Armed with guns and wearing masks, police say three men tried to hold up a smoke shop on Antoine early Tuesday morning. What they didn't know is the clerk was also armed. What felt like an eternity, in reality took no more than thirty seconds.

"They pulled in. They made a U-turn and they parked right there and he heard them yelling, 'Go, go, go,'" said the store owner, who didn't want to be identified. "When they opened the door, they had their mask on and everything." Armed and masked, the three suspects stormed their way in to the Happy Daze shop around 10pm. The store owner told us what happened when his clerk came face to face with the gunmen. "He kind of had the instinct of what to do what was going on," said the shop owner.

He says his clerk immediately reached for his pistol as the gunmen went in. One of the men then pointed his weapon at the clerk, who in turn fired three shots. "They ran in. They stepped two yards into the store and he discharged his weapon hitting the guy, And the guy stumbled out," the store owner added. Harris County deputies say the injured suspect collapsed in the parking lot as he attempted to get in the getaway car. He died on the scene.

Hours later, the owner was left picking up the pieces of a window shattered by bullets, relieved neither his clerk or his customers were injured in the ordeal, but frustrated, too, saying the suspects should have never tried to take the easy way out. "We hate to see any of that happen. We are just out here trying to make a living and it sucks when somebody comes and tries to take it from you when you are out here working for it," he said.

(CNSNews.com) – “Self-defense can be an important crime deterrent,”says a new report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The $10 million study was commissioned by President Barack Obama as part of 23 executive orders he signed in January.
“Studies that directly assessed the effect of actual defensive uses of guns (i.e., incidents in which a gun was ‘used’ by the crime victim in the sense of attacking or threatening an offender) have found consistently lower injury rates among gun-using crime victims compared with victims who used other self-protective strategies,” the CDC study, entitled “Priorities For Research to Reduce the Threat of Firearm-Related Violence,” states.

The report, which notes that “ violent crimes, including homicides specifically, have declined in the past five years,” also pointed out that “some firearm violence results in death, but most does not.” In fact, the CDC report said, most incidents involving the discharge of firearms do not result in a fatality.

“In 2010, incidents in the U.S. involving firearms injured or killed more than 105,000 Americans, of which there were twice as many nonfatal firearm-related injuries (73,505) than deaths.”

The White House unveiled a plan in January that included orders to the CDC to “conduct research on the causes and prevention of gun violence.” According to the White House report, “Research on gun violence is not advocacy; it is critical public health research that gives all Americans information they need.”

ATLANTA — A man carrying a rifle inside Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport wasn’t breaking any laws, but he did raise a few eyebrows, including those of some police officers.

Jim Cooley says he carried his gun through the terminal when he and his wife went to drop his daughter off for her flight. He says he knew he wasn’t breaking any rules because he has a full understanding of Georgia’s gun laws.

“You can carry in unsecured areas of the airport. Past TSA, never,” Cooley said.
“You never know where something might happen,” said Cooley, posing here with his daughter at the airport.

That’s exactly what he did. Cooley carried his AR-15 fully loaded with a 100-round drum through parts of the terminal.

Gun Nut raises eyebrows carrying rifle through Atlanta airport

He lost his son, Christopher, in the Isla Vista, CA shooting near the UCSB campus, where he was a sophomore. Richard Martinez said soon after the shooting, "Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the (National Rifle Association). They talk about gun rights -- what about Chris' right to live?" How many times now have grieving parents had to come to grips with a loved one's death due to gun violence? It's vast but in each case it comes down to two things: a gutless Congress and the National Rifle Assn. (NRA). Unwilling to pass the gun control laws that will make this stop. However, Martinez has thrown down the gauntlet exclaiming:


"I have chosen to make this my life’s work. In choosing to do so, I was aware that the path to changing laws and minds would be challenging. I was still surprised to see how entrenched the gun lobby is with certain state legislators and the dangerous degree to which it pushes bills that endanger public safety."

Legal gun owners in Texas may soon be able to carry concealed firearms on college campuses now that the Legislature has overwhelmingly passed a gun rights bill.

The measure sailed through a final vote on Sunday, two days after lawmakers passed a bill allowing Texans to carry firearms openly throughout the state. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign both bills into law in the coming days.

