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Thread: Gun Control

  1. #1126
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    https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...=.7d938180bc17

    I used to be able to keep up with these things, but it gets harder everyday, but WP has a handy chart...
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    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
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    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

  2. #1127
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    https://apnews.com/165d6dd66e1b46628a0ffdcc4d27c58b

    DAYTON, Ohio (AP) — Facing pressure to take action after the latest mass shooting in the U.S., Ohio’s Republican governor urged the GOP-led state Legislature Tuesday to pass laws requiring background checks for nearly all gun sales and allowing courts to restrict firearms access for people perceived as threats.

    Full Coverage: Shootings
    Gov. Mike DeWine said Ohio needs to do more while balancing people’s rights to own firearms and have due process during a press conference Tuesday. He outlined a series of legislative actions he wants the Legislature to take up to address mental health and gun violence.


    “We can come together to do these things to save lives,” DeWine said.

    Protesters once again shouted “do something” — a refrain chanted during Sunday’s vigil honoring the victims — at DeWine at the start of his Tuesday announcement. One person yelled “shame on you” at DeWine while he was answering questions.

    His calls for action could be an uphill battle for the Legislature, which has given little consideration this session to those and other gun-safety measures already introduced by Democrats. DeWine’s Republican predecessor, John Kasich (KAY’-sik), also unsuccessfully pushed for a so-called red flag law on restricting firearms for people considered threats.

    A high school classmate of Connor Betts, the gunman in the deadly Dayton, Ohio shooting, questions how Betts could be allowed access to a military-style weapon. (August 5)
    DeWine said he has talked with legislative leaders and believes his proposals can pass.

    Police say there was nothing in the Dayton shooter’s background to prevent him from buying the firearm used.

    The shooting outside a strip of nightclubs early Sunday and another mass shooting in El Paso, Texas , during the past weekend left a combined total of 31 people dead and more than 50 injured in less than 24 hours.

    Police have said 24-year-old Connor Betts was wearing a mask and body armor when he opened fire with an AR-15 style gun. If all of the magazines he had with him were full, which hasn’t been confirmed, he would have had a maximum of 250 rounds, said Police Chief Richard Biehl.

    “To have that level of weaponry in a civilian environment is problematic,” Biehl added.

    Betts had no apparent criminal record as an adult and police said there was nothing that would have prevented him from buying a gun. Ohio law bars anyone convicted of a felony as an adult, or convicted of a juvenile charge that would have been a felony if they were 18 or older, from buying firearms.

    Two former classmates told The Associated Press that Betts was suspended during their junior year at Bellbrook High School after a hit list was found scrawled in a school bathroom. That followed an earlier suspension after Betts came to school with a list of female students he wanted to sexually assault, according to the two classmates, a man and a woman who are both now 24 and spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern they might face harassment.

    Others remembered how he tried to intimidate classmates.

    “It’s baffling and horrible that somebody who’s been talking for 10 years about wanting to shoot people could easily, so easily, get access to a military grade weapon and that much ammo,” said Hannah Shows, a former high classmate who remembered seeing Betts look at people and imitate shooting at them.

    “He was someone who enjoyed making people afraid,” she said.

    Former Bellbrook High School classmate Addison Brickler rode the bus with Betts and said he taunted her regularly.

    “He was the bully,” Brickler told the AP. “He used to make fun of me on the bus, talk about my weight, make me feel bad about myself. He would laugh and think it was funny, joke about it. We thought it was a normal thing.”


    But the seemingly normal heckling turned scary one day when she said two police officers pulled Betts off their bus during her first few weeks of high school. When she arrived home that day, her mom sat her and her brother down to tell her the school principal had called — they had been named on Betts’ “hit list.”

    Betts disappeared from the halls of Bellbrook High School. Students were offered counseling, teachers checked on kids, and extra police officers were on hand. Brickler said Betts later returned to the school.

    Others that had encounters with Betts, however, painted a different picture.

    Brad Howard told reporters in Bellbrook on Sunday that he knew Betts from preschool through their high school graduation.

    “Connor Betts that I knew was a nice kid. The Connor Betts that I talked to, I always got along with well,” Howard said.

    Bellbrook-Sugarcreek Schools wouldn’t comment and refused to release information about Betts, citing legal protections for student records.

    Bellbrook Police Chief Doug Doherty said he and his officers had no previous contact with Betts and weren’t aware of any history of violence. Sugarcreek Township police said the only records they have on Betts are from a 2015 traffic citation. They noted without further explanation that Ohio law allows sealed juvenile court records to be expunged after five years or when the person involved turns 23.

    Still unknown is whether Betts targeted any of the victims , including his 22-year-old sister, Megan, the youngest of the dead.

    “It seems to just defy believability he would shoot his own sister, but it’s also hard to believe that he didn’t recognize it was his sister, so we just don’t know,” Biehl said.

