Free Republic

While some city residents were enjoying a weekend highlighted by a bright Supermoon and the successful Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival, others found themselves involved in spats of violence that kept first responders and doctors at the Bay State Medical Center busy. The city's 9th homicide of the year took place Saturday around 5 p.m. when police arrived at William DeBerry Elementary School on Union Street in the city's Old Hill neighborhood to investigate after a Shotspotter activation and 911 calls. The victim, 26-year-old city resident Lamar P. Kelly, was found with a single gunshot wound and was, according to...

Wednesday, August 6, 2014 Streetlight McCarthy: Concealed Carry Same As Drunken Driving The expert in carrying a firearm while intoxicated speaks: “This is what I said from Day One: More guns is not the solution to gun violence. That’s akin to saying everybody should drive drunk to stop drunken driving. It doesn’t work that way.” So what's giving Chicago Police Supt. McCarthy flashbacks? Something he thinks will be an excuse to restrict Concealed Carry in Illinois. After Wednesday’s meeting at Kennedy-King, McCarthy also disclosed that one of the men shot this week at a North Side nightclub had one of...

Here's a guy who pops a balloon from 1000 yards with a 9mm. Fact or fiction?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Three people were hurt Saturday night after a triple shooting in north Minneapolis, according to police. Minneapolis Police were called at about 10 p.m. on a report of shots fired near the area of Newton and Hillside on the city’s north side. When officers arrived, they found three men who had been injured from gunshot wounds. Police said the three men were in a car when another vehicle passed by and fired shots into their vehicle, hitting all of them. The victims were taken to North Memorial Medical Center for their injuries, which were considered non-life threatening....

Police: Gunman and victim in Loop shooting 'had been friends for years' By Marwa Eltagouri, Alexandra Chachkevitch and Meredith Rodriguez, Tribune reporters Less than a week after Tony DeFrances learned that he was being demoted as part of a downsizing of his company, authorities said he walked into his boss’s office Thursday morning for a one-on-one. Apparently upset about his demotion, DeFrances, armed with a gun, confronted CEO Steven LaVoie, a longtime colleague and friend at the supply technology firm ArrowStream in the Loop, police said. At some point, DeFrances, 60, and LaVoie, 54, struggled over the gun. LaVoie was...

There you have it. The hospital with a gun free policy is praising the actions of a Doctor who was carrying his concealed firearm while at his office. The Doctor’s name is Dr. Lee Silverman, and we are so thrilled to see this response from the hospital: Post by Mercy Health System. We are thankful for the swift action of Dr. Lee Silverman, Dr. Jeffrey Dekret, John D’Alonzo and the other colleagues and visitors who took brave and difficult action during yesterday’s tragic event. We extend our condolences to Theresa Hunt’s family, and we are praying for Dr. Silverman’s speedy...

NOTHING WAS GOING to stop Richard Plotts from carrying a gun. Not the law, not his felony record, not his questionable mental health and certainly not a sign. "There's evidence that he took offense to the issue that there were signs posted at Mercy Fitzgerald Health System indicating that it was a gun-free zone," Whelan said. "That's the only motive we have been able to determine at this point in time . . . he was upset about that policy." And, if not for an armed doctor and two other brave staffers who subdued him, Plotts may have claimed many...

DARBY, Pa. - We are following breaking news in Darby, PA where multiple people have been shot at a wellness center inside Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital located on the 1500 Lansdowne Avenue.

$75K bail for off-duty officer accused of shooting into home By Marwa Eltagouri July 22, 2014 A judge set bail at $75,000 today for a south suburban police officer accused of firing his handgun while off-duty in Country Club Hills, with one of the rounds ending up in a wall inside someone's home, authorities said. Country Club Hills police officer John Silas, 38, charged with reckless discharge of a firearm, was in court today before Markham Courthouse Judge Darren Bowden, who set bail at $75,000, according to a statement from the Cook County state's attorney's office. According to Ben Briet,...