The so-called Campus Carry measure cleared Texas' House of Representatives by a 98-to-47 vote.

"As a student and a veteran, I appreciate the fact that I will be able to defend myself and my fellow students in the unlikely event that there is an active shooter at my university," CJ Grisham, president and founder of a gun rights' group known as Open Carry Texas, said in a statement on the group's Facebook page. "This is common sense legislation that ensure our students and faculties will now be ... safer having abolished a major gun free, victim spree zone."

The bill would allow licensed gun owners in Texas to carry a concealed handgun while on a college campus. Campus presidents could prohibit carrying weapons in certain areas, but would be barred from establishing blanket provisions to prevent licensed gun owners from carrying their weapons on campus.
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Following the Waco, TX, bike gang shootings where nine people were killed, it was only natural to bring up the issue of too many guns on the street again. It also is tragic that Americans continue to look on this kind of regularly occurring event as just normal in today's gun culture. It's not and it doesn't have to be. I have been saying this in recent years and John Traphagan of the Dallas Morning News has written a story in agreement with that point and several others I have talked about for some time. For example, he also believes that owning a gun should be tied to the universal background check and extensive training. Now is that asking too much? He continues...


"The solution to gun-related crime is not further arming the public. It involves enacting comprehensive gun control laws that prohibit many forms of gun ownership, significantly curtailing or eliminating access to and the ability to purchase guns..."


As a matter of fact, unlimited arming of the public is what has caused the crisis in the first place like Adam Lanza in Newtown, CT, who massacred 20 kids and six teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School using his mother's gun which was completely unsecured. It was a semiautomatic Bushmaster .223 caliber model XM15 rifle and he also took along two handguns and a shotgun, all hers. After shooting his mother he just picked up the weapons and went out on a rampage. And this woman knew her son was acting strange for some time, like covering his windows with black trash bags.

Thanks to the National Rifle Assn., this totally irresponsible person was able to maintain a fully equipped arsenal in her home and even with a gun closet, didn't see fit to keep it locked. Yet the gun rights bunch would have us put more guns on the street in the hands of other people just like this. Their cries that it is the criminals with guns that cause the problems has become meaningless since Sandy Hook, and Aurora, Colo. and Tucson, AZ, as well as all the dumb parents who leave handguns on the coffee table so their kids can spread theirs or their siblings' brains all over the couch.

It's disgusting and no one is listening, especially the gutless U.S. Congress. Gun control advocates should take their cue from Bernie Sanders and start their own revolution.

Sometimes when I am talking to gun enthusiasts, i think of this

Police broke up an unsanctioned gay rights rally in central Moscow on Saturday, detaining around 20 people, including anti-gay campaigners who attacked the activists.

The campaigners had requested permission to hold a gay pride parade today, but Moscow authorities blocked the request for the tenth year in a row - an annual ritual that has come to symbolize Russian authorities' hostility to public expressions of support for gay rights.

A 2013 law against gay "propaganda" also sparked an outcry among Russian rights activists and in the West. But partly reflecting the influence of the Orthodox church, many Russians back the law or have negative feelings toward gays.

Activists at Saturday's meeting on Tverskaya Square near the city center were heavily outnumbered by black-clad riot police who had lined the square in advance.

By Spencer S. Hsu May 18 


Ten months after striking down the District’s long-standing ban on carrying firearms in public as unconstitutional, a federal judge Monday ordered the city to halt enforcing a key provision of the new gun-permitting system it adapted in response.

As passed by the D.C. Council, the District’s new carry legislation remains among the strictest in the nation, requiring applicants to state good reason to carry a weapon in order to obtain a permit from police, matching laws in Maryland, New Jersey and New York.

However, in a 23-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Frederick J. Scullin Jr. ruled that condition — known as the “good reason/proper reason” requirement — still “impinges on Plaintiffs’ Second Amendment right to bear arms,” because it fails to target dangerous people or specifically how or where individuals carry weapons.

“The issue here is not whether the .?.?. requirement is a reasonable or wise policy choice. Rather, the issue is whether this requirement, no matter how well intended, violates the Second Amendment,” Scullin wrote.