    Authorities identified the other dead as Monica Brickhouse, 39; Nicholas Cumer, 25; Derrick Fudge, 57; Thomas McNichols, 25; Lois Oglesby, 27; Saeed Saleh, 38; Logan Turner, 30; and Beatrice N. Warren-Curtis, 36.

    Of the more than 30 people injured in Ohio, at least 14 had gunshot wounds; others were hurt as people fled, city officials said. Eleven remained hospitalized Monday, Fire Chief Jeffrey Payne said.

    While the gunman was white and six of the nine killed were black, police said the speed of the rampage made any discrimination in the shooting seem unlikely. It all happened within 30 seconds, before police officers stationed nearby fatally shot Betts.

    Any attempt to suggest a motive so early in the investigation would be irresponsible, Biehl said.

    The El Paso and Dayton killings have contributed to 2019 being an especially deadly year for mass killings in the U.S.

    A database by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University shows that there have been 23 mass killings so far this year, claiming the lives of 131 people. By comparison, 140 people died in mass killings in all of 2018. The database tracks every mass killing in the country dating back to 2006.

    President Donald Trump said he wanted Washington to “come together” on legislation providing “strong background checks” for gun users, but he gave no details. Previous gun control measures have languished in the Republican-controlled Senate.

    The Democrat-led House has passed a gun control bill that includes fixes to the nation’s firearm background check system, but it has languished in the Senate.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Julie Carr Smyth and Kantele Franko in Columbus, Amanda Seitz in Chicago and Robert Bumsted in Dayton contributed.

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    https://abc7.com/society/gun-control...store/5446178/

    THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (KABC) -- Nine months since the Borderline Bar and Grill mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, local activists demonstrated outside the city's only gun store Monday in the wake of dual mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

    A sign saying the store was closed for "mental health day (at the range)" was posted on the front window of VC Defense Firearms as activists and others protested.

    "I didn't even know we had a gun store here, and the fact that we do just instills a whole new layer of fear in myself, as well as the people in my community," said Kimia Mohebi of Never Again SoCal.

    The honking and the signs in favor of restrictive gun laws caught the eye of driver Dale Menagh.

    Menagh knows the gun store's owner and believes in the Second Amendment.

    "We also believe strongly, if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns," he said.

    VC Defense Firearms did not speak to Eyewitness News on camera, but the owner told USA Today after the Borderline shooting that there was an influx of customers buying out of fear and safety.

    "The people that are running the business are our neighbors who honestly work hard and pay their taxes," Menagh said.

    Gracie Pekrul, who arrived back from a gun violence prevention training in Washington, D.C., offers another perspective.

    "In the three days I was there, there were two terrible mass shootings," she said.

  4. #1129
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    https://abc7.com/man-with-rifle-bull...store/5454898/

    SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Cell phone video captured the arrest of a man who caused a scare outside a Walmart in Springfield, Missouri.

    The Springfield Police Department said they responded to a call of an active shooter at the Walmart: Neighborhood Market at Republic Rd., near Golden Ave., Thursday evening, reported KSPR.

    The man walked into the store where he grabbed a cart and began pushing it around, according to police. They said the man was recording himself walking through the store via a cell phone.

    The store manager at the Neighborhood Market pulled a fire alarm, urging people to escape the store.

    Police said the man then made his way out an emergency exit. An off-duty firefighter spotted the man and held him at gunpoint until authorities responded.

    At that moment Springfield police arrived on scene and detained the man.

    The man appeared to be in his 20s armed with a rifle, wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying more than a hundred rounds of ammunition, police said.

    While no shots were fired, the man terrified shoppers who fled from the store.

    Police said they observed many shoppers hiding outside the Walmart and at nearby businesses.

    Lieutenant Mike Lucas said it was clear the man's intent was to cause chaos, saying in part, "His intent was not to cause peace or comfort...He's lucky he's alive still, to be honest."

    Police identified the man's vehicle and are investigating the possibility of more firearms inside the vehicle.

    RELATED: Man asked for something 'that would kill 200 people' at Walmart: Police

    The incident comes less than a week after a deadly mass shooting inside a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas.

    Walmart is pulling violent video game displays and signs from its stores, but said it is still selling guns, according to a USA Today report.

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    https://www.kcra.com/article/sacrame...ornia/28652737

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
    A Costco in the Arden-Arcade area of Sacramento was evacuated for more than one hour Thursday night after police got a report of an armed man in the store, officials said.

    Officers responded around 7:35 p.m. to the store at 1600 Expo Parkway, police said.


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    As a precaution, the store was evacuated.

    “Employees came and said leave the cart and leave the store," said Carimichael resident Nathan Ramanathan.

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    "I was just walking around with my cart, and one of the cops was like, 'Hey, we’re evacuating. There’s a apparently a gun threat. Just leave your cart here. We’re going to make sure everything is cleared, then you can come back inside,'" said Sacramento resident Lauren Holland.

