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BAGHDAD (AP) — An instructor teaching his militant recruits how to make car bombs accidentally set off explosives in his demonstration Monday, killing 21 of them in a huge blast that alerted authorities to the existence of the rural training camp in an orchard north of Baghdad. Nearly two dozen people were arrested, including wounded insurgents trying to hobble away from the scene. The fatal goof by the al-Qaida breakaway group that dominates the Sunni insurgency in Iraq happened on the same day that the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, a prominent Sunni whom the militants consider a traitor, escaped...

Are automatic license plate readers in Maryland alerting police when registered gun owners drive past them? Recently we posted a story about John Filippidas, the concealed carry permit holder from Florida who was stopped on I-95 by a Maryland Transportation Authority cop. The cop detained Filippidas and his family for nearly two hours while searching the family’s vehicle for the gun Filippidas legally owns. The gun was in a safe back in Florida. No ticket was issued.

Police responded to an active shooting at Columbia Mall in Maryland shortly after 11:00 a.m. ET. Three people are confirmed dead and the mall remains on lockdown. UPDATE, 12:40p ET: People inside the mall are being told to wait until they are escorted out. The scene is believes to be secure. UPDATE, 12:34p ET: Randy Brooks, owner of Edward Arthur Jewelers at Columbia Mall, told Uma Pemmaraju that he heard a couple of pops and then saw people running. He said it appeared that the shooter had a shotgun and was killed, but police have not confirmed that. Brooks said...

A national newspaper chain with nearly 100 publications and 1.6 million readers is considering building “state-by-state databases” on concealed weapons permit holders, according to an internal e-mail. The plan, laid out in an email from a top editor at North Carolina-based Civitas Media, could be similar to a controversial project a New York state newspaper carried out in 2012 which included an online map that identified gun owners in two counties by name and address. Civitas' database project was detailed the plan in a Jan. 19 e-mail to newsrooms in 11 states, including Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

Will ABC have a story with "50 Ways to Celebrate John Browning's Birthday like they did for Michelle Obama?

Authorities say a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer accidentally shot and killed a fellow officer Tuesday in the first on-duty fatality in the department's 40-year history.

I started shooting at age five. By the time I turned 12, my parents gave me an NRA Life Membership. I’ve studied, written and taught about firearms law and the Bill of Rights since the 1960s, helping to enact concealed-carry laws in states across the country and authoring numerous other pieces of pro-firearms legislation. I’m a competitive shooter who’s hunted on five continents, and I founded a 150-acre shooting park in my home state of Illinois. All told, I’ve written more than 1,700 articles for firearms publications over the last four decades, as well as hosting and producing several firearms...

Marlene Hoeber is feisty, tattooed, transgender, a self-described feminist, a queer activist - and a crack shot with her favorite "toys," guns of just about every kind. One thing she's not - and proud of it - is a member of the National Rifle Association. "We make ourselves a special place where we don't have to hear about the 'Kenyan Muslim socialist' in the White House," said Hoeber, a biotech equipment mechanic who says she's politically "somewhere around Emma Goldman," the turn-of-the-20th century anarchist. Instead, Hoeber - whose array of firearms includes an M1 carbine rifle from World War II...

The Palestinian ambassador to Prague, Jamal al-Jamal, was killed in an explosion at his residence on Wednesday in an incident which Czech authorities believe was likely an accident. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said ambassador Jamal was trying to open a safe that had been recently moved to his new home when the blast occurred. A Czech government source told the Reuters news agency that the explosion was probably caused by a faulty security device on the unit. It was unclear what that was. Some safes can be fitted with mechanisms designed to destroy secret documents in the event of the...

PERRIS (CBSLA.com) — A target shooter accidentally shot and wounded someone in the chest Saturday during an event in Perris, authorities reported. The shooting occurred shortly after 1 p.m. at Christmas Tree Lane and Santa Rosa Mine Road, according to Deputy Mike Vasquez of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The person injured was driven to a location near Washington Street to meet up with deputies and was then transported to a hospital. The person’s condition was not immediately known. A witness told deputies that the shooter and victim were among an estimated 200 people who were participating at a shooting...

Maybe you’ve heard about the “bullet fee” that was supposedly charged to the families of prisoners executed by gunfire. The fee, which is almost certainly an urban legend, has been attributed at various times to Bolshevik revolutionaries and the governments of Iran and China. But even if the bullet fee is mythical, there is a very real price to be paid when a society becomes intoxicated by gunplay. What price have we paid for the bullets fired at Newtown and in the year since that tragedy? The financial estimates only scratch the surface.

