Free Republic

The International Association of Chiefs of Police urged Congress to pass `an effective assault weapons ban.' The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report Wednesday calling for a ban on assault weapons, arguing it will make officers safer by reducing the ``firepower available to criminals.'' The report hits home this week in South Florida, where law enforcement officials are still reeling from the murder of one of their own. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former police officer and police director, gets angry when he talks about the fact that the gun used to kill Officer Jose Somohano was...

An extraordinarily violent day in South Florida -- which began with the shooting of four police officers south of Miami, and ended with the death of the gunman in Pembroke Pines -- brought home a disturbing fact of criminal life: More offenders are taking to the streets with high-powered assault weapons. "You can buy an assault rifle for about $200," said Carlos Baixauli, a special agent with the Miami district office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "That gives you a lot of firepower with the flick of a finger."

- - Miami's new policy reflects the growing trend of police departments adding firepower to compete with heavily armed criminals Citing a dramatic increase in the availability of high-powered, semiautomatic assault rifles -- like the one used Thursday to kill a Miami-Dade County police officer -- Miami Police Chief John Timoney has for the first time authorized patrol officers to start carrying similarly lethal weapons. A burgeoning ''arms race'' between police and heavily armed drug gangs forced him to sign the new policy earlier this week, Timoney said. That was even before Thursday's lopsided confrontation between four pistol-toting county police...

- - 38 leaders of cities meet in Trenton TRENTON -- Just two days after an AK-47 assault rifle and several other weapons were confiscated from a city teenager and a Miami-Dade County police officer was shot and killed in Florida, mayors gathered in the capital city for the U.S. Conference of Mayors leadership meeting called attention to the country's growing problem with gun violence.

On the day South Florida mourned a slain police officer, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson stopped in Miami and stuck firmly to his guns over what he says is the unnecessary call for limiting the right to bear arms. ''I do not think that abrogating Second Amendment rights is a good idea,'' the Republican said at the Versailles in Little Havana. ''The amount of violence created on the street by these kinds of weapons is very, very small,'' Thompson said. ``It's too bad. It's horrendous. Any kind -- whether it's a knife or an IED [improvised explosive device] or a...

(CBS4) DORAL Miami-Dade police have arrested four people in connection with the shootings of four Miami-Dade police officers, one of whom died.According to CBS4’s news partner The Miami Herald, three of those arrested are charged with aiding the suspected cop killer Shawn LaBeet.. Those suspects are Alba Bello, 47; her son, Alain Gonzalez, 24; and Bello’s boyfriend, Lazaro Guardiola, 35. The Herald reports all three have been charged with accessory after the fact for harboring LaBeet and are being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Basically, investigators believe, they helped hide LaBeet as he hid from police in...

The man suspected of killing one Miami-Dade cop and wounding three others Thursday morning in a shootout in south Miami-Dade was cornered and shot dead in a Pembroke Pines apartment complex sometime before midnight, a law enforcement source told The Miami Herald. Miami-Dade police would not confirm the information about suspect Shawn Sherwin LaBeet, but scheduled a news conference for 12:30 a.m. at its headquarters in Doral. After receiving a tip Thursday evening that LaBeet was hiding in an apartment complex in Pembroke Pines, Miami-Dade sent its SWAT team, the source told The Herald.

Two Miami-Dade police officers have been injured in a so-called Tactical Operation gone bad in Cutler Bay. This is currently a developing story that began at SW 281st Street and 143rd Court in Cutler Bay where the two officers were possibly shot, reportedly with an assault rifle. Other officers may have also been hurt but only with minor injuries. At least one officer has been transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital. After the shooting, one suspect barricaded himself inside a building at 280th Street and Southwest 143RD Court. The other suspect took off in a White Honda Accord and began driving...

On the day South Florida mourned a slain police officer, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson stopped in Miami and stuck firmly to his guns over what he says is the unnecessary call for limiting the right to bear arms. ''I do not think that abrogating Second Amendment rights is a good idea,'' the Republican said at the Versailles restaurant in Little Havana. ''The amount of violence created on the street by these kinds of weapons is very, very small,'' Thompson said. ``It's too bad. It's horrendous. Any kind -- whether it's a knife or an IED or a gun --...

