GUNS IN THE NEWS--March 17, 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:
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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.
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[MrBenchley]

1. Las Vegas Police Nab Ohio Sniper Suspect

LAS VEGAS - Charles A. McCoy Jr., suspected in two dozen sniper shootings that have terrorized motorists along Ohio highways, was arrested at a Las Vegas motel early Wednesday, authorities said.
The 24 shootings around several highways on the southern outskirts of Columbus pierced homes and a school, dented school buses, flattened tires and shattered windshields. They began in May.


The shootings prompted commuters to take detours and schools to cancel classes or hold recess indoors. Police increased patrols and offered a $60,000 reward. The state installed cameras on poles along Interstate 270.


The only person struck, Gail Knisley, 62, was killed as a friend drove her to a doctor's appointment Nov. 25. Lab tests showed that bullets from nine of the shootings — including the one that killed Knisley — were fired from the same gun. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040317/ap_on_re_us/highway_shootings&cid=519&ncid=716

[RoeBear]

6. I wonder if they were able to track...

...him down to this motel because he paid with a credit card?

[MrBenchley]

7. The story says....

"Police were told of McCoy's whereabouts by a person who recognized him from media reports, Van Cleef said. Las Vegas police said they staked out McCoy's motel and arrested him after he identified himself. "


http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040317/480/ny11403171247

As somebody pointed out, he looks like Bill O'Really's bastard son....

[MrBenchley]

25. Update: Hotel Patron Leads Police To Suspected Highway Shooter

"A man enjoying pizza at a Las Vegas hotel recognized Charles McCoy from a newspaper story and collected items that the suspected Ohio highway shooter touched before the man called police.
Conrad Malsom, of Las Vegas, said he told authorities he was sharing a large pizza at the Stardust Hotel with some friends and offered the rest to a man who he said he immediately recognized.
"When he returned and accepted the pizza, I knew instantly who I was talking to and giving the pizza to because I had looked at the USA Today and maybe took a second or third look at that picture, which they had on the front page," Malsom said. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ibsys/20040317/lo_wlwt/2055678&e=1&ncid=

[MrBenchley]

2. Boy, 3, fatally shoots himself (NC)

"Winston-Salem police have filed charges against the grandfather of a 3-year-old boy who fatally shot himself in the face inside the grandfather's apartment Monday night.
The grandfather, Hiram Goins, has been charged with misdemeanor child neglect and failure to store a firearm out of reach of a minor. Police were still looking for him last night.
Goins, 46, was in charge of watching his grandson, Andre Lomont Taylor Jr., when the shooting happened about 9:03 p.m., police Lt. Randy Weavil said.
Andre, who went by A.J., apparently was in a bedroom alone when he got the small-caliber handgun and it discharged, Weavil said. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to his head.
Police are investigating how A.J. got access to the gun."

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031774339746

[MrBenchley]

3. I-580 shooting suspect's bid for lower bail denied (CA)

"A San Joaquin County judge refused on Tuesday to reduce the bail for a Stockton man who state and federal investigators believe is responsible for a series of shootings last month along Interstate 580.
Defense attorney Eric Taylor had asked Judge Richard Mallett to lower Christopher Gafford's bail from $150,000 to $25,000, the original amount he had posted in November after an arrest on drug charges.
Authorities arrested Gafford on Thursday, saying tips led them to consider the 27-year-old as their prime suspect in the shooting of eight vehicles along I-580 between San Leandro and Dublin. But a day later, Tom Rogers, an Alameda County assistant district attorney, said there was not enough evidence to file charges.
A few hours earlier, a judge revoked Gafford's earlier bail on the drug charges, and he was returned to a San Joaquin County jail Monday. Prosecutors there contended that Gafford violated terms of his pre-trial release when he failed to attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings."

