Free Republic

SANTA CLARA, Calif. (Reuters) - A shootout at a California shooting range ended a bizarre hostage drama during which three gun store employees found themselves staring down the barrel of one of their own rented rifles, police said Tuesday. Sgt. Anton Morec of the Santa Clara Police Department said the aspiring gunman, 21-year-old Richard Gable Stevens, was subdued after tense moments Monday evening at a shooting range and gun store in this town 30 miles (48 km) south of San Francisco. "He intended to go out in a blaze of glory," Morec said, noting Stevens had accumulated more than 100...

Woodbridge, Conn. (WTNH) -- The idea in itself is simple: allow one unit at Woodbridge's Selden Plaza to be zoned for retail. However, some in the quiet town are taking issue with Frank Kloss' plan to sell guns. "It's very frightening to think that this may happen in our community," said long-time resident Tina Brogadir. Brogadir would rather the Planning and Zoning Commission deny the use, even if it means a loss of tax revenue. "I don't care, not that way," she said. "No thank you!" Kloss, who is a retired Hamden police officer, along with co-owner Michael Majewski, asked...

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), wishes to re-new and initiate liaison contacts with the Federal Firearms License holders and firearms ranges in the San Antonio area,” Special Agent Karl A. Kehrberg of the San Antonio Field Division wrote in a Dec. 23 letter to FFLs and range operators (see sidebar photo). Questions about the intrusion into ATF turf aside, the point of the letter was to provide them with an “informational flier” and instruct: If you encounter any suspicious activity, please give us a call. What qualifies as “suspicious activity”? See the sidebar slide show....

The Wyatts are your typical suburban family except they just happen to own one of the premiere firearms facilities in the world. Rich Wyatt and his wife Renee own Gunsmoke, where they buy, sell and trade guns. They -- and the one-of-a-kind and historic guns they make and sell -- are featured in the all-new series AMERICAN GUNS.

Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, after raising suspicions at a Killeen, Texas, gun shop where he purchased six pounds of gunpowder and several boxes of shotgun shells, was in police custody in Killeen on Thursday, accused of plotting to kill fellow soldiers in a frightening reprise of the November 2009 massacre at Fort Hood. Abdo, 21, who grew up in Garland outside of Dallas, was close to pulling off a "terror plot" in which the intended target was troops based at Fort Hood, said Killeen Police Chief Dennis Baldwin. "We would probably be here today giving you a different briefing had...

Gabriele Santi thought opening up a gun store in Santa Ynez was a long shot. Earlier this year, he was looking for spots in the Valley to start a gun dealership but wasn’t having much success with landlords. “The moment you mention firearms, they shut the door on you,” he said. “They’d rather have the building vacant.” Frustrated by the struggle to find rental space, Santi started knocking on doors in Santa Ynez and learned that other locals were receptive to the idea of a gun shop. “There are a lot of hunters, and people who shoot for recreation,” he...

San Francisco's only gun store could lose its permit to sell guns at a hearing today. But even if it wins, Steven Alcairo, the manager at High Bridge Arms on Mission Street, fears that his store will lose the greater war - the one over the neighborhood. Alcairo, 36, a San Francisco native and Mission District resident, will ask the Police Department to reinstate a use permit that lapsed in January because the gun store's owner was planning to convert it to office space. The city denied the office proposal, Alcairo said, and, faced with an empty retail space, the...

Perhaps emboldened by its headway in protests against the old Colosimo's Gun Center, an interfaith group rallied yesterday against a new target - the Shooter Shop in Kensington. This time, though, the demonstrators ran into an opposing force: a contingent of pro-gun counterprotesters. It all added up to a lively demonstration of the First Amendment and a quarrel over the Second Amendment as the sides each mustered about 40 protesters outside the gun shop, on Allegheny Avenue. When the antigun advocates from Heeding God's Call went into silent prayer, the pro-gun folks sang "God Bless America." When the antigun folks...

BOISE, Idaho — An Idaho gun shop that went to federal court to keep the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from pulling its gun license has reached a settlement with the agency. Terry and Ryan Horsley of Red's Trading Post in Twin Falls asked the court to review their case in 2007, after the ATF revoked their license. The ATF said the shop had repeatedly violated gun sales rules. The Horsleys said they had been targeted by the agency and that most of the problems were clerical, such as using abbreviations on gun sale documentation. Red's Trading Shop...