    “No one was running or screaming," Holland added. "But, people were definitely walking very fast, kind of like a composed walk.”

    Officers searched the store, but by 8:50 p.m., no one with a gun was found.

    Police then cleared the scene.

    No other details were released.

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    https://patch.com/california/campbel...ockdown-police

    SAN JOSE, CA — An alleged gunman was arrested on the San Jose State University campus at South Fourth St. and West San Carlos streets prompting a shelter-in-place, police and campus officials indicated.

    When the suspect was taken into custody, police had not retrieved the gun but later found it.

    The transient identified as Joshua Castro, 23, was transported to a local hospital for treatment from the pepper spray used and subsequently booked into Santa Clara County Jail for resisting arrest, being a felon in possession of a firearm and for a parole violation.

    A lockdown of the university was lifted soon after he was apprehended, SJSU spokesperson Robin McElhatton said. The incident stemmed from a call at 5:33 p.m. saying a man was brandishing a gun in the area of North Second and East Santa Clara streets. The caller was off campus.

    In response, a text advisory to "everybody who opted in" to the alerts received a message warning of a man with a gun on campus, McElhatton indicated.

    Once the call came in, it was a foot chase into the Spartan complex where three women who said they saw the man without the gun walk by and say hello, McElhatton told Patch. A K9 unit was brought in, and officers cordoned off the area. The man was found in the rafters of the building's ceiling.

    The man apparently has no connection to San Jose State, she added.

    "This is not a copycat, shoot-up-the-campus thing," McElhatton said.

    Emotions for South Bay residents appear raw given the tragic July 28 Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting.

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    https://apnews.com/768bb5352e914874b36c1c970bca347e

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, including a ban on the type of high-capacity ammunition magazines used in some of the nation’s deadliest mass shootings.

    How long those types of laws will stand is a growing concern among gun control advocates in California and elsewhere.

    A federal judiciary that is becoming increasingly conservative under President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate has gun control advocates on edge. They worry that federal courts, especially if Trump wins a second term next year and Republicans hold the Senate, will take such an expansive view of Second Amendment rights that they might overturn strict gun control laws enacted in Democratic-leaning states.


    The U.S. Supreme Court so far has left plenty of room for states to enact their own gun legislation, said Adam Winkler, a gun policy expert at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law. But he said the success of the Trump administration in appointing federal judges, including to the high court, could alter that.

    “Those judges are likely to be hostile to gun-control measures,” Winkler said. “So I think the courts overall have made a shift to the right on guns. We’ll just have to see how that plays out.”

    The legal tug-of-war already is playing out in California.

    The state banned the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines nearly two decades ago as one of its numerous responses to deadly mass shootings; a voter initiative passed three years ago expanded on that, banning all ammunition magazines holding more than 10 rounds even among gun owners who already possessed them.

    Earlier this year, a Republican-appointed federal judge overturned the ban, triggering a weeklong bullet buying spree among California gun owners before he put his decision on hold pending appeal. The same judge is overseeing another lawsuit brought by gun-rights groups that seeks to repeal a state law requiring background checks for ammunition buyers.

    Legal experts, lawmakers and advocates on both sides said the decision in the case over ammunition limits foreshadows more conflicts between Democratic-leaning states seeking to impose tighter gun laws and an increasingly conservative federal judiciary.

    “What you’re looking at in the Southern District of California is happening all over the country,” said Frank Zimring, a University of California, Berkeley law professor who is an expert on gun laws.


    Trump has the opportunity to fill a higher percentage of federal court vacancies than any president at this point in his first term since George H.W. Bush nearly three decades ago.

    To date, he has nominated 194 candidates for federal judgeships and has had 146 confirmed, out of 860 total federal district court judicial seats, according to the conservative Heritage Foundation. Of 179 seats on the federal appellate courts, Trump has nominated 46 judges and had 43 confirmed. He is poised to fill 105 vacancies in the district courts and four in the appeals courts, according to the Heritage Foundation.

    The changes to the federal judiciary could mean that even gun restrictions that were previously upheld by appointees of former Republican presidents may now be in jeopardy, said Hannah Shearer, litigation director at the San Francisco-based Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

    “I think the judiciary is headed into a more extreme place on gun control issues because of President Trump’s appointees,” she said.

    Even when gun and ammunition limits are upheld, those cases eventually could make their way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where Trump may already have tipped the balance.

    “The court is currently poised to take up its first Second Amendment case in about a decade. It’s a challenge to a law New York City passed that prohibited people who have home handgun licenses from taking their guns outside the city for target practice or to a second home.

    The city has told the court the case should be dropped, however, because it has relaxed its law.

    Among other cases working their way through the courts are challenges to a California ban on certain handguns, other states’ longstanding restrictions on carrying concealed weapons and limitations on interstate handgun sales.

