Two state representatives called on Gov. Pat Quinn Sunday to deploy the Illinois National Guard to safeguard Chicago's streets.
Chicago Democrats John Fritchey and LaShawn Ford said they want Quinn, Mayor Richard Daley and Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis to allow guardsmen to patrol streets and help quell violence. Weis said he did not support the idea because the military and police operate under different rules.
"Is this a drastic call to action? Of course it is," Fritchey said. "Is it warranted when we are losing residents to gun violence at such an alarming rate? Without question. We are not talking about rolling tanks down the street or having armed guards on each corner."
What he envisions, Fritchey said, is a "heightened presence on the streets," particularly on the roughly 9 percent of city blocks where most of the city's violent crimes occur.
Weis previously identified those "hot spots" and said he plans to create a 100-person team made up of selected and volunteer police personnel to respond to crime there. If guardsmen were to assist police, they could comprise or contribute to that force, Fritchey said. ...
So far this year, 113 people have been killed across Chicago, the same number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined in the same period, Fritchey said.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) intends to purchase twenty-seven (27) REMINGTON BRAND MODEL 870 POLICE 12/14P MOD GRWC XS4 KXCS SF. RAMAC #24587 GAUGE: 12 BARREL: 14" - PARKERIZED CHOKE: MODIFIED SIGHTS: GHOST RING REAR WILSON COMBAT; FRONT - XS CONTOUR BEAD SIGHT STOCK: KNOXX REDUCE RECOIL ADJUSTABLE STOCK FORE-END: SPEEDFEED SPORT-SOLID - 14" LOP are designated as the only shotguns authorized for ED based on compatibility with ED existing shotgun inventory, certified armor and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
The required date of delivery is March 22, 2010.
Interested sources must submit detailed technical capabilities and any other information that demonstrates their ability to meet the requirements above, no later than March 12, 2010 at 12 PM, E.S.T. ...
SMITHFIELD - Vickie Jordan and her husband, Eddie, were all set to open a gun store in Smithfield, but they were missing one thing: the name.
"I went to bed one night and was real apprehensive because we couldn't come up with a name," Vickie Jordan recalled.
When she finally got to sleep, she said, she dreamt that God told her to name it after the Second Amendment -- the Constitutional right to bear arms -- but to call it the Second Amen-ment Gun Shop.
"I said, 'All right, Lord, I get the picture," Vickie Jordan said.
The name fit well: Her husband is an evangelist and pastor of Faith Baptist Church in Selma. And when he's not preaching, he can be found at the shooting range with his son, Blake, who manages the new store.
"A lot of people make fun of me -- a Bible in one hand, a .44 in the other," Eddie Jordan said. "I sort of turned a hobby into a business."
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division. The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.
Submit quotes including 11% Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax (FAET) and shipping to Washington DC. ...
Morgana, six, the youngest of the eight children, is as comfortable with a lethal .22 calibre rifle as she is with a Barbie doll.
Her sister Raven, nine, has her own .22 as well, bought for her when she was seven. It is in baby pink.
She explains proudly: "My dad says I'