thursday night on charges of shooting two women in their cars in two separate instances, Fox 26 Houston reported.

The number of defensive gun uses (dgu) in the United States is difficult to measure. Surveys which ask about defensive gun uses have routinely shown numbers between 500,000 and 3 million per year.  A survey, specifically designed to determine dgu in the U.S., the National Self Defense Survey, (NSDS) found about 2.5 million dgu per year in 1993. The National Crime Victim Survey (NCVS), shows smaller numbers, about 80,000 per year. The NCVS does not ask about defensive gun uses, but depends on victims volunteering the information.Numerous other polls have found similar numbers to what the NSDS found.  These...

A Covington, Ga., dad only wanted to take his family on a trip to feed the homeless. Instead, Tae Lovelace says they were harassed by a naked man and he was forced to pull out a handgun in defense. “Had I not been licensed to carry at that moment who knows what this guy could have done to my family or any of the other families that were here,” Lovelace told WSB. Lovelace told Fox 5 his family was at Trailblazer Park in Covington in late July feeding the homeless when they were approached by a stranger in his underwear,...

-One format of radio show that is common around the nation is classifieds, the garage sale, yard sale, trash and treasure, or other nomenclature used to describe similar shows. The shows have callers offer items for sale, along with a telephone number for contact. In deep blue, Madison, Wisconsin, I was listening to the local conservative talk radio station. I was pleased to see the show accepted individual callers who had guns for sale.A local radio station in Yuma has a similar show. But firearms are specifically excluded from the items that are allowed to be advertised for sale...

Until the Super Soaker came along in 1990, water guns hadn’t changed much in over a century. But the Super Soaker was 28 years ago, and a group of German engineers and designers think it’s finally time for water guns to evolve again. They’ve created the self-filling Spyra One that fires quick bursts of water instead of a steady stream, which promises to improve accuracy and distance. The Super Soaker was a staple of my childhood, as it was for millions of other kids, but most of my summer afternoons were either spent refilling the blaster, or endlessly pumping air...

Occasionally we come across a piece of information which reminds us that, while flying cars are still nowhere to be found, we’re definitely living in the future. Usually it’s about some new application of artificial intelligence, or maybe another success in the rapidly developing field of private spaceflight. But sometimes it’s when you look at a website and say to yourself: “Oh cool, they have 1.5kW electromagnetic accelerators in stock.”Arcflash Labs, a partnership between [David Wirth] and [Jason Murray], have put their EMG-01A Gauss gun up for sale for anyone who’s brave enough and willing to put down $1,000...

....snip... Last week we showed you video of a DIY, pistol-shooting quadcopter firing off a few test rounds in the woods. Now federal agents are investigating the 18-year-old Connecticut kid who reportedly built the thing. Police found that the video was uploaded by one Austin Haughwout, Connecticut local news station WFSB reports. Haughwout has previously been involved in a drone-related altercation when he was attacked by a woman who was apparently not a fan his (non-gun-related)quadcopter antics. On Friday, Haughwout's father said that his son was the creator of the pistol-firing drone, having built it with one of his professors...

The campaign manager of a Democrat seeking a U.S. House seat in upstate New York quit the campaign Tuesday, after a video showed the candidate saying she wouldn't publicly endorse a ban on certain firearms -- for fear that she’d lose the election. Mike Szustak, who since April had run the campaign of candidate Tedra Cobb, told the Watertown Daily Times that he’s no longer part of Cobb's bid to unseat Republican incumbent Elise Stefanik in New York's 21st Congressional District. The departure follows revelations that Cobb won’t publicly state that she favors banning assault rifles. The video was first...

Three Democrat Maine legislators are using their position to demand the biggest gun store in Maine, stop selling rifles the lawmakers disapprove of.  Kittery Trading Post has been a successful business since 1938.  From nh1.com: The Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Kittery Trading Post, asking the store to restrict gun sales and to discontinue sales of what the lawmakers said are assault-style rifles. The letter was written by Deane Rykerson, Lydia Blume, and Patty Hymanson — who represent York and Kittery — alongside others from Maine and New Hampshire. "Your store to us has been a symbol of...

Former FBI Director James Comey refused to carry a gun when he was with the FBI. It is likely he never carried a gun during his career. He grew up in Yonkers, New York. He obtained his Batchelors of Science at the College of William and Mary in Virginia, well before Virginia passed a shall issue concealed carry law. From inews.co.uk: In his memoir, A Higher Loyalty, James Comey writes of his time at the FBI: “In every staff meeting, 80 per cent of the attendees had a gun on them. I eventually grew accustomed to seeing a pistol...

