Free Republic

On Sunday, July 27, 2008 a man named Jim David Adkisson walked into the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, killed two worshipers, and wounded seven before being subdued by church-goers. At first, the story seemed like another case of a disturbed individual wanting to create mayhem for no particular rhyme or reason. These types of occurrences have almost become commonplace in our society. From attacks in schools, churches, and the workplace, it is evident in today's culture that no place is safe from those who seek fame by killing their fellow man. However, the Knoxville, Tennessee shooting, from...

INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- An armed man was shot to death early Monday by an Inglewood police officer, authorities said. The shooting occurred at Hillcrest Boulevard near Regent Street at about 12:30 a.m., an Inglewood police officer said. Authorities withheld the name of the dead man, pending notification of relatives. Police said officers went to the apartment building in response to a report of a family dispute. "The door was opened by an individual," Inglewood police Lt. Mike McBride said. "He was armed with a handgun, and he immediately raised the handgun toward the officers, and at that point, the officers...

Refugees shot fleeing North Korea Michael Sheridan in Hunchun, China North Korean guards, newly armed with Russian Dragunov sniper rifles, have shot dead refugees attempting to ford the river that divides their hungry homeland from China, according to human rights campaigners. On the Chinese shore alone, two bodies, marked by several bullet holes, were found by a local activist, said Tim Peters, an American pastor who runs a Christian group supporting the fugitives. The shootings indicate a coordinated change in tactics by North Korea and China to deter refugees from crossing. They want to stamp out bribery among border guards...

CALEXICO — Two street gangs vying for control of a human-smuggling operation here has resulted in two shootings in a dense neighborhood near the border fence, police said. A man is recovering from a bullet wound after being shot by masked gunmen. Two other men are in Imperial County jail for their suspected involvement of an attempt to murder a rival. “We be-lieve it involves illegal alien smuggling and their attempts to cut into each other’s area and operations,” Calexico police Sgt. Gonzalo Gerardo said. Human smuggling in Calexico is lucrative: smugglers could receive as much as $1,500 per head...

The horrible violence which occurred at Northern Illinois University is a part of what Barrack Obama rightly labeled an "epidemic of violence." Where does it begin? How can we end its growing impact?

Man of the Year: John Sanford Progressive Farmer, January 2001 http://www.progressivefarmer.com/issue/0101/sanford/default.asp (thanks to HANU PAPPU for this alert to Agbioview) From a simple BB gun, this scientist fired the shot heard around the world-the promise of biotechnology to feed the hungry. The revolution of agricultural biotechnology came to be through the business end of a Crossman BB gun-a dime-store toy wielded by many a rambunctious youth. This is the pistol that powered the first gene gun, a low-tech, "laughable" idea, mocked in the scientific community. It will never work, they said. But it did. And it transformed agriculture in a...

PHILADELPHIA - For the second year in a row, city officials are being asked how police officers responding to celebratory New Year's Eve gunfire ended up shooting innocent bystanders. This year, police chasing an armed reveler shot into a house filled with partygoers, leaving one man in a coma, a second wounded and a 9-year-old boy with a graze wound to the chest. A year ago, police fatally shot a man in the back of the head as he tried to flee when neighbors started shooting guns into the air. The latest shootings came as Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson ends...

Since the tragic shootings yesterday at the two churches in Colorado I have been intrigued by the story of Jeanne Assam, the volunteer civilian security guard who took down the shooter at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. I watched an online interview with her – her first since the shootings – this afternoon, and came away with the knowledge that standing before me was a genuine modern American hero ... and a true soldier of God. Many in the media will downplay her heroism, for reasons that are obvious to those of us who are school in...

The New Life Church shooting tore apart a close-knit and deeply religious family, killing two of four teenage children and wounding the father, relatives said today. The dead are 18-year-old Stephanie Works and her sister, 16-year-old Rachael Works. They were described by their uncle, Mark Schaepe of Lincoln, Neb, as outgoing cheerful, faithful and smart. “It teaches you that life is precious,” he said. The Works sisters are survived by their parents, David Works, who was shot twice in the attack and remained hospitalized in fair condition; and Marie Works, along with two sisters. The other victims of Sunday’s shootings...

Yesterday (Friday) Charles Gibson featured as “Person of the Week” a young lady who stayed on the phone for half an hour, reporting to police what she saw in the mass shooting in an Omaha shopping mall. Did she display heroism, “grace under pressure” as Gibson said, quoting Hemingway? Yes, she did. But the deeper question from the reporting on this latest public killing is whether Charles Gibson wants you to get shot. Here’s the evidence. These shootings took place at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska. Six of the eight people killed by an angry teenager who’d been fired by...

