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Shortly after Hugo Chávez won his first election as Venezuelan president in December 1998, a lawyer from the western state of Barinas, which was then governed by Chávez's father, delivered a prescient warning to Newsweek magazine: "Venezuelans are dreaming of a savior, but Chávez is a dictator. People don't know what they are getting."  More than 14 years later, a cancer-stricken Chávez is reportedly near death, but his autocratic legacy is very much alive. Venezuela long ago ceased to be a real democracy: The ruling regime effectively controls the Supreme Court (which in 2004 was expanded and packed with Chávez allies), the National Assembly...

Study: Top 5 Movies Contain 185 Victims of Violence (Video) 1:04 PM PST 1/15/2013 by Paul Bond share Comments (45)  153   "Django Unchained" Conservative-leaning group catalogs violent deaths in the weekend's top-grossing films including "Django Unchained," "Les Miserables" and "Gangster Squad." U.S. lawmakers might be eyeing more gun-control laws in the wake of several mass shootings, including one that took the lives of 26 women and children at an elementary school in Connecticut, but conservative groups have their sights set on laying some of the blame on the movie industry.

Don’t worry, DC has it covered In another futile attempt to curb gun violence in the Land of the Free, US Vice President Joe Biden is reaching out to the video game industry for ideas. That will give you an idea of how much crap the government has on the shelf. Biden will meet with gaming industry representatives on Friday, as he explores cultural factors that supposedly contribute to violent behavior. Biden already met with other entertainment industry representatives earlier this week and he is expected to present his recommendations to President Barack Obama next week. Although many techies...

Say, anyone interested in actual facts about guns, violence, and schools? If so, Reason's Nick Gillespie and Amanda Winkler have five key points about the actual status of school safety and the impact of guns on American society. The truth is that violent crime and mass shootings have declined since the 1990s, even with events like Newtown and Aurora. Schools are safer now than in decades. However, those data points don't lend themselves to hysterics hoping to panic people into bad legislation that won't solve the problems they supposedly address: CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO 1. Violent crime –...

Webster, N.Y. -- 13WHAM News has learned several people have been shot at the scene of a fire on Lake Road in Webster. The fire is at 191 Lake Road near Bay Road. A source tells 13WHAM News that at that scene, an unknown gunman opened fire on fire crews on the scene. The victims have been taken by Mercy Flight to area hospitals. The fire has now spread to a second house. 13WHAM has several crews converging on the scene and will provide updates at they're available.

A young mother was senselessly murdered by three teens in western Pennsylvania after she told them to “get a job” and stop roaming the streets when they asked her fiancée for a cigarette, police say. Beaver Falls police have charged 14-year-olds Todavia Cleckley and Marcus Velasquez and 13-year-old Kyle Goosby Jr. with criminal homicide and other charges in Saturday’s shooting of 22-year-old Kayla Peterson. She was shot at about 3:30 p.m. that day and died in a Pittsburgh hospital two hours later.

RICHMOND — Gun-related violence has fallen steadily since 2006 in Virginia despite record firearm sales, according to a university professor's analysis. Virginia Commonwealth University professor Thomas R. Baker compared state crime data from 2006 through 2011 with gun-dealer sales estimates obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Baker's analysis shows the number of gun purchases soared 73 percent in the six-year period, while gun-related violent crimes fell 24 percent. Baker, who specializes in research methods and criminology theory, said the comparison seems to contradict the premise that more guns lead to more crime in Virginia. Andrew Goddard, president of the Virginia Center...

As Thomas Lifson noted, citing William Jacobson's report on Chicago's daily count of shooting deaths and injuries, mostly perpetrated by males using guns against males, the total monthly deadly sum in Chicago is far worse than the few minutes of horrific slaughter in Aurora. Adding to that, many of the Chicago shootings occur within a few miles radius of the Obamas' home. Also, unlike Aurora, Chicago has strict gun control laws. As both Lifson and Jacobson mentioned, the mainstream media have been fairly quiet about this; not only because it would imply criticism of Obama and his former chief of...

Second Amendment: Chicago is deciding whether to prosecute a great-grandfather and Korean War veteran under its handgun ban. He refused to be a victim, and now there's one less armed thug roaming the streets. What's the problem? If the 80-year-old vet living on the city's West Side didn't have the gun the city said he shouldn't have, he and his 83-year-old wife and 12-year-old great-grandson might have joined those victims of gun violence about whom gun-control advocates constantly chirp. The vet obtained the gun in violation of the city's handgun ban after a prior incident in which the couple was...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. --...

Gun Rights: A decade after Congress forbade the CDC from studying the health consequences of gun ownership, the National Institutes of Health has started funding such research. Will reform pry the guns from our cold, sick hands? More than a decade ago Congress, seeing it as a backdoor assault on the 2nd Amendment and the right to keep and bear arms, voted to cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control. Such research was viewed as one-sided and based on flawed assumptions that all gun use was bad, even that which saved lives and deterred crime. The...

