A gun owner suspected of drinking while honing his marksmanship skills had his guns seized “for safekeeping” and got a court summons for illegal discharge of a weapon, police said.

Brian Beagan, 35, told officers he fired his Mossberg .22 rifle in the front and back yards of his Saadi Street home about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Houma Police Chief Todd Duplantis said.

Officers detected “a strong odor of alcoholic beverage” from Beagan, who lives across the street from Acadian Elementary, Duplantis said.

http://www.dailycomet.com/article/20140110/HURBLOG/140119989/1223?Title=Guns-seized-from-Houma-home

After a convicted felon reportedly made threats to kill his mother on New Year’s Eve, authorities found 11 firearms at a Wappapello residence.

Randolph D. Conway, 56, was charged Thursday, Jan. 2, with two Class C felonies of unlawful possession of a weapon. He was also charged with a Class A misdemeanor of harassment. When arrested, he was in possession of a Ruger semiautomatic rifle and a short-barrelled shotgun.

Conway allegedly had spoken to his mother on the telephone and threatened her and wished her dead, according to a probable cause statement. He then showed up at her residence. He stayed inside the vehicle and telephoned his mother once more. During the course of another argument, Conway stated that if Theodore Conway came outside the residence, he would shoot him.

http://www.waynecojournalbanner.com/news/article_4bc78726-7a2b-11e3-a07b-001a4bcf6878.html

An order to revoke the license of a Menallen Township firearms dealer was upheld for the second time, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. But that has not stopped the man from selling his weapons as an individual.

Scott W. Taylor, operator of Taylor's Trading Post, said his guns became his personal property and he is selling them as a private citizen.

While Taylor is no longer licensed to engage in the business of selling firearms, he is permitted to sell guns as a private citizen, said Amanda Endy, secretary to the United States Attorney's Harrisburg office.

"I can still sell the guns as a private citizen," Taylor said. "I don't have to do paperwork, no background checks, I just have to get the money."

http://www.eveningsun.com/local/ci_24857113/gun-license-revocation-upheld-menallen-township-gun-dealer

STAMFORD -- A Norwalk man who shot three men while trying to defend himself from local gang members in South Norwalk, and was subsequently picked up with a pistol while out on bond, was sentenced Tuesday to two years in jail.

Christopher Entzminger-Joyner, 22, of Taylor Avenue, pleaded guilty in November to illegal discharge of a firearm and carrying a pistol without a permit.

In November, Entzminger-Joyner's attorney Steven DeLeo said his client was being attacked by a gang of youths when he pulled out a gun and shot at the attackers.

His other attorney Mark Sherman said on Tuesday that Entzminger-Joyner has accepted responsibility and is looking forward to moving on with his life.

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/policereports/article/Norwalk-man-gets-two-years-for-self-defense-5122223.php

An Indianapolis police officer’s lawsuit against the original seller of a handgun later used to wound him might have to overcome a state law in Indiana that gives gun sellers significant immunity.

The lawsuit filed Dec. 10 in a Marion County court by the Washington-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence claims KS&E Sports of Indianapolis negligently sold the handgun used to shoot Officer Dwayne Runnels in 2011.

Runnels was wounded in the leg during an exchange of gunfire in which Demetrious Martin was killed. Tarus Blackburn pleaded guilty to federal charges of illegally selling the weapon to Martin, who couldn’t legally possess a firearm because he was a convicted felon.

The lawsuit claims Blackburn accompanied Martin to KS&E Sports in October 2011, bought a gun that Martin picked out and then sold it to Martin in the store’s parking lot. The lawsuit alleges the gun shop’s workers should have known Blackburn was making a “straw purchase” for Martin.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/midwest/2013/12/13/314417.htm

New Yorkers gauge registration and confiscation of firearms in the aftermath of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s landmark gun control law, the Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2013.

“The next relevant deadline is April 16, 2014 the date the people are supposed to have their long arms registered,” said Assemblyman William R. Nojay (R. – Pittsford).

The registration system is in place and firearm owners can register today, he said.

Low compliance rates will put the governor in an interesting position especially in an election year, said Nojay. “I think registration rates are going to be less than 10 percent.”

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/12/08/empire-state-gun-owners-bracing-for-cuomos-confiscation-scheme/

Jerome M. Hauer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's director of homeland security, took out his handgun and used the laser sighting device attached to the barrel as a pointer in a presentation to a foreign delegation, according to public officials. It happened Oct. 24 in Albany at the highly secure state emergency operations center below State Police headquarters.

