Free Republic

A local rapper and a 35-year-old man are accused of beating a man to death because he accidentally scratched the rapper’s car. Edward Brown and Steven Fox, 26, a rapper known as “Sincere the Realist,” sent the 46-year-old victim into coma and eventually his death, according to prosecutors and police reports. Brown is a family friend of Larry Brown, who died on July 7 from the injuries related to attack, according to court testimony. It was Fox’s car that Larry Brown caused minor damage to when he was returning home in the early morning hours of June 17, assistant state’s...

William Teach has a nice take on a New York Times cry-me-a-river editorial on the recent Supreme Court decision to uphold our constitutional right to bear arms. I know — allowing law-abiding people to defend their homes and lives from dangerous, gun-toting criminals is a sad day for America, indeed. Anyway, I wanted to buttress Teach’s piece with a few facts that demonstrate the perniciousness of the Times’ position a little more fully: Quite frankly, gun bans do not work. If anything, they only leave vulnerable citizens at the mercy of aggressive, violent criminals who, as Teach says, couldn’t care...

As expected, Mayor Daley and Chicago's City Council are circling the wagons to defend against an unfavorable decision by the Supreme Court concerning the city's gun ban. Daley said the city would have in place a new ordinance aimed at making it difficult to purchase and own a gun in Chicago. "We'll publicly propose a new ordinance very soon," Daley said at an afternoon press conference concerning the gun ban. "As a city we must continue to stand up ..and fight for a ban on assault weapons .. as well as a crackdown on gun shops," Daley said. "We are...

CHICAGO — Chicago Mayor Richard Daley says he's disappointed by Monday's Supreme Court decision that Americans have the right to own a gun for self-defense anywhere they live. He says it's clear the city's handgun ban will ultimately be struck down. But he says officials are working to rewrite the ordinance to protect Second Amendment rights and to protect Chicago residents from gun violence. Monday's Supreme Court decision did not explicitly strike down the ban on handguns in Chicago and suburban Oak Park. Instead, it ordered a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling. But it left little doubt that...

CHICAGO (CHICAGOPRESSRELEASE.COM) — Today, U.S. Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL) released the following statement after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the City of Chicago’s handgun ban. Earlier this year, Quigley spearheaded the effort of 55 Members of Congress in filing a “friend of the court” amicus brief, urging the Court to allow Chicago’s handgun ban to stand. Quigley also supports the right of state and local governments to maintain sensible restrictions on gun possession and use. “I am disappointed and disheartened by the Supreme Court’s decision today. When illegal guns flood our streets, precious lives are lost and communities are...

The reality of violent inner-city crime is indicated today by statistics . The official figures, which examine the ethnicity of those accused of violent offences in London, suggest the majority of men held responsible by police for gun crimes, robberies and street crimes are black. Black men are also disproportionately the victims of violent crime in the capital. One prominent black politician said that the black community needed to face up to major challenges. Shaun Bailey, a Tory election candidate in London and a charity worker, said: “The black community has to look at itself and say that, at the...

CHICAGO (AP) - Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley defended the city's handgun ban Tuesday after a spate of shootings that left 10 people dead and dozens wounded, saying the violence bolsters the city's argument that the 1982 ordinance is needed. Daley said the city must continue to fight against handguns even if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the ban as unconstitional. The court is expected to rule later this month. "Look at all the guns that shot people this weekend. Where did they come from? That is the issue," Daley said at a South Side high school Tuesday.

Since the shooting, the 2-year-old Rogucki twins have awakened each morning crying out for their murdered mother. "They wake up ... saying, 'Mommy!'" their 19-year-old brother, Lorenzo Rogucki, reported. "I hear them screaming my mother's name." The twins were still sleeping at 10:30 a.m. Monday and not a sound came from the family's first-floor apartment in Coney Island as I spoke outside with the oldest of Victoria Rogucki's seven children. "They know, but they don't know know," Lorenzo said of the twins. "They know their mother is not there in the morning." To the right of the door stood a...

Eight people were killed and at least 44 others were shot across the city Friday night into early Monday, including a baby girl who suffered a graze wound to the neck when gunfire erupted at a Near West Side barbecue. Those killed included a 28-year-old man found shot in the chest about 3 a.m. Monday in the 7500 block of South Halsted Street near a South Side church, according to Gresham District police. A passing motorist found the man, identified as Credale Woulard, of 7711 S. Ada St., according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. He was dressed in...

Mick Dumke of the Chicago Reader had an interesting report on a recent press conference held by Chicago's Police Chief, Jody Weis. Dumke said that during the presser Weis struggled to "explain how the gun ban is working" for Chicago. In other words, Weis was at a loss to prove that Daley's unconstitutional actions are working to make the city safer. According to Dumke the conference went from discussions of how Weis has taken "3,513 weapons" off the streets, that they are using "analytics" to determine where the crime hotspots are in the city, moving on to the claim that...