Image from crimestoppers The image above is of the 73 firearms turned in on the 30th of June, 2018, in Montgomery, Alabama.  While there are many inexpensive firearms on the table, there are some classic and expensive collector items as well. I see a Hi Standard Model B .22, a Beretta pocket tip up model, a Smith & Wesson Victory model, and a Colt pocket auto.32.  One of the "assault weapons" is a Mossberg 715T, which is an straight blowback Mossberg .22, dressed in a plastic shell to make it look like an AR15 clone.  There is an actual...

A man visiting Busch Gardens Tampa Bay was injured by celebratory gunfire on Wednesday. According to Tampa police, 36-year-old Scott Deel of Florahome, Florida was walking inside the theme park with his wife when he felt pain in his shoulder around 10 p.m. His wife then noticed he was bleeding. Investigators said the source of the pain was a bullet, most likely a result of celebratory gunfire from outside the park, but they are unsure where. it occurred around the same times fireworks were set off at Busch Gardens. The park's security responded, and gave him first aid. Tampa firefighters...

A top Republican state lawmaker says there's a reason Gov. Phil Murphy is battling with his fellow Democrats over the state budget: He's planning to run for president. State Assembly Minority Leader Jon Bramnick said Murphy has to be talking to a "national audience" as he continues to push of this tax hikes despite opposition from top state lawmakers who hail from his own party. "He must be talking to somebody," Bramnick, R-Union, said during a news conference with top New Jersey Republicans in Trenton on Thursday morning to highlight the budget fight.

Today, June 21, the Loudoun County (Virginia) Board of Supervisors (BoS) will consider a proposal from Supervisor Kristen Umstattd (D-Leesburg) to amend the Loudoun County ordinance dealing with the discharge of firearms, which will affect both hunting and shooting. If this passes, there are likely to be serious consequences. Supervisor Umstattd is overreacting to a rare incident in Loudoun where a firearm was discharged carelessly and resulted in minor property damage. Discharging a weapon is always a serious matter. If the Board reacts hastily to an isolated incident, that would be a serious mistake, but that may be what is...

Image by Troy Nemitz On May 31, 2018, about two o'clock in the afternoon, 23-year-old Noah Kolis was guiding three friends from Chicago. They started at his boyhood home near Cora, Wyoming. His dog, a Chesapeake-Lab mix, was with them. They were heading to some rock formations. Noah was carrying his 460V Smith & Wesson revolver. Two other men in the party were carrying bear spray.  The two men with bear spray had fallen 50 yards behind. The dog alerted on something. Noah thought it was some sort of big animal. Then he saw the bears, a grizzly sow...

Six-time All-Star Kevin Brown holds alleged mail thieves at gunpoint for police 11:32 PM ET ESPN Kevin Brown has gone from striking out big league batters to retiring would-be mail thieves. The longtime major league pitcher seemingly put an end to a recent run of stolen mail in his north Macon, Georgia, neighborhood, apprehending a 15-year-old boy and another man before their arrests Wednesday. According to a report by The (Macon) Telegraph, Brown hid in a neighbor's yard and waited for the alleged thieves to swipe some mail. When they tried, Brown caught them, holding them at gunpoint until police...

Six new gun-control laws were enacted Wednesday, including smaller ammunition magazine limits and new "red flag" laws designed to take guns from people deemed dangerous. Though New Jersey has among the nation’s most restrictive gun-control systems, most Democrats have been pushing for years to enact more, particularly in response to school shootings. Assembly Majority Leader Louis Greenwald, D-Camden, recalled a Statehouse meeting he had in April 2013 with Connecticut parents whose children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The cut in the maximum ammunition magazine, from 15 to 10 rounds, is one proposal that those parents emphasized. “We made...

Whatever teen anti-gun celebrity David Hogg learned in high school, it apparently wasn’t the English language. It’s that, or he actually wants to increase the number of gun deaths in inner-city communities. Either way, the poster boy for the gun-grabbing left is showing all the world just how confused and ignorant he really is. In recent a Twitter exchange with a conservative commentator, Hogg let his ignorance slip with a colossally nonsensical argument for the left’s favorite economic policy: Raising the minimum wage.

This is a very good post that has been sitting dormant on FR for 15 years. Meanwhile, the radical left has been on the war-path trying to ban guns, and raising all kinds of heck. I think that it is really a good time to dust off this old post and take a good hard look at it. There is some significant information in this post that makes mince-meat out of the arguments being dished out by the media. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/516731/posts