Free Republic

FREDERICK, MD - Across the nation gun stores are coming up with a shortage of ammunition, and now it's starting to hit local law enforcement. Ammo that once took a couple of weeks to order and ship is now taking eight to 12 months. NBC25 spoke with the Frederick Police Department, where officers say they order their ammo about a year in advance, but they are taking precautions to preserve what ammo they do have. "We are changing to scenario-based training, which is using the air-soft, which are similar to the bb guns or the simunition guns, which shoot cartridges...

'How dare you point a gun at me!' Hero father wrestles armed raider to floor... and makes him cry Leslie Shott, 34, confronted the hooded youth after he burst into a shop brandishing an airgun. The yob pointed the pistol at Leslie's face but the brave welder simply grabbed the barrel, wrestled him to the ground and told him: 'How dare you point a gun at me!' Showdown: An armed youth points a gun at Leslie Shott's head As they waited for the police the 19-year-old started sobbing and begged forgiveness from shop owner... The father-of-one - who lives above...

Lewis and Clark brought an airgun on the Voyage of Discovery. When this fact became widely known after World War II, while air rifle manufacturers were mass producing and marketing inexpensive models for boys throughout America, the revelation seemed profound. A pellet rifle? A BB gun on that famous expedition by Thomas Jefferson's Corps of Discovery? Well, not exactly. The airgun Lewis and Clark brought along was a powerful weapon, hardly a Daisy Red Ryder.

A city building inspector warned David Schutt and his roommates that they had to do something about the flocks of pooping pigeons infesting their University of Utah-area residence. David said he even had pigeons in his room. But when he tried to chase them off, he found himself behind bars on Easter Sunday, suspected of animal cruelty and shooting a weapon inside city limits. The alleged crime? Killing, he says by accident, one of the feathered horde with a BB gun. Schutt , an engineering student at the University of Utah, says he was just trying to scatter the birds...

ANYONE WHO HAS ever been shot by an air gun does not need to be told that, in the wrong hands, it can be a dangerous weapon. Just ask Orinda City Councilman Steven Glazer. In October of 2003, Glazer was driving in a convertible with his family in Orinda when he felt a hard thump on his neck. When he went to the hospital, doctors told him that he had been shot by a pellet that barely missed his carotid artery. He had to undergo a two-hour surgery and says he still suffers numbness in his face and neck. At...

A worker at a Downtown steam plant who brought a pellet rifle to work to shoot pigeons was mistaken for a sniper Wednesday afternoon, prompting police to shut down part of the city for about two hours. Richard Wills, of Dawson, Fayette County, a maintenance worker in the Pittsburgh Allegheny County Thermal building, brought the weapon to work to chase pigeons away from broken windows on the building's roof, said PACT President Robert Fazio. Someone apparently spotted him - and his rifle - when he stepped out onto the roof for a few seconds, Fazio said. At least three witnesses...

Teacher Linda Walker, who was jailed for firing a pellet gun during a row with youths, has been freed by the Court of Appeal. Three judges gave her a conditional discharge but refused her permission to challenge her convictions. The 48-year-old, from Urmston, Greater Manchester, was jailed for six months after she was convicted of affray and possessing a firearm on 29 March. She said she fired the gun after the youths had terrorised her family. Her trial was told she had received nuisance phone calls abusing her family, her garden shed had been broken into, and a car and...

THE grieving mother of a toddler who died after being shot with an airgun called yesterday for the weapons to be banned. Two-year-old Andrew Morton was hit in the head by a single pellet - thought to be aimed at firefighters tackling a house blaze - as he went out with his brother to buy chips. His family took the agonising decision to turn off his ventilator after doctors said there were no signs of recovery. Mum Sharon McMillan, 34, said: "Airguns should be banned and anyone who carries them should be locked up. "Andrew was a wonderful wee boy,...

Teenager shot friend dead with airgun The Evening Chronicle, 9/9/2002 A 15-year-old boy has been sent to a young offenders' institution for two years for shooting a friend dead with an airgun. Daryl John Allison was 13 when horseplay with an air rifle ended in tragedy as he shot 14-year-old Matthew Sheffield in the head. A judge said the Government should use the current session of Parliament to address legislation governing the ownership and use of air weapons. Judge Peter Fox QC said: "Such legislation is urgently needed. For Matthew not to have died in vain it would be appropriate,...