Free Republic

An Austin woman credits her handgun and her own quick thinking with saving her life after she shot a man who was trying to attack her. Leonie Burgos said the man scaled a fence outside her apartment near Barton Skyway and South Lamar. When Burgos saw the man jump the fence, she ran inside and grabbed her .38 caliber pistol. She went back outside to see if the man had left. She said that's when he attacked her by tackling her to the ground from behind. Bergos said she shot the man only after trying to scare him with the...

Two men tried to rob an Nashville Sonic restaurant, but an assistant manager pulled out a gun and fired shots, causing the suspects to flee. Police believe that one or both of the suspects was wounded. Metro police Capt. Michele Donegan said that at approximately 10:30 p.m. Thursday, two men, one of whom was armed with a handgun, went inside the Sonic at 1410 Robinson Road, in Old Hickory. Several employees were at the restaurant, and numerous customers were at the tables outside and at the drive-ups. The armed suspect showed the gun. The assistant manager then pulled out a...

An employee of a Virginia Beach pizza restaurant shot and killed a masked robber who had come in the back of the shop to rob it Saturday night, police said.

VIRGINIA BEACHAn employee of a Virginia Beach pizza restaurant shot and killed a masked robber who had come in the back of the shop to rob it Saturday night, police said.The shooting happened about 10:08 p.m. at Dominick's Pizza & Pasta, in the Timberlake Shopping Center in the 4200 block of Holland Road.Employees had opened the back door to let a breeze come in, and the robber came in the door to the kitchen and pointed a gun at them, said Sgt. Rene Ball of Virginia Beach police.An employee then shot and killed the robber, she said. No one else...

Perhaps the question most commonly asked by reporters about yesterday's decision in Heller, is how it will affect the constitutionality of other gun laws. I believe Justice Scalia signaled that regulations short of a ban should be scrutinized the way we do "time, place, and manner" regulations of speech when he equated the Second Amendment with the First: "There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms. Of course the right was not unlimited, just as the First Amendment’s right of free...

Thirty-thousand Americans are killed by guns every year — on the job, walking to school, at the shopping mall. The Supreme Court on Thursday all but ensured that even more Americans will die senselessly with its wrongheaded and dangerous ruling striking down key parts of the District of Columbia’s gun-control law. In a radical break from 70 years of Supreme Court precedent, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, declared that the Second Amendment guarantees individuals the right to bear arms for nonmilitary uses, even though the amendment clearly links the right to service in a “militia.” The ruling will...

Mayor John Hickenlooper promised Denver won't experience another "Summer of Violence" and vowed Monday to crack down on criminals who wield weapons after two unrelated weekend shootings shocked the city. "If you use a gun in Denver, we're going to do everything we can to put you behind bars as long as we can," the mayor said at a news conference flanked by Police Chief Gerry Whitman and District Attorney Mitch Morrissey. Police identified Mark Tabullo- Zuniga, 23, as the gunman who died in a confrontation with police early Sunday in a parking lot at 18th and Market streets. Andres...

home invasion suspects (3 caught) may be mexican military or police they may have been trying to ambush phx police the home invasion killed one, drug trade suspected at least one person, in full-body armor and up to three (3) still on the loose

Scott Yamanashi could have died on his 38th birthday. But he survived being shot during his party at a Plaza Midwood bar. Now he's starting an armed patrol and stirring conflict in the community he aims to protect. The patrol, called Neighborhood Watch Alliance, is comprised of some of Yamanashi's friends from businesses off Central Avenue. The group is still organizing, he said. But the plan is to patrol the area with handguns, flashlights and notepads. “We can lurk in the shadows, watch people and report what we see,” he said. “That's not against the law.” But the idea has...

A pizza delivery driver fought back at a group of suspects who tried to rob him, pulling out a gun and wounding one of them. Greenville Police say the incident happened early Monday morning at 1105 A Masters Lane when the Chanellos Pizza driver said three suspects began hitting him as he was delivering the pizzas. Police say the delivery driver then pulled out a gun and began to fire. One of the three robbery suspects was struck. Elvis Deans Junior, a 17 year-old student at South Central High School, is listed in stable but critical condition. He'll be charged...

