Free Republic

GUN lobbyists like to repeat the quote often attributed to American writer Robert Heinlein, that "an armed society is a polite society". But this is certainly not true for motorists. A survey of 2400 drivers carried out by David Hemenway and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health shows that motorists who carry guns in their cars are far more likely to indulge in road rage - driving aggressively or making obscene gestures - than motorists without guns. Some 23 per cent of gun-toting drivers admitted making rude signs, compared with 16 per cent of those who did...

Man Killed by Gunfire Between Vehicles Wednesday, January 11, 2006 Two people are dead following an exchange of gunfire between two vehicles involved in an apparent road rage incident in Gaston County. The shooting happened on Hwy 321 near Ridge Circle Wednesday afternoon. Nicholas Durham, Antonio Duff and Clarence Adams were in a Chevy Tahoe heading south on Hwy 321. Another vehicle, driven by Trivice Sadler, was heading in the same direction as the Chevy Tahoe. Police said there was an altercation between the two vehicles and gunshots were fired. A third vehicle driven by Joshua Camp was also at...

December 21, 2005 -- A cabby belted an Upper East Side woman in the face last night after she argued that she was overcharged on an eight-block ride, police said ......... Lillian Gauna, 34, said she hailed the cab at 88th Street and Third Avenue at around 8:30 p.m. and asked the driver to take her to 81st Street and Second Avenue. The driver, Muhammed Lone, 29, insisted she pay an extra $5 on top of the $10 "single zone" flat fare that the new strike rules call for, she said. When she refused, Lone allegedly leaped out of his...

Richardson police said they were surprised to find a grenade inside a car following a confrontation between two drivers in North Texas. Police said one of the drivers threatened the other with the hand grenade, which wasn't the only alarming object police said they found in the car. They also confiscated additional ammunition that could have been used to create an explosive. "As officers approached the car...they saw what appeared to be a couple of hand grenades inside the car," said Sgt. Kevin Perlich, Richardson Police Department. *** Police checked the grenades and said they were real but did not...

Wrestler Ric Flair Accused Of Road Rage POSTED: 5:35 pm EST November 28, 2005 UPDATED: 6:50 pm EST November 28, 2005 CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Pro wrestler Ric Flair faces assault charges after a road rage incident on Interstate 485 in Charlotte. Another driver said Flair attacked him and his car. The driver said he was on I-485 on Wednesday,trying to get out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday and traffic was slow. The driver said he noticed someone behind him flashing their headlights, so he hit his brakes. The driver said the car then pulled along side him, police said....

Dear Amy: A fellow motorist yelled profanities at me and called me a "Bimbo" because I delayed his morning commute by refusing to make a left turn across a stream of traffic. I seem to be a magnet for these automotive bullies. With some regularity, I am hollered at/abused/honked at/flipped off for such crimes as allowing a pedestrian to cross the street, slowing so that a driver in front of me can parallel park, or simply driving at the speed limit. What do I do about this, Amy? I know it is unsafe to confront the jerks, but meekly accepting...

A night before a driver pinned Igor Kruk's motorcycle to the back of a sport utility vehicle with his car, killing Kruk in what police are calling a fit of road rage, Kruk had a dream his bike was in pieces on the ground and that he was unable to put it together, his family said yesterday.

Road-rage bullet hits tip of a raised finger By Joseph M. Dougherty Deseret Morning News One of four shots from a .357-caliber revolver hit the tip of a man's raised middle finger as he was driving on I-15 early Friday. The incident appears to be one of road rage, and police are looking for an unidentified woman who fired the shots from another car. About 12:40 a.m., the 25-year-old man was waiting at 500 South for the light to change so he could get on the freeway, said South Salt Lake Police Capt. Chris Snyder. As he waited, a woman...

Guns, Road Rage, and Eighteen-WheelersSept 20, 2005 by Alan Burkhart On Thursday, September 15th I came fairly close to being a corpse. First, let me say two things... one is that this little tale is absolutely true, and also that because criminal proceedings are currently in progress, it is necessary that I omit specific places and names. Suffice it to say that it happened very near to where I live in Mississippi. Here's the whole sordid tale...

Family members watching from both sides of a Rockville courtroom remained still and silent yesterday as a Montgomery County judge handed a 15-year sentence to a former U.S. marshal convicted in the shooting death of a Navy seaman. Arthur L. Lloyd, 54, who sat beside his lawyers in a green prison jumpsuit, showed little emotion as Circuit Judge Ann S. Harrington sentenced him to 25 years, then suspended 10. "I have to process it so I can deal with it," Lloyd's sister Beryl Stanley said of the decision as she stood outside the courtroom looking dazed. During their testimony, members...

