Free Republic

Civil rights organization fights elitists and racists By John Bender With the Heller decision only hours old, the National rifle Association, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, filed suit against Chicago and San Francisco seeking to overturn obviously unconstitutional laws those cities have on the books. In the case of Chicago, their anti-civil right law mirrors the Washington, D.C. law the court struck down. In San Francisco the anti-civil rights law being challenged is different, but also absolutely unconstitutional on its face. In fact the San Francisco law is elitist and racist and the federal government should have insisted it...

A Levy County man accidentally shot his wife Friday morning when he tried to fend off a fox that had attacked the woman, deputies reported. The animal was killed and will be tested for rabies due to its unusual behavior, said Levy County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Evan Sullivan. Test results won’t be available until next week, but authorities are advising anyone who comes in contact with a wild animal exhibiting strange behavior to leave it alone and contact law enforcement. Officers were called to an accidental shooting in the 3000 block of SE 18th Ave. in the Morriston area...

Bam! The amount of time it took to read the first word in this editorial — less than a half a second — is the amount of time a police officer has to make a life-and-death decision when confronted by an individual with a gun. We believe this is the core issue surrounding the recent controversy regarding the sale of air-powered toy and pellet guns that are designed to mimic real guns. These guns propel plastic BBs at various velocities using carbon dioxide canisters or batteries. They are intended for use in target practice and military combat simulation games. This...

Brothers Defend Brooklyn Bodega With Machetes, Large Carving Knives; Fight Off Would-Be Thieves Video Shows Owners Confronting Suspects Until Police Arrive NEW YORK (CBS) Some storeowners in Brooklyn who were fed up with thieves took matters into their own hands. The episode of vigilante justice was caught on tape, as two brothers used machetes and large knives to fend off three criminals, who also had weapons of their own. As the camera rolled, the lines between good and evil were drawn. "You never know. This is a business. There's always someone trying to rip us off," Mohammed Othman said Thursday...

<p>Officials say three people were shot at a community college in Phoenix.</p> <p>Fire department division chief Mark Faulkner says a 25-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman wounded at South Mountain Community College are in critical condition, and a 17-year-old boy is in stable condition.</p>

MONROE, Wash. – A would-be robber armed with a gun was no match for a husband and wife and their baseball bat early Thursday morning. The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office says the 24-year-old Monroe man entered the home in the 21600 block of 164th Drive SE around 3:30 a.m. He apparently got in through an unlocked door. The crook allegedly confronted the couple in their bedroom with a handgun. The couple fought back, beating the intruder on the head with a baseball bat. The suspect was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious head injuries. Once released, he'll...

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The driver of an excavator was shot and killed Tuesday after he drove the construction vehicle over a number of cars near the King David Hotel in downtown Jerusalem, according to police. Israeli medical sources said two people were wounded. An eyewitness told CNN that he saw the machine overturn two cars near the hotel, where U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama will be staying Tuesday night when he arrives in Israel.

A gun that fires variable speed bullets and which can be set to kill, wound or just inflict a bruise is being built by a US toy manufacturer. The weapon is based on technology used to propel toy rockets. Lund and Company Invention, a toy design studio based near Chicago, makes toy rockets that are powered by burning hydrogen obtained by electrolysing water. Now the company is being funded by the US army to adapt the technology to fire bullets instead. The US Army are interested in arming soldiers with weapons that can be switched between lethal and non-lethal modes....

Need some FReeper help re: WWII US infantry weapons. Know the M1 Garand was the ubiquitous rifle issued to EM once it was availableto replace 1903 Springfield. Two other weapons often seen were the Thompson .45 cal sub-machinegun and the M1 carbine. I was under impression the Thompson was issued to NCOs and the M1 Carbine to officers. Recently have seen movie depictions of officers with Thompsons, NCOs with carbines. Which is correct, and why? I can understand the reasoning for the M1 carbine, lighter weight, more defensive than offensive, so officers can use time for leadership, not as an...

Three Chinese reporters attending a police briefing on the success of an anti-gun campaign were accidentally shot, media reports say. An officer picked up one of the weapons on show - a confiscated home-made gun - but it went off in his hand. A reporter needed surgery for injuries to his ankle, crotch and chest, after being hit by what appeared to be pebbles fired by the gun. Two others were slightly injured in the incident in Nanchong, southern China. According to the Chongqing Times, the home-made gun had been designed for shooting birds. It was demonstrated 10 minutes after...

