VALLEY STREAM (WPIX) – A Nassau County jewelry store owner was shot in the torso as he faced three would-be robbers and, amazingly, was able to detain one suspect until police arrived.
At 7:11 p.m., three suspects — a woman and two men — attempted to rob Papandrew Jewelers, located at 11 Sunrise Highway at Franklin Avenue in Valley Stream.
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One man, Edward Hamilton, 24, of Brooklyn, produced a handgun and the store owner retrieved his own gun from behind a display case, according to police.
The two exchanged gunfire when Hamilton jumped over the display case. The store owner sustained a gunshot in the torso.
Hamilton and Gloria Cortes, 20, of Brooklyn, who was posing as a customer, fled the store. The injured store owner was remarkably able to roll onto the third robber — Bryan Kenner, 28, of South Ozone Park, and hold him until police arrived at the scene.
At 8:53 p.m., Lynbrook detectives found Cortes at a parking lot on Rockaway Avenue and West Jamaica Avenue in Valley Stream.
Bureau of Special Operations Officers were able to located and arrest Hamilton at his home at 10:25 p.m. Hamilton was acting as the group's lookout. Read more
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MARRERO, La. (AP) – Col. John Fortunato says the man was reported shot in the chest around 8 p.m. Saturday. He was taken to University Hospital where he was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
Fortunato says investigators learned that the man was 1 of 3 male suspects who tried to rob the couple as they were walking from their driveway to their home.
Fortunato says the male robbery victim was also armed and shot the perpetrator. The other two suspects fled on foot. Read more
The PLCAA is the 2005 federal law passed by Congress in response to the flood of reckless lawsuits brought by the Brady Center on behalf of anti-gun mayors seeking to hold members of the firearms industry liable for the criminal or unlawful misuse of their products.
This is now the third time this year the Supreme Court has denied a challenge to the PLCAA backed by the Brady Center. In March 2009, the Brady Center was also involved in the appeals of Lawson v. Beretta and City of New York v. Beretta, both of which the Supreme Court refused to hear. Monday's Supreme Court decision in the Adames case is another stinging setback to the Brady Center's failed anti-gun political agenda to destroy the individual right of Americans to keep and bear arms — a right the Supreme Court declared last year in Heller was protected by the Second Amendment.
The Adames lawsuit was filed by the Brady Center on behalf of a family seeking to hold Beretta responsible for the tragic shooting death of their son, caused solely by the criminal acts of a teenage boy who gained unauthorized access to his father's unsecured service pistol. The case was originally dismissed by a Chicago trial court, subsequently reinstated in part by the Illinois Court of Appeals, and then ultimately found to be barred under the PLCAA by the Illinois Supreme Court. By its decision yesterday, the Supreme Court found it unnecessary to consider the Illinois Supreme Court's well-reasoned decision that held the PLCAA was both constitutional and clearly applicable to this lawsuit.
Representing Beretta in the case was Craig Livingston of the Livingston Law Firm, who after being notified of the Supreme Court's rejection of the appeal remarked, “And so ends a long legal battle — from the trial court in Chicago, through the Illinois appellate courts, and all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court — which served only to confirm what has been known since May 5, 2001, namely that this tragic shooting death was caused not by any defect in a Cook County Corrections Officer's Beretta pistol, but rather by its reckless misuse on that fateful day by his teenage son.”
Lawrence G. Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the trade association for the firearms industry, applauded yesterday's Supreme Court rejection of the Brady Center's appeal, stating, “Frivolous and unsupported lawsuits such as Adames that attempt to force manufacturers of firearms to pay for the crimes of others over whom they have no control are precisely what the PLCAA is designed to stop.”
What hunting remains (resident game birds, deer, and bighorn sheep) would be restricted.” That petition blamed hunters for the declining population of the desert tortoise, a threatened species under the state's Endangered Species Act.
