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Follow link to story acknowkedging the danger of gun-free signs and zones,and the "new" police tactics.

HARROLD, Texas — A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported. AP story so you'll have to link to it for the rest.

The U.S. Supreme Court will soon rule on whether Washington, D.C.'s decades-old handgun ban is constitutional. It's been nearly 70 years since the high court has heard a firearms case that tests the scope of the Second Amendment. The outcome of this one, D.C. v. Heller, will have extraordinary implications —- not just for the District, but for the ability of cities to respond effectively to gun violence. If more evidence is needed that the stakes could not be higher, a steady drumbeat of headlines is supplying it. In the first few days of March alone, just before the justices...

Gun Free Zones Endanger The Lives of Children Published on: June 21st, 2008 11:23pm by: unsolvedmysteries (OPENPRESS) June 22, 2008 -- A new blog covers different aspects of culture and society to help people understand aspects of the world around them that is overlooked or taken for granted. The author of this new blog, Abbas Abedi, says that he has been thinking of how to approach this large topic. He says that he could approach this topic like a book, laying groundwork to explain his views or he could rant about stuff that he notices in day to day...

In this fair country of ours, it would seem that the majority of the people consider some of our constitutional rights as more important or more sacred than others. For example, no one, except for the die-hard enemies of democracy, would challenge the first amendment rights of citizens to freedom of speech, religion, and the press. On the other hand, a great multitude of individuals and politicians seem to dismiss the Second Amendment, the right of all Americans to keep and bear arms. Compared to the general public today, our founding fathers felt much differently about this important issue. They...

“Fear no man of any size, call on me and I’ll equalize.” —Common engraving on Frontier firearms “Call me simple. Call me a redneck. Call me whatever the heck you wanna call me—but until we allow credible and licensed, proven and protective professors and students to carry a weapon (gun) on campus, we will see this murderous madness occur again and again and again.” That paragraph was lifted from my April 21st, 2007 column from Townhall.com right after Cho Seung-Hui (or Seung-Hui Cho, however the heck you arrange his name) killed 32 students on Virginia Tech’s campus. Remember that? As...

In my column last week, I wrote about the shooting rampage at the Town Council meeting in Kirkwood, Missouri that took the lives of 5 people. Only a couple of days after the column appeared on the Thinker, another gun-related tragedy occurred; this time at Northern Illinois University and it claimed 5 more innocent lives. That's right: another maniac, with guns bristling all over him, walked into a "gun-free zone" and began picking off human beings as if they were ducks in a shooting gallery. There were only a few minutes left in the ocean sciences class being held in...

OUR OPINION: SENATE MOVE TO CHANGE MODEST LIMITS IS PURELY POLITICAL Welcome to the American national park system where the camper in the next space over may be packing heat. What a peaceful thought as you try to snooze under the stars. Yet, there's a letter circulating in the U.S. Senate that has attracted 47 signatures including that of Florida Republican Mel Martinez, aimed at easing federal regulations on the carrying of firearms in national parks. Consistent policy Written by Idaho Republican Mike Crapo, the letter is directed to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and seems reasonable on its face. It...

People in the United States are almost evenly split between those who want tighter firearm legislation and those who believe this is unnecessary, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 42 per cent of respondents believe their country needs stricter gun control laws, while 44 per cent disagree. The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment guarantees Americans the right "to keep and bear arms." Some American states have enacted their own gun control regulations, independent of existing federal legislation. Earlier this month, eight people died inside a Nebraska shopping mall when 19-year-old Robert Hawkins fired over 30 rounds of ammunition. Hawkins later...

Police have identified Robert A. Hawkins, 19, as the assailant who killed eight people with a semi-automatic rifle (not an assault rifle) at the Westroads Mall in Omaha Dec. 5. Chalk up eight more deaths to "gun control." The shooting was at least the fourth at an American mall or shopping center so far this year, including one in February in Salt Lake City. Once again, the killer chose a "gun-free" zone. Nebraska issues permits "allowing" qualified individuals to carry concealed handguns. (The Second and 14th amendments reaffirm that carrying a weapon is a right, not a privilege -- states...

I have been waiting for this to happen. For years we have witnessed the carnage when innocents were mowed down at schools, colleges, shopping malls and post offices. The unarmed (disarmed?) were easy targets for crazed gunmen armed with grievances and weapons. Now someone has shot back, probably saving many lives. All of the gun-control laws that have been passed and are still being contemplated could not have had the affect of one armed, trained and law-abiding citizen on the scene like 42-year-old Jeanne Assam, a volunteer security guard at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. The gunman, 24-year-old...

December 14th, 2007 COLORADO SPRINGS (APUPI) As a mass memorial service was held today for the seventy-three victims of the massacre at the New Life Church, one of the largest such grim tolls in the nations' history, gun-control advocates pointed out the continuing folly of allowing civilians access to pistols and assault weapons. "This never would have happened had Matthew Murray not been able to get his hands on those weapons, " said Sarah Brady, head of Handgun Control, Incorporated. "He had two handguns, an assault rifle, and a thousand rounds of ammunition. Seventy-three people are dead now, because the...