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/8206280.htm

[MrBenchley]

4. Police: Clerk Refuses To Hand Over Money, Gets Shot (FL)

"A North Miami convenience store clerk who didn't want to give up money to robbers is now in the hospital battling for his life, police say.
The clerk was working Tuesday night at the Super Stop Food Store at 123rd Street and Northeast 6th Avenue when he was shot in the stomach after not giving three robbers what they wanted, according to investigators. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20040317/lo_wplg/2055094

[MrBenchley]

5. East Point man charged in shooting death on street (GA)

"Atlanta police early Wednesday arrested an East Point man and charged him with the shooting death of another man on a southeast Atlanta street.
The shooting occurred about 10:40 p.m. Tuesday in the 1100 block of Rebel Forest Road, according to Atlanta police homicide Det. Steve Balkcom.
A 22-year-old friend of the dead man was also shot, and was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in serious condition, Balkcom said."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/0304/17atlshooting.html

[MrBenchley]

8. Bullets fired into car hurt 9-year-old (VA)

"A 9-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after someone fired into the car her mother was driving Monday night on Laburnum Avenue, striking the girl multiple times.
The family's car was sprayed with gunfire by someone in a large, white "SUV-type vehicle" shortly after 8:30 p.m., as both vehicles were heading west on Laburnum near Fenwick Street in Henrico County, police said.
Henrico police are investigating the possibility that the gunman mistook the family's car for a nearly identical vehicle it had been chasing moments earlier. A late-model Toyota Camry sped past the family's car with its lights off, ahead of the SUV.
Shortly before the shooting, the girl's mother saw both of those vehicles come up from behind "at a pretty good rate of speed . . . crisscrossing in the right and left lane, dodging around with each other," said Henrico police Lt. Jim Price."

http://www.timesdispatch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=RTD%2FMGArticle%2FRTD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031774336609&path=%21news&s=1045855934842

[MrBenchley]

9. VPC Hails New York State Assembly's Passage of 50 Caliber Sniper Rifle Ban

"WASHINGTON, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- The Violence Policy Center (VPC) today applauded the New York State Assembly for voting to ban 50 caliber sniper rifles as part of a gun violence prevention package passed yesterday. The measure must now go to the New York State Senate. The legislative effort was spearheaded by New Yorkers Against Gun Violence (NYAGV), the state's leading gun violence prevention organization.
VPC Senior Policy Analyst Tom Diaz, author of the VPC studies, states, "Today's action by the New York State Assembly sends a strong message to New York state residents and citizens across the country that these weapons of war must be banned. Fifty caliber rifles, used by our troops in Iraq and around the world, can penetrate armor plating and are accurate up to 2,000 yards, yet they are as easy to buy as a hunting rifle, and less restricted than handguns."
In the wake of the State Assembly vote, the VPC warns that industry front groups, such as the Fifty Caliber Institute (FCI), will repeat a well-worn pattern of distortion and misrepresentation in their efforts to stop restrictions on these weapons of war. In response to such efforts, the VPC today released Really Big Guns, Even Bigger Lies, a report rebutting a series of distortions and misstatements made by the Fifty Caliber Institute, and documenting the group's twisting of facts and use of flatly wrong technical data in its attempts to hide the truth about the clear public safety threat posed by 50 caliber sniper rifles."

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040316/dctu052_1.html

[slackmaster]

11. And the number of crimes committed in the US with 50-caliber rifles is...

About zero.

...In response to such efforts, the VPC today released Really Big Guns, Even Bigger Lies, a report rebutting a series of distortions and misstatements made by the Fifty Caliber Institute, and documenting the group's twisting of facts and use of flatly wrong technical data in its attempts to hide the truth about the clear public safety threat posed by 50 caliber sniper rifles...

Whine, whine, whine. :nopity: I thought you people didn't want to be bothered with Gun Porn Details(TM).

And you can buy the report from VPC. Just have your credit card ready. :eyes:

BTW the Fifty Caliber Institute is having a fundraiser. For a $20 donation you get one chance to win a nice custom 50 BMG target rifle. I just sent mine in yesterday. They killed a 50 caliber rifle ban in California last year. Maybe New York will see the light this year.

http://www.fiftycal.org/fci1.html



DISCLAIMER: I present this link to provide a rebuttal to VPC's responses to FCI's policy. I am not a member of FCI nor do I endorse sales of anything.

[demsrule4life]

19. $20.00 Donation?

I guess they arent making any money from their fake blacklist.

[MrBenchley]

21. Gee, dems, I downloaded a copy for free

just by clicking on a link...

Maybe I ought to start charging you for posting here (snicker).