The NRA noted that, “The petition contains the flimsiest of evidence that hunting in the Preserve is the cause or even a contributing factor of the decline in the tortoise population….The objective of the petition is not to protect and enhance the tortoise population; rather it is an attempt by this coalition of anti-hunting organizations to permanently ban hunting from the Mojave National Preserve. BD was behind the ban imposed on the use of lead ammunition for hunting big game within the range of the California condor. Earlier this year, CBD attempted unsuccessfully to extend that ban to all game species.”
The NRA called on hunters to urge the Fish and Game Commission to deny the petition.
Address correspondence to:
John Carlson, Jr., Executive Director California Fish and Game Commission 1416 Ninth Street, Room 1320 Sacramento, CA 95814
Last month Warden filed a complaint against the Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and the city itself in U.S. District Court, alleging the city's gun ban defies his constitutional right to bear arms.
The complaint cited an executive order Nickels issued in June, directing all departments to review then-present rules “to determine the extent to which departments could prohibit firearms on city property.”
Nickels last month banned guns on city facilities where children are likely to frequent. The places on the ban list include parks, playgrounds, community and environmental learning centers, sports fields and courts, swimming beaches, pools, water play areas, skate parks and golf courses.
“The purported interested, to protect children from gun violence, has no substance and no objective facts behind it,” Warden writes in his motion.
Warden mentions a study cited by the defendants in support of the gun ban. The study by the University of Pennsylvania found “people with a gun were 4.5 more likely to be shot in an assault than those not possessing guns,” the motion said.
However, Warden argues “their sample of persons shot by a gun while carrying a gun was composed mostly of drug dealers, others with criminal records, cab drivers, and women being stalked … Is anyone enlightened by the stunningly obvious claim that armed drug dealers are more likely to be shot by guns than your average person?”
Warden, 44, protested the city's new gun ban by walking into the Southwest Community Center in West Seattle while carrying his gun at high noon on a Saturday last month.
He had forewarned parks officials of his intent and, as a result, was asked to leave immediately after entering the center. Warden complied.
In requesting the injunction, Warden wrote, “If Plaintiff went to the Southwest Community Center with his pistol tomorrow, there is no reason to suspect that the rule would be enforced.”
Warden added that such deprivation of constitutional rights is “inherently irreparable” since “damages cannot be compensable in money.” Read more
Louis Butler is so radical, he was twice rejected by the people of Wisconsin (which is, by the way, one of the most liberal states in our union).
When Louis Butler first ran for the Wisconsin Supreme Court — the voters rejected him by a 2-1 margin. When he was appointed to that court by Democrat Governor Jim Doyle and then stood for retention by the voters, they again rejected him. This was the first time a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court was rejected by the voters in more than 40 years.
More importantly, Louis Butler opposes the rights of gun owners. The right to bear arms in the Wisconsin Constitution expressly notes that this right is for personal security and “any other lawful purpose.” But in State v. Fischer, Judge Butler was the deciding vote in 2006 to hold that a Wisconsin statute barring carrying a concealed weapon for any purpose, at any time, including in a vehicle, does not violate this right to personal security that the voters of Wisconsin chose to expressly protect in their state constitution.
So he ignored the state constitution in order to impose his anti-gun views on the people of Wisconsin.
After the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Heller case upholding Second Amendment gun rights in 2008, Louis Butler spoke at an Obama for President fundraiser and specifically mentioned “gun control” as an issue that potential Obama appointees would impact.
“Gun control,” Butler said, “may ultimately be decided, and the new appointees can tip the very balance of the court. [The] background, personal beliefs and policy decisions of the justices selected will influence how they will vote on the difficult cases before them.”
There you have it. He is a radical activist who wants to move the courts — and our country — in a new direction. We've already had enough “hope and change” for a lifetime. We don't need another federal judge who will use his radical “personal beliefs” to reshape our society.
ACTION: Please contact your U.S. Senators and urge them to OPPOSE the nomination of Judge Louis Butler as U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin. Butler was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, and could now be voted on by the full Senate at any time.