Not being a lawyer, this question will exist more as a philosophical one, much as we treated it on Saturday's Northern Alliance broadcast. Mitch Berg and I debated the efficacy of gun-free zones in the wake of the Omaha mall shooting that left nine people dead, but before the two shootings at New Life church facilities that left eight dead. In at least the first shooting, the perpetrator conducted his murder spree in a commercial facility whose owners had marked it as a gun-free zone, a designation that keeps concealed-carry licensees from bringing their weapons into the building. We both...

After a week filled with rumors and absences, Ithaca High School has some changes ready for this week, and Ithaca City School District Superintendent Judith Pastel asks that students, parents and staff have patience as everyone adjusts. The most obvious change students can expect to see will be locked classroom doors once classes start. Pastel said one recommendation that came from the Ithaca Police Department last week was to lock doors at the beginning of every class. Police and school officials are working together to ensure the students' safety. Locking classroom doors at the start of a class will make...

This time, Cleveland. A 14-year-old suspended high school student entered Cleveland's Success Tech Academy, a gun in each hand, and opened fire, wounding four. Later, we learn that the shooter's past included violent confrontations, mental problems and at least one previous suspension. A month earlier he told a friend that he intended to shoot up the school. But no one, apparently, took his behavior seriously enough to notify authorities. Meanwhile, a high school teacher in Oregon, with a permit to carry a concealed weapon plus training, sought permission to carry her firearm to school. In fear of her ex-husband, against...

During the week of October 22-26, 2007, college students throughout America, organized under the banner of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, will attend classes wearing empty holsters, in protest of state laws and campus policies that stack the odds in favor of armed killers by disarming law abiding citizens licensed to carry concealed handguns virtually everywhere else. In 39 U.S. states, thousands of collegiate students and faculty—age 21 and above—are licensed to carry concealed handguns throughout their day-to-day lives. And they do so without incident. However, despite the absence of any compelling evidence that these licensed individuals would pose...

MEDFORD, Ore -- English teacher Shirley Katz insists she needs to take her pistol with her to school because she fears her ex-husband could show up and try to harm her. She's also worried about a Columbine-style attack. Teacher Sues To Carry Weapon But Katz's district has barred teachers from bringing guns to school, so she is challenging the ban as unlawful, since Oregon is among states that allow people with a permit to carry concealed weapons into public buildings. sponsor "This is primarily about my Second Amendment right and Oregon law and the simple fact that I know it...

Reacting to questions from reporters about how to prevent future outrages like the murders of 32 students and teachers at Virginia Tech on April 16, Texas Gov. Rick Perry dispelled any notion that common sense has been eradicated by political correctness in the United States. Perry's sensible solution: Allow legally armed citizens to carry their defensive firearms anywhere -- schools, restaurants, churches. Perry correctly asserted that so long as such areas are legislated as "gun-free zones," killers who don't care about the law will enjoy risk-free opportunities in which good people cannot fight back. Perry's remarks were in stark contrast...

A former warlord who has long lived by his gun was sworn in as mayor of Mogadishu on Friday and immediately ordered residents of the Somali capital to get rid of their weapons. But Mayor Mohamed Dheere offered no clear details on how that could be accomplished in a city awash in Kalashnikov rifles, machine guns and hand grenades. Previous efforts to get residents to give up their weapons have been unsuccessful. "No weapons are allowed in the city," Dheere, who spent 16 years as a warlord struggling for power in this Horn of Africa nation, said at his inauguration...

And it is attitudes such as those expressed above - and as adhered to by persons possessing less intellectual integrity, moral courage, and, simple curiosity, as that evinced by Dr. Kohn and her research partner, that have much to do with the reasons why incidents such as those at VA Tech are unmitigated by the intervention of armed and trained civilians more frequently than they are. There is a word for the combination of seemingly invincible ignorance and arrogance of the kind described above - attitudes held and maintained in the face of all evidence-to-the-contrary, and as often as not...

What do you do when the police can’t protect you? Police may be the single most important factor for reducing crime, but there is something the police themselves understand: They almost always arrive at the crime scene after the crime has occurred. Expecting people to trust the police to protect them and to behave passively is a recipe for disaster. The last couple of weeks have seen a couple prominent murders where restraining orders did women little good. Numerous news organizations, such as ABC News, have run headlines asking "How Do You Stop a Stalker From Killing You?" Unfortunately, despite...

<p>A gunman with an AK-47 automatic rifle shot and killed a student and wounded three others Monday at a New Orleans high school, police said. Four suspects were arrested after a sweep of the surrounding neighborhood.</p> <p>Chief Eddie Compass said he did not know if the suspects were students at the John McDonogh High School, where the shooting happened about 10:30 a.m.</p>

Tell Gov. Mark Warner To Stop Pandering to the Gun Lobby Gov. Mark Warner caved in to gun lobby extremists by signing SB 593 which will overturn Alexandria's law against concealed handguns in city buildings. SB 593 is an extreme measure that prohibits local cities from passing any local rules to keep guns out of government buildings. Public safety should not be jeopardized just to appease the gun lobby. . Please use this link to contact Gov. Mark Warner and tell him you oppose hidden handguns in city buildings and he should stop pandering to the gun lobby extremists. governor@gov.state.va.us