MANATEE — County officials are holding a gun buyback and community forum on violence in light of the second fatal teen shooting in a month. “You never know what guns you’re going to get,” said Manatee County Sheriff Brad Steube when asked about the gun buyback. “You never know if you’re going to get guns that are kept off the street.” Authorities still haven’t found where 18-year-old Daniel Williams allegedly discarded a gun authorities say he used to shoot a Bayshore High School cheerleader. Detectives say Williams fired into a car full of cheerleaders, hitting and killing 17-year-old Jasmine Thompson...

NICKEL MINES, Pa. — Six people were killed by a gunman at a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Lancaster County Monday, according to the county coroner. Several others were taken to hospitals with injuries, authorities said. "So far, six confirmed dead, and the helicopters are pulling into (Lancaster General Hospital) like crazy," Coroner G. Gary Kirchner said. More than one victim was also taken to Hershey Medical Center in Hershey. Earlier, state police Cpl. Ralph Striebig said "there are a number of people dead. ... The exact number I do not know yet." The police told FOX News that it was...

REAPING WHAT WE SOW National Post January 3, 2006 by David Frum After a spasm of heart-rending, frightening violence, Toronto's Mayor, David Miller, and its news media want Torontonians to remember one thing: The city is very, very safe. Really. "Chicago: 445 homicides. Washington D.C.: 195 homicides. Baltimore: 268 homicides. Toronto: 78 homicides." So opened a story in Sunday's Toronto Star. If there is any problem in Toronto, the Mayor insists, it is traceable to the United States: "The U.S. is exporting its problem of violence to the streets of Toronto," David Miller complained on Dec. 27. And naturally...

In recent weeks, gun violence in Toronto has become so prevalent that even the lefties who think that all of society’s problems can be solved with group hugs, can’t avoid the issue. When a recent spate of gun violence happened, that included the shooting of a 4-year-old boy outside of his home, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty swung into action. The premier, who has been lately speaking about "American guns on Canadian streets" said that he would discuss the matter of guns with the new American ambassador, David Wilkins

At the risk of noting the obvious, Sunday's deadly confrontation between a semiautomatic weapon-wielding Minnesotan and a group of hunters in northern Wisconsin can and should be factored into debates about the availability of semiautomatic and automatic weapons. When hunters in Sawyer County confronted the Minnesotan - a 36-year-old Hmong immigrant named Chai Vang who was in a deer stand on private property and told him that he would have to leave - several of the greatest myths that are peddled by opponents of gun control exploded.To wit: • Myth One: A semiautomatic weapon is just another kind of gun.When...

I will continue to document Democrat violence as it makes the news, even after election day (indeed, if you read my piece from yesterday, I worried about the very serious concern that the violence may grow worse after the election, if Bush wins, and explored which would foment the most violence, a close Bush victory or a blowout). People need to be informed, and what's more, Republicans and conservatives need to make SERIOUS efforts at informing all our fence-sitting or politically apathetic family members, friends, and co-workers about this behaviour. This will be a major turnoff to reasonable people, so...

TORONTO (CP) - Four mothers and a sister of victims of gun violence were in Toronto on Friday to plead for the protection of the national gun registry - a topic of heated debate during the federal election campaign. "We don't want to punish gun owners but want to protect women and children from being threatened and killed with guns," said Karen Vanscoy, whose 14-year-old daughter Jasmine was shot to death by a young offender. "Getting a licence and registering a gun is a small price to pay." Conservative Leader Stephen Harper intends to do away with the gun registry...

Iowa Law Enforcement Support Strengthening and Renewing Assault Weapons Ban 3/15/2004 Press Release Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence 4403 1st Ave. SE, Suite 113 Cedar Rapids, IA 52402-3221 www.ipgv.org Contact: John Johnson Phone: 319-743-7823 The current assault weapons ban, enacted in 1994, will expire six months from now unless renewed by Congress and signed by the President Cedar Rapids, IA - Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence (IPGV) joined with States United to Prevent Gun Violence, the national coalition of independent state-based organizations, today (March 12th) to urge President Bush and Congress to strengthen and renew the...

Lying With Pictures Starring: The Violence Policy Center (VPC) in their soul-touching, truth-twisting "tribute"...Officer Down! I was perusing the Violence Policy Center website recently, and it came to my attention that the very same folks who touted the 1994 "Assault Weapons" ban as "essential" to reduce gun crime, now claim that it is the fault of the MANUFACTURERS that the guns they sought to ban, based upon cosmetics and "evil looking features" are still on the market, minus the "evil features" they said were so dangerous, like flash suppressors, folding shoulder stocks, and bayonet lugs. I guess I could see...