GUNS IN THE NEWS--May 28, 2004

[MrBenchley]

As CO Liberal sez:
Please try to adhere to the following voluntary guidelines, in order that we can have an orderly discussion of gun-related news topics:
1 - Feel free to add any CURRENT stories to this thread by replying to this message. In order to be considered current, stories should have been originally posted on the Internet within the previous 24 hours, or provide follow-up to a story that was previously posted on the J/PS board. On Mondays (since many people do not log in to DU over the weekend), stories can be posted from Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.
2 - Both pro-gun and anti-gun stories, editorials, and press releases are welcome in this thread, as long as they're current. Please do not post links to items from a few years back that support your position.
3 - Bear in mind that any links to extremely right-wing sites (such as Newsmax, CNS, or the Washington Times) or intentionally pro-gun or pro-control sites (such as the NRA or the Brady Campaign) are not considered reliable sources by many DU-ers. If at all possible, try to find a link for your story from a more mainstream source, such as a general-circulation newspaper or magazine site. If you choose to use a slanted site, be prepared for any negative feedback you may receive.
4 - Do not change story titles. In other words, if the Oskosh Gazette's web site runs a story titled "Two Killed in Holdup", the title of your message should read "Two Killed in Holdup". Don't change it to "Gun Owner Kills Two People", or anything else that changes the meaning of the story.
5 - If it's not clear from the title where the story occurred, add the city, state, or country in parentheses after the title.
6 - The person adding a news story to the "GITN" thread is allowed (and encouraged) to comment on that story, indicating their position on the topic being discussed. These comments can appear either at the beginning or end of the post; if possible, place comments in a different typeface so readers can separate the comments from the story. Others who wish to comment on a posted story can do so by replying to that story; this allows other readers to follow the comments by scrolling through the subthread.
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8 - If you object to these guidelines, do everyone else a favor and go to another thread.

[MrBenchley]

1. Mercer Island student charged with taking gun to school (WA)

"King County prosecutors charged a 14-year-old Mercer Island boy yesterday, saying he brought a gun to school and threatened to kill a classmate with it because the boy believed the classmate had destroyed a fort the boy had built.
The Islander Middle School eighth-grader was arrested and booked into the King County Youth Detention center on Monday after an assistant principal called police. An officer found an unloaded, .38-caliber revolver and a couple of bullets in the boy's backpack, as well as a spent casing and a jar containing what appeared to be marijuana, charging papers say.
The school, meanwhile, remains closed today as police continue the investigation of an e-mail sent to the school district Tuesday warning of more students planning to bring weapons to school. Police are investigating the validity of the threat and the identities of the person or persons involved. The school has been closed since Wednesday. "

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001941076_mercer28e.html

Quick...what far right wing lobbying group that has odious nutcase Grover Norquist on its board publishes a gun magazine for kids?

[MrBenchley]

2. More than 300 guns seized in firearm dealer's arrest (IL)

The corrupt gun industry...

"Philip Stutts, 47, was arrested at his Sauk Village store Thursday morning, a day after being charged with illegally possessing a firearm that wasn't registered to him, officials said. That carries a possible 25-year prison sentence.
The charge involves one of two sawed-off shotguns seized on May 10 during a search of Stutts Firearms and Ammunition, officials said.
Two more search warrants were executed Thursday by a team of federal agents and local agencies, and more than 250 guns were seized from the shop because Stutts' state firearms card was stripped from him upon the arrest, said Tom Ahern, a spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Seventy-one more were seized for the same reason from Stutts' Chicago Heights home, he said.
While many of those guns are apparently legal AK-47s, Uzis and TEC-9s, a "handful" of them may be illegal, fully automatic weapons, he said. And parts often used to convert semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic guns also were recovered, along with books on making disposable silencers and modifying guns, officials said.
Investigators also found paperwork stemming from the suspected sale of a .380-caliber pistol to a minor, officials said."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-shotgun28.html

[Lamorat]

3. Do you not

care about anything other than guns? Unhealthy obsession from hell that you have..