    Yet forecasting how the Supreme Court might act, or even whether it will take certain cases, is fraught with uncertainty. The court has steered clear of gun-rights cases since establishing an individual right to possess guns in 2008 2010, and has let stand a number of state gun restrictions.

    Still, gun-rights supporters are excited by the changes brought by Trump and the Republican-controlled Senate. The upcoming Supreme Court session “could be a real game-changer” with Trump’s appointments of Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, said Chuck Michel, an attorney who represents both the National Rifle Association and the affiliated California Rifle & Pistol Association.

    “To the extent that the composition of the court has changed and that it will give the Second Amendment back its teeth, it’s very important,” Michel said. “It looks like there’s enough votes on the court right now to reset the standard.”

    His clients are challenging California’s ammunition background check and extended magazine ban before U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, an appointee of former President George W. Bush.

    Other states that limit ammunition magazines in some way, typically between 10 and 20 rounds, are Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Vermont, according to the Giffords Law Center.

    Democrats said the prospect of four more years of Trump judicial appointments is helping energize their opposition to his re-election.

    “This would be one of the lasting legacies of Donald Trump,” said former California state Senate leader Kevin de Leon, a Democrat from Los Angeles who carried or supported many of the state’s firearms restrictions, including limits on military-style assault weapons. “When Trump is gone, they will be there for lifetime appointments.”

    Democratic lawmakers said they will continue pushing more firearms restrictions even as some fear they could be thwarted in the federal courts.

    State Sen. Anthony Portantino, a Democrat from Southern California, acknowledges the potential for state gun restrictions to be overturned by federal judges, but says the stakes are too high to back down.

    He noted that the gunman who recently killed three people and himself in Gilroy, at an annual garlic festival, was 19 and legally bought his assault-style rifle in Nevada before illegally bringing it into California. The gunman also carried a 75-round drum magazine and multiple 40-round magazines, all banned under California law.

    “That he could smuggle that across state lines and kill a 6-year-old, to me that’s an example of why we need federal action and why California should continue to lead and tell our story,” Portantino said.

    He is proposing a ban on anyone buying more than one gun a month and prohibiting almost all gun sales to those under age 21.

    ___

  8. #1133
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    https://abc13.com/man-with-shotgun-s...9-3d28b92b85ba

    HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- In the wake of recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, some people are on edge.

    There were some tense moments at Baybrook Mall, when people took to social media after hearing reports of a possible active shooter at the popular shopping center.

    Police got calls around 9 p.m. Wednesday. An officer working inside the Dave & Busters was alerted by staff of a suspicious person outside, possibly carrying a gun.

    "As soon as I saw a guy with a gun, I ran," says a witness who didn't want to be identified, who says he and his friend were confronted by someone brandishing a gun.

    He lifts his shirt up and I turn around immediately, and I run and I'm telling people, 'Go, this guy has a gun,'" the witness said.

    After that, people at the shopping center posted to social media about hearing reports of a gunman.

    The man who was confronted by the gunman says he recognized him from a previous run-in, accusing him of breaking into his car months ago and stealing a designer bag.

    Earlier in the evening, he says, a friend noticed the man, confronted him, and that's when he says he left and came back with the gun.

    He says "He made some threats about shooting us and killing us."

    Police tell Eyewitness News they got conflicting statements from witnesses on whether or not he had a gun. Police eventually found him and say they had to use a Taser on him to take him into custody. They say he wasn't armed at the time, but they did find a shotgun inside his car.

    Police add the man with the gun was taken to a hospital for a mental evaluation. They say he could face charges.

    Follow TJ Parker on Facebook and Twitter.

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    https://nypost.com/2019/08/16/man-in...n-connecticut/

    NORWALK, Conn. — Authorities say they’ve arrested a Connecticut man interested in committing a mass shooting and seized weapons and ammunition from his home.

    Norwalk and FBI officials say 22-year-old Brandon Wagshol was charged Thursday with illegal possession of large capacity ammunition magazines. Police say they received a tip that Wagshol was trying to buy large-capacity rifle magazines from out of state.

    Officials allege Wagshol was attempting to build a rifle with parts bought online. They say a Facebook posting showed his interest in committing a mass shooting.

    Authorities say they seized firearms, body armor and other items from Wagshol’s home. They say the firearms are registered to his father.

    Wagshol was held on $250,000 bail. It wasn’t immediately clear if he has a lawyer who could respond to the allegations.

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    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50692597

    A shooting reported at a naval base in florida with 3 people dead.


    The gunman who killed three people at a US naval base in Pensacola, Florida, is a Saudi student, officials say.

    The suspect, a Saudi military member in training at the site, was shot dead after the attack in a classroom.

    The local sheriff's office confirmed eight others were injured in the attack. The shooter used a handgun.

