Free Republic

Much has already been written about Elliot Rodger and his horrific acts of murder in Isla Vista, California last month. And some may wonder why an economic policy writer would take up such a subject. But one must remember that economics is a study of human behavior, generally about financial decisions but also the underlying reasons behind those decisions. Many have speculated that Rodger was simply a troubled kid, suffered from depression and/or was just pure evil. I personally do not share that view. I believe that there was a reason why Rodger became the person who he was because...

As France continues to grapple with growing violent anti-Semitism alarming reports suggest a potentially deadly terrorist attack on a Paris synagogue in broad daylight was thwarted at the very last minute on Saturday. According to French-language JSS News, a pair of unidentified attackers approached the synagogue, located in the French capital's 20th District, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle and a handgun. According to reports they began aiming their guns at bystanders and the building itself and pretended to open fire, but fled the scene when they saw armed French police officers guarding the synagogue. Reports say they escaped on...

MIAMI — The man shot and killed inside a popular Miami Beach nightclub early Tuesday morning had ties with the Miami Heat. Antaun Teasley, who was fatally shot at Mansion, was the personal chef for Miami Heat point guard Norris Cole. According to news reports, the shooting occurred after a fight started in the nightclub. No one else was injured.

Neighbors of the couple who ambushed two police officers Sunday in Las Vegas told local newspapers the pair had bragged about spending time at Cliven Bundy’s ranch during the standoff with the federal government earlier this year. The two suspects, whose names have not yet been released, fatally shot two police officers who were having lunch at a CiCi’s Pizza restaurant before killing a third person at a nearby Wal-Mart. The female suspect then shot the male suspect and then herself in an apparent suicide pact. Neighbors in an apartment complex where the two suspects lived said they “had a...

The Las Vegas police shooters were identified as two Neo-Nazi socialists. Neighbors said “Jared” and “Amanda” had talked about killing police officers then going underground until the time was right to come out and kill some more. They were also meth-heads. The conspiracy nuts were drug addicts. The Las Vegas Review Journal reported: The shooters were a married couple thought to be in their late 20s who were new to the Las Vegas Valley, according to a law enforcement official close to the investigation. Police are looking into their links to the white supremacy movement and found swastika symbols during...

An argument between husband and wife at a Moe’s Southwest Grill quickly flared out of control — with the wife chasing her spouse across the parking lot and gunning him down in front of a supermarket before killing herself, police said. Bruce Strange begged for his life before being fatally shot in the Marietta, Ga., shopping center by his wife, Paula, police said. “Please don’t do it!” the 52-year-old Navy veteran screamed while trying to escape his wife of 32 years, who pursued him in her car.

A Metro source has confirmed that two police officers died today, victims of a shooting in the northeast part of the valley. The source said one officer was shot and killed about 11:30 a.m. at Cici's Pizza at 309 N. Nellis Ave. The other officer was shot there and died while in surgery at UMC. At a 1:30 p.m. news conference Metro said one person was killed inside Walmart and two suspects were killed in the back of the store. The two suspects told other shoppers that they were part of a revolution and wanted a shootout with Metro. However,...

The gun lovers who preach that arming American citizens to stop even more violence always ignore the fact that Wayne LaPierre was wrong. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president, infamously said after a gunman in 2012 killed 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Conn. Yet looked what happened Thursday. According to police, a student building monitor named Jon Meis used pepper spray to subdue a shooter who had already killed one student and wounded a couple others at Seattle...

Quick Facts: - At least six people shot at Seattle Pacific University. - At least one suspect in custody. Police initially said two. - School is about 10 min. from downtown Seattle with about 4,000 students. - This is the first Seattle school shooting since April 2007. At least six people were shot Thursday afternoon at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle and police have at least one person in custody. The shooting happened about 3:30 p.m. in Otto Miller Hall, 3rd Avenue West and West Nickerson Street. The campus was on lockdown and traffic around the school was blocked. It...

A gunman is still at large after fatally shooting three RCMP officers and injuring two others in Moncton, N.B., Wednesday evening. Police are advising people in the Moncton Coliseum area and Pinehurst subdivision to stay inside as they hunt for the shooter. “At this precise moment we are still actively looking for the shooter and he may be still in the Pinehurst subdivision of Moncton,” Const. Damien Theriault told reporters late Wednesday night. Theriault also urged residents not to divulge the location of police officers during the manhunt. Codiac RCMP said they are looking for 24-year-old Justin Bourque of Moncton....