[MrBenchley]

4. lam-o-rat

[MrBenchley]

5. Lieutenant shot in the arm while riding in fire truck (MA)

"(Worcester - AP) — A fire lieutenant en route to provide coverage during a two-alarm blaze in Worcester was shot and wounded.
The fire official was struck in the right arm by a bullet from a handgun that passed through the passenger window of the fire truck he was riding in yesterday. He was treated at St. Vincent Hospital at Worcester Medical Center. His name has not been disclosed.
The fire that damaged a pair of three-deckers on Sigel and Endicott streets left 20 tenants homeless. Two other fire lieutenants and two firefighters were given emergency first aid for heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation and cuts at the scene, then transported to U-Mass Memorial Medical Center _ University Campus and St. Vincent Hospital."

http://www.wrgb.com/news/regional/regional.asp?selection=article_12375

[MrBenchley]

6. Road Rage Spurs Shooting On Baltimore Beltway

"ESSEX, Md. -- An 18-year-old Baltimore County man faces nearly 20 charges in what state police said was a road-rage shooting on the Baltimore Beltway.
Troopers said a passenger in a car driven by David Emerson fired at another vehicle Thursday night on the outer loop near Route 702. The shots from the suspected pellet gun blew out a rear window in the other car."

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/3356603/detail.html

[MrBenchley]

7. Utah teacher arrested for allegedly threatening to go on shooting rampage

"SALT LAKE CITY  -- A suburban junior high math teacher was arrested today for allegedly threatening to go on a shooting rampage if she did not get the assignments she wanted, police said.
Sandra Wariner, 57, was taken into custody while on her lunch break at a fast food restaurant, and charged with making a terroristic threat.
Principal Steve Lindsay notified police after Wariner allegedly threatened to return to Bountiful Junior High School with a shotgun and open fire at him, students, and other teachers, said Bountiful police Lt. Steve Gray.
"He felt threatened to the point that he had to take some action so he called police," Williams said.
Police searched Wariner's home and confiscated a shotgun and a .357-caliber revolver, Gray said. "

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/2596172

[MrBenchley]

8. Shooting death leads to arrest (AR)

"A Jonesboro man was arrested early Thursday in connection with the shooting death of his wife, officials with the Jonesboro Police Department said.
Alford Lamarge Hendrix, 49, of 3605 Parkwood was arrested shortly after 9:30 a.m. for the shooting of Virginia Hendrix, 50, of the same address, according to a 1-paragraph statement released by Capt. Scott Roper of the Jonesboro Police Department.
"On (Thursday) at approximately 9:34 a.m., the 911 dispatch center received a call from 3605 Parkwood in reference to a shooting," Roper's release said. "Upon arrival officers located the victim, identified as Virginia Hendrix ... lying on the floor inside the residence. "Craighead County Coroner Toby Emerson pronounced Mrs. Hendrix dead at the scene. Mrs. Hendrix appeared to have sustained a single gunshot wound. The victim's husband, Alford Lamarge Hendrix ... was arrested in connection with the shooting and will be formally charged on Friday, May 28, at 4 p.m." "

http://www.jonesborosun.com/story.asp?ID=5214

[MrBenchley]

9. Shooting Of Marine Prompts Perjury Charge (FL)

LECANTO - The investigation into the accidental shooting of a U.S. Marine during a law enforcement training exercise has led to the arrest of the head of the company that employed him.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Citrus County Sheriff's Office arrested Michael J. Dunn of Leadership Management Services on Wednesday, charging him with perjury.
Marine Eric C. Verhille had been hired as a freelance instructor when he was wounded during a May 6 exercise for officers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Verhille was taking pictures of the exercise when one of the officers mistook him for a target, according to a sheriff's report. "

http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB6KBVSRUD.html

[MrBenchley]