    It is the second shooting to take place at a US military base after a US sailor shot dead two workers at the Pearl Harbour military base on Wednesday.

    Authorities were alerted to the shooting at the base on the waterfront southwest of Pensacola at 06:51 (12:51 GMT).

    "Walking through the crime scene was like being on the set of a movie," said Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan.

    Two officers were shot in the limbs but are expected to recover.

    "Obviously the government of Saudi Arabia needs to make things better for these victims," said the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis.

    "I think they're going to owe a debt here, given that this was one of their individuals," he added.

    An investigation was taking place and names of victims would not be released until next of kin had been notified, the US Navy said in a statement.

    President Donald Trump tweeted that he had received a full briefing.

    "My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families during this difficult time," he wrote.

    According to its website the naval airbase, which is still in lockdown, employs more than 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel.

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    https://fox40.com/news/national-and-...-dissolve-nra/

    NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s attorney general sued the National Rifle Association on Thursday, seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over allegations that high-ranking executives diverted millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.

    Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan after an 18-month investigation, highlighted misspending and self-dealing allegations that have roiled the NRA and its longtime leader, Wayne LaPierre, in recent years — from hair and makeup for his wife to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself.

    The troubles, which James said were long cloaked by loyal lieutenants and a pass-through payment arrangement with a vendor, started to come to light as the NRA’s deficit piled up and it struggled to find its footing after a spate of mass shootings eroded support for its pro-gun agenda. The organization went from a nearly $28 million surplus in 2015 to a $36 million deficit in 2018.

    James, a Democrat, argued that the organization’s prominence and cozy political relationships had lulled it into a sense of invincibility and enabled a culture where non-profit rules were routinely flouted and state and federal laws were violated. Even the NRA’s own bylaws and employee handbook were ignored, she said.

    “The NRA’s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,” James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.”

    A message seeking comment from the NRA about the lawsuit was left Thursday.

    James is taking aim at the NRA after her office last year dismantled President Donald Trump’s charitable foundation and fined him $2 million to settle allegations he used donations meant for worthy causes to further his own business and political interests. Though it is headquarters in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a non-profit in New York in 1871 and continues to be incorporated in the state.

    James also named LaPierre and three other current and former executives as defendants: corporate secretary and general counsel John Frazer, retired treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, and LaPierre’s former chief of staff Joshua Powell. While the lawsuit accuses all four men of wrongdoing and seeks fines and remuneration, none of them have been charged with a crime.

    LaPierre, who has been in charge of the NRA’s day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions of dollars on private travel and personal security, accepting expensive gifts such as African safaris and use of a 107-foot yacht from vendors and setting himself up with a $17 million contract with the NRA, if he were to exit the organization, without board approval.

    The lawsuit said LaPierre, 70, spent millions of the NRA’s dollars on travel consultants, including luxury black car services, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on private jet flights for himself and his family, including more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over a three-year span.

    Some of the NRA’s excess spending was kept secret, the lawsuit said, under an arrangement with the organization’s former advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen.

    The advertising firm would pick up the tab for various expenses for LaPierre and other NRA executives and then send a lump sum bill to the organization for “out-of-pocket expenses,” the lawsuit said.

    Frazer, the corporate secretary and general counsel, is accused of aiding the alleged misconduct by certifying false or misleading annual regulatory filings, failing to comply with governance procedures, failing to enforce a conflict of interest policy, and failing to ensure that board members were reviewing transactions or that the the organization was following the law.

    Phillips is accused of overseeing the pass-through arrangement. The lawsuit said he ignored or downplayed whistleblower complaints and made a deal to enrich himself in retirement — a bogus $1.8 million contract to consult for the incoming treasurer and a deal worth $1 million for his girlfriend.

    Powell, the former LaPierre chief of staff, is accused of getting his father a $90,000 photography gig through an NRA vendor, arranging a $5 million contract for a consulting firm where his wife worked and pocketing $100,000 more in housing and relocation reimbursements than the organization’s rules allowed. He was fired after 3? years for allegedly misappropriating NRA funds.

    The lawsuit comes at a time when the NRA is trying to remain relevant and a force in the 2020 presidential election as it seeks to help President Donald Trump secure a second term.

    There has been an ongoing factional war within organization, pitting some of its most ardent gun-rights supporters and loyalists against one another. The NRA has traded lawsuits with Ackerman McQueen, which crafted some of its most prominent messages for decades, eventually severing ties with it last year and scrapping its controversial NRA-TV, which aired many of its most controversial messages.

    The internal battles reached a fevered pitch at its 2019 annual meeting where its then-president, Oliver North, was denied a traditional second term amid a tussle with LaPierre as he sought to independently review the NRA’s expenses and operations. He accused LaPierre of exerting “dictatorial” control.