Angry driver hits man - police By Jennifer Frazer rep8@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - In an apparent act of road rage, a man drove his Chevrolet Blazer into another man in the parking lot of Kmart on Dell Range Boulevard at 7:16 Sunday night. Carl Olsen, 32, was driving a tan 1985 Chevrolet Blazer westbound near Sam's Club on Dell Range when a blue 2005 Honda Civic approached. Though many acts of road rage start with one driver getting cut off or with some other aggressive traffic maneuver, Olsen and his passenger, Chad Hamby, 29, told police...

Jerry Baczewski's sons can't imagine what led to their 63-year-old father lying on a Wal-Mart parking lot, dying from the harsh impact with the pavement. Police said Baczewski was the aggressor in a road rage incident and was knocked to the pavement by a man trying to defend himself. Baczewski's sons can't envision their dad engaging in behavior that might have endangered the 5-year-old boy he had with him. Baczewski and his wife had been baby-sitting the boy so long they considered him a grandson, according to Baczewski's sons. "We don't know what happened or who to believe," said Kevin...

BROCKTON, Mass. -- A man lifting his infant daughter out of his car was killed in an apparent case of road rage by a motorist "who obviously exploded" and shot him four times at close range in front of dozens of witnesses, authorities said.

Using a gun to resolve an argument is a good way to kill, be killed, or end up in prison. Though no shots were fired and no one was hurt, the Dunn man who threatened a restaurant manager with a gun could face a quarter century or more in prison if he is prosecuted by the federal government as anticipated, said Dunn Police Det. Anthony Poppler. Major Alexander Newkirk III, 19, of 51 Saturn Drive, Dunn, is in the Harnett County Jail after being arrested Monday on charges of communicating threats, assault by pointing a gun and possession of a...

A Stanislaus County man who ran over his partner with his pickup truck two years ago was sentenced today to four years in state prison. Ronald Paul, 38, of Oakdale, pleaded no contest on May 10 to vehicular manslaughter for the July 23, 2003, death of Craig Robertson, 37, also of Oakdale, who had been his partner for nine years. According to authorities, the two men were returning from a street fair in San Francisco

A Montgomery County jury yesterday found a former U.S. marshal guilty of voluntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and using a firearm in commission of a crime in the fatal shooting of a Navy seaman during a traffic confrontation last year. The former marshal, Arthur Lloyd, will serve at least five years in prison as part of the mandatory sentencing for the firearms charge and could serve as many as 35 years on all of the charges. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 26.

As jurors went through a second day of deliberations yesterday with no verdict in the murder trial of a former U.S. marshal, the victim's mother took issue with the way her son was portrayed in court. Ryan T. Stowers, a Navy seaman from Redding, Calif., was killed Oct. 28 after a minor traffic collision with off-duty Deputy Marshal Arthur Lloyd escalated into a fistfight and then gunfire in a shopping center parking lot on Rockville Pike. Prosecutors said Mr. Lloyd shot Seaman Stowers in the back as Seaman Stowers tried to drive away. Mr. Lloyd contended that Seaman Stowers was...

Two police officers testified yesterday that 20-year-old Navy Seaman Ryan T. Stowers was belligerent toward authorities several times before he was killed by a deputy U.S. Marshal in Rockville last fall. A detective from California told a Montgomery County jury that Seaman Stowers, of Redding, Calif., challenged him to a fight and shouted obscenities at him in June 2003. An officer from Chestertown, Md., said he had a run-in with the sailor about a month before the sailor was killed.

Former U.S. Deputy Marshal Arthur Lloyd testified yesterday that he fatally shot a 20-year-old Navy seaman because the sailor punched and wrestled him, resisted arrest and tried to run him down with his Camaro in Rockville last fall. "I did not want to kill him," Mr. Lloyd testified. "When I saw the car coming toward me, I was just protecting myself." Mr. Lloyd, 54, is charged with killing Seaman Ryan T. Stowers after the two men fought outside Mid-Pike Plaza on the night of Oct. 28. If convicted, Mr. Lloyd could be sentenced to life plus 25 years in prison....

Investigators have recovered a maroon Cadillac that may have sparked an alleged road rage incident Friday night, causing the crash that killed 14-year-old Elizabeth Naomi Toribio. The 1991 Cadillac Sedan de Ville was taken to a garage at the Florida Highway Patrol's State Road 70 station, where it remained locked away Wednesday.Authorities did not release names of the vehicle owner or driver. The car will be processed as evidence and will be searched by investigators, which may take a couple of weeks, according to FHP Lt. Doug Dodson."We're still investigating the road rage scenario and the traffic homicide," Dodson said.Some...