A householder who took photographs of hooded teenagers as evidence of their anti-social behaviour says he was told he was breaking the law after they called the police. David Green, 64, and his neighbours had been plagued by the youths from a nearby comprehensive school for months, and was advised by their headmaster to identify them so action could be taken. But when Mr Green left his £1million London flat to take photographs of the gang, who were aged around 17, he said one threatened to kill him while another called the police on his mobile. And he claimed that...

Officer Suspended For 5 DaysCHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A teenager died after being hit with a police Taser gun for 37 seconds, and the whole thing was caught on tape by surveillance cameras. Authorities said that Darryl Turner had been in a confrontation with a supervisor at work at a North Carolina grocery store. When Officer Jerry Dawson arrived, he fired his Taser gun at the 17-year-old and struck him in the sternum. "The initial use of the (Taser gun) is not in question," said Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Chief Ken Miller. However, for 37 seconds, Dawson continued to use the Taser gun...

3 shot in press conference gun blast Created: 2008-7-19 0:24:19 Author:Yang Lifei THREE reporters in Sichuan Province were injured at Nanchong City Public Security Bureau when a confiscated gun accidentally went off, Chongqing Times reported yesterday. The gun was used for hunting birds and was loaded with buckshot at the time of the accident, the report said. Su Dingwei, a reporter from West China City Daily, was in stable condition after surgery. Wang Xiaofeng from Chinanews.com.cn and Zhang Yicheng from Nanchong Daily received minor injuries, the report said. The accident occurred 10 minutes after a public security bureau press conference...

Exclusive: US rocker Ted Nugent's outrageous rant on UK knife crime By Jody Thompson, 17/07/2008 (What's this?)American rock star Ted Nugent has followed in Lily Allen's footsteps to be the latest celebrity to comment on the UK's knife crime problem. However, unlike Lily, he's set to spark controversy with his outrageous views. An advocate of hunting and gun-ownership rights, Nugent currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Rifle Association and thinks the problem would stop if Britons were allowed to arm themselves with guns. Talking mid-set during his gig at London's Indigo venue in the 02 Arena...

Knife crime is at epidemic proportions in Britain's inner cities, with an attack of some kind taking place every four minutes. In London alone 21 young people have been stabbed to death this year. A church group has come up with a new solution. It's reported here. The suggestion is that church leaders should move into crime ridden inner city areas to work with the youths and become role models since most of the boys who stab each other don't have Dads. Whoops! problem is, since women's ordination the Anglican Church has been turned into a matriarchy remember? Nearly half...

A grandmother fought off hammer-wielding thieves with a broom as they attempted to rob the shop where she works. Ann Withers, 55, chased off the three teenage robbers with the 4ft plastic broom after they started to attack her boss, Guljinder Hayer. They fled the convenience store in Worle, north Somerset, empty-handed. The incident was caught on CCTV cameras. "They turned pale and ran away as soon as I started hitting them with the broom," she said. "They weren't going to get anything out of this shop. It was horrific the way they were hitting Guljinder round the head with...

A grandmother fought off hammer-wielding thieves with a broom as they attempted to rob the shop where she works. Ann Withers, 55, chased off the three teenage robbers with the 4ft plastic broom after they started to attack her boss, Guljinder Hayer. They fled the convenience store in Worle, north Somerset, empty-handed. The incident was caught on CCTV cameras. "They turned pale and ran away as soon as I started hitting them with the broom," she said. "They weren't going to get anything out of this shop. It was horrific the way they were hitting Guljinder round the head with...

Britain on alert for deadly new knife with exploding tip that freezes victims' organs Senior police officers have been warned to look out for a new knife which can inject a ball of compressed gas into its victim that instantly freezes internal organs. The 'wasp knife', which can deliver a ball of compressed gas capable of killing its victim at the press of a button, may be heading for Britain, the Metropolitan Police fear. A needle in the tip of the blade shoots out the frozen ball of gas which instantly balloons to the size of a basketball, freezing organs....

A Park Heights man shot and killed a 45-year-old man who was attempting to burglarize his aunt's home early Wednesday morning, a police spokeswoman said.

Indianapolis - A great grandmother believes a higher power helped her and three family members survive a Monday night shooting. Before stray bullets from a gun battle at Sherman Drive and 38th Street ripped through her car, Charlotte Thompson didn't even know what gunfire sounded like. "I'd never heard a gunshot," she said. She was sitting at a red light around 7:00 pm Monday when the fight broke out. "We heard this pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow," Thompson said. "Then Shyann said 'Oh! I'm shot!'" Her 10-year-old great granddaughter was sitting in the back seat, shot in the stomach....

