Free Republic

Eight allegedly armed jewelry store robbers fled Oakland’s Phuong Jewelry Wednesday after the 76-year-old owner emerged from the back of the store holding a shotgun. ABC 7 reported the attempted robbery occurred in broad daylight, around 12:30 p.m. Phuong Jewelry is family owned and the 69-year-old mother was working at the time of the allegedly robbery. ABC 7 noted: “Surveillance shows 69-year old mother Diane ducking for cover and screaming for help as those eight individuals smash nearly every single case and ransack the shop. With no security guard on duty at the time, Diane’s 76-year-old husband comes storming in...

A recent Lifeway survey of Protestant pastors shows that armed congregants protect more than 50% of protestant churches. While these security arrangements vary in their level of sophistication on a church-by-church basis, nearly the same number of pastors who report the use of armed congregants report that there is an intentional plan in place to prepare for threats posed by an active shooter. Though various state and local laws currently regulate and limit the use of concealed carry weapons by church security teams in various locale, a proposed federal law would criminalize the preparations made by many armed church security...

House Republicans are pushing a bill that would authorize the National Guard to use lethal force against individuals with weapons crossing from Mexico into the U.S. The Defend Our Borders from Armed Invaders Act was introduced by Republican Rep. Morgan Luttrell of Texas, a former Navy SEAL who served in the Navy for 14 years. In the last year, there have been multiple instances of migrants crossing into the U.S. carrying weapons, with some brandishing rifles like the AR-15. And as the Biden administration and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott clash over border security policies, this bill, Luttrell claims, will enable...

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- The topic of arming teachers in schools comes up periodically after shootings take place. Now, one school in Iowa is turning that talk into action and arming staff members, KTIV reported. "About 18 months ago, we just started looking at options. And obviously, to take the step to have armed staff in our school is a big one. And it requires a lot of conversation with a lot of stakeholders," said Siouxland Christian School Supt. Lindsay Laurich. It's a big step in school security. "My ultimate responsibility here is to protect this building to make sure...

Three armed robbers in Colorado had the tables turned on them when someone stole their getaway car, resulting in two of them being arrested, police said. The masked trio went into the Hi Lo Check Cashing in the Denver suburb of Commerce City just before 11 a.m., the Commerce City Police Department said Tuesday. During the heist, a female thief "seized the opportunity to do what criminals do - steal what was very likely already a stolen vehicle," a Tuesday police Facebook post said. The robbers inside the business were forced to flee on foot before two of them were...

Four armed suspects broke into a Staten Island home Monday morning and pistol-whipped a 5-year-old girl and a woman while demanding jewelry and cash. The home invasion was caught on home security cameras near Livingston Avenue and Queen Street in Manor Heights around 12:45 a.m., according to cops. The suspects, masked men in hooded sweatshirts, were seen entering the home after cops said they kicked in the door.

Police in Washington, D.C., are searching for the armed suspects who allegedly stole three French bulldogs out for a walk with their owner. According to a police report, around 4 p.m. Tuesday, the victim reported he was walking in an alley in the 5200 block of East Capitol Street, when three suspects jumped out of a blue minivan and approached him, all armed with handguns and rifles. The victim stated that he assumed the suspects were going after his wallet or cellphone.

A concealed carry holder in Los Angeles who was forced to defend himself and his family in a terrifying shootout at his front door is demanding LA leaders prosecute criminals terrorizing law-abiding residents. "Every single person that I know has gotten stuck up," LA entrepreneur Vince Ricci told Fox News Digital this week. "It’s not normal." Ricci said he was returning to his gated Los Angeles home Saturday evening after hitting the gym when two armed men jumped his fence and tried to force their way into his home. "Out of nowhere, boom, I had a gun to my back....

Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced Tuesday that 10,000 assault rifles are being purchased and distributed to civilian security teams in communities along the country’s borders.

Organized gangs, many of them made up of foreigners, have targeted children in Halle’s schools for years, with the police recording hundreds of such cases. However, there is now a citizens’ initiative in the German city that has begun patrolling the area, and students are arming themselves for self-defense purposes as they lose faith in the police to protect the young victims. The city, located in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, has seen highly troubling statistics emerge regarding the robbery of students, with Die Welt reporting that in just a matter of two years, there have been 203 such robbery offenses...

