Free Republic

When Victoria Chamilien and her cousin, Sam Walker, last spoke, it was Wednesday afternoon after he returned from a police station, where he viewed surveillance footage of the killing of his 13-year-old son..

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 3 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- The majority of shootings in most U.S. police departments involve animals, usually dogs, and experts say a new series of videos can help change often quick-trigger decisions fueled by fear. "There will be times when police need to defend themselves because they are being attacked by a dog and don't have a choice, but that is the minority of cases," said Brian Kilcommons, a Southbury, Conn., dog behaviorist and trainer. He is featured in the five-part series that teaches officers to detect the warning signs of an aggressive dog and how to avoid using lethal force. Efforts...

Stunned by the execution-style killings of six of its members - four of them minors - members of a north Houston Mormon congregation are struggling to begin the process of healing. On Thursday, they sent helium-filled balloons heavenward in memory of Katie and Stephen Stay and their four slain children, ages 4 to 13. On Friday, they planned a trust fund to benefit the victims' relatives. This weekend, part of the regular Sunday service at the Mormon church in Spring will be devoted to assuaging the congregation's grief by putting the Wednesday night tragedy into perspective. "It won't be a...

CHICAGO, July 7 (UPI) --Over 60 people were victims of gun violence in Chicago over Fourth of July weekend, leaving 11 dead and police under heavy scrutiny. The Chicago Police Department was directly involved in at least six of the shooting incidents, killing two people officials say were armed.

A federal judge upheld gun laws on Thursday introduced by Colorado in the wake of deadly shooting rampages there and in Connecticut, dismissing a lawsuit brought by sheriffs, gun shops, outfitters and shooting ranges. The two laws, passed in 2013 by Colorado's Democratic-controlled legislature with scant Republican support, banned ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds and required background checks for all private gun sales and transfers. After a two-week civil trial, U.S. District Chief Judge Marcia Krieger ruled the lawsuit lacked standing and said no evidence had been produced which showed limiting magazines to 15 rounds seriously diminished...

The left consistently blames guns for school shootings, while mostly ignoring the big elephant in the room: mental illness. Up until the 1960s, the severely mentally ill were locked up in psychiatric hospitals, for their own good and for the protection of society. The ACLU and the left changed that, by successfully suing to get them released out onto the streets. So now, they make up much of our homeless population. From there, many have predictably ended up in our prison system. The rate of mental illness in U.S. prisons is five times greater than in the regular population, and...

At least 11 people were shot, four fatally, Saturday afternoon into early Sunday morning in Chicago. The most recent homicide occurred early Sunday morning on the Far South Side. At 7:43 a.m., police responded to a call of a "man down"’ in the 11100 block of South Lowe Avenue and found the victim with an apparent gunshot wound to the chest, according to Chicago Police Department News Affairs Officer Michael Sullivan.

John Avlon’s dishonest column on the cop-killers in Las Vegas should be studied by journalism students as an example of how to exploit a tragedy for political purposes. It is a shame he gets on CNN as an “analyst,” which gives him undeserved authority and prestige, when he deliberately confuses and misleads people. jerad miller In this case, he tried to blame conservatives for the murders of two policemen. His Daily Beast column carried two titles, one of them being, “The Bonnie and Clyde of Ultra-Right Hate.” He said Jerad and Amanda Miller killed two metro cops while shouting, “This...

“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.” –Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues. So the Bonnie and Clyde of the great Bundy ranch standoff thought they could start a national uprising by murdering two cops in a Las Vegas pizza joint. After executing Officers Alyn Beck and Igor Soldo in the most cowardly way possible, would-be freedom fighters Jerad and Amanda Miller draped the officers’ bodies with a Nazi flag and the “Don’t Tread on Me” banner flown at Tea Party rallies, and left a note proclaiming a new American Revolution. The duo then proceeded to...

While announcing that they would not longer give killers the opportunity at glory that comes from having their names mentioned and their photographs aired on television, Sun News also address the extremely low rate of "mass shootings" in America compared to the excruciatingly high rate of murder in gun-controlled Chicago. According to the Sun News, mass shootings around the world--including the U.S.--are so rare that news agencies make a mistake by seizing on them. Focusing specifically on the U.S., Sun News reported: "And in the U.S., they account for less than one percent of all gun-related deaths. Far more people

An Oklahoma company has designed a bullet-resistant blanket that’s designed to protect children and teachers in the event of a school shooting. The Bodyguard Blanket, made by ProTecht, is a bulletproof 5/16-inch pad that the company says is made from the same materials used by the U.S. military. Steve Walker, a podiatrist who conceptualized the blanket, told The Oklahoman that the idea came to him after two tragedies: the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and the tornadoes in Oklahoma. He said the idea was to “stop that blunt-force trauma when that rubble is falling down on a child.” The...

Again we have another shooting where the "authorities" locked down the campus. This makes absolutely NO sense to me. It seems that a group of unarmed students sitting inside a classroom makes a wonderful target for any nutcase. Am I right? I have no actual law enforcement or true combat experience. Please post your opinions.

Seattle police are investigating a shooting at Otto Miller Hall on the Seattle Pacific University Campus. Officials say there appears to be seven victims; no fatalities.

Put yourself in a criminal’s position. You feel like shooting and killing a bunch of people, and you want to be met with as little opposition as possible. If you go to a place that allows concealed carry, there’s a risk that someone could take you out before you start shooting, and that’s a risk you don’t want to take. Naturally, you’d go to a place that has heavy restrictions on gun-carriers. That’ll pretty much guarantee that no one will be able to fight back, and you’d be able to shoot and kill as many as you want. And then...

Psychiatrists (and Charlie Brooker) offer insightful perspective on news coverage's perpetuation of mass shootings in schools. The bit with the psychiatrist is so perfect, shame is that the media is never ever going to stop covering shootings in this manner because it gets them so many viewers.

"When Elliot Rodger's parents realized just how dangerous their disturbed son was, they made a desperate attempt to try to stop him. They received a copy of his 141-page manifesto and saw a YouTube video outlining his plans for his "Day of Retribution" on Friday night and called 911 before rushing to Santa Barbara in separate cars, a family friend tells the New York Daily News. They heard about the shooting spree while they were on their way. "They were hoping against hope," the friend says. "They are in inconceivable pain."(snip)"He had been in therapy since childhood, but turned his...

Two men were killed and at least 26 other people have been injured in shootings across Chicago since Friday night. The most recent fatal shooting happened about 11:30 p.m. Saturday in the East Garfield Park neighborhood on the West Side. Kendall Floyd, 20, was in the 3400 block of West Madison Street when someone in a white minivan drove up and fired shots, striking him in his head and chest, according to police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Floyd, who lived on the same block he was shot, was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital where he was pronounced...

Investigators said there is a good chance nearly a dozen shootings in DeKalb County this weekend are connected. During a home invasion Saturday night, a 9-month-old baby was killed. Investigators told Channel 2's Ryan Young the shootings may have all started with a murder earlier this month. “It’s complicated,” said DeKalb Police Chief Cedric Alexander. “It’s insane. It’s insane.” Officers are going door-to-door on Lani Farm Road looking for clues. “This is a neighborhood. This is a community. So if someone could come into a home, shoot four people then they are just gone, they just get away with it,”...

An 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy were found dead of apparent gunshot wounds in a home in the South Chicago neighborhood in Saturday and Sunday shootings that left at least two other people dead and 13 more injured. The weekend toll for gun violence in the city includes at least 7 people dead and 22 wounded. At least 2 people were killed and 9 wounded from about 7:35 p.m. Friday to about 5 a.m. Saturday.