All it took were a couple of pictures posted on the Internet. Mere hours after a Virginia television station reported that Penn State students had uploaded pictures of Halloween partygoers dressing as Virginia Tech shooting victims, criticism exploded from both campuses, with one Facebook.com group denouncing the costumes reaching 4,100 members as of 2 a.m. this morning. The only publicly accessible picture, uploaded after Halloween, shows a woman wearing an orange Virginia Tech T-shirt smeared with blood and a bullet wound, posing jauntily. According to television station WSLS in Roanoke, Va., several other pictures showed a similarly attired man. For...

Virginia Tech officials might have saved lives if they had notified faculty and students sooner about the first two shootings on campus, a panel concluded in its investigation of the April rampage that left 33 dead. "Warning the students, faculty and staff might have made a difference. ... So the earlier and clearer the warning, the more chance an individual had of surviving," said the report, which was released late Wednesday night.

GEORGETOWN, Ind. - A 15-year-old boy used a World War II-era sniper rifle to fatally shoot a deputy and critically wound another outside his southern Indiana home, authorities said Tuesday. The teen, Tyler Dumstorf, had shot the deputies Monday evening and was found dead with a self-inflicted gunshot early Tuesday inside the home about 13 miles outside Louisville, Ky., authorities said. Prosecutor Keith Henderson said the boy's father bought the M1 Garand some time ago and that he and his son shot it during target practice. The gun is a showpiece, and possessing one is not illegal, the prosecutor said....

There’s an old story about a couple who moved into a new neighborhood. When their next door neighbor invited them to dinner, they gladly accepted. When the big evening arrived, they donned their best social attire, grabbed a little gift for the host and hostess, and presented themselves at the neighbor’s front door at the appointed time, hungry, and ready to cement their new friendship. Once inside, they immediately became aware that there was a dead horse on the living room floor! The hosts made no mention, indeed they quietly stepped over it in offering hors doevres, wine and small...

MOSCOW, Idaho - An officer who was shot responding to a gunman spraying bullets at a courthouse died of his injuries Sunday, police said. Law enforcement officers stormed the church Sunday where the gunman hid after shooting three people, including the officer, in an ambush late Saturday, police said. They found the body of the likely gunman and another man, police said. The shooting also wounded another officer and a civilian, said David Duke, Moscow's assistant police chief. The name of the officer killed was not immediately released. Duke said the attack was apparently an ambush, with the shooter firing...

It's rare that the liberal media would run a report like this. Send this to EVERYONE.

Fox News just reported that two people are dead after an early morning sniping of two different cars on the Southbound lanes of an Indiana Highway. This was per Indiana State police. Didn't catch the Highway name....Any Indiana freepers?

Preview and Analysis for Weekend of April 21st and 22nd, 2007 Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows: NBC's "Meet the Press" Ex-Virginia Police Super. Gerald MassengillEx-DHS Secretary Tom RidgeDoris Kearns GoodwinNBC's David GregoryNewsweek's Jon MeachamNBC's Pete Williams CBS's "Face the Nation" Sen. Patrick LeahyJim and Sarah BradyCriminal profiler Gregg McCray Fox News Sunday" VA Lieutenant Governor Bill BollingGWU Pres. Stephen TrachtenbergSen. Arlen SpecterSen. Chuck Schumer CNN "Late Edition" Sen. Sam BrownbackVA. AG Bob McDonnellNew York Times' Thomas FriedmanEx-Clinton counsel Lanny DavisCNN's Bill SchneiderCNN's Jeanne Meserve ABC's "This Week" Newt GingrichSen. Chris Dodd and Jackie DoddSam DonaldsonCokie RobertsGeorge Will...

BLACKSBURG, Va. - The family of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho told The Associated Press on Friday that they feel "hopeless, helpless and lost," and "never could have envisioned that he was capable of so much violence." "Our family is so very sorry for my brother's unspeakable actions. It is a terrible tragedy for all of us," the family said. The statement was issued by Cho's sister, Sun-Kyung Cho, on her behalf and that of her family. She works as a contractor for a State Department office that oversees billions of dollars in American aid for Iraq. "We pray for...

Crime And Culture: When the Virginia Tech shooter's identity was first revealed, he came across as a tragic, almost sympathetic, figure — the nerdy foreign student who couldn't fit in. But the videos Cho Seung-Hui made of himself in paramilitary gear and launching into hateful rants show he was really an arrogant and narcissistic bully who didn't want to fit in. We learned at the same time that he was not only stalking coeds on campus, but also taking up-skirt shots of them under desks with his cell phone camera during his English classes. The shy loner really was a...