An “armed, dangerous person” was reported Wednesday afternoon at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill, less than three weeks after a gunman shot and killed a faculty member on campus. UNC Chapel Hill sent out an alert at 12:54 p.m. Wednesday reporting an armed and dangerous person on or near campus. The alert told individuals to go inside and avoid windows. UNC police shared the same alert on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. The warning comes 14 days after UNC associate professor Zijie Yan was shot and killed in a campus science building, prompting...

A report from John R. Lott Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), shows that from 2014 to 2022 armed citizens stopped active shooters eight times more often than the FBI claimed. In the report, excerpts of which Lott published on Real Clear Politics, he noted, “Out of 440 active shooter incidents from 2014 to 2022, an armed citizen stopped 157. We also found that the FBI had misidentified five cases, usually because the person who stopped the attack was incorrectly identified as a security guard.” He observed, “While the FBI claims that just 4.6% of active shootings...

An armed and dangerous person was reported on or near the campus of the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Monday afternoon, according to university police. The UNC police issued an alert just after 1 p.m. saying that police reported an armed and dangerous person near the campus. The officials did not provide further detail on the location of the person or with what kind of weapon the person was armed. A separate alert issued just after 2 p.m. told students that the shelter-in-place warning was still in place. “If you are on campus, shelter in place. If...

A concealed carry holder in Chicago turned the tables on an armed robbery suspect on the city’s Far North side this week. Chicago Police said three men, ages 26, 33 and 31, were standing near a vehicle on West Devon Avenue at about 3:30 a.m. on Wednesday when they were approached by the suspect, CBS reported. The suspect, who the three men said they did not know, flashed his handgun and demanded they fork over personal items. The victims complied with the suspect’s demands until one of the victims pulled out his licensed concealed carry and fired shots at the...

A man armed with explosive materials and weapons and wanted for crimes related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, was arrested Thursday in the Washington neighborhood where former President Barack Obama lives, law enforcement officials said. Taylor Taranto, 37, was spotted by law enforcement a few blocks from the former president's home and fled, though he was chased by U.S. Secret Service agents. Taranto has an open warrant on charges related to the Capitol riot, two law enforcement officials said. The officials were not authorized to speak publicly about an ongoing case and spoke to The...

Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) is condemning the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old Black boy by a convenience store clerk in Columbia, S.C. In a statement this week, Clyburn said he is praying for “swift justice” for Cyrus Carmack-Belton, who was shot in the back after a convenience store owner falsely accused him of shoplifting on Sunday night. “I’m horrified and deeply saddened by the senseless murder of 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton in Columbia this weekend,” Clyburn said. “His family and loved ones should be celebrating his recent eighth grade graduation from Summit Parkway Middle School. Instead, they are mourning this unimaginable...

An 11-year-old was arrested Monday and charged with armed robbery and armed assault in connection with a crime spree that began on May 21. The initial May 21 crime was one in which the 11-year-old allegedly approached someone and demanded they “hand over their belongings.” When the individual refused to hand them over, the 11-year-old allegedly pulled a gun to force compliance, USA Today reported. FOX 5 noted the May 21 robbery occurred on Lamont Street and was allegedly followed by “an assault with a dangerous weapon on Irving Street on May 24, and a robbery on Luray Place on...

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A shopper at a southeast Houston convenience store opened fire when four masked robbers stormed inside, sending three suspects to the hospital. Houston police said at least one of the robbery suspects was armed. HPD officers were called to a Circle K convenience store at a Valero gas station located at 8040 South Loop East at 7:55 p.m. Thursday. According to Asst. Chief Ernest Garcia, four suspects in masks entered the store and started robbing customers at gunpoint. That's when an armed customer pulled out their weapon and shot at the suspects, Garcia said. Three of...

Police are in a tense standoff on Richmond Highway (Route 1) in the Hybla Valley area with an armed woman in an incident that may be connected to the case of two missing Maryland women. For the safety of the public, part of Richmond Highway – the major artery through the area – has been shut down since late Tuesday morning. **SNIP** Authorities said they were asked by another law enforcement agency to perform a welfare check in an area just up the street at about 11 a.m. They said they were checking for a missing person in potential danger....

Covenant School, the Christian school where an attacker killed three students Monday, did not have armed resource officers on campus when the attack occurred, Fox News reporter John Roberts noted during live coverage of the shooting at the Nashville area Covenant School. Nashville police spokesperson Don Aaron indicated the attacker was a young woman, who appeared “to be in her teens,” armed with multiple firearms. Roberts said, “There was no school resource officer present at the school. It’s a private school, it doesn’t employ anybody from the Nashville police department to look after the school.”