[demsrule4life]

23. Who put you in charge?

[MrBenchley]

24. Gee, dems....I just figured you plan to pay $20 for free stuff

[MrBenchley]

10. Officials: Shooting May Have Caused Freeway Accident (TX)

"A possible highway shooting turned into a traffic pileup on the West Loop late Tuesday night, officials told News2Houston.
Houston police are looking for three suspects they believe caused a dangerous wreck on the West Loop at the Southwest Freeway around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday.
"The guy in a white car says he was the one who got shot at -- they shot out his back window," Houston Police Department officer Michael Wick said. "(The driver) said he doesn't know why (his window was shot out) ... he doesn't know (the shooter)."
After the driver in the white car heard the gunshot, he began chasing a green car, trying to get the vehicle's license plate number.
The white car driver's attempt to chase the person who he believed shot at his vehicle created a three-car pileup, involving his vehicle, the green car and a brown sport utility vehicle that was in the wrong place at the wrong time, officials said. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20040317/lo_kprc/2055199

[MrBenchley]

12. Drill Prepares Edmond Officers For School Shooting (OK)

"Edmond police officers and firefighters performed a drill Monday that officials said was designed to prepare for the possibility of a school shooting.
The drill happened at Edmond Santa Fe High School, according to Eyewitness News 5's Mark Opgrande.
Edmond Police Chief Bob Ricks said the drill involved patrol officer and firefighters who would be the first responders in a school shooting scenario. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20040317/lo_koco/2052839

[MrBenchley]

13. Duluth man sought in wife's slaying (GA)

"Authorities are searching for a 41-year-old man who is suspected of fatally shooting his wife Tuesday morning and then fleeing their Duluth-area apartment.
A nationwide all-points bulletin has been issued for Antanacio Jaines.
Late Tuesday, Gwinnett police were asking other agencies to help in the search for Antanacio Jaines, who fled in a blue Dodge Durango truck, police said.
The manhunt began when police were called to the Springs apartments in the 4100 block of Satellite Boulevard at 1:30 a.m.
Officers found 31-year-old Alejandria Bueno dead from a gunshot wound to the head, Huggins said."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/gwinnett/0304/17slaying.html

[MrBenchley]

14. Police say they had right man, wrong identity (IN)

"Marion County Sheriff investigators say they had the right man -- just not the right identity -- when they arrested the suspected shooter of a 14-year-old last week.
Capt. Phil Burton said detectives discovered their suspect's true identity Monday when the man whose name was being used called detectives to let them know that he wasn't the one in jail.
Moreover, the caller, Juan A. Moreno, told detectives that he had lost his wallet in June of 2003 and had later learned, when he went to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles branch to record a change of address, that someone else had used his identity to obtain a license.
The shooting suspect then told detectives that he was Arturo Lopez, 23, 2100 block of Stoneham Drive and not Moreno.
Detectives arrested the Northwestside man Friday evening after they were called to the 5300 block of Rockville Road and found Jorge Ortiz, 14, of Indianapolis critically injured from a gunshot wound to the chest and lying in the back seat of a car."

http://www.indystar.com/articles/1/130149-7381-093.html

[slackmaster]

15. We need to start microchipping all children at birth

That way this kind of error will never happen again.

:freak:

BTW I was once a victim of identity theft.

[MrBenchley]

16. KC man charged in slaying of wife

Jackson County prosecutors on Tuesday accused a man of fatally shooting his wife in front of three children younger than 5.
Rosie J. Webb was talking to a friend on the telephone about 10:45 a.m. Monday when she was shot. According to court records, the friend heard a gunshot, then a small child picked up the phone and said, “Daddy's got a gun and shot Mommy.”
Jackson County prosecutors charged Antonio L. Webb, 27, with second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the death of his 23-year-old wife at their home in the 3200 block of Wabash Avenue. He was in jail Tuesday night; his bond was set at $100,000."

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/8203155.htm

[MrBenchley]

17. Two Dead, One Injured In Westside Shooting (FL)

"Two people are dead and another hospitalized after a double murder on the Westside Tuesday morning.
Neighbors said they heard a loud disturbance and then gunshots at about 7 a.m. at the mobile home, located in the 6600 block of Ricker Road.
Shortly after the shooting, witnesses said one of the victims ran to a nearby gas station at the corner of Ricker and Morse roads.
"We received a call from a citizen that a woman was walking down Ricker Road, bleeding profusely with a towel around her," said Ken Jefferson of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ibsys/20040317/lo_wjxt/2054295&e=3

[MrBenchley]