Please OPPOSE the nomination of Louis Butler as U.S. District Judge for the Western District of Wisconsin.
When Louis Butler first ran for the Wisconsin Supreme Court — the voters rejected him by a 2-1 margin. When he was appointed to that court by Democrat Governor Jim Doyle and then stood for retention by the voters, they again rejected him. This was the first time a member of the Wisconsin Supreme Court was rejected by the voters in more than 40 years.
More importantly, Louis Butler opposes the rights of gun owners. In State v. Fischer, Judge Butler expressly ignored the right to bear arms provision in the Wisconsin Constitution. And after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court Heller case upholding Second Amendment gun rights in 2008, Louis Butler spoke at an Obama for President fundraiser and specifically mentioned “gun control” as an issue that potential Obama appointees would impact.
“Gun control,” Butler said, “may ultimately be decided, and the new appointees can tip the very balance of the court. [The] background, personal beliefs and policy decisions of the justices selected will influence how they will vote on the difficult cases before them.”
Again, I urge you to OPPOSE this nomination. Gun Owners of America will be scoring this nomination and will let me know how you vote on this radical judge.
As the National Rifle Association (NRA) noted, “The Committee voted unanimously to approve A4304, clarifying the original language by exempting the transfer of handguns among licensed retail dealers, registered wholesale dealers and registered manufacturers; or transfers of handguns from any person to a licensed retail dealer or a registered wholesale dealer
or registered manufacturer. As it stands now, the current law exempts sales between licensed gun dealers but not purchases by licensed dealers from firearm distributors or manufacturers which under New Jersey law are classified differently.”
The NRA alert continued, A4304 will now move to the full Assembly and is scheduled for a vote on Monday, December 7th. It is important that you contact your legislator and respectfully urge them to support A4304.
The spectacle on the Senate floor — in connection with the anti-gun ObamaCare bill — is disgusting. The Senate is debating socialized health care right now, and some Republicans may be ready to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
This alert is long, but it is necessarily so. Here's the situation as it stands right now on the Senate floor:
* Harry Reid is pushing a $3 trillion bill with over $500 billion in new deficits. But he is trying to conceal the deficits with accounting fraud on a scale which would put anyone else in prison for the rest of his life.
* Reid's bill would restructure the American economy in a way that has not been seen at any time during our lifetimes — but is being shoved down the throats of the American people before they can even comprehend the magnitude of the problem.
* Harry Reid took six weeks to write his legislation behind closed doors, but is trying to force the Senate to pass the bill in no time at all. FYI, the Constitution envisions an important role for the U.S. Senate in crafting legislation, but nowhere mentions Reid's “secret” meetings to coerce and bribe senators.
“Okay, okay” you say. The fact that Harry Reid comes across as a lying politician is not news. But there is another problem: Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has adopted a losing strategy that will, unfortunately, help speed up the passage of Harry Reid's anti-gun health care bill.
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The Senate can do little without every senator agreeing to do it — or at least not objecting to its being done. Hence, you hear about “unanimous consent requests.” This means that every senator agrees to considering a particular amendment or, at least, to voting on it at a particular time.
The thing about these requests is this: They almost always make it easier for the bill to pass.
Hence, we are at the point where WE SHOULD STOP ALL UNANIMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENTS TO FURTHER REID'S HEALTH CARE FREIGHT TRAIN. And a single senator can do this by simply saying: “I object.”
But instead, Mitch McConnell has already started allowing amendments to be offered which will let the Senate Democrats “clean up” the bill … just enough to get it passed by the Senate.
We need to stop this sort of deal making. We need to stop these requests which grease the skids for Harry Reid's freight train. And, in particular, we don't want to clean up this diabolical monstrosity. We want to kill it.
So our message? Kill the bill. Kill the bill. Kill the bill.
AND NO MORE UNANIOMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENTS TO FACILITATE THAT BILL'S PASSAGE.
