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LOS ANGELES, May 11 (Reuters) - Dennis Farina, a former policeman who built a Hollywood career playing detectives, was arrested on Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport for carrying a loaded gun on his way to board a plane, police said. Farina, 64, told police he brought the .22 caliber, semi-automatic pistol with him on a drive from Arizona to Los Angeles and forgot it was in his briefcase when he tried to pass through airport security, police said in a statement. He was scheduled to take a United Airlines flight to his home in Chicago. "Farina was very apologetic...

[Originally published in The Blue Press, from Dillon Precision] Just Say Nothing by Dave Kopel What if you've just been arrested for something which shouldn't be a crime? For instance, if a burglar breaks into your home, attacks your children and you shoot him. Should you talk to the police in detail about what happened? In a word, "No." Shut up, call the best lawyer you can find, and then continue to shut up. If you talk to the police, you will only make things worse for yourself. Sociologist Richard Leo has written several articles which detail the deliberately deceptive...

MEXICO CITY — Assassins gunned down a senior police official in the border city of Ciudad Juarez early Saturday as Mexico's gangsters pressed their counteroffensive against the country's security forces. Municipal Police Chief Juan Antonio Roman was shot about 2 a.m. in front of his house on the outskirts of the city, which is across the Rio Grande from El Paso. Another of Roman's police commanders was shot shortly before he was killed. Roman's was one of more than 100 deaths, including those of at least 20 police officers, attributed to organized crime last week across Mexico. Among those killed...

t's low in fat, low in food miles and completely free range. In fact, some claim that Sciurus carolinensis - the grey squirrel - is about as ethical a dish as it is possible to serve on a dinner plate. The grey squirrel, the American cousin of Britain's endangered red variety, is flying off the shelves faster than hunters can shoot them, with game butchers struggling to keep up with demand. 'We put it on the shelf and it sells. It can be a dozen squirrels a day - and they all go,' said David Simpson, the director of Kingsley...

In this Alert: 1. Court Shoots Down Bloomberg! 2. National Parks Ending Gun Ban? 3. The National Anthem Bloomberg A 3 judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has dismissed a lawsuit by the city of New York attempting to hold firearms manufacturers responsible for the costs of “gun crime” in the city. The court ruled that the suit should have been dismissed under the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act passed by the congress in 2005. The 2-1 decision affirmed the constitutionality of that law and criticized Federal Judge Jack Weinstein for failing...

Another sophisticate has spoken out, and bravely. I don't want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don't, then you've got the Army, Iraq, I don't know, something like that. It's not as bright. So said Stephen King. He is a writer of horror I hear, though I have never read his books. I do hope that his written prose is more literate than that evinced by his speech. King's bold words passed scarcely noticed, near invisibly in...

May 10, 2008, 8:30 a.m. Warring HistoryRethinking the Iraq critics. By Michael Barone In trying to understand news about the conflicts in Iraq, I work to keep in mind the difference between what we know now about decision making in World War II and what most Americans knew at the time. From the memoirs and documents published after the war, we’ve learned how leaders made critical judgments. But at the time, even well-informed journalists only could guess at what was going on behind the scenes. Today we’re only beginning to learn about what went on behind the scenes in...

Conflict between two Federal agencies leads to chaos and conflict...who knew?

Summit proposes pilot airgun scheme as Home Office called on to revise gun lawsPolice, gun control campaigners and shooting representatives met yesterday to discuss how to tackle the misuse of firearms. Chaired by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, the firearms summit was organised in the wake of increasing public concern about the misuse of weapons, including airguns. Participants included Deputy Chief Constable Kevin Mathieson, firearms licensing lead from the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland, and other representatives of police, local government, prosecution and shooting interests. One of the ideas to come out of yesterday’s meeting was to pilot a...

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KUDOS TO THE firearms debate at Bridgewater College ("Bridgewater College to Host Firearms Debate," April 9). This debate was excellent, informative, thought provoking. I publicly thank the college for bringing two such outstanding individuals in their fields to our community. The auditorium was filled largely with students. Prior to the debate, my companion and I expected the audience to be strongly biased against Second Amendment rights, handgun ownership, concealed-carry permits, etc. At no time could we detect any bias, either pro or con, by the level of courteous, enthusiastic applause given to both gentlemen after each of their statements and...