WAUKEGAN -- Five suspects were in custody after a shooting incident Wednesday afternoon at Schrank's Smoke 'N Gun where police said robbery was the apparent motive. One male suspect was flown to a hospital after suffering three gunshot wounds. An employee of the gun shop was treated at an area hospital. According to witness accounts, a subject went behind the counter at the store at 2010 Washington St., and was engaged with a store clerk in a verbal altercation that turned physical, Waukegan Police Cmdr. Wayne Walles said. At one point, the store clerk produced a pistol and fired at...

My name is Butch Housman. Months ago I wrote a letter to the editor of this newspaper. As a result, Federal Agent Thomas Chittum asked to move the trial of my friends Leonard and Tom Elliott to Frankfort and cited my letter as cause, claiming I had “polluted the jury pool.” I was named specifically before the court and was criticized for questioning both the mission of his agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, and in particular his case against the Bacon Creek Gun Shop. I didn’t realize I was such an influential scribe. In light of...

A federal judge decided Tuesday that Jim’s Gun Jobbery of Fayetteville and the Jim’s store in Wilmington can keep their licenses to sell firearms. Jim’s Gun Jobbery in Fayetteville and Jim’s Pawn & Gun in Wilmington sometimes violated regulations requiring dealers to closely track their inventory, U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard said in his ruling. But he decided the violations were unintentional and made up only a tiny percentage of the stores’ sales since Jim Faircloth went into business in 1977. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been trying since 2005 to revoke the licenses of Jim’s,...

Traders Sports, one of the biggest gun dealers in the state, hopes a hearing in U.S. District Court next week will keep them in business. Traders has been under scrutiny for several years by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), which is trying to shut down the gun dealer. The ATF decided to revoke Traders gun permit on June 1. After an audit in 2003, the ATF claims that Traders can’t account for 1,767 weapons, and that guns sold at Traders turn up in crimes at an alarming rate. ATF spokeswoman Marti McKee said she couldn’t comment on...

Posted on Fri, Mar. 25, 2005 Deputies: Man tried to steal gun to "rescue Terri Schiavo" Associated Press SEMINOLE, Fla. - A man was arrested after trying to steal a weapon from a gun shop so he could "take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo," authorities said. Michael W. Mitchell, of Rockford, Ill., entered Randall's Firearms Inc. in Seminole just before 6 p.m. Thursday with a box cutter and tried to steal a gun, said Marianne Pasha, a spokeswoman for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Mitchell, 50, told deputies he wanted to "take some action and rescue Terri Schiavo" after...

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY STORES COULD SELL WEAPONS ALONGSIDE ANY OTHER BUSINESS ASSOCIATED PRESS FRANKFORT - Local zoning restrictions on federally licensed gun dealers and manufacturers would be lifted, and they could operate alongside any other business, under a bill the General Assembly passed yesterday. Gun importers would also be safe from zoning restrictions, under the bill. The state Capitol was a busy place yesterday as the General Assembly considered what legislation it would pass on the final day scheduled for lawmakers to pass bills this session. Remaining days left for the legislature are scheduled to deal with any gubernatorial vetoes....

PARIS (Reuters) - Armed with a toy pistol, a would-be robber picked himself an unlikely target in central Paris -- a gun shop. Staff at the Armurerie Gare de l'Est in the French capital immediately identified the weapon as harmless. The 26-year-old Mauritanian was subsequently arrested, Le Parisien newspaper reported on Friday. He was unlucky -- earlier this year a fake rocket launcher was successfully used in a break-out from a prison on the unruly Mediterranean island of Corsica. A member of staff at the gun shop confirmed there had been a robbery attempt, but declined to give further details.

TACOMA — Evidence of tax evasion and scores of unaccounted-for guns led federal investigators yesterday to search the gun shop that once owned the rifle used in the Beltway sniper killings. More than a dozen agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the Internal Revenue Service conducted early-morning raids at Bull's Eye Shooter Supply near the Tacoma Dome and the luxury Lakewood home of its owner, Brian Borgelt. The warrants authorizing the searches remained sealed while agents inventoried boxes of materials seized at both locations. A federal law-enforcement source said agents in recent weeks had obtained...

GOTTA SEE THIS - War for Enduring Freedom 8/24/02 Kabul, gun shop, orphanage, Tarnac Bridge, Sabawaan English School, Terrorists' carpet, Kandahar, bakery for widows, Patriots in the Negev, Safed, "12 rival Palestinian political factions" ploy, Perps in Gaza, American Arab doctors in Ramallah, Siring Terrorists in Karachi ===================== Kabul =================== In Kabul, at the market gun shop. In Kabul, Afghan orphans receive new uniforms from RAWA, who have fought for Aghan women's freedom. In Kabul, at the river, Afghan women try to wash their clothes. There have been three years of drought. North of Kabul, the French watch a CH531...