We don't want Mitch McConnell to try to make himself look good by pretending to be a “non-obstructionist.” We want Senate Republicans to move heaven and earth to protect Americans from Harry Reid's scheme of bribery, fraud and dirty politics.
ACTION: Contact your two U.S. Senators. Tell them to object to any further Unanimous Consent agreements to further the ObamaCare freight train.
You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center at https://www.gunowners.org/activism.htm to send a pre-written message to your Senators — the appropriate e-mail will automatically be sent to your Senator, based on whether he is a Republican or Democrat.
—– Pre-written letter for Republican Senators —–
Dear Senator:
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to Unanimous Consent agreements which allow for amendments to be offered to ObamaCare — a strategy that will, unfortunately, have the effect of providing Democrats just enough votes to “clean up” this anti-gun bill and get it passed.
We need to stop this sort of request which helps grease the skids for Harry Reid's freight train.
And, in particular, I don't want to see this diabolical monstrosity cleaned up in a way that makes the bill just “good enough” to get 60 votes. This bill would restructure the American economy in a way that has not been seen at any time during our lifetime. I want to see this bill killed outright.
So my message? Kill the bill. Kill the bill. Kill the bill. NO MORE UNANIOMOUS CONSENT AGREEMENTS TO FACILITATE THAT BILL'S PASSAGE.
I don't want Mitch McConnell to try to make Republicans look good by pretending to be “non-obstructionist.” I want Senate Republicans to move heaven and earth to protect Americans from Harry Reid's socialist scheme.
Sincerely,
—– Pre-written letter for Democrat Senators —–
Dear Senator:
The spectacle on the Senate floor — in connection with ObamaCare — is disgusting:
* Harry Reid is pushing a $3 trillion bill with over $500 billion in new deficits. But he is trying to conceal the deficits with accounting fraud on a scale which would put anyone else in prison for the rest of his life.
* Reid's bill would restructure the American economy in a way that has not been seen at any time during our lifetimes — but is being shoved down the throats of the American people before they can even comprehend the magnitude of the problem.
* Harry Reid took six weeks to write his legislation behind closed doors, but is trying to force the Senate to pass the bill in no time at all. FYI, the Constitution envisions an important role for the U.S. Senate in crafting legislation, but nowhere mentions Reid's “secret” meetings to coerce and bribe senators.
At Colorado State University in Fort Collins, public safety experts and the president's cabinet support a gun ban.
Before the decision is made, however, the school wants to hear what students think.
Wednesday night, the student governing body voted 21-3 in support of keeping CSU a conceal-and-carry campus. Five student senators were absent or did not vote.
The student leaders will now submit their resolution to the CSU president for consideration.
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Author of the bill, CSU Junior Cooper Anderson said, “We wrote this bill because we felt that a student should have the right to self defense on campus. We don't believe that crime stops at a campus' borders.”
CSU spokesperson Brad Bohlander says the Public Safety Team and the president's cabinet are united against the issue.
“More availability and more access to weapons on a highly populated college campus can potentially lead to more negative incidents,” Bohlander told 9NEWS.
Besides Utah, where universities aren't allowed to ban guns, CSU is one of only a handful of universities across the country allowing concealed weapons.
CSU has never had a violent gun incident on campus. Read more
Police say that at around 9:20 PM, a robber entered the Chevron gas station in Cocoa, Florida and pointed a handgun at the manager while demanding money.
The manager reportedly grabbed his own gun from below the counter and fired in self defense, striking the criminal and causing him to flee to the parking lot, where he collapsed. Police are said to have arrived to find a suspect laying the parking lot, suffering from gunshot wounds to the abdomen.
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The suspect was airlifted to a hospital for emergency surgery, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. Neither the gas station manager nor any other innocent people were harmed. Speaking about this self defense shooting, Police Spokesperson Officer Barbara Matthews reported stated “He absolutely had the right to defend himself.”
