Free Republic

NYPD Blames Increase On Availability Of Guns Out Of State (AP) NEW YORK -- After many years of decline, the number of murders climbed this year in New York and many other major U.S. cities, reaching their highest levels in a decade in some places. Among the reasons given: gangs, drugs, the easy availability of illegal guns, a disturbing tendency among young people to pull guns when they do not get the respect they demand, and, in Houston at least, an influx of Hurricane Katrina evacuees. In New York, where the city reported 579 homicides through Dec. 24 --...