During a campaign debate on April 16, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were asked if the District of Columbia's ban on gun possession, now facing a challenge before the Supreme Court, is constitutional. "I think a total ban, with no exceptions under any circumstances, might be found by the Court not to be. But I don't know the facts," said Clinton (Yale Law '73), dodging the question for the third and final time. Obama (Harvard Law '91) also pleaded ignorance, confessing he hadn't "listened to the briefs and looked at all the evidence." When moderator Charlie Gibson pointed out that...

BELLEVUE, WA – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has moved from outrage to atrocity by asking anti-gun activist federal Judge Jack B. Weinstein to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during a civil lawsuit trial beginning May 27 against Georgia gun dealer Jay Wallace, proprietor at Adventure Outdoors. The New York Sun reported that Bloomberg’s attorneys made the request. Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, said the move clearly shows that Bloomberg has “total disregard not only for the Second Amendment, but also the First.” Bloomberg’s attorney on this case, Eric Proshansky, has reportedly argued in a...

The Metropolitan Police Department has joined other major U.S. cities in arming patrol officers with assault rifles to protect them against criminals with high-powered weapons, weeks after being released from a federal program that monitors the use of excessive force. "We want to be as accurate as possible and have more stopping power," Assistant Chief Patrick Burke said yesterday. The department already has 500 semiautomatic AR-15 rifles, which were converted from fully automatic rifles, and has trained 340 officers to use them.

A move to reinstate a federal ban on assault weapons now has a new co-sponsor on Capitol Hill, and he says last week’s murder of Philadelphia police officer Stephen Liczbinski is what prompted him to act. Suburban US congressman Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) admits that the plan has been in the pipeline for months, and concedes that its chances for passage this term are slim. But Sestak (in file photo above) insists that the Liczbinski slaying merely prompted him to act on a measure he’s always supported: "There’s no need to have our law enforcement officers having to feel like they’re...

The Issue: A Philadelphia policeman is killed by a bank robber wielding an assault rifle. Our Opinion: Congress should reinstitute the ban against assault weapons, which it allowed to expire in 2004. Assault rifles have only one legitimate purpose: as weapons to be used by soldiers in combat. They are impractical and illegal for hunting game, and far too dangerous to have lying around the house where those who are young and inexperienced can get their hands on them. But ever since 2004, when Congress failed to extend the federal ban on assault weapons, which had been in effect for...

Welcome! I'm running for Idaho State Senate seat 22 against the Republican incumbent, who I don't see as conservative enough for our district. This was something of a last minute decision for me, and it was not an easy one. As this web page demonstrates, I am not spending money on campaign consultants and web developers. Please look around, and if you think I am a bit more of what you think your representative in the upper house of the Idaho legislature should be, then please vote for me in the May primary.

Wallingford (WTNH) _ A Durham homeowner says bullets from a Wallingford gun range are hitting his house. Today, officials from the state, the gun range, and News Channel 8 trekked into the woods to find out more. Pat Dinatalia built a multi-million dollar home in the woods of Durham. He loves wildlife, and has seen deer, elk and even a bison on his 130 acre property. What Pat doesn't love are the bullets piercing his house. One has hit the siding, another his garage door. "I have sat out here on a Saturday or Sunday and had bullets whizzing over...

Days after a Philadelphia police sergeant was killed with a semi-automatic rifle, Mayor Nutter and Gov. Rendell called upon Congress to enact a new federal assault-weapons ban that would remove such weapons from the streets."The time has come for politicians to decide," said Rendell at the City Hall news conference attended by top police brass and state elected officials. "You have to decide whether you're on their side - the men and women who wear blue - or whether you're on the side of the gun lobby."The federal assault-weapons ban, which lasted from 1994 through 2004, outlawed an array of...

Postcards with a picture of a handgun and children as targets started appearing in mailboxes and on windshields in a few central Lake County towns this week. The postcards, distributed by representatives of the Brady Campaign, a national gun control advocacy group, criticize Republican state Rep. Sandy Cole of Grayslake for voting against legislation that would require background checks on all handgun sales. "She is against universal background checks," said Jennifer Bishop, Illinois Million Mom March national program director for victims and survivors while handing out leaflets Thursday outside Cole's Grayslake office. "This bill is an extra layer of protection."...

A Fort Worth homeowner shot and killed a man who broke into a donut shop next to his house. According to reports, the man heard commotion coming from the parking lot of the neighboring store in the 100 Block of Roberts Cut Off Road and went to investigate. Police said the would-be robber broke the glass and demanded money from the female donut shop owner. Authorities are questioning the neighbor, but it's not expected he'll face any charges.

Lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking a judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the upcoming trial of a gun shop owner who was sued by the city. While trials are often tightly choreographed, with lawyers routinely instructed to not tell certain facts to a jury, a gag order on a section of the Constitution would be an oddity. “Apparently Mayor Bloomberg has a problem with both the First and the Second amendments,” Lawrence Keane, the general counsel of a firearms industry association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said. The trial, set to begin May 27, involves...

Star-Telegram Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson takes his job seriously. Fine. But he sometimes takes too seriously duties that don't fall within his job description, like being interpreter of the U.S. Constitution and official czar for Second Amendment rights. Patterson, whose title automatically makes him chairman of the School Land Board, is in charge of overseeing some state-owned property. His office has the power to invest in real estate to benefit the Permanent School Fund, which supports public education. For months now, the commissioner has been at the center of a public fight involving a 14.5-square-mile tract in West Texas...

FORT WORTH, Texas -- Police said a man who tried to rob a donut store was shot and killed by a man who lives near the store Friday morning. The robber broke into the store in the 100 block of Roberts Cut Off Road in West Fort Worth and terrorized the woman who was working there, police said. Police said the woman, Angel Randle, ran out the back door screaming for help. The neighbor heard the pleas, grabbed his shotgun and then fatally shot the robber, police said. “This is the second time this month she’s been robbed,” witness Raymon...

In a downtown loft apartment in Denver, Colorado, a group of 30-something women is having a party. They joke easily with each other about men, cats and botox. It's more Sex and the City than Psycho, but party organiser Dana Shafman would have them believe they could easily be victims of violent crime. She runs a company that sells Tasers, the electric stun guns used by security forces around the world. In Colorado and other US states, it's legal for ordinary people to own them. Dana's marketing them to women as the ideal personal protection device. "I've been to everyone's...

Pressured by the gun lobby and 51 US senators, the Interior Department proposes enhancing everyone's national park experience by letting people pack heat with a picnic. That's just what the nation's millions of park visitors don't need.

<p>MEXICO CITY — An official says the acting chief of Mexico's federal police has been shot dead.</p> <p>The Public Safety Department says Edgar Millan Gomez was shot 10 times and died hours later in a Mexico City hospital. Two of his bodyguards were wounded.</p>

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson has a few choice words for your hometown newspaper. In an editorial Thursday, the Star-Telegram called the Republican land commissioner's position on the Christmas Mountains untenable, and said that "his obstinate invocation of the gun issue in the discussion borders on obsession." In a response Thursday, Patterson cites the oath he took years ago as an officer of the United States Marine Corps. He also notes in his 400-plus word letter that the "Fort Worth Star-Telegram may consider my position 'untenable' and my zeal for the Bill of Rights 'obstinate' and an 'obsession,' but I...

A burglar, looking for loot inside a home near 8th and Northern avenues in Phoenix, instead found himself in the back of a police car, headed to jail. Neighbors who live in the area claim they have an undercover block watch system that helps keep criminals out of their community. "We know exactly who to call," one neighbor told ABC15. Police accuse Jesse Parra of breaking into Bill Marshall's home near 8th Avenue and Royal Palm Road. Marshall said the bad guy used a porch ornament to shatter his front window and break into his home. Though Marshall was not...

Mark Beverly probably didn’t expect a hero’s welcome when he returned to his convenience-store job after fighting off an assault on a co-worker from a would-be robber, but he certainly didn’t expect to get fired, either. Super America, which operates a large chain of gas stations and convenience stores in the Midwest, terminated Beverly for violating the policy of the company by fighting with the robber. The termination leaves Beverly without unemployment benefits as well

LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. — A coyote grabbed a 2-year-old girl by the head and tried to drag her from the front yard of her mountain home in the third incident of a coyote threatening a small child in Southern California in five days, authorities said. The coyote attacked the girl around noon Tuesday when her mother, Melissa Rowley, went inside the home for a moment to put away a camera, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in an incident report. Rowley came out of the house and saw the coyote dragging her daughter towards a street. She ran towards...

New York City police officers fire their weapons far less often than they did a decade ago, a statistic that has dropped along with the crime rate. But when they do fire, even at an armed suspect, there is often no one returning fire at the officers. Officers hit their targets roughly 34 percent of the time. When they fire at dogs, roughly 55 percent of shots hit home. Most of their targets are pit bulls, with a smattering of Rottweilers and German shepherds. Officers’ guns go off unintentionally or by accident for a variety of reasons: wrestling with suspects,...