In the latest in a long series of Armed Citizen stories that the media works strenuously to ignore... A longtime customer brazenly stood up to a suspected would-be bank robber at a Comerica bank on Monday and detained the man until police showed up. When the suspect demanded "bands of 50s and 100s," police said, the clerk hit the bank's silent alarm and began placing money in a bag. A teller at an adjacent counter noticed the incident and alerted the longtime customer. Police said the customer then pulled out a gun, pointed it at the suspect and told him,...

The FBI released its [1] preliminary crime figures for 2007 last week, and as is sometimes the case there was both good and bad news to be found in the report. Violent crime in the U.S. fell by 1.4 percent last year, a modest decline to be sure but a decline nonetheless after increases of 1.9 percent in 2006 and 2.3 percent in 2005. This nationwide trend is largely attributable to the even more dramatic drop in crime seen in AmericaÂ’s largest cities: there was a 9.8 percent drop in murders in cities with populations of greater than one million....

OAKLAND — An armed East Oakland homeowner who tried to dissuade a burglary suspect with several warning shots ended up shooting the man in the leg Monday in the most recent in a string of incidents in which victims have shot suspects.Neighbors of the home on the 2200 block of 100th Avenue said the house had been broken into before."The guy is exasperated because they target his house," said the shooter's next-door neighbor, who declined to give her name. "There's got to be somebody watching him, because the minute he leaves the house it's targeted to be broken into. It's...

WARREN, Mich. -- Police said 20 to 30 men who brutally attacked and robbed a motorist Saturday night may also be responsible for several other violent crimes that took place the same day. Four people were taken into custody for questioning after a motorist was beaten unconscious. Police said the incident took place when Andy Kauffman, 29, and his wife, Angelina, were driving on North River Road when more than two dozen men wearing ball caps and baggy shorts spread out across the street and blocked traffic. Kauffman tried to drive past them and someone threw a brick in his...

The husband of a 70-year-old grandmother who was killed by a bear in northern Quebec ... Conservation experts set traps after Friday evening's attack, but ... the bear was still at large in the wilds of northern Quebec. As she scouted a fishing hole for walleye, Ms. Lavoie became separated from her husband. Barely 10 minutes later, Mr. Lavoie felt something was amiss and went searching for his wife of 51 years. Metres away he came upon the nightmarish scene of her body being dragged into the forest by a bear. Mr. Lavoie chased the predator for nearly 200 metres...

On Sunday May 25, 2008 at approximately 2:30 a.m. the Winnemucca Police Department was dispatched to the Players Bar and Grill located at 1062 South Grass Valley Road on the report of numerous shots fired and multiple gunshot victims. A combined law enforcement team consisting of Officers from the Winnemucca Police Department and Deputies from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office responded to the dispatch call and secured the scene. There were approximately 300 patrons in and around the bar. No shots were fired by law enforcement during the incident. The officers on scene discovered three adult males who had died...

A Crossville man was shot and killed by a homeowner last Thursday morning during an apparent burglary, The Expositor newspaper reported. According to White County Sheriff Oddie Shoupe, Bryan Keith Cook, 32, of Crossville, was leaving from a home he had reportedly broken into when he came into contact with the homeowner, Keith Girdley, on the front porch. The shooting occurred around 9:59 a.m. May 15. "The guy was on the front porch coming out of the house with some stolen stuff, and Mr. Girdley was on the bottom step," said Shoupe. The sheriff said Cook asked Girdley, “Can I...

Hello members of the free republic community. I am currently working on a project for my government 101 class and I am in the dark. I am to write an opinion on D.C V Heller, (in which I side with Heller) but I am inundated with a lack of materials that are not infringed by liberal gun phobia. I am the only one supporting Heller in my class and I am being debated left and right, any idea would be much appreciated so that I am better equipped to fight back. I strongly believe that every American should own a...

A teenage actor who appears in the next Harry Potter film was stabbed to death trying to protect his younger brother from a knifeman yesterday. Robert Knox, 18, who acted alongside Daniel Radcliffe in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, became the 28th teenager killed in Britain this year, and the 10th in London to die from stab wounds. Relatives said his role as Marcus Belby in the film, due for release in November, was set to launch his career as an actor. Mr Knox was a member of the same rugby club as Jimmy Mizen, the 16-year-old "gentle giant"...

NDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Police made an arrest in a robbery that turned deadly. Police said 18-year-old Keith Chandler lured a lock smith to the 600 block of West 31st Street early Wednesday morning...