Unarmed individuals can suffer a terrible fate when a criminal robs them, even if they fully cooperate with the criminal’s demands. The same is true for those who try to run from the robber. Read more
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The man was injured during a home invasion that occurred Wednesday morning in the 2800 block of North Raime Place, near North Silverbell and West Grant roads, said Sgt. Diana Lopez, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
The man was dropped off by unknown individuals at a family member’s house, and the family member took him to St. Mary’s, Lopez said.
The man was then transported to another hospital, where he is in serious condition, Lopez said. Read more
Residents say it’s a normally quiet neighborhood, but Wednesday night police say three men forced their way into an apartment and attacked a man and woman inside. At least two of the robbers had handguns and were allegedly threatening the couple. At some point the male resident got hold of his own handgun and got into a scuffle with the intruders. Shots were fired and one of the robbers, Nathan Stringfield, 23, of Berlin, was hit and died at the scene.
Next-door neighbor Joe Gauthier was doing his dishes when the gunfight broke out.
“I’d just shut the water off and I heard a gunshot so I ran to the side window which faces that building and looked out and saw a man on the ground there,” Gauthier said. “He was just lying there and the girl was screaming.”
Officials say the woman was the girlfriend of the man who lives in the apartment. She was inside when the armed intruders forced their way in.
“Once they went inside they assaulted the resident inside the apartment. The male resident managed to get his own firearm and that’s when the struggle and gunfight ensued,” N.H. Senior Assistant Attorney General Jeff Strelzin said.
The second intruder made it down the street and ran a few blocks on Western Avenue before going into a building. That’s where police found him suffering from multiple life-threatening gunshot wounds. Read more
Oral arguments in the lawsuit, McDonald v. City of Chicago, will be held on the morning of March 2, 2010. A decision is expected by late June or early July.
It's also worth noting the amicus briefs that have been filed in the last week or so in support of the Second Amendment Foundation and other groups challenging Chicago's handgun restrictions.
There are at least 30 of them — ably reposted at ChicagoGunCase.com — plus two unaffiliated ones filed by the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund and the Brady Center To Prevent Gun Violence. (The NAACP wants to ensure that any decision won't jeopardize other civil rights, and the Brady folks argue that even if the Second Amendment applies to state gun laws, the justices should adopt a deferential approach that lets nearly all of those laws survive.)
This article isn't long enough to summarize all of those briefs. But the highlights include: * Thirty-eight state attorneys general believe that the Second Amendment protects an individual right against infringement by state and local governments: “Unless the ruling of the court of appeals below is reversed, millions of Americans will be deprived of their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as a result of actions by local governments, such as the ordinances challenged in this case.”
* Law enforcement instructors and trainers, in a brief written by David Kopel, highlight original research including what happened after South Carolina re-legalized handgun sales (crime fell) and Chicago enacted a ban (crime rose). Kopel runs the numbers and concludes: “Chicago after the handgun ban is much more dangerous, relative to other large American cities, than was Chicago before the ban.”
* Philosophy and sociology professors offer a break from a legalistic argument to stress the right of self-defense. An excerpt: “To the Founders, the right to be armed was an integral part of the right to self-defense, as is illustrated in a 1790 lecture by an original member of this Court, Justice James Wilson. Justice Wilson was a law professor, member of the Constitutional Convention, and the primary author of the Pennsylvania Constitution. He explained the right to use deadly force to repel a homicidal attacker as a natural, inalienable right.”
* In what may come as a bit of a surprise, dozens of California and Nevada prosecutors believe the Second Amendment must apply to states, saying “the fundamental rights embodied in the Second Amendment deserve the same protection afforded other fundamental rights.” (Note San Francisco, home of the failed-in-court handgun ban, is not one of them.) Read more
[T]he Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms should not prevent citizens, through their elected representatives, from enacting the reasonable laws they desire and need to protect their families and communities from gun violence.
What they're saying in the Chicago case is essentially the same thing they said in the Heller Washington D.C. case: Gun bans are “reasonable” and consistent with the Second Amendment proscription that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
This does not surprise anyone who has been watching these Brady characters for any length of time. After all, we're talking a group that–in spite of putting on a kinder, gentler public face via a name change–still internally identifies itself by its original name: Handgun Control, Inc.