He was bullied for his outspoken opinions and didn't care much for Republicans. Karl Pierson, 18, who stormed his Colorado high school brandishing a shotgun and bearing hatred for his debate coach, critically injured a 15-year-old fellow student before shooting himself to death Friday afternoon as he was cornered by heavily armed police. "He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff," said junior Abbey Skoda, who shared a class with Pierson during her freshmen year, The Denver Post reported. "I also heard he was bullied a lot." After undergoing surgery Friday, the injured girl was listed in critical,...

The victim of an attempted robbery in St. Paul took action when one of the robbers pointed a gun at him, firing his own gun and wounding one of the robbers. One of the robbers simultaneously fired in the direction of the victim, who was not hurt, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday. The Ramsey County attorney's office charged one of the robbery suspects, Marcel Lee Galloway, with aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery and first-degree attempted aggravated robbery, along with second-degree assault. Galloway, 21, of St. Paul, was shot in the leg during the incident. The county attorney's...

Family members of the two masked men shot to death after allegedly robbing a store in Reading spoke out Tuesday. "It's not fair," said Virginia Medina, mother of 24-year-old William Medina, who police said robbed Krick's Korner store alongside 18-year-old Robert De Carr on Monday. The two men were shot and killed by a private citizen while leaving the store, and family members want to see charges pressed. "[William] had no right to lose his life over something that man could have called the police for," said Medina. "He took the law into his own hands and walked away scot-free."...

The Old Media in the form of the AP planted a doozie of misinformation regarding Bernie Goetz's recent arrest for attempting to sell marijuana to a police officer. The article described Goetz as a "vigilante" and racist, the thugs he shot as "panhandlers," and his gun as "illegal." All of the characterizations are completely wrong and deceptive. Frist, Goetz was not a vigilante, he was only defending himself. In 1984, Goetz was confronted by four youths demanding money. The thug uses a language of tone and body so that while his words may be asking for money, the real message...

In December, the final primary lead smelter in the United States will close. The lead smelter, located in Herculaneum, Missouri, and owned and operated by the Doe Run Company, has existed in the same location since 1892. The Herculaneum smelter is currently the only smelter in the United States which can produce lead bullion from raw lead ore that is mined nearby in Missouri's extensive lead deposits, giving the smelter its "primary" designation. The lead bullion produced in Herculaneum is then sold to lead product producers, including ammunition manufactures for use in conventional ammunition components such as projectiles, projectile cores,...

Though 49ers pass rusher Aldon Smith is hardly having an easy time of things these days -- he's still away indefinitely from football -- a report claims that the Santa Clara police provided the defensive lineman with favorable treatment when he was arrested. NBC Bay Area uncovered records that show Smith, after being booked on suspicion of driving under the influence at 9:40 a.m. PT, was released at 11:20 a.m. PT, a mere 1.5 hours later. Smith enjoyed an expedited trip through the Santa Clara County Jail, according to court records and information uncovered by the NBC Bay Area Investigative...

Minnesota is one of a few states that track crimes committed by Concealed Carry permit holders.  When the Minnesota law was passed, an annual report of crimes committed by permit holders was required.  The Minnesota permit is simply a permit to carry, the law does not discriminate between carrying concealed and carrying openly.  Reports for the law are available for 2003, and 2005-2012 in pdf files.   The number of people with Minnesota permits that commit murder or manslaughter is remarkably low.  Only three instances are recorded in the Minnesota Carry Permit annual reports for the nine years reported....

DAVIDSON Davidson College will host a free panel discussion on “Gun Rights, Responsibilities, and Regulations” at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Lilly Family Gallery of the Chambers Building on campus. The panel will include Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney Monroe; Davidson Police Chief Jeanne Miller; Capt. Carolyn McMackin, interim acting chief of Davidson College Public Safety; Lance Stell, philosophy professor and director of medical humanities; and Andrew O’Geen, assistant professor of political science. The event is sponsored by the college’s Vann Center for Ethics. The panel will address such questions as, “What are the trends in the use of guns...

GUN-FREE ZONES' MEAN MORE BODY BAGS Here we go again. Another mass shooting in a gun-free zone where company policy mandates the employees must be unarmed and defenseless. In this case the employer is the Department of Defense (DOD), the very institution whose charter it is protect and defend America and Americans from all enemies, foreign and domestic. The slaughter at the Navy facility is the second slaughter carried out on a military installation in recent memory. Back in November 2009, Maj. Allahu Akbar Voodoo Hasan murdered 13 U.S. military heroes and wounded 30 more during his great Muhammad-inspired terrorist...