(In the May issue of the new Townhall Magazine, long-time Second Amendment defender, Dave Kopel exposes the clandestine strategy being employed to rob you of your right to bear arms. The Left believes that they can distract you with the national debate over gun rights while they make their move at the local level. Townhall Magazine exposes their plans before it's too late.) If you doubt the transformational power of Barack Obama, consider the change that he’s effected on Hillary Clinton. The New York Senator came into the 2008 race with a nearly perfect anti-gun rights voting record, following her...

Right now Illinois and Wisconsin are the only two states in the U.S. that entirely outlaw citizens carrying concealed firearms. But two board members are pushing a proposal to change that, starting with Winnebago County. Looking back at recent tragedies like the N.I.U. shooting prompts many of us to ask what could have been done differently. "If there had been a person there, who was of age and who had met the qualifications and chose to have concealed carry and the campus didn't have a problem with it, you might not have as many people dead today as you do...

Wal-Mart recently announced that it will be video-taping its gun sales and creating a computerized log of purchases for reference when a firearm is used in a crime. Wal-Mart clerks would thus be alerted and could refuse to make another sale. The recorded images will also be made available to law enforcement as part of any investigation. The move seems to be an understandable, even commendable a step toward plugging any leaks in the system. And, in fact, it might have been universally heralded if it weren't tied to an organization called Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which was founded and...

About 90 percent of the people shot in the city last year were African-American. While figures are unavailable, it is assumed by most that close to 100 percent of the perpetrators of these shootings were African-American. Almost all the firearms used in these shootings were obtained, possessed and carried illegally by those who perpetrated the shootings. If, as is constantly claimed, we MUST DO SOMETHING to stop this violence, then why not ban African-American residents of the city from owning handguns? The answer is that that is patently unfair and discriminatory. To judge an entire group as a problem and...

May 5th, 2008; Washington Township, NJ FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Robert Kreisler In a stunning first-of-its-kind announcement, the New Jersey Coalition for Self Defense (NJCSD) predicts that the Supreme Court Of The United States (SCOTUS) will confirm an individual right interpretation of the 2nd Amendment in Heller vs. DC, foreshadowing an end to decades of acrimonious debate over the meaning of what is widely considered to be a core principle for many Americans. Using an advanced market research method known as a KJ analysis (named after its creator, Kawakita Jiro) a team of five analysts independently reviewed the statements...

* Home * Resume * Lectures * Services The Sean Bell shooting and probability Yesterday, there were several protests in New York City. The participants were “outraged” over the recent acquittal of two black cops and one Lebanese cop who shot and killed Sean Bell, who was black. Much was made over the fact that the three cops shot at Bell’s car 50 times. This number was touted repeatedly by some as evidence that the cops had used excessive force. Let’s look at this from the probabilistic viewpoint. It turns out that when a cop fires his weapon at a...

AUSTIN — Demand for concealed handgun licenses has risen nearly 40 percent in Texas in a year, an increase being attributed to many factors, even presidential politics. Though the exact cause may be unclear, what's certain is that the spike in applications has caught the Department of Public Safety unprepared. The state is taking a month longer than the 60 days allowed by law to process original applications and 80 days longer on renewals, which are supposed to be handled within 45 days. "We're trying really hard, but there have been delays because of the tremendous increase in applications," said...

According to the Martin County Sheriffs Office, just about everyone wants a gun, and some gun dealers in the east agree. The reason why may surprise you. One dealer says it has to do with who may win the presidency. "That's my 2nd Amendment right. I should be able to have a handgun permit,” said gun owner Dallas Barber. “That's my 2nd Amendment right." And apparently in Martin County many others feel that way. The Sheriff tells us since January 180 people have applied for a permit. Like dozens of others Dallas Barber was denied a handgun carry permit. In...

The UNM Police Department arrested student Kevin Boyar on Tuesday on charges of unlawfully carrying a gun onto a University establishment. Police said four guns were recovered from Boyar's parents' house, including an AK-47 assault-style rifle, and there is evidence he brought the weapons to his room in the Student Residence Center. Police Chief Kathy Guimond said the department received an anonymous tip at 11 a.m. that Boyar, 19, had guns in his room at the SRC. The informant said Boyar had made threats referring to the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois, she said. Police obtained a search...