These officials, one of whom claimed to be an eyewitness, said that three Swedish emergency managers in the delegation were rattled when the gun's laser tracked across one of their heads before Hauer found the map of New York, at which he wanted to point.

Hauer, commissioner of the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, was disabled by a stroke a few years ago and can be unsteady. He isn't a law enforcement official. He carries the loaded 9-millimeter Glock in a holster into state buildings, an apparent violation of state law barring state employees from bringing weapons to the workplace, several witnesses say.

The incident with the Swedish delegation occurred during a two-hour briefing at the operations center concerning the state's response to Superstorm Sandy, according to one of the officials.

http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Ready-aim-point-talk-5116592.php#photo-5683948

There is an idea for a semiconductor application that has been kicked around for years, but has not yet found its market. It’s the notion of using RFID chips to prevent guns from being used by anyone except their owners.

If you look back over the past year alone you will find that a number of killings have resulted from the killer appropriating someone else’s gun. It’s not unusual for a killer to shoot a police officer with another officer’s gun, or even that officer’s own gun. The school shootings that are becoming increasingly frequent in the US are often committed by a child using a parent’s gun. Firearms stolen from homes and cars are often used in gang violence. If a gun would be useful only to its owner these deaths might be avoided.

Fellow Forbes blogger Larry Bell gives some interesting statistics from a Department of Justice survey of prison inmates in his post: Disarming Realities: As Gun Sales Soar, Gun Crimes Plummet. The survey found that 37% of inmates used a family member’s gun and another 40% obtained their weapon from an illegal source. Some of these crimes may have been avoided if firearms could be operated exclusively by their owners.

There are lots of ideas of how to prevent unauthorized gun use, and in fact there is even a Wikipedia page that describes a few of them. Of course, there’s the obvious solution of keeping guns in a safe. Gun safes do a lot to prevent theft or misappropriation by a family member. Some companies have worked out ways to add biometric sensors to weapons to prevent their unauthorized use. These are based on fingerprint recognition, grip recognition, or more exotic approaches. The trouble is: it takes time to positively identify biometric inputs, and those who buy a gun for safety worry that a delay might cost them their life.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhandy/2013/12/31/is-it-time-to-put-chips-in-guns/

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Lakim Faust dressed himself in black one Friday in June, grabbed a pistol-grip shotgun and 100 rounds of ammunition and walked out the door of his apartment in Greenville, N.C. with one intention - to shoot and kill a large number of people.

The 23-year-old gunman shot his first victim, an insurance adjuster sitting in a parked car, before calmly walking across the street and shooting three others in a Wal-Mart parking lot, according to local police reports. Eventually the police shot and subdued the gunman.

Because no one died in the rampage, this incident was not classified as a mass killing and likely would have escaped deeper scrutiny. But after last year's attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killed 20 students and six staff members, the FBI began studying events like these to develop new ways to respond and save lives.

Active shooters are defined by the FBI as gunmen who arrive on the scene with the specific intent to commit mass murder. Unlike other mass killings or mass shootings, this sub-set does not include incidents such as bank robberies or drug deals that may turn lethal.

https://www.redding.com/news/2013/dec/13/active-shooter-incidents-rising-nationwide/

SACRAMENTO -- Gun registration had always seemed like the “line in the sand” — a proposal that would so offend the nation’s gun-rights advocates that they would bring out their full political muscle to stop it. Yet a California law mandating government record-keeping for all new long-gun purchases goes into effect on Jan. 1 and few people even seem to know about it.

This year, gun owners were relieved that Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the toughest gun-control measures that came to his desk, including one that would have banned sales of almost all semi-automatic rifles. But back in 2011, after much debate, the governor signed the registration law, AB 809, with a 2014 start date. It’s far broader than any of the bills the governor dealt with in the last session.

Supporters claim it’s not exactly registration, in that the law calls for the state to retain background-check records of those who purchase guns and does not register specific guns to specific people. Opponents say that’s just semantics. The main element of registration is that the government can track legal gun owners. In this case the department will have a list of every owner and the specific guns each person buys. The state already tracks the purchases of handguns and “assault weapons.”

The new law will bolster a program that has generated much controversy. Earlier this month, legislators held hearings on the effectiveness of the Armed Prohibited Persons System, used to confiscate the firearms of California residents who are no longer eligible to own them. The California Department of Justice relies on the current ownership lists to identify gun owners and cross check those with lists of people who have been convicted of crimes or have been involuntarily committed for mental issues.

http://reason.com/archives/2014/01/03/california-gun-law-paves-the-way-for-con