Free Republic

Bam! The amount of time it took to read the first word in this editorial — less than a half a second — is the amount of time a police officer has to make a life-and-death decision when confronted by an individual with a gun. We believe this is the core issue surrounding the recent controversy regarding the sale of air-powered toy and pellet guns that are designed to mimic real guns. These guns propel plastic BBs at various velocities using carbon dioxide canisters or batteries. They are intended for use in target practice and military combat simulation games. This...

Imagine you're home alone. It's 8 p.m. You work an early shift and need to be out the door before sunrise, so you're already in bed. Your nerves are a bit frazzled, because earlier in the week someone broke into your home. Oddly, they didn't take anything; they just rifled through your belongings. But the violation weighs on your mind. At about the time you drift off, you're awakened by fierce barking from your two large dogs. You hear someone crashing into your front door, as if he's trying to separate it from its hinges. You grab the gun you...

WAYNE, N.J. (CBS) ― A large police department in New Jersey is in nail biting mode. It has lost one of the deadliest weapons in its arsenal -- a fully automatic submachine gun, and has no idea where it could be. A 9 mm submachine gun of German design, the MP5 was developed in the 1960s by a group of engineers from the West German arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch. It's used by law enforcement tactical teams across the country, as well as Army Rangers, Delta Force and Navy SEALs, among others. It is a deadly, fully automatic weapon, which...

ST. GEORGE — A police officer who was recorded berating a motorist earlier this month has lost his job. The board of aldermen voted 5-0, with one member absent, to fire Sgt. James Kuehnlein on Monday. The vote was cast in a session closed to the public and wasn't announced until Wednesday, when a notice was posted at the City Hall of this tiny south St. Louis County community. In a video that got wide viewership on the Internet, Kuehnlein taunts and threatens motorist Brett Darrow, 20, sometimes shouting and using profanity, after questioning him in a commuter lot near...

MONTPELIER — The Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday that the University of Vermont police had authority to arrest a student suspected of drunken driving in Burlington, reversing a lower court ruling that said the college police could not make arrests off-campus. The higher court rejected the argument that UVM was not controlled by an elected body and therefore had no authority off campus. "Despite UVM's considerable autonomy in fulfilling its mission as an educational institution, the Legislature retains sufficient authority, as recognized in UVM's charter, over the institution, and, in turn, the police department, so that the police power delegation...

MARION, Ind. Sep 2, 2006 (AP)— The sun had just set on a cool April day, when truck driver Robert F. Spencer phoned his sister in Michigan. He was in Indiana, and, as authorities would later discover, had been driving his rig for hours longer than federal law allows. With the truck's windows down and its air conditioner on maximum, Spencer suddenly stopped talking. Minutes passed. Then, still listening to the phone line, his sister Nicole heard a bang.

FRISCO – Dove hunting season opened Friday in Texas, but a few shaken suburbanites were surprised to hear gunfire erupting before dawn in a 1,250-acre pasture called the Horse Park. At least 25 confused residents called Frisco police to report gunfire starting about 7 a.m. None realized that state law allows hunting within city limits if it occurs on more than 10 acres of land and farther than 150 feet from nearby buildings. "To me that's very dangerous. Who knows where a bullet might go?" said Sarah Baden, who has lived in Frisco for seven years. She said she had...

The Coast Guard has been quietly planning to conduct target practice on Lake Michigan with boat-mounted machine guns that would be fired a few miles from beaches along the North Shore. But plans to establish a permanent "live-fire zone" in waters near Highland Park, Lake Forest and Waukegan--and in 33 other spots around the Great Lakes--are on hold after boating groups and an influential member of Congress complained that the public wasn't informed about the exercises.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Home Depot and DuPont have teamed up to launch pre-built storm rooms for sale to consumers in a few test markets. Home Depot (Charts) will debut the in-house shelters in a store in Houston. On Sept. 11, the company will roll out the product to four additional locations in the Texas market. DuPont says its 'storm room', made of bullet-resistant Kevlar, can provide protection against wind speeds of up to 250 miles an hour. Depending on customer response, the retailer aims to expand the offering to storm and hurricane-prone regions across the United States. Consumers can...

An alert neighbor helped thwart a home invasion near Lake Mary this morning and led authorities to the capture of two suspects. The neighbor was watching about 11:30 a.m. as a car pulled up in front of a home on Silverton Loop. Two men got out carrying backpacks and flowers and at least one of them pulled a ski mask out of his backpack before entering the front door of the house, the neighbor told authorities when he called 911.

(CBS) NEW YORK Last April, police targeted a sex-for-money operation at a well-known Brooklyn massage parlor. They sent in an undercover officer to catch them in the act. Instead, the cops involved were the ones who got stung. Pictures taken from a series of hidden surveillance cameras show the undercover officer entering, standing in the massage parlor lobby and then walking out. He spends a total of 43 seconds inside. Yet the officer claimed that during those 43 seconds he was solicited by all eight women working there. Moments later the vice squad moved in and the workers and massage...

RENO, Nev. — A former pawn shop owner wanted in the slaying of his estranged wife and the sniper shooting of a judge surrendered to authorities at a Mexican hotel after nearly two weeks on the run.