PHOENIX — The arrest of a gun shop owner on Tuesday broke up a suspected firearms trafficking operation that supplied violent Mexican drug cartels, authorities said. Agents raided X Calibur Guns and arrested George Iknadosian after undercover agents bought guns at the store indicating they were to be trafficked to Mexico, said Carlos Baixauli, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Iknadosian, 46, knowingly sold at least 650 firearms, including high-end semiautomatic pistols and assault-style rifles, to drug cartels, the ATF said. The investigation began 11 months ago after some guns involved in crimes...

A year has passed since the tragic events at Virginia Tech, and there are some assumptions upon which gun control is based that require investigation. Chief among them is the misplaced feeling that banning firearms somehow eradicates them. When examining this notion, we can look for another example of a ban to give us a sense of the difference between banning and eradication. There are people in America known as illegal immigrants who are banned from being here. If the state cannot keep a person from coming into the country illegally, what possible hope does it have in banning a...

East Brainerd resident Monica Dobbs hikes 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail every winter with friends and craves the quiet days without cell phones, television and work. Hikers who want to leave their daily lives behind sleep next to strangers in shelters, and many trade their real names for trail names. They sometimes can walk two or three days to find a town or a phone. While leaving society behind is refreshing, being alone in the woods also can be terrifying. “It’s an invitation for a disaster,” said Ms. Dobbs, a 28-year-old hairdresser, who plans to take a 9 mm...

RIVERDALE, Utah - The police chief who shot himself in the ankle was waving a loaded pistol and being careless, according to two students who were attending his class to qualify for a concealed-weapons permit. "We were told the gun is the chief's personal sidearm, but it looked to me like he didn't know anything about the gun," Lewis Walker said. Bart Ulm, another student seeking certification to carry a concealed weapon, said he was surprised Chief Dave Hansen was using a loaded gun to show how it worked. "Right then, I was very leery, because there's no need to...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683   Louisiana House Committee to Consider “Assault Weapon’s” Ban!   Tuesday, May 06, 2008   Please Make Plans to Attend This Important Hearing!The Louisiana Legislature convened in late March for its 2008 Regular Session.  Several anti-gun bills have been introduced and referred to the House Administration of Criminal Justice Committee.   State Representative Cedric Richmond (D-New Orleans) has once again introduced a ban on semi-automatic firearms, this time it is House Bill 68.  Although he has dubbed this bill the "Assault Weapons Protection Act", make no mistake - it "protects" nothing and bans guns, subjecting people who...

BEIJING, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese citizens must register their identities when they buy potentially deadly knives, Xinhua quoted the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday as saying. The new regulations come as China steps up security ahead of the Beijing Olympics. The targeted daggers include those with blood grooves, lock-knives, and knives with blades measuring over 22 centimeters, the ministry said in a circular posted on its website, www.mps.gov.cn. Police departments at all levels should check knife manufacturers for illegal production of deadly weapons, it said. Regulations concerning knife tools used by China's ethnic groups are to be set...

Va. —  The University of Richmond was placed on lockdown Tuesday afternoon while police searched for a man who was reportedly seen carrying a gun. University spokeswoman Linda Evans and police said no shots were fired. Evans said witnesses reported seeing a man with a handgun in Boatwright Memorial Library at about 2:50 p.m.. She said the man was wearing a dark-colored shirt or jacket with the word "Sheriff" on the back, and maybe a fake beard. Evans said the man refused to identify himself to library workers.

<p>The makers of a small, digital camera that attaches to the barrel of a gun say the device would have ended any dispute about what happened in the Sean Bell shooting.</p> <p>Now, a former Bronx homicide prosecutor who helped develop the Pistol Cam wants the NYPD to consider putting the audio and video gadget on its service weapons.</p>

As the reward for the third suspect in the weekend slaying of Philadelphia Police Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski grew yesterday to more than $123,000, authorities intensified their wide-reaching dragnet for a man they called "armed and dangerous." Police pursued leads from Lancaster, Pa., to Newark, N.J., in search of 33-year-old Eric DeShann Floyd, who they say was the "muscle" in a trio that on Saturday robbed a Port Richmond bank and then killed the pursuing sergeant. But investigators believed Floyd, a convicted armed robber who in February escaped from a Reading halfway house, most likely was still hiding in Philadelphia. Police...