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The man arrested at Los Angeles International Airport with a trunk full of guns and nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunition said Saturday that he is a law-abiding weapons enthusiast who had no idea he might be breaking the law. A day after he was arrested for suspicion of felony transportation of an assault rifle, Phillip Dominguez said he's confident he'll be exonerated. "Our Second Amendment rights are being trampled in the name of law enforcement," Dominguez said. "I'm a law-abiding, taxpaying gun enthusiast. I have no felonies - up until now." (cont'd)

Since Assault Weapons Ban Lifted, At Least 163 Dead, 185 Wounded, 15 Police Officers Dead, 23 Wounded To: NATIONAL EDITORS Contact: Peter Hamm of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, +1-202-898-0792 WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the four years since the federal assault weapons ban expired on September 15, 2004, at least 163 people have been killed and 185 wounded with military-style semiautomatic assault weapons, including at least 38 police officers killed or wounded, according to a report being issued today by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Restrictions on assault weapons, which drew support from Presidents...

BATON ROUGE -- A pro-gun rights House committee Wednesday shot down, 12-1, a bill to impose a statewide ban on assault weapons starting Jan. 1. House Bill 68 by Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans, is dead for the session unless he can amend it onto another bill. The only member of the House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice who voted against killing the bill was Rep. Roy Burrell, D-Shreveport. Richmond was joined in his presentation by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and ranking members of the New Orleans Police Department, who brought confiscated assault weapons and ammunition to...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - When Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson walks down the aisles of a gun show Saturday in Charleston, the game he's hunting won't be hard to spot. The former senator and actor is looking to differentiate himself from rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney - and use his appeal as a "country boy from Tennessee" who knows NASCAR and hunting to portray the city slickers as out of step with this early voting state's residents. There is little doubt gun rights are a tough issue for the front of the GOP pack. Former New York Mayor Giuliani has...

The International Association of Chiefs of Police urged Congress to pass `an effective assault weapons ban.' The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report Wednesday calling for a ban on assault weapons, arguing it will make officers safer by reducing the ``firepower available to criminals.'' The report hits home this week in South Florida, where law enforcement officials are still reeling from the murder of one of their own. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former police officer and police director, gets angry when he talks about the fact that the gun used to kill Officer Jose Somohano was...

Miami-Dade Officer Jose Somohano was shot and killed with a Mak-90 assault rifle three years to the day after the federal law prohibiting the sale of such weapons expired. The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report at noon Wednesday calling for, among other things, a renewal of the ban, arguing that it helps keep police officers safe by reducing the ``firepower available to criminals.'' The report hits home for South Florida law enforcement officers, who have been facing an increasing number of these guns on the street since the ban expired. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former...

MIAMI, Sept. 16 (AP) — Patrol officers here will have the option of carrying assault rifles as they try to combat the rise in the use of similar weapons by criminals, the city’s police chief said Sunday. The chief, John F. Timoney, approved the policy last week, before a Miami-Dade police officer was killed on Thursday in a shootout with a man wielding an assault rifle. “This is something we do not do with any relish,” Chief Timoney said. “We do this reluctantly.” The policy had been under review for about a year after officers began seeing an increase in...

Rudolph W. Giuliani will go before the rank and file of the National Rifle Association on Friday, seeking support for his Republican presidential campaign from a group he once likened to "extremists" for its efforts to repeal the ban on assault weapons. But even as the former New York mayor strives to burnish his Second Amendment credentials at the gathering in Washington, a panel of federal judges in his home town will be hearing arguments on the lawsuit that Giuliani filed seven years ago aimed at punishing the nation's gun manufacturers for violent crimes involving firearms. Announcing the lawsuit in...

An extraordinarily violent day in South Florida -- which began with the shooting of four police officers south of Miami, and ended with the death of the gunman in Pembroke Pines -- brought home a disturbing fact of criminal life: More offenders are taking to the streets with high-powered assault weapons. "You can buy an assault rifle for about $200," said Carlos Baixauli, a special agent with the Miami district office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "That gives you a lot of firepower with the flick of a finger."

On the day South Florida mourned a slain police officer, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson stopped in Miami and stuck firmly to his guns over what he says is the unnecessary call for limiting the right to bear arms. ''I do not think that abrogating Second Amendment rights is a good idea,'' the Republican said at the Versailles in Little Havana. ''The amount of violence created on the street by these kinds of weapons is very, very small,'' Thompson said. ``It's too bad. It's horrendous. Any kind -- whether it's a knife or an IED [improvised explosive device] or a...

On the day South Florida mourned a slain police officer, Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson stopped in Miami and stuck firmly to his guns over what he says is the unnecessary call for limiting the right to bear arms. ''I do not think that abrogating Second Amendment rights is a good idea,'' the Republican said at the Versailles restaurant in Little Havana. ''The amount of violence created on the street by these kinds of weapons is very, very small,'' Thompson said. ``It's too bad. It's horrendous. Any kind -- whether it's a knife or an IED or a gun --...