So… how’s that whole gun free zone thing in Chicago working out? Even though they came close to setting a new record over the 4th of July, things in the Windy City aren’t slowing down much. The toll just for Friday afternoon through Saturday morning was impressive in a pretty horrid way. A 10-year-old girl was shot in the head and critically injured by a stray bullet fired into her home in the Garfield Park neighborhood Friday afternoon, authorities said.The girl, and another 12-year-old shot in the same neighborhood, are among 22 people shot between about 3:30 p.m. and...

On Wednesday—a day before the Malaysian airliner was shot down—President Obama quietly signed an executive order targeting Russian oil, natural gas, finance and defense companies. Hidden in the details, was a section that effectively bans AK-47s. As always, the devil is in the details, so read on for the straight scoop. While signing an executive order to impose new sanctions on Russia, President Obama used his pen to also further his agenda of gun control by including a ban of parts used to build or repair Russian AK-47s. That is the headline and certainly bad news for the gun community....

The U.S. government says it has developed the first ever self-guided bullets that can lock onto a target more than a mile away and maneuver midflight in order to hit its mark. The .50 caliber target tracking bullets, dubbed Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO), are designed for military snipers, who must deal with changes in wind, light and ambient heat as they fire on a target. The EXACTO technology is being developed by Teledyne Scientific and Imaging with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which researches new military technologies and is known as a key developer of...

(Reuters) - At least six people were shot to death, including four children, in the Houston suburb of Spring, Texas, on Wednesday, with the suspected gunmen in a standoff with dozens of police after going on a slow-speed chase through residential neighborhoods. Houston media reports said the incident resulted from a domestic dispute in a normally quiet area of detached houses with tree-lined streets in Spring, about 25 miles (40 km) north of Houston.

Four children, two adults killed in Texas shooting; suspect surrenders Texas shooting The children ranged in age from 4 to 15, Harris County Constable Ron Hickman told the Los Angeles Times. The suspect surrendered to authorities after a standoff that lasted more than three hours while he sat in a car at the edge of a cul-de-sac. He is believed to be the children's uncle, Hickman told The Times.

No one doubts that Chicago has a significant problem with violence. As of Monday, the city logged its 200th homicide this year, a shooting that followed a dozen other shooting murders over the Independence Day holiday weekend, and dozens of more wounded in other incidents in the same time frame. It’s worth noting, though, that this is the latest the city hit its 200th homicide in the last four years, according to Red Eye Chicago, and that the homicide rate is down 4% over last year, which was the lowest year for Chicago homicides in nearly 50 years.Still, it’s...

The family of a man who used a semi-automatic rifle to kill an Indianapolis police officer Saturday night says it isn’t fair that the alleged shooter – Major Davis, Jr. – should “keep being dragged through the mud.” They also blamed the officer for not staying in his police car. As reported by WISH-TV, Davis was seen brandishing a semi-automatic rifle Saturday night in Indianapolis, which led to a 911 call that dispatched police to look for him: When IMPD Officer Perry Renn found Davis at 34th Street and Forest Manor Avenue, Davis opened fire on Officer Renn. Davis was...

The Sonoma County District Attorney's Office announced Monday that it will not file criminal charges against a sheriff's deputy who shot and killed 13-year-old Andy Lopez. District Attorney Jill Ravitch said in a statement that investigators concluded Deputy Erick Gelhaus “fired his weapon in response to what he honestly and reasonably believed was an imminent threat of death to himself or others. “As such, he was lawfully acting in defense of himself or others, and no basis for seeking criminal charges exists,” Ravitch said in the statement. The finding was revealed in an email announcing a 2 p.m. press conference...

INDIANAPOLIS - Seven people were injured, one critically, in a mass shooting in Indianapolis early Saturday. The shooting happened about 2:20 a.m. outside a shoe repair shop in the 700 block of Broad Ripple Avenue, between College and Carrollton avenues. The victims, six men and one woman, ran into an alley between two banks across the street, trying to flee the gunfire.

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...