Central Park is not just an oasis — it’s New York City’s sanctuary, the soul of Manhattan. Which also makes it a battleground, a 1.32 square mile symbol of how we’re doing. Police fight to maintain the perception that the park — and, by extension, the city that surrounds it — is safe. That image has taken a blow in recent weeks after a handful of headline-making attacks, including the sexual assault of a 23-year-old woman last Sunday just inside the park near Fifth Avenue and 85th Street, and the rape of an 18-year-old in April near the East 79th...

A man was found shot in the head and back this morning on Chicago's Far South Side, one of five shootings across the city overnight, police said. He was found lying on the ground at about 3:21 a.m. in the 200 block of East 115th Street in the West Pullman neighborhood, said Police News Affairs Officer Ron Gaines, and was taken in critical condition to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn. There was no immediate information available about the victim's age or the circumstances of the shooting. In other violence: • Shortly before 2 a.m., another man was found with...

At least 21 people were wounded in separate shootings around the city, including a man who died this morning after he was shot in the head, Chicago police said. One of the shootings happened about 3 p.m. in the 6200 block of South Cottage Grove in the Woodlawn neighborhood. A 56-year-old man was standing on the corner when a passing car fired in his direction, police said. He fell to the ground in pain and discovered he was shot in his calf, police said. He was taken to an area hospital and listed in good condition. About 8:10 p.m. in...

Do gun bans really stop criminals from getting guns? Americans need not look no further than the massive gun battle with armed gangs fighting police and soldiers that took place in Kingston, Jamaica today. At least 30 people were killed in the fighting. It is a huge number for a small island nation of fewer than 3 million people, but unfortunately murder is so common in Jamaica that these murders won't even be noticed in the annual crime numbers. With Chicago's Mayor Daley again claiming that a gun ban is necessary to keep Chicagoans safe, Jamaica and other countries with...

Chicago Mayor Regrets "Up Your Butt" Comment Richard Daley, Wielding Gun, Told Reporter "If I Put This Up Your Butt, You'll Find Out How Effective It Is" (CBS 2 Chicago) Mayor Richard M. Daley said Friday that he regrets his choice of words when he suggested he'd stick a rifle with a bayonet up a reporter's "butt," but he said he was trying to "shock" the media into exposing gun manufacturers who flood the streets with firearms. "I want to shock you, maybe scare you, to realize this is serious," he said. Asked if he was sorry for how he...

Irate with a reporter's question on the effectiveness of the city's handgun ban, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley offered to give a first-hand lesson following the shooting of an off-duty police officer. Oh, it's been very effective," Daley said, according to MyFoxChicago.com. "If I put this up your butt, you'll find out how effective it is. If I put a round up your … you'll know."

PALM BAY, Fla. -- A local bank customer was hailed as a hero Thursday night for taking down a man who said he was down on his luck and he decided to commit a robbery. Floyd Francis gave up instantly, police said, and he was taken to the Brevard County Jail. "I drew my gun on him and put him down," Ruben Torres said. In a hand-written confession, Francis said he tried to rob the Space Coast Credit Union in Palm Bay because he needed money. He wrote, "I make music for a living, but tings not working out right...

It's been 11 years since the massacre at Columbine High School first propelled the so-called "gun-show loophole" into the debate about reasonable regulation of firearms. While Colorado voters closed the loophole in 2000 that allowed for weapons purchases at gun shows without a background check, it unfortunately continues to exist for most of the nation. As we remember the 13 victims on this sad anniversary, we add our voice to those calling for the loophole to be closed. Tom Mauser, the father of Daniel Mauser, one of the students killed during the shooting spree, has kept a spotlight on the...

The Brady anti freedom- anti gun rights group is complaining that Colorado college campuses may soon be removed from the ranks of "gun free" zones These "gun free" zones are public areas in which every mass killing of three or more people have always occurred. The Colorado Appeals Court reinstated the lawsuit challenging a University initiated ban on firearms on the University of Colorado campus. The Court noted that the state's concealed carry law did not make carry on college campuses illegal, and that if the legislature wanted to have done that, then they knew how to have done it...

When a San Antonio high school senior was arrested for bring a .38 handgun to school in 1992 a chain of events started that some legal scholars believe will end up shooting down Obamacare. The kid’s conduct violated a relatively new law making the possession of a gun in a school a federal crime over and above any state law. The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 and the Commerce Clause For reasons not immediately clear the kid fought the law all the way up to the United States Supreme Court where his conviction on the federal charge was overturned...