(CBS4) DORAL Miami-Dade police have arrested four people in connection with the shootings of four Miami-Dade police officers, one of whom died.According to CBS4’s news partner The Miami Herald, three of those arrested are charged with aiding the suspected cop killer Shawn LaBeet.. Those suspects are Alba Bello, 47; her son, Alain Gonzalez, 24; and Bello’s boyfriend, Lazaro Guardiola, 35. The Herald reports all three have been charged with accessory after the fact for harboring LaBeet and are being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center. Basically, investigators believe, they helped hide LaBeet as he hid from police in...

The man suspected of killing one Miami-Dade cop and wounding three others Thursday morning in a shootout in south Miami-Dade was cornered and shot dead in a Pembroke Pines apartment complex sometime before midnight, a law enforcement source told The Miami Herald. Miami-Dade police would not confirm the information about suspect Shawn Sherwin LaBeet, but scheduled a news conference for 12:30 a.m. at its headquarters in Doral. After receiving a tip Thursday evening that LaBeet was hiding in an apartment complex in Pembroke Pines, Miami-Dade sent its SWAT team, the source told The Herald.

Two Miami-Dade police officers have been injured in a so-called Tactical Operation gone bad in Cutler Bay. This is currently a developing story that began at SW 281st Street and 143rd Court in Cutler Bay where the two officers were possibly shot, reportedly with an assault rifle. Other officers may have also been hurt but only with minor injuries. At least one officer has been transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital. After the shooting, one suspect barricaded himself inside a building at 280th Street and Southwest 143RD Court. The other suspect took off in a White Honda Accord and began driving...

ANNAPOLIS -- State lawmakers attempting again to ban assault weapons in Maryland are hoping Gov. Martin O'Malley will give his support as hearings on the issue begin today. "That's what we think is very different this year than in the past," said Sen. Michael G. Lenett, Montgomery Democrat and chief sponsor of the bill. "We have a governor who is very committed to public safety." Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, pledged his support for the proposed ban while campaigning last year for governor. The Democrat-controlled General Assembly has failed four straight years to pass such legislation, and members think Mr. O'Malley's...

H.R. 1022 has been introduced in committee. From The High Road, where there's lots of discussion and political fingerpointing. Examples: "Well, all you folks who voted for anyone but a republican now know what the next 2-10 years are going to be like. Maybe longer." Which was countered by: "Plus, even if it does pass, all you good Republicans have nothing to worry about because your President will veto it, right? Remember, you guys all said Bush was just playing politics when he said he would sign a new AWB. You guys don't think you are wrong now, do you?...

Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, a Democratic candidate for Maryland governor, testified in Annapolis last week in support of a state ban on military-style weapons. "I lived through what one of these weapons can do during the sniper shootings," Mr. Duncan said, referring to the shooting spree in October 2002 that killed 10 persons and terrorized the Washington area for three weeks. "We don't need these guns on the streets." The bill by Delegate Neil Quinter, Howard County Democrat, would replace the federal assault-weapon ban that expired in September 2004. It would outlaw the sale or possession of 19...

Senator Kennedy: "Are you going to make a recommendation to us to ban the manufacturing and production and the distribution of those weapons in the United States?" Mr. Bennett: "No, I'm not Senator. . . . We do not want to -- we've had this discussion before -- interfere with the legitimate rights of gun owners and collectors and hunters." --Discussion between Senator Edward Kennedy and Drug Czar William Bennett during September 7, 1989 session of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Some people think that the whole question of assault weapons is an easy one. "I don't need an AK-47 to...

'Excellent' police response not enough to save woman November 22, 2005 BY MARY MITCHELL SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST http://www.suntimes.com/output/mitchell/cst-nws-mitch22.html Eight minutes. According to the Chicago Police Department, it took eight minutes for police to arrive at the scene where a man had been beating his wife for 15 to 20 minutes while her children screamed and hollered. In those eight minutes last Wednesday night, Stacey D. Moyer, 29, of 3555 S. Cottage Grove, was shot and killed. After shooting his wife of only two months, Billy Earl Winborn allegedly shot himself in the head. The tragedy happened while both of Moyer's children...

The Supreme Court refused Monday to block a lawsuit against gun manufacturers accused of negligence for firearms violence in the nation's capital. An appeals court had said the District of Columbia government and individual gun victims — including a man who was left a quadriplegic after being shot in 1997 — could sue under a D.C. law that says gun manufacturers can be held accountable for violence from assault weapons. The high court had been asked over the summer to use the case to strike down the statute, which gun makers said interfered with their right to sell lawful products....