Two Die In Shooting Outside Sunnyvale Strip Club SUNNYVALE, Calif. -- Two men died in a hail of fire in a late Sunday night shooting in the parking lot of a Sunnyvale strip club. Sunnyvale Police Capt. Doug Maretto said his agency received a 911 call reporting a shooting outside the Brass Rail strip club at 160 Persian Drive. Arriving officers discovered the two men lying on the ground near a red Range Rover parked outside the club. Neighbors told KTVU they heard a series of shots of 2-3 shots followed shortly after by two more. "He seemed to know...

Monroe County authorities today identified a burglary suspect who was shot to death by a homeowner and arrested a second suspect who fled. Bristin Self, 19, was killed Wednesday by homeowner Mark Fryer during a 4:30 p.m. break-in, and Self's companion fled, according to the Monroe County Sheriff's Department. Based on a description given by Fryer, deputies later arrested James Cheek and have charged him with aggravated burglary. Cheek has confessed to being illegally inside the Fryer residence on Old Store Road, according to investigators. Sheriff's Department Detective Travis Jones said Self and Cheek were not armed and didn't realize...

When Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg stood at City Hall two years ago to announce that he had just filed suit against several gun shop owners, mainly in the South, it was in a certain fashion the capstone of a signature campaign. Mr. Bloomberg had already bashed the industry in several angry speeches, gone to Washington to pressure congressmen and lobbyists, and made his war against illegal guns a personal crusade. Now, however, Mr. Bloomberg is likely to answer verbally — and literally in person — for his personal crusade. City officials said on Wednesday that he was virtually certain to...

Gaithersburg, MD -- Montgomery County Police say they have arrested a Gaithersburg man after recovering weapons and explosives from his home Wednesday. James L. Boka , 47, was arrested without incident -snip- Bomb squad investigators recovered over 230 lbs. of 46 different chemicals commonly used to make explosives. -snip-

Knox report From the Firearms Coalition The Pen is Mightier...and More Dangerous by Jeff Knox (May 6, 2008) When Steven Barber turned in his midterm creative writing assignment at the University of Virginia's College at Wise (UVA-Wise), he was hoping for a good grade to complement his 3.9 grade point average. Instead, Barber was expelled from school, locked in a mental institution for three days, and had his concealed carry permit revoked. Barber's fictional story was a first person narrative of a troubled college student consumed by depression, paranoia, drug addiction, and alcoholism as he struggles with one of tragedy's...

A homeowner on Tuesday morning shot a 17-year-old burglary suspect who police said broke into the man's home while he was sleeping. Police said the incident happened in the 2300 block of Larry Drive in east Dallas when the teen, who they said was skipping school, forced his way into the house through the back door. The homeowner awoke and confronted the teen, eventually shooting the boy when he charged the man, police said. Sgt. Steven Shaw said the homeowner had been a recent crime victim and that he was quite startled during the burglary. "He was scared ," Shaw...

<p>LOS ANGELES—A former Los Angeles police officer who participated in home invasion robberies staged to look like police raids was sentenced Monday to 102 years in prison.</p> <p>William Ferguson, 35, was convicted of participating in more than 40 phony raids from early 1999 to June 2001 at homes in working-class neighborhoods while he worked at the department's scandal-ridden Rampart Division.</p>

CHICAGO (CBS) ― More students are speaking out against gun violence in their neighborhoods. They met Sunday to show Illinois lawmakers and the governor that they want tougher gun laws. CBS 2's Pamela Jones reports that the high school students have collected more than 1,000 petition signatures. Each stood with their own story of gun violence. "It hurts me to see the youth, because I have a friend who died, Blair Holt, from gun violence,' said Christine Goggins, a student from the Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy. "Before I was born, 18 years ago, a 16-year-old New Trier student shot...

Second Amendment Sisters, Texas chapter, will be holding another Ladies Learn to Shoot Day in the Austin area on May 31. All interested women freepers are invited to join us for a day of fun and learning.You must call the toll free number on the flyer to get on the list of attendees:TX Shoot Flyer

(The terror was real, say judge, victims) Waukesha, WI - When a ski-masked Matthew S. Baker shoved a handgun into Kari Mirek's back, walked her to the cash register and put the gun up to her head, Mirek said, she feared for her life. She didn't know the handgun Baker was using to rob the Wonderland Tap in the City of Pewaukee was a fake. The bartender had no way of knowing that Baker wasn't going to shoot her. Her terror on the night of March 6, 2007, was real, she told Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee S. Dreyfus Jr....