    Chris Cox, the NRA’s longtime lobbyist and widely viewed as a likely successor to LaPierre, left after being accused of working behind the scenes with North to undermine LaPierre.

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    https://fox40.com/news/national-and-...-dissolve-nra/

    NEW YORK (AP) ? New York?s attorney general sued the National Rifle Association on Thursday, seeking to put the powerful gun advocacy organization out of business over allegations that high-ranking executives diverted millions of dollars for lavish personal trips, no-show contracts for associates and other questionable expenditures.

    Attorney General Letitia James? lawsuit, filed in state court in Manhattan after an 18-month investigation, highlighted misspending and self-dealing allegations that have roiled the NRA and its longtime leader, Wayne LaPierre, in recent years ? from hair and makeup for his wife to a $17 million post-employment contract for himself.

    The troubles, which James said were long cloaked by loyal lieutenants and a pass-through payment arrangement with a vendor, started to come to light as the NRA?s deficit piled up and it struggled to find its footing after a spate of mass shootings eroded support for its pro-gun agenda. The organization went from a nearly $28 million surplus in 2015 to a $36 million deficit in 2018.

    James, a Democrat, argued that the organization?s prominence and cozy political relationships had lulled it into a sense of invincibility and enabled a culture where non-profit rules were routinely flouted and state and federal laws were violated. Even the NRA?s own bylaws and employee handbook were ignored, she said.

    ?The NRA?s influence has been so powerful that the organization went unchecked for decades while top executives funneled millions into their own pockets,? James said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. ?The NRA is fraught with fraud and abuse, which is why, today, we seek to dissolve the NRA, because no organization is above the law.?

    A message seeking comment from the NRA about the lawsuit was left Thursday.

    James is taking aim at the NRA after her office last year dismantled President Donald Trump?s charitable foundation and fined him $2 million to settle allegations he used donations meant for worthy causes to further his own business and political interests. Though it is headquarters in Virginia, the NRA was chartered as a non-profit in New York in 1871 and continues to be incorporated in the state.

    James also named LaPierre and three other current and former executives as defendants: corporate secretary and general counsel John Frazer, retired treasurer and chief financial officer Wilson Phillips, and LaPierre?s former chief of staff Joshua Powell. While the lawsuit accuses all four men of wrongdoing and seeks fines and remuneration, none of them have been charged with a crime.

    LaPierre, who has been in charge of the NRA?s day-to-day operations since 1991, is accused of spending millions of dollars on private travel and personal security, accepting expensive gifts such as African safaris and use of a 107-foot yacht from vendors and setting himself up with a $17 million contract with the NRA, if he were to exit the organization, without board approval.

    The lawsuit said LaPierre, 70, spent millions of the NRA?s dollars on travel consultants, including luxury black car services, and hundreds of thousands of dollars on private jet flights for himself and his family, including more than $500,000 on eight trips to the Bahamas over a three-year span.

    Some of the NRA?s excess spending was kept secret, the lawsuit said, under an arrangement with the organization?s former advertising agency, Ackerman McQueen.

    The advertising firm would pick up the tab for various expenses for LaPierre and other NRA executives and then send a lump sum bill to the organization for ?out-of-pocket expenses,? the lawsuit said.

    Frazer, the corporate secretary and general counsel, is accused of aiding the alleged misconduct by certifying false or misleading annual regulatory filings, failing to comply with governance procedures, failing to enforce a conflict of interest policy, and failing to ensure that board members were reviewing transactions or that the the organization was following the law.

    Phillips is accused of overseeing the pass-through arrangement. The lawsuit said he ignored or downplayed whistleblower complaints and made a deal to enrich himself in retirement ? a bogus $1.8 million contract to consult for the incoming treasurer and a deal worth $1 million for his girlfriend.

    Powell, the former LaPierre chief of staff, is accused of getting his father a $90,000 photography gig through an NRA vendor, arranging a $5 million contract for a consulting firm where his wife worked and pocketing $100,000 more in housing and relocation reimbursements than the organization?s rules allowed. He was fired after 3? years for allegedly misappropriating NRA funds.

    The lawsuit comes at a time when the NRA is trying to remain relevant and a force in the 2020 presidential election as it seeks to help President Donald Trump secure a second term.

    There has been an ongoing factional war within organization, pitting some of its most ardent gun-rights supporters and loyalists against one another. The NRA has traded lawsuits with Ackerman McQueen, which crafted some of its most prominent messages for decades, eventually severing ties with it last year and scrapping its controversial NRA-TV, which aired many of its most controversial messages.

    The internal battles reached a fevered pitch at its 2019 annual meeting where its then-president, Oliver North, was denied a traditional second term amid a tussle with LaPierre as he sought to independently review the NRA?s expenses and operations. He accused LaPierre of exerting ?dictatorial? control.

    Chris Cox, the NRA?s longtime lobbyist and widely viewed as a likely successor to LaPierre, left after being accused of working behind the scenes with North to undermine LaPierre.