We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily — given the political realities — going to be very modest. . . . [W]e'll have to start working again to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen the next law, and maybe again and again. Right now, though, we'd be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time. . . . The first problem is to slow down the number of handguns being produced and sold in this country. The second problem is to get handguns registered. The final problem is to make possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition-except for the military, police, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors-totally illegal. Read more
The legal term pro se (meaning someone who forgoes a lawyer in order to represent themselves in court) is normally a handy way of identifying a kook. Someone who's crazy. A person usually only goes pro se after they've been turned down by every litigant in a tri-state area or because they think their case against the NSA can only be properly argued by the person actually being buzzed by the black helicopters.
Encountering a pro se plaintiff who's not nuts is rare. Which makes Bob Warden an anomaly.
And about thirty minutes ago he answered a call from The Daily Weekly and proved himself to be anything but crazy.While most people were still recovering from post-Thanksgiving gluttony hangovers, Warden and his adult son were out on a day trip. Their first stop: the federal courthouse, where they filed the lawsuit. Their second: Greg Nickels' house, where Warden's kid knocked on the door and served the mayor's son with the suit.
“Some families go shopping on Black Friday,” says Warden. “My family does this.”
Warden understands the conclusions most people would draw if they just heard a skeletal version of his story. Man walks into public place armed with pistol. Sues city. Must be one of those gun-nuts, right?
“If I didn't know me my knee-jerk reaction would be the same thing,” says Warden. “But I'm just someone who saw an opportunity to challenge what is a blatantly illegal thing.” Read more
Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) today introduced the PROTECT Act, legislation to preserve records of gun sales for longer periods of time to aid law enforcement officials in preventing gun crimes and terrorist acts. Under current law, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) must destroy these records in most cases within 24 hours of allowing a gun sale to proceed.
Interesting, isn't it, that Lautenberg's own press release describes the proposed legislation's purpose as being “to preserve records of gun sales for longer periods of time . . . “–but the title of the bill refers only to “terrorist and criminal transactions”? That's pretty clear testimony to what Sen. Lautenberg thinks of gun buyers. Granted, “PROGS (Preserving Records of Gun Sales)” isn't nearly as catchy an acronym, but that's probably not a criterion to which much importance should be attached.
So how, specifically, would Sen. Lautenberg's proposed legislation “PROTECT” us?
Sen. Lautenberg’s legislation, the Preserving Records of Terrorist & Criminal Transactions (PROTECT) Act of 2009, would:
require the FBI to retain for 10 years all records related to a NICS transaction involving a valid match to federal terrorist watch list records; and
repeal the requirement that other background check records be destroyed after 24 hours, and instead require that the records of all non-terrorist transactions be maintained for 180 days.
Remember, the “federal terrorist watch list records” are riddled with errors, generated with precious little (if any) concern about due process, and that the appropriateness of one's presence on the list is not easily challenged, because of the lack of transparency. Read more
Looking to go armed, but are stuck in the weeds as to what to arm yourself with? Here are 20 excellent concealed carry gun options that will keep you on the defensive.
Concealed carry is a serious responsibility. At Gun Digest, we provide you with the most current and useful information about CCW with the latest news, reviews and tips related to personal defense. When you decide to carry a gun for personal protection, start here to research CCW handguns, handgun drills, handgun shooting, custom handguns, concealed carry holsters and more. Also see: Gun Reviews – Handguns
The PLCAA is the 2005 federal law passed by Congress in response to the flood of reckless lawsuits brought by the Brady Center on behalf of anti-gun mayors seeking to hold members of the firearms industry liable for the criminal or unlawful misuse of their products.
What hunting remains (resident game birds, deer, and bighorn sheep) would be restricted.” That petition blamed hunters for the declining population of the desert tortoise, a threatened species under the state's Endangered Species Act.