I bought a new (for me, anyway) rifle this past week. It's black. It has a bipod on the stock, a black banana clip that looks like a handle, a scope with a lot of knobs and a shiny metal muzzle on the special oversized barrel. It looks a lot like an assault weapon. It is a Ruger 10/22, one of the most accurate and most popular sport/plinking rifles produced. I got it, in part, for my granddaughter, who's ready to graduate from a pellet rifle. She's no terrorist, and neither am I. Nor, as many of you have repeatedly...

I call them "assault" rifles, which may upset some people. Excuse me, maybe I'm a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I'll go so far as to call them "terrorist" rifles.

CNHI News Service — July 4 is the quintessential American holiday. It is a boisterous celebration of the birthing of the U.S. and the wonderful independence which has made our great nation the most powerful and influential country this world has ever known. This independence could never have come about were it not for firearms. Our forefathers were liberty-hungry upstarts who utilized their skills as marksmen to overthrow an oppressive government. Knowing full well that arming of citizens is necessary for the maintenance of liberty and peace by offering the ability to fend off not only potential invaders but future...

ASSEMBLY, No. 2185 STATE OF NEW JERSEY 212th LEGISLATURE INTRODUCED JANUARY 30, 2006 Sponsored by: Assemblyman REED GUSCIORA District 15 (Mercer) SYNOPSIS Revises criteria for determining whether a rifle is an assault firearm. CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT As introduced. AN ACT concerning assault firearms and amending N.J.S.2C:39-1. BE IT ENACTED by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey: 1. N.J.S.2C:39-1 is amended to read as follows: 2C:39-1. Definitions. The following definitions apply to this chapter and to chapter 58: a. "Antique firearm" means any rifle or shotgun and "antique cannon" means a destructive device defined in...

Eleven illegal immigrants from Mexico have been arrested and about 100,000 marijuana plants worth a total of $150 million are being uprooted as a result of several drug busts that culminated with one near Strawberry on Monday.

Totally Awesome Guns and Range in West Valley City, Utah, has been hopping this week with customers trying to buy guns that were illegal until the 10-year-old ban on assault weapons expired Monday. One man bought all 15 of the Colt M-4 rifles that the store's general manager, Stephen Palano, had in stock. The M-4 is a semiautomatic version of the weapon used by American Special Forces and paratroopers. Until Congress allowed the assault weapon ban to lapse, the gun could be sold in the United States only to law enforcement agencies. Andy Risbeck was disappointed to enter the store...

McGreevey Directs Attorney General to Address Lapse of Federal Assault Weapons Ban New Jersey still has the toughest and most comprehensive ban in the United States, but the availability of assault weapons elsewhere could create an enhanced danger in the Garden State (HAMILTON) – Governor James E. McGreevey today signed an executive order directing Attorney General Peter C. Harvey to convene a task force that will respond to issues raised by the expiration of the federal assault weapons ban. The Federal law, signed in 1994 by President Clinton, included a clause that would allow it to expire today – 10...

If you listen to media rhetoric, you get the notion that the more guns people own, the more crime there will be. More husbands shooting wives. More suicides by guns. More armed robberies. More homicides. Recently I viewed a 56-minute CD, "A Question of Balance," summarizing a World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities. The meeting was held May 1-2, 2003, at the Tower of London, and eight scholars presented data on firearms and crime. If more guns in the home lead to more crimes, then Switzerland would be the crime capital of the world. There, all men...

RENO, Nev. (AP) - Federal agents working undercover at gun shows in Nevada the past year have arrested 14 suspects on a variety of firearms charges that include illegally possessing machine guns and explosives, agents said Friday. The FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and local law enforcement agencies joined to apprehend the 13 men and one woman in five Western states - Nevada, California, Utah, Idaho and Washington - as part of "Operation Over the Line." Nine of the suspects were arrested after search warrants were served Friday, and five others already were in custody as part...

This week, the Bush White House had the chance to send a clear message about how September 11 had transformed our politics. Instead it ducked, preferring pandering to principle. Vice President Dick Cheney, armed with muscular rhetoric, was dispatched to woo the zealots of the National Rifle Association. Cheney looked them in the eye and ducked completely on the issue of the day – whether the White House will renew the ban on the sale of assault weapons. Bush has gone AWOL once more. The assault weapons ban is supported by police chiefs and police officers across the country. It...

"C_____ _. W______" wrote: I represent me only. This is a comment and my opinion. I don't think the "foundering fathers" had AK-47 or automatic weapons on their minds when they gave American citizens the right to bare arms or when you quoted these individuals to sale your book. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them." "What is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials. ~George Mason, 1788 "On every question of construction, let us carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, and...