10. Spring schoolteacher shot, killed; wife in custody (TX)

"A Westfield High School teacher was found shot to death early this morning and sheriff's deputies have arrested his wife, an elementary school teacher, in connection with the slaying.
Andrew Eisenman, 28, was found dead next to a pickup truck in the parking lot of the Lake Bridge Apartments in the 300 block of Woerner, said Sgt. Bruce Williams of the Harris County Sheriff's department. He had been shot several times in the chest by a small-caliber handgun..
Eisenman's wife, a teacher at Thompson Elementary School, is being questioned in the shooting, but charges have not yet been filed, he said."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2597087

[MrBenchley]

11. Laughter leads to shooting in Hill District, police say (PA)

"A 43-year-old Hill District man told police he was talking with several people on the corner of Webster Avenue and Sommers Street about 4:30 a.m. when someone told a joke. He laughed out loud just as an unknown man passed by, police said.
That man asked the chuckler who he was laughing at, and whether he was laughing at him. A fight ensued that ended with the passer-by pulling out a gun and shooting the 43-year-old, police said. "

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/pmupdate/s_196282.html

[MrBenchley]

12. Charge certified in shooting of former Cavalier player (VA)

"An Albemarle County judge certified a malicious wounding charge Thursday against a University of Virginia student accused of shooting former Virginia football player Jamaine Winborne.
A grand jury will consider Aaron Joshua Robinson's case June 7.
Winborne, a defensive back who has signed a three-year contract with the New York Giants, was shot in the leg April 28.
Winborne testified that he put his hands on Robinson's throat when he confronted him about rumors that Robinson wanted to shoot football players. The two men ran into one another again later, Winborne testified. "

http://www.wvec.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D82R9L5O0.html

[RamboLiberal]

13. Grand jury blames gun in trooper's shooting of suspect - Alabama

http://www.al.com/newsflash/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-7/1085639408159250.xml

A grand jury cleared a state trooper in the killing of a suspected car thief, saying the officer's gun encouraged a loose trigger finger.

The Baldwin County grand jury placed the blame for the shooting on the service pistol used by state troopers, which is easier to fire than some other weapons used by law enforcement officers.

Trooper Angel Rodriguez was cleared by the grand jury of criminal wrongdoing Wednesday.

Rodriguez shot Darrell Taylor, 22, of Prichard, in the neck with a .40-caliber Glock semiautomatic pistol on April 7, and Taylor died three days later.

The grand jury issued a report encouraging the state to review whether that type of pistol should be used in state service

[MrBenchley]

14. Glock has been the source of such stuff before...

and of course, guns are not subject to consumer safety regulations...but should be...

"When police Officer Randall Smith was accidentally shot in the head by a fellow officer with a Glock semiautomatic pistol in 1995, he sued the gun maker, claiming the weapon was defectively designed and unnecessarily dangerous.
Glock settled the lawsuit. But for the rest of his life, Smith, whose injuries left him permanently brain damaged and cost him his police job in Birmingham, Ala., is barred from talking about the case or revealing any details he learned about Glock before the settlement. His lawyer also is barred from talking, restricted by a confidentiality agreement that is a standard policy for Glock when settling lawsuits.
Glock’s and other gun manufacturers’ insistence on confidentiality agreements is common in product liability settlements. The agreements have kept critical information about the safety record of the gun from the public and are a prime example of how the gun industry actively conceals information about injuries and fatalities connected with its products. The industry has done so with the help of Congress and the powerful National Rifle Association lobby.
Like other gun makers, Glock is not required to report complaints and injuries to any federal or state agency. And Glock cannot be compelled to inform gun buyers of problems others have had with its weapons.
The News documented more than 50 lawsuits against Glock in the past eight years. In those with confirmed settlements, Glock insisted on confidentiality agreements. "