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    https://www.kron4.com/news/national/...ion-to-school/

    CALLAHAN, Fla. (NEXSTAR) — Law enforcement arrested a 12-year-old in Florida after the child brought three handguns to school, according to local officials.

    The Associated Press reports the boy was taken into custody Thursday at Lighthouse Christian School in Nassau County.

    A teacher at the school reportedly found two guns, a .38-caliber revolver and a small semi-automatic handgun, as well as two boxes of ammunition in the child’s lunchbox. Administrators then found a loaded semi-automatic on the boy.

    According to deputies, a disturbing drawing of a man outside a school surrounded by dead bodies was in the boy’s desk.

    Local officials reported the boy had shown the guns to other students.

    He’s been charged with possession of a firearm on school property.

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    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54738047

    Walmart has removed gun and ammunition from display in thousands of its stores in the United States, citing concerns of "civil unrest".

    Customers will still be able to buy guns and ammunition on request. It is not yet known how long firearms will be removed from the sales floor.

    Walmart sells firearms in around half of its 4,700 stores in the US.

    The decision comes after a fatal police shooting in Philadelphia triggered protests that saw some shops looted.

    The family of Walter Wallace Jr, an African American, says he was suffering a mental health crisis when officers opened fire on him. Police say they shot him because he would not drop a knife.

    Walmart also withdrew guns and ammunition from some outlets in June after stores were damaged during protests following the killing of George Floyd.

    Walmart changes gun policies after shootings
    "We have seen some isolated civil unrest and as we have done on several occasions over the last few years, we have moved our firearms and ammunition off the sales floor as a precaution for the safety of our associates and customers," the retail giant's spokesman Kory Lundberg said in a statement on Thursday.

    Last year, Walmart stopped sales of some types of ammunition that can be used in assault-style weapons, and those used in handguns. This followed shootings, including an assault at one of its stores in Texas, that left 22 dead.

    It stopped selling assault-style weapons in 2015.

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    https://news.yahoo.com/boulder-assau...134123614.html

    Yahoo News
    Boulder's assault weapons ban was blocked by a judge 10 days before supermarket shooting
    Christopher Wilson
    Christopher Wilson?Senior Writer
    Tue, March 23, 2021, 6:41 AM?4 min read
    Ten days before a gunman opened fire on Monday at a Boulder, Colo., supermarket, a judge knocked down the city’s ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. Ten people were killed at King Soopers grocery store near the University of Colorado, including a police officer, before the suspect was injured and taken into custody.

    As of Tuesday morning, police have yet to release details on the suspect or the weapon used in the shooting, and it’s unclear if the ban would have covered the gun involved. But the court’s move is striking in its recency, especially after a law enforcement official told CNN that an AR-15-style rifle was used in Boulder. The same type of weapon was used in a number of recent mass shootings, including in Parkland, Fla., in 2018, Las Vegas in 2017, Orlando in 2016 and Newtown, Conn., in 2012.

    In 2018, following the Parkland shooting, which killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Boulder City Council banned the sale and possession of assault weapons. Those who owned the guns had a year to either sell them, turn them in to the city, destroy them or acquire a permit. Shortly after the law passed, the law was challenged by the National Rifle Association’s Colorado affiliate, along with a Boulder gun store and two residents.

    “I hope and pray we never have a mass shooting in Boulder,” City Attorney Tom Carr told the Daily Camera in March 2018. “What this ordinance is about is reducing, on the margins, the ease with which somebody could do that.”

    On March 12, Boulder County District Court Judge Andrew Hartman ruled that the city’s ban on the possession, transfer or sale of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines was invalid and that local municipalities couldn’t issue such bans. Critics of such local ordinances also argue that the bans are ineffective because people can get around them by traveling a short distance to where they are no longer in effect.

    “The city of Boulder’s assault weapons and (large-capacity magazine) ban could create a ripple effect across the state by encouraging other municipalities to enact their own bans, ultimately leading to a statewide de facto ban or to a patchwork of municipal laws regulating assault weapons and LCMs,” Hartman wrote in his order.

    The city told police to stop enforcing the ban as it deliberated whether to appeal the ruling to the Colorado State Supreme Court. There was also a federal lawsuit pending against the ordinance.

    The NRA lauded Hartman’s ruling, tweeting, “ICYMI: A Colorado judge gave law-abiding gun owners something to celebrate. In an [NRA Institute for Legislative Action]-supported case, he ruled that the city of Boulder’s ban on commonly-owned rifles (AR-15s) and 10+ round mags was preempted by state law and STRUCK THEM DOWN.”

    Monday's shooting came less than a week after a gunman in the Atlanta area killed eight people, including six Asian women, at three separate locations. That weapon was not an AR-15-style rifle: The alleged shooter legally purchased a 9 mm handgun shortly before the shooting.