Home owners and “have-a go-heroes” have for the first time been given the legal right to defend themselves against burglars and muggers free from fear of prosecution. They will be able to use force against criminals who break into their homes or attack them in the street without worrying that "heat of the moment” misjudgements could see them brought before the courts. Under new laws police and prosecutors will have to assess a person’s actions based on the person’s situation "as they saw it at the time” even if in hindsight it could be seen as unreasonable. For example, homeowners...

The Government’s strategy on knife crime was in disarray last night as the Home Secretary was accused of a U-turn over plans, briefed at the weekend, to confront offenders with stabbing victims in hospital. Jacqui Smith insisted to Commons that, despite widespread reports, she had never said that the Government was proposing to take young people into wards to see patients. Her words were apparently contradicted by an interview that she had given to Sky News on Sunday. She was asked: “One of those proposals is that people caught carrying knives should be taken to see people in hospital who...

New proposals to tackle knife crime demonstrate just how little ministers know about the context our kids are operating in. Young people don't get involved with crime because they don't know the consequences; in many cases, it's precisely because they do know the consequences that they carry a blade. When you know just how bad a stab wound can be, you want to keep a knife close to your chest to have some credible threat of self-defence against others. This has been recognised by the government's own newly appointed lead on knife crime, Alf Hitchcock, who has said that 85%...

Almost exactly one year ago, a carload of assailants took to the streets of Calgary and randomly slashed at five pedestrians, killing one of them. A few months later, a crazed man in New York violently attacked an elderly dog-walker and a restaurant worker, “chopping” at them “like a sword” before being killed by police. Only days later, a Salt Lake City man also went on a stabbing spree. On March 23, 2008, a Japanese man carrying two knives stabbed eight people in the city of Tsuchiura, simply because he “just wanted to kill anyone.” And he did. At around...

Newark Mayor Cory Booker will hold a press conference Monday afternoon, calling on the state Senate to pass a bill that imposes a barrier on intrastate handgun trafficking. The bill has already passed the Assembly. The legislation would limit the number of guns an individual can buy to one a month. Gun-control advocates argue the bill would prevent straw buyers from making bulk purchases and selling them on the streets to people who cannot pass background checks.The press conference will take place at 2 p.m., at Elwood Park, located at Elwood and Summer avenues in Newark's North Ward. The...

Personal responsibility was the political buzzword of last week. The prime minister urged us to take personal responsibility for global waste, poverty and pollution by eating up our greens –- I hope he himself left a clean plate after consuming his 57 varieties of high-status food at the G8. Less absurdly, David Cameron spoke of personal responsibility at a by-election launch in the miserable depths of Glasgow’s Gallowgate about “broken” Britain. It is a society, he said, that is “in danger of losing its sense of personal responsibility, social responsibility, common decency and yes, even public morality”. It is remarkable...

Page last updated at 20:57 GMT, Sunday, 13 July 2008 21:57 UK Shock tactics for knife carriers A man found with knife wounds in Bristol is one of the latest victims Young people who carry knives will be made to visit hospitals where stabbing victims are treated, in a bid to shock them into changing their behaviour. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said seeing "gruesome" injuries would be a tougher deterrent than sending all knife carriers in England and Wales to jail. --snip-- The Tories said more knife carriers should go to prison and the Lib Dems called Ms Smith's plans...

London, England (AHN) -- Even though British police announced a crackdown on knife-crime last week, six people have been killed and one critically wounded in a 24-hour period. Reports say all of the stabbings were in separate incidents. Four of the killed were Londoners, one attack happened in West Bromwich, and the other in Manchester. One of the London victims is still fighting for his life in the hospital. All were male, but their ages varied. Four of the men stabbed were 20, one was 41, one 19, and one's age was not disclosed, but he was described by the...

The scourge of knife crime gripping Britain has reached new depths with six murders across the country in less than 24 hours. Four of the killings were in London in an appalling day of bloodshed. Meanwhile, another teenager is in hospital in serious condition tonight after being stabbed outside a branch of Blockbuster Video in Bolton. The outburst of violence has prompted Gordon Brown to pledge he would introduce new measures to tackle the epidemic. Describing the 'terrible stabbings' in the past week as 'shocking and tragic', the Prime Minister promised new enforcement tactics and 'tough' parenting programmes. Scotland Yard...