Yesterday the government has redefined what a machine gun is--any firearm that malfunctions and fires more than one round before jamming. [US v. Olofson] I am awaiting the transcript of the hearing, however: Judge Clevert [I am told] stated is does not matter what ammunition, or what error rate ATF testing has, or that a malfunction occurred, or even if it required ATF to modify the firearm, just that more than one round be fired per function of the trigger. Every firearm in possession of your membership is a "machine gun" under this narrow interpretation. This is scientific fact, not...

A Fort Worth homeowner shot and killed a man who broke into a donut shop next to his house. According to reports, the man heard commotion coming from the parking lot of the neighboring store in the 100 Block of Roberts Cut Off Road and went to investigate. Police said the would-be robber broke the glass and demanded money from the female donut shop owner. Authorities are questioning the neighbor, but it's not expected he'll face any charges.

Star-Telegram Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson takes his job seriously. Fine. But he sometimes takes too seriously duties that don't fall within his job description, like being interpreter of the U.S. Constitution and official czar for Second Amendment rights. Patterson, whose title automatically makes him chairman of the School Land Board, is in charge of overseeing some state-owned property. His office has the power to invest in real estate to benefit the Permanent School Fund, which supports public education. For months now, the commissioner has been at the center of a public fight involving a 14.5-square-mile tract in West Texas...

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Police said a man who tried to rob a donut store was shot and killed by a man who lives near the store Friday morning. The robber broke into the store in the 100 block of Roberts Cut Off Road in West Fort Worth and terrorized the woman who was working there, police said. Police said the woman, Angel Randle, ran out the back door screaming for help. The neighbor heard the pleas, grabbed his shotgun and then fatally shot the robber, police said. “This is the second time this month she’s been robbed,” witness Raymon...

Mark Beverly probably didn’t expect a hero’s welcome when he returned to his convenience-store job after fighting off an assault on a co-worker from a would-be robber, but he certainly didn’t expect to get fired, either. Super America, which operates a large chain of gas stations and convenience stores in the Midwest, terminated Beverly for violating the policy of the company by fighting with the robber. The termination leaves Beverly without unemployment benefits as well

LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. — A coyote grabbed a 2-year-old girl by the head and tried to drag her from the front yard of her mountain home in the third incident of a coyote threatening a small child in Southern California in five days, authorities said. The coyote attacked the girl around noon Tuesday when her mother, Melissa Rowley, went inside the home for a moment to put away a camera, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in an incident report. Rowley came out of the house and saw the coyote dragging her daughter towards a street. She ran towards...

A burglar, looking for loot inside a home near 8th and Northern avenues in Phoenix, instead found himself in the back of a police car, headed to jail. Neighbors who live in the area claim they have an undercover block watch system that helps keep criminals out of their community. "We know exactly who to call," one neighbor told ABC15. Police accuse Jesse Parra of breaking into Bill Marshall's home near 8th Avenue and Royal Palm Road. Marshall said the bad guy used a porch ornament to shatter his front window and break into his home. Though Marshall was not...

BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese citizens must register their identities when they buy potentially deadly knives, Xinhua quoted the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday as saying. The new regulations come as China steps up security ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The targeted daggers include those with blood grooves, lock-knives, and knives with blades measuring over 22 centimeters, the ministry said in a circular posted on its website, www.mps.gov.cn. Police departments at all levels should check knife manufacturers for illegal production of deadly weapons, it said. Regulations concerning knife tools used by China's ethnic groups are to be set...

My friend who works at the University says they are in lockdown mode because there is a gunman on the loose in the library. Anyone have more info?

A man’s attempted armed robbery of a central Mesa store was foiled Sunday when the clerk fought back with a Taser, his fists and a handgun, police said. The 30-year-old suspect, shot several times by a clerk at Mesa Mart, 1510 S. Country Club Drive, was listed in critical condition at Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn, police spokeswoman Detective Chris Arvayo said. Although the 55-year-old clerk had been assaulted with a pipe, he did not require extensive medical attention. The clerk most likely will not face any criminal charges. “He’s got the right to defend himself,” Arvayo said. However, the suspect probably...