    According to the Associated Press, the Boulder shooting was the seventh mass killing this year, defined as four or more dead, not including the shooter. The Boulder and Atlanta shootings follow the lowest yearly number of such attacks in a decade in 2020, which was marked by pandemic and quarantine.

    “This is a tragedy and a nightmare for Boulder County,” the county's district attorney, Michael Dougherty said. “These were people going about their day, doing their shopping. I promise the victims and the people of the state of Colorado that we will secure justice.”

    Earlier this month, Democrats and eight Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed two gun safety measures that would expand background checks. The legislation’s fate in the U.S. Senate is murky, as activists hope to pressure President Biden into action.

    "It remains a commitment, a personal commitment of the president's, to do more on gun safety, to put more measures in place, to use the power of the presidency, to work with Congress. And certainly there's an important role for the attorney general and the Justice Department to play in this regard," White House press secretary Jen Psaki said last week following the Atlanta shooting.

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    https://www.kron4.com/news/national/...uns-in-public/

    HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s strict limit on openly carrying firearms is lawful, a panel of federal appeals court judges ruled Wednesday in a lawsuit by a man who tried unsuccessfully several times to obtain a license to carry a loaded gun in public.

    George Young’s lawyer said he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. “We are hopeful the Supreme Court will grant review in Mr. Young’s case,” attorney Alan Beck said.

    These are the names of the 10 Colorado mass shooting victims and suspect
    Young wants to carry a gun for self-defense and says that not being able to do so violates his rights. His 2012 lawsuit was dismissed, with a judge siding with officials who said the Second Amendment only applied to guns kept in homes.

    He appealed. Three federal appeals court judges later ruled in his favor but the state asked for a fuller panel of judges to hear the case.

    That panel of 11 judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday “held that the Second Amendment does not guarantee an unfettered, general right to openly carry arms in public for individual self-defense. Accordingly, Hawai‘i’s firearms-carry scheme is lawful.”

    Senator optimistic Congress will reach a compromise on gun laws
    The Second Amendment allows states “to enact common sense regulations like those we have in Hawaii,” state Attorney General Clare Connors said in statement. The ruling properly upholds the constitutionality of Hawaii’s “longstanding law allowing persons to carry firearms openly in public when licensed to do so,” she said.

    Hawaii has a “de facto ban” on carrying guns in public, Beck said.

    It’s not a flat ban because individuals can carry firearms if they have good cause, Neal Katyal, an attorney representing Hawaii, argued before the panel in September.

    The ruling comes on the same day the Hawaii attorney general’s office issued a report showing that all private citizens who applied for licenses to carry a gun in public in 2020 were denied.

    Timeline: Mass Shooting at Charleston Church
    Statewide last year, 123 employees of private security firms applied for and were issued carry licenses and one was denied, according to the report.

    Young’s applications failed to identify “the urgency or the need” to openly carry a firearm in public, the ruling noted: “Instead, Young relied upon his general desire to carry a firearm for self-defense.”

    Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain, one of the four dissenting judges, wrote that the majority’s finding that the Second Amendment only guarantees the right to keep a firearm for self-defense within one’s home, “is as unprecedented as it is extreme.”

  18. #1143
    Moderator puzzld's Avatar
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    I support the 2nd amendment. People should have all the muskets they want!

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1384304899295387656
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

  19. #1144
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    Can't be bothered with a new thread for them all...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL3t9WOL678
    Philadelphia shooting.
    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    lol at Nestle being some vicious smiter, she's the nicest person on this site besides probably puzzld. Or at least the last person to resort to smiting.
    Quote Originally Posted by nestlequikie View Post
    Why on earth would I smite you when I can ban you?

  20. #1145
    Senior Citizen Nomad's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by puzzld View Post
    Can't be bothered with a new thread for them all...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL3t9WOL678
    Philadelphia shooting.
    Saw that one. I'm actively looking for an apartment in that exact neighborhood.
    "A vagabond dreamer, a rhymer and singer of songs
    Singing to no one and nowhere to really belong." - Waylon Jennings

  21. #1146
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nomad View Post
    Saw that one. I'm actively looking for an apartment in that exact neighborhood.
    I would maybe consider another neighborhood.

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Chelsea, if you are a ghost and reading mds, I command you to walk into the light.

  22. #1147
    Cousin Greg Angiebla's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by raisedbywolves View Post
    But where? Nowhere is safe from this. If you leave your house these days there is a good chance you could be involved in a mass shooting. It's insane.
    You do have a point. My mom was looking at a house near me. Two people have been murdered in the area, I cant find them but they supposedly happen. So I live in a murder area.

    "The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man" -Charles Darwin

    Quote Originally Posted by bowieluva View Post
    Chelsea, if you are a ghost and reading mds, I command you to walk into the light.

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