The Government will announce further measures to tackle knife crime on Monday following several knife-related deaths this week. Speaking in a Downing Street statement, the PM said that he had been in contact with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and asked to be kept up to date on investigations. Mr Brown said the stabbings are "shocking and tragic" and offered his condolences to the friends and families of those hurt. He then revealed that the Government will be publishing the first ever cross-government youth crime plan later next week. The plan will contain new enforcement measures, improvements to sentencing,...

A new Ohio law signed into effect this week, not only gives property owners the right to shoot intruders, but it's also changing Ohio's concealed carry law.

Gordon Brown declared tonight that new anti-knife crime measures will be announced next week after four men were stabbed to death in separate attacks across London in just 24 hours. The Prime Minister said the latest spate of murders was “shocking and tragic” a few hours after the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police issued a rare appeal for calm in the capital. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, will set out the Government’s latest initiative on Monday. Later in the week, the first ever cross-government youth crime plan will be published with new enforcement and sentencing measures. It will also include...

Gordon Brown said the attacks were "shocking and tragic" as he also promised the first ever "cross-government youth crime plan" would be published later next week. A teenager was among four victims of separate fatal stabbings which took place in London over the past day, as a fifth man fights for life.

We just got back from the Heller rally in downtown Chicago and let me say these are some happy people. I’d estimate the crowd at between 200-300 (and I suck at estimating crowds!) Folks of every size, shape, color and religion were jubilant with the recent Heller decision and looking forward to being able to carry a handgun as a law abiding citizen of Chicago. Here are some photos… The crowd! The NRA folks were disappointed at the turn out, all I can say is for Chicago, on a Friday afternoon a crowd of this size was damn near miraculous!...

One day after killing his fifth crime suspect, Cleveland police officer Jim Simone said he is neither a trigger-happy rogue cop nor a hero. He says he is only a police officer who, by God's will and duty's call, keeps landing in situations that require him to use deadly force. During his 35-year-career, Simone had shot at 11 other suspects, and killed four, before Wednesday. That's when he chased down and shot fleeing bank-robbery suspect Robert Hackworth, 35.

An incident recently occurred at an outpatient imaging center in western New York State, in which a firearm spontaneously discharged in a 1.5-T MR imaging environment with active shielding. To our knowledge, this is the first documented case of such an occurrence. ------cut--------- An off-duty police officer went to an outpatient imaging center (not affiliated with our institution) in western New York State to have an MR imaging examination. The facility housed a 1.5-T MR unit (Signa; General Electric Medical Systems, Milwaukee, WI) with active shielding. The officer was carrying a model 1991 A-1 compact.45 caliber semiautomatic pistol (Colt's Manufacturing,...

Garland police say they planned no criminal charges against a 25-year-old man who fatally shot a suspected copper thief this morning. The shooting happened shortly before 1:20 a.m. at the Bargain Town Variety & Furniture store in the 5700 block of Broadway Boulevard. The business owner’s son, identified by police as Sunny Sheu, had been guarding the roof after the store had been recently hit by copper thieves. The son said he confronted a man who had climbed on the roof, police said. The son fired his gun, striking the man in the torso, police said. The man fled, climbing...

NEWPORT NEWS - An armed-robbery suspect was shot by his potential victim Tuesday, the second time in a week where the tables were quickly turned, police said. Just after 3 p.m. Tuesday, a 16-year-old was shot in his upper right leg as he attempted to rob a man at gunpoint in the backyard of a 25th Street home, police spokesman Harold Eley said. The teenager, whose name wasn't released by police because he's a juvenile, survived his injury and was released from a local hospital into police custody. Maurice Edward Simpson, a 19-year-old from Newport News, wasn't so fortunate. Police...

Burglars should no longer be sentenced to jail, official advisers have said. Unpaid work or a curfew would normally be a better way of punishing break-ins and thefts, said a panel that issues guidelines to judges. The report - part of a consultation document on criminal sentencing - is likely to heighten concerns that Britain's courts are not punishing offenders harshly enough to deter others. It also says victims of crime could be allowed a say in the way criminals are punished - but only if they call for leniency rather than harsh sentencing. For the first time, magistrates and...

The wife of a veteran NYPD officer was arrested yesterday for fatally shooting a young Brooklyn man who had groped her 13-year-old daughter last month, The Post has learned. Veronica Nickey, 40, walked up to Ellison Butler, 22, as he watched a basketball game at about 9 p.m. on June 27 in Lincoln Terrace Park in Crown Heights - then pulled a .380-caliber handgun, a source said. She put one bullet into his chest, shouting, "That's what you get for messing with my children! That's what you get for messing with my daughter!" witnesses told cops. She tried to shoot...