A Hampton man was arrested by police in connection to a shooting in the parking lot of a Waffle House early Saturday morning. Officers responded to a call just after 3 a.m. to the restaurant at 1811 West Mercury Boulevard, where the victim and the suspected shooter had left the scene, according to a news release from the Hampton Police Division. According to a police investigation, the suspected shooter shot the victim during an argument, and an armed security guard working at Waffle House, who saw the incident, confronted the shooter, the release stated. The shooter pointed his firearm at...

A young man wrote a manifesto and went on a killing spree. This murderer, Elliot Rodger, ended up taking the lives of six people, seven if you include his own death. (I’ll wait for the coroner’s report to see whether it was self-inflicted or the result of return fire.) The massacres took place on May 23, in Isla Vista, California. Immediately pundits went into overdrive, and social media was filled with mostly ideology-based opinion. Most of the opinion seems, well, a bit off. The big word is “orthogonal” … to the facts. I offer, instead of my settled opinion, a...

Three people are dead, including a Norfolk police officer, after a series of shootings in Norfolk Friday evening. The incident began when police received multiple calls around 10:48 p.m. Friday for gunshots fired in the 8400 block of Chesapeake Boulevard, according to Norfolk Police Spokeswoman Karen Parker-Chesson. A man identified as James Andrew Brown, 29, was witnessed discharging his weapon randomly from a car he was driving south on Chesapeake Boulevard, Parker-Chesson said. A bullet from Brown's gun struck and killed Mark Rodriguez, 17, who was sitting in his own vehicle, Parker-Chesson said. Rodriguez, a Norfolk Christian Schools student, was...

ORLANDO, Fla. — A request for money led to a fight which left one man shot dead outside an Orlando convenience store Sunday morning. Orange County deputies were called to a 7-Eleven in the 800 block of Lee Rd. around 5 a.m. Sunday in reference to a shooting. Once on scene, deputies found a man in his late 20’s in the parking lot with a gunshot wound to the chest. Investigators say the shooting victim had approached a customer at the store, identified as a man in his 40’s, and asked for money.

A man suspected of killing four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels on May 24 was arrested Friday in Marseille, carrying a Kalashnikov and a pistol of the type used in Belgian capital AFP learned on Sunday from sources close to the investigation and judicial source. A source close to the investigation says that Mehdi Nemmouche, a 29-year-old from Roubaix in northern France, is suspected of having been in the company of jihadists in Syria in 2013. He is in custody on suspicion of murder ...

"An assailant died this week when his cohort’s gun discharged while the cohort pistol-whipped a man on Detroit's west side, George Hunter reports in the Detroit News...."

The woman accused of critically injuring her 11-year-old son in a Memorial Day shooting confessed to the crime and told police she was building up the courage to kill herself and her three children to put them in a “better place,” according to a Metro Police arrest report released today. Instead, after Shavon Jacklein Carrillo, also known as Shavon Jacklein Aguilar, 31, Las Vegas, shot the 11-year-old boy, she was confronted and had the .22-caliber rifle used in the shooting taken away, police said.

The latest mass-casualty shooting spree -- this one in Santa Barbara, California -- has touched off the usual debate about how to put a stop to these hideous spasms of murder. These random massacres have become, as I wrote in a previous column, an American psychosis. Some, including the anguished father of one of the victims, point to guns and the National Rifle Association as the villains. Defenders of guns respond with the usual arguments -- which I find persuasive. That much having been said, I wish people who defend the Second Amendment wouldn't talk about their guns with...

A man died Monday after being shot in the parking lot of a Greenacres Walmart, according to a Greenacres Department of Public Safety news release. The victim was found in the parking lot at about 12:30 a.m. at the Walmart at 6294 Forest Hill Blvd.

Three people were killed and two were injured during multiple shootings on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach late Saturday. Parts of Ocean Boulevard were shut down while police investigated the shootings. The first occurred about 9:30 p.m. at Sixth Avenue South and Ocean Boulevard, Myrtle Beach police spokesman Capt. David Knipes said. One man was shot and taken to Grand Strand Regional Medical Center. Officers still were investigating the first shooting at about 11 p.m. when another shooting occurred at Bermuda Sands Resort, about seven blocks away at First Avenue North. Two people died immediately on the scene, and two...