Free Republic

"I'm not trying to say that they're to blame for what happened. But if Chris had not been able to get hold of 13 guns it wouldn't have happened." CNN just interviewed the father of the murderer of nine people at Umpqua Community College this week, and though he claims he is not blaming guns, he spent most of the interview doing that exact thing. "That's what guns are. The killers. It's as simple as that. It's black and white," he says. Guns are the killers. Not his son.

Gunman ID'd: 'You are going to see God in just about 1 second' Chris Harper-Mercer, 26, has been identified by law-enforcement officials as the gunman who shot and killed at least 10 people and injured 20 at a community college in Roseburg, Oregon, according to the New York Times. “He appears to be an angry young man who was very filled with hate,” one law-enforcement official said. Officials said Mercer lived in the area but was not a student at the college. Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said the gunman was killed during a confrontation with officers shortly after they...

Warped TV reporter Vester Lee Flanagan exasperated bosses with his 'stiff and nervous' delivery, his inability to use a teleprompter - and by wearing a President Obama badge during an election report, Daily Mail Online can reveal. Management at WDBJ dubbed the failed newsman the 'human tape recorder' because he frequently parroted what interviewees had told him rather than doing his own journalism. Flanagan, 41, clashed repeatedly with photojournalists, belittling them in public and intimidating them with his violent temper, according to internal reports. He was also censured for wearing an Obama sticker while recording a segment at a polling...

Two people were killed and at least six others were injured in a shooting Thursday night at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, authorities told NBC News.

BOSTON — A nearly two-decade legal fight by a convicted murderer in Massachusetts to get taxpayer-funded sex-reassignment surgery ended in failure Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her final appeal. The justices did not comment in letting stand a lower-court ruling denying the surgery to Michelle Kosilek. "This is a terrible and inhumane result for Michelle," said Jennifer Levi, director of the Transgender Rights Project for Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders. The state Department of Correction, which has fought the surgery, did not immediately respond to a request to comment. State prison officials, who say the surgery...

An American and an Italian held hostage by al-Qaida, as well as two Americans working with the terror group, were inadvertently killed by U.S. drone strikes earlier this year, the government revealed Thursday. President Barack Obama said he took "full responsibility" for the counterterror missions and offered his "grief and condolences" to the families of the hostages.

SNIP The 29-year-old mother of two appears in a new PSA in which she details getting an abortion while in college in 2007. “I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be attached to this person for the rest of my life,” she revealed. “My life was not conducive to raising a healthy, happy child. I just didn’t feel it was fair.” Kirke says she ultimately decided to terminate her pregnancy. She recalls not wanting to tell her mother — forcing her to clean out her bank account as well as get money from her boyfriend for the procedure. SNIP

Andreas Lubitz: Germanwings flight's last minutes revealed in chilling black box transcript 29 March 2015 By Alex Wellman Patrick Sondheimer is heard screaming to his co-pilot "Open the goddam door" as passengers scream in the background The dramatic last moments of the doomed Germanwings flight have been revealed in a chilling transcript of the black box recording that shows the captain screaming at Andreas Lubitz “Open the goddam door”. Patrick Sondheimer, pilot of the traffic plane, is heard frantically pleading with the killer to let him into the cockpit, just seconds before crashing into the Alps. BEA Germanwings CVR Evidence:...

Germanwings pilot behaved like a 'mass spree-killer': Psychologist says Lubitz acted like a 'US school shooter' who commits atrocity then kills himself Andreas Lubitz locked pilot from cockpit before calmly crashing the plane Behaviour suggests he had a plan and executed, a psychologist has said Compared it to type of people who go on 'mass killing sprees in schools' Co-pilot who downed the A320 postponed his training due to 'depression' Reveals 'psychological weakness' according to Professor Craig Jackson Lubitz 'deliberately' brought the plane down in French Alps and killed 150 By Jay Akbar For Mailonline Updated 27 March 2015 The...

Ismaaiyl Brinsley murdered NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Raphael Ramos in cold blood on Saturday.On Monday New York police officials announced that Brinsley had attended a Mike Brown rally in New York City.He took video at the protest.On Tuesday police Commissioner William Bratton said Ismaaiyl was carrying $100 bills in his pocket. But he had no job or home.The Yeshiva World reported: New York City’s police commissioner says investigators are looking into how the gunman who killed two officers had money despite not appearing to have a job or a home.

It’s hard to “strike terror into the hearts of the enemies of Allah” without an audience. “NYPD: Cop ambush killer told passers-by to watch,” by Tom Hays, Associated Press, December 21, 2014: NEW YORK (AP) — The gunman who fatally ambushed two New York City police officers in their squad car had a long criminal record, a hatred for police and the government and an apparent history of mental instability that included an attempt to hang himself a year ago, police said Sunday. Ismaaiyl Brinsley approached people on the street moments before opening fire and asked them to follow him...