http://www.detnews.com/2003/specialreport/0312/15/a11-7995.htm

"In 1988, the FBI predicted that the Glock's sensitive trigger and lack of external safeties would "inevitably ... lead to an unintentional shot at the worst moment." Indeed, 11 years later, the Washington DC Police Department alone had had 120 accidental firings, 19 officers had wounded themselves or others with Glocks, and the district had paid $1.4 million in damages from resulting lawsuits related to Glock accidents. In one case, an officer shot and killed an unarmed teen at a DC roadblock. Another officer accidentally shot and killed an unarmed motorist during a routine traffic stop. One DC cop accidentally shot his own roommate.
The Louisville, Ky. Police Department adopted the Glock just last year. Within six months, five Louisville police guns fired accidentally. One bullet hit a truck. Another officer's gun fired while he was leaning over to tie his shoe laces. After the third misfire, Louisville police rushed to defend their new Glocks, declaring the gun not guilty in the third incident -- the officer's gun went off accidentally as he was attacked by a man who had fled a routine traffic stop. Rather than bagging the gun, the department implemented new training in gun safety. Several more accidents followed almost immediately, the fifth an errant bullet accidentally wounding an officer's son.
While police departments hasten to defend the gun after every misspent bullet, Josh Horwitz of the Firearms Litigation Clearinghouse says the Glock has been the subject of more lawsuits for accidental deaths than any other gun he's tracked in the past 10 years.
Horwitz cites the absence of an external safety, the gun's "light and short trigger pull" and the fact that it will fire even with the magazine removed as the combination that makes the Glock an unnecessarily hazardous gun. "

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2000/01/glock.html

[RamboLiberal]

16. As a Glock owner and a civilian shooter I'll defend the gun

I shoot a Glock every week and know a lot of civilian competition shooters shooting Glocks. Never saw an accident not to say they can't happen, but then they happen with any firearm.

Keep the finger off the trigger! The gun doesn't go off unless the trigger is pulled. And if you have it holstered make sure the trigger guard is covered.

I would recommend for police departments they go to the NY Trigger which requires a heavier pull.

If you're pointing a gun at someone then you're going to have the safety off, so I don't know how external safeties solve the problem.

I've heard many who train cops say the cops need to train more with their firearms.

I bet Glock gets more lawsuits cause they have the majority of the LEO market. And I bet if you took cops to DAO (double-action only) guns you'd get lawsuits from the cop hitting someone he wasn't aiming at cause the longer/heavier trigger pull can cause the shooter to pull off the target.

Here's how a Glock trigger works.

The trigger safety is a mechanical safety which is incorporated into the trigger in the form of a lever. In the untouched state the trigger safety blocks the trigger from being moved backward. If the weapon is dropped or if the trigger is subjected to an off-center, lateral pressure, it is still impossible for the gun to fire.

This safety can only be released by the trigger being pulled by the trigger finger. It automatically re-engages after the trigger is released.

This situation offers maximum possible firing readiness combined with maximum safety for the user.

http://www.glock.com/trigger_safety.htm

[MrBenchley]

15. Was woman’s shooting captured on answering machine? (PA)

"A Slippery Rock resident’s answering machine recorded a call from an unknown woman saying she had been shot, followed by the sounds of gunshots.
State police in Butler said today the call was received around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. On it a woman says she has been shot and fears she will be shot again. She says the shooter is in her yard with a gun. A short time later, sounds like gunshots are heard, and the 90-second recording ends."

http://www.post-gazette.com/breaking/20040528callp5.asp

[MrBenchley]

17. Man armed with shotgun and possible explosive has standoff with police

Wonder how much this delightful expression of "freedom" and "personal self defense" cost the taxpayers?

"ABBEVILLE -- A distraught man, armed with a shotgun and a homemade explosive, barricaded himself in a shed behind his home in Abbeville Wednesday, but was calmly talked out by an Abbeville policeman.
Harvey Wayne Helms, who lives at 119 McCampbell Road locked himself in the shed for about 45 minutes. He told authorities he was suicidal, had a shotgun and that the device he had made was highly explosive."


http://www.cordeledispatch.com/articles/2004/05/28/news/528astandoff.txt