18. DREW SHARP: Spartans' Brown mourns slain friend (MI)

"EAST LANSING -- Innocence, like youth, is lost on the young. They believe they're invulnerable, impervious to destiny's cruel whims. When they ask "Why?" it's imperative for the wiser, more experienced hand to mold such mysteries within the practical framework of "Why not?"
Shannon Brown's phone rang around 10 p.m. on the evening of March 1, bringing unthinkable news from home. His best friend, Calvin Ector, was dead -- ambushed by masked men wielding AK-47 automatic weapons on a neighborhood street in Bellwood, Ill. Police believe Ector, an honor student, was a victim of mistaken identity, coldly executed simply because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It couldn't be. Not again.
It was only three years earlier when Brown lost a cousin, who was more like a sister, to that lethal combination of kids and guns. "

http://www.freep.com/sports/drewsharp/drew17_20040317.htm

[MrBenchley]

20. Student Shoots Himself at School in Wash.

"JOYCE, Wash. - A boy shot and seriously wounded himself Wednesday at a school in this small town, sending the campus into lockdown, sheriff's officers said.
Clallam County Undersheriff Fred DeFrang told radio station KONP-AM that the boy arrived on campus at about 10 a.m. He declined to release details about the boy's age, identity or wounds.
There are two schools on the campus, the 120-student Crescent Elementary and the 110-student Crescent Junior-Senior High. The district recommended that parents keep their children at school, but said they could pick them up. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040317/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting_1

[MrBenchley]

22. Serial Rape Suspect's Victim Comes Forward (TX)

HOUSTON -- Another possible victim of serial rape suspect Mykaya Lee Riley came forward Wednesday to tell her story of sexual assault, News2Houston reported.


Video


""He has done it a lot and he needs to be stopped. And if there is anybody else that is out there that can help get him off the streets, they need to come forward," Barns said.
Barns told officials she agreed to perform a sexual act inside Riley's car but wanted out when he allegedly pulled a gun and held it to her head.
Missouri City police believe Riley may have assaulted several women, some are admitted prostitutes.
Riley was put behind bars with a $400,000 bond Tuesday for several counts of aggravated sexual assault"

http://www.click2houston.com/news/2929576/detail.html

[MrBenchley]

26. 3 charged in killing of restaurant owner (NJ)

"CAMDEN - Three young Camden men were charged yesterday with murdering the owner of a Chinese restaurant last week moments after the merchant gave them all the cash he had in his register: $150.
Brandon B. Smith, 19, and Omar D. McClarin, 25, who live near the Happy Dragon Restaurant on 28th Street, where the killing took place, were arrested Monday and arraigned yesterday on felony murder charges. Tori Cobbs, 19, was arrested yesterday afternoon at his South 27th Street home, also near the Happy Dragon.
Through an interpreter, the son said in an interview last week that when he went downstairs to investigate, he startled one of the gunmen, who then fired. Four shots hit the father's torso, and one hit his head, authorities said."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/8203370.htm

[MrBenchley]

27. Passer-By Spots Dead Woman Slumped Over In Parked Car (FL)

"TEMPLE TERRACE - Sharonn Niblack just stopped at the Temple Terrace Post Office to buy stamps and mail a letter, but she made a gruesome discovery in the parking lot.
Niblack glanced into the next car and saw the driver slumped over a bag of dog food in the passenger seat. Then she noticed the driver's- side window was shattered.
``I'm like, `That does not look right,' '' Niblack said. ``I stood back from the car and called 911, and I said, `I think somebody's dead in the parking lot of the Temple Terrace Post Office.' ''
Temple Terrace police confirmed that the woman found in the red Toyota Tercel was dead, apparently the victim of a gunshot to the head. "

http://news.tbo.com/news/MGAWX80YWRD.html

[MrBenchley]

28. 2 People Shot Downtown After St. Patrick's Day Parade (MO)

The NRA's contribution to St. Patrick's day...casualties and terror.

Two people were shot in downtown Kansas City after the St. Patrick's Day Parade on Wednesday.
Police, who were nearby at the time, chased down the suspected shooter and took him into custody. The suspected gunman appeared to be in his teens, KMBC's Dan Weinbaum reported.
Earlier in the day, a different man brandished a gun during the parade and was also arrested. No one was hurt in that incident. "

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ibsys/20040317/lo_kmbc/2056197