-snip On Thursday, April 17, a drive-thru carryout owner and Concealed Handgun License (CHL)-holder was investigating why his security alarm went off after just having closed up for the night when he was surprised by an intruder who had been hiding in his store. The entire confrontation that followed was caught on tape. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IeVxeg4mgI As can be seen in the security video the intruder surprised the store owner, who was forced to draw his gun when the intruder advanced toward him. He ordered the intruder onto his knees, and held him at gunpoint while attempting to dial 911. At that...

Snip................... Grant then drew a handgun. Assistant manager Roberto Espinal, behind a side counter, drew his gun. When Grant turned that way, Hernandez pulled his gun. It was 5 p.m., and the store was jammed with customers, loading up for dinner on their way home, who hadn't counted on a three-way standoff.

NASHVILLE, Tenn.- There was a deadly gunfight at a liquor store in Inglewood Saturday night. An armed robbery suspect was gunned down, after trying to rob the place. But it wasn't a police officer who took action.None of the clerks in Sinkers Wine and Spirits had a gun to protect themselves, but they said they're thankful one of their customers did.Sinkers Wine and Spirits lost some of their merchandise on Saturday night, but Clifford Baxter is hardly upset. He's just happy to have survived the gunfight that took place in his store over the weekend when two armed men...

Please note that this week’s column is for pedophiles only. Do not read if sex with children is not on your to-do list for today. OK, now that those do-gooders have moved on elsewhere, I can impart some important information for all of you deviant wastes of skin. If the idea of spending a decade or more passed around in the prison shower is the only thing that keeps you from raping or sexually assaulting children, then I have some good news for you. Pack up your bags and move to Paris. Illinois, that is. Here’s why. Back about a...

Six days ago, Blane MacDougal, whose criminal record includes murder, escaping custody, indecent assault, rape, kidnapping and sexual assault with a weapon, slipped away from a minimum-security jail in the Fraser Valley. He has vanished so thoroughly that police yesterday were left to appeal to the dangerous offender's "goodwill and conscience" to turn himself in. The RCMP have dozens of officers searching for him, but say to date they have had no leads - not even the false sightings that typically come with such manhunts. "At this time our appeal is directly to Mr. MacDougal himself, to do the right...

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Two men were shot, another arrested, after police say the men attempted to rob an apartment on the city's near north side. It happened just after 3 a.m. in the 4800 block of Park Forest Court. Authorities say three black males went into the apartment with a shotgun. Several shots were fired. However, it's the suspected robbers who were injured. Two are being treated at the hospital this morning. Police say their injuries are not life threatening.

While clowning around with my grandchildren one day, I suddenly shouted, "Look at the sky, it has turned from blue to green." Try as I might, I could never convince them that it was true, because they could see and couldn't be fooled. So it is with Robert Levy's column ("Employers Must Pull The Trigger," Our Opinion, April 22). Levy claims that our right to have firearms locked in our cars in a parking lot is not about the Second Amendment but about the mythical right of corporations to usurp the Constitution and ban guns. But Levy didn't pull it...

A MESSAGE FROM LORI BROADHEAD AFA NATIONAL DIRECTOR Thank you for being interested enough in your rights and freedoms to make AFA a stop in your research. Welcome. I hope you find what you were looking for, and if not, please don’t hesitate to contact us. At AFA, our main mission is to educate gun owners to the fact that their rights are in jeopardy. We want to unite gun owners from every discipline, from opposite ends of the gun-owning spectrum, and those who never saw themselves being politically active. Whether you just have one home defense pistol, or you’re...

Armed only with a screwdriver, a 95-year-old woman in a wheel chair kept a burglar from breaking into her home by repeatedly stabbing his hand. It was 3 a.m. when a 95-year-old Bartlesville woman heard somebody break the glass on her front door and push the door open. When a hand came inside and tried to unlock the door, she stabbed it. Again and again. She stabbed that hand many times over the next hour, say Bartlesville Police. The woman would not leave the door for fear the man would break in while she was calling for help. Eventually, the...

...Secular gun-free big-government Europe doesn't seem to have done anything for people's happiness. Consider by way of example the words of Keith Reade. He's not an Obama speechwriter, he's a writer for the London Daily Mirror. And the day after the 2004 Presidential election he expressed his frustration in an alarmingly Obamaesque way: "Were I a Kerry voter, though, I'd feel deep anger, not only at them returning Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same category of moronic muppets. The self-righteous, gun-totin', military-lovin', sister-marryin', abortion-hatin', gay-loathin', foreigner-despisin', non-passport ownin' red-necks, who...