A pensioner who used a piece of wood to chase away a gang of teenagers who had been throwing stones at his home is facing a jail term after being arrested and charged with possessing an offensive weapon. Sydney Davis, 65, a father-of-two, dialled 999 when his home in the Pinehurst area of Swindon, Wilts, came under attack. But when police failed to turn up over the next two hours he decided to take action himself. He grabbed a section of wood from a broken-up sofa lying in his front garden and chased the youths down the street - just...

One person was dead, another was in custody and a third remained at-large after Dallas police encountered the burglary suspects and exchanged gunfire near Kiest Park this morning. The incident occurred in the 1600 block of Monte Carlo Street, Dallas police said. The shooting happened outside a garage apartment in the back of a home. A teenager was in the house at the time. Police received a report of a suspicious vehicle in front of the home at about 8:30 a.m. and a report of a burglary about 20 minutes later.

Alarming numbers of children feel safer in the street when carrying knives or guns, Government inspectors warned today. A top-level report found that many children were still "very worried" about being bullied and were afraid of being on their own in public areas.

A group of mothers and kindergarten students at a South Austin park found the loaded gun of an Austin police officer who did not know for hours that his weapon was missing, officials said today. Austin police Lt. Donald Baker said supervisors are reviewing how Officer Daniel Eveleth's Glock handgun might have fallen from his holster while he was at Slaughter Creek Metropolitan Park training a police dog at about 5 a.m. Monday. Officials said they did not immediately know whether one of the children or a parent discovered the gun. Officers responded to the park after one of the...

An aggressive black bear was shot and killed in a remote section of Denali National Park by park staffers on July 4... The black bear had threatened the life and safety of three park employees ... Three seasonal National Park Service technicians were conducting a botany field study along the remote river when a sub-adult black bear approached their camp ... The three tried to scare it away by yelling, waving their arms and throwing objects at the bear. After being chased off into dense brush, the bear circled back to the camp three or four times. At one point,...

WASHINGTON - As the District prepares to begin accepting applications for handgun permits, police are having a tough time finding tens of thousands of handguns already registered in the city. "Honestly, there are thousands of handguns that were registered in the city and I don't know whether those handguns are still in the city," says D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. About 41,000 handguns are already registered in D.C., and more than 36,000 of those guns are owned by residents who registered prior to the 1976 ban. On WTOP's Ask the Chief program, Lanier says police don't know where the 36,000...

UK: CONSERVATIVE LEADER David Cameron called for "a presumption to prison" for people found carrying knives yesterday as he launched his party's campaign in what he called Britain's "broken society by-election" in Glasgow East. FRANK MILLAR , London Editor reports Scottish first minister Alex Salmond claimed a political earthquake could see his Scottish National Party win the previously "safe" Labour seat, amid speculation that failure to hold his Scottish stronghold could finally precipitate a challenge to prime minister Gordon Brown's leadership.

An argument at a south Hilton Head Island nightclub spilled over to a north-island all-night breakfast restaurant, where a group of up to 15 women fought, some using their high heels as weapons, according to a Beaufort County sheriff’s report released today. The fight occurred just after 5 a.m. Saturday in the parking of Huddle House, 40 Palmetto Parkway. Several of the women had been in an argument earlier in the evening at Club Life, 81 Pope Ave., the report stated. When officers arrived, the people involved in the fight were uncooperative with the deputies and left the area, authorities...

CORPUS CHRISTI — A Corpus Christi man found three men looking into his cars early Saturday morning and shot at them in fear for his own safety, according to a police report. Police responded to the 3700 block of Kingston Drive at 4:39 a.m., where a 50-year-old man told them he was awakened by noises in his driveway. After seeing the three men, the man grabbed his .40 Glock and confronted the men. The man told police he feared for his safety and fired off a round into the trunk of the suspect's vehicle. They fled and have not been...

I got wind of this from John Lott's website - a Briton is advocating allowing concealed carry in the United Kingdom with requirements much similar to those of the United States. Clayton Cramer points out: what Graham Showell is proposing is more restrictive than British handgun laws were from 1870 (when they adopted a license to carry concealed weapons) to 1920 (when the Firearms Act pretty well limited pistol ownership to those with a really, really good reason). Please visit and put in your real name and maybe a well-reasoned response for why you feel that way. You don't have...