Pennsylvania State Police, ending a seven-week manhunt, have captured a man accused of ambushing two troopers, leaving one dead and seriously injuring the other. Eric Frein, 31, was taken into custody Thursday, state police said. NBC reports that Frein was found in a hanger at Pocono Mountain Airport, where they received a report he was hiding. Despite being armed with a gun, sources told CNN that he was arrested by U.S. marshals without incident. Marshals surrounded the hangar, called out Frein's name and he surrendered. However, pictures of Frein in the back of a police cruiser show him nursing a...

The criminal who shot multiple California sheriff’s deputies on Friday, killing two, originally told authorities that he was Marcelo Marquez of Salt Lake City. Fingerprint analysis has since revealed that his actual name is Luis Enrique Monroy-Bracamonte, and he already has a lengthy history with ICE. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said that the fingerprints of the suspected shooter match those of a man named Luis Enrique Monroy-Bracamonte. Monroy-Bracamonte was initially deported to Mexico in 1997 after being convicted of dug possession in Arizona. Four years later, he was arrested and deported again for an unspecified offense....

Police: Alleged serial killer tied to 7 slayings ‘basking in the glory’ Posted: Oct 21, 2014 6:05 AM CST Updated: Oct 21, 2014 9:41 AM CST GARY, Ind. (Sun-Times Media Wire) - Darren D. Vann led Gary police on a bloody scavenger hunt this weekend. He pointed them to seven bodies of his alleged victims scattered in basements and empty, run-down buildings all over northwest Indiana's Steel City, authorities said. To the body of Anith Jones, 35, of Merrillville. And Teaira Batey, 28, of Gary. And others whose identities are still unknown. The Mayor of Gary Indiana said Tuesday morning...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The man who killed "Hee Haw" star and Grand Ole Opry performer David "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife, Estelle, four decades ago has been granted parole. Melissa McDonald with the Tennessee Board of Parole told News 2 the board voted Wednesday morning to grant John Brown parole. Brown has served 40 years of his 198-year sentence for killing the Akemans in 1973 as they returned to their home following a performance at the Opry.

  “From the first moment I heard about Che, Ernesto Guevara,” gushes Columbia University’s SDS (Student’s for a Democratic Society) leader in 1968 Mark Rudd, “he was my man, or, rather, I was his. Brilliant, young, idealistic, a daring commander of rebels, willing to risk his life to free the people of the world, I wanted to be like him. I was a member of the cult of Che. Who wouldn’t fall for this rifle-toting poet…?” Columbia University College Republicans, for one. The Young America’s Foundation (YAF,) for another. Indeed such is these organizations’ penchant for blowing raspberries and horse-laughs at the...

A convicted cop killer spoke to a graduating class at a Vermont college Sunday despite outrage over his invitation, telling the students they should strive to make the world "better." Mumia Abu-Jamal spoke by video to 20 students receiving bachelor degrees from Goddard College in Plainfield. He earned a degree from the college in 1996. "Think about the myriad of problems that beset this land and strive to make it better," Abu-Jamal said in the video. Abu-Jamal's planned speech drew widespread outrage, including from his victim's widow.

According to Virginia State Police, Jesse Matthew, the man facing abduction with intent to defile charges in connection with the Hannah Graham case, has been linked to another high profile disappearance. Police confirm that forensic evidence links Matthew to the Harrington case. Harrington, a Virginia Tech student at the time, was abducted and murdered in Charlottesville in 2009 after leaving a Metallica concert at John Paul Jones Arena. DNA evidence was collected from the site where Harrington's remains were found on Anchorage Farm in Albemarle County three months after her disappearance. State police have said there is a link between...

An Israeli woman, a resident of Coral Springs, Fla., for 15 years, was recently denied service and asked not to return again to a gas station ("On the Move Texaco" owned by J&L Services of Florida Inc.) that she had frequented over the years. On her most recent visit, a Palestinian employee of the gas station told her: “You guys are killers and your money is not welcome here." While the employee was not on the corporate side of the company, this incident, nonetheless, is another call for alarm among the Jewish population. Because of my concern about the statement,...

Shares of SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. (SEAS) fell Wednesday after the theme park operator reported second-quarter profit and sales that missed Wall Street expectations and cut its outlook for the year. The Orlando, Florida-based company also said it believes attendance during the period was hurt by negative publicity surrounding its treatment of killer whales, which are trained to perform tricks. A documentary last year called Blackfish suggested that the company's treatment of the killer whales provokes violent behavior from them, which in turn has led to the death of trainers.