Free Republic

An ex-cop turns to gun trafficking, spreading his deadly wares to criminals and terrorism suspects nationwide, including Minnesota. Hundreds of his weapons remain in unknown hands. There were 501 guns in all, the government says — revolvers and pistols, Glocks and Rugers, a few rifles, too — a giant cache of firearms suitable for sport or self-protection. Or felonies. Or terrorism. Five hundred and one guns, tied to one man — 35-year-old Mark Nelson, a former Columbus cop who masterminded a conspiracy that flooded the streets with weapons. Nelson insists he didn't knowingly do anything wrong. But prosecutors say he...

On New Year’s Eve, my friend and rowing teammate was killed by a gun in Dunbar. Regardless of who pulled the trigger, I blame the gun. Guns were invented with the specific purpose to kill. People were not. Disturbed people pull triggers, but do not directly send speeding bullets through people’s skin and souls. My friend, University of Charleston alumna Lori Francis, is no longer living because she couldn’t stop the bullet that ended her life. I wrote the Gazette in 2003 regarding a shooting at my graduate college, the Appalachian School of Law in Virginia. Ironically, I finished that...

Cathy Crowley of Lewiston is easy to recognize. With her dark hair touched with gray, a generous smile and clothes that have seen plenty of wearing, she looks like many women you've stood behind in a checkout line at Wal-Mart. In May 2004, however, Crowley went to Wal-Mart for a very different reason. She wanted a store manager to introduce her to the sales clerk who, earlier that weekend, had sold a gun to her 18-year-old son ­ Laurier J. Belanger Jr. Belanger, dark-eyed and handsome, would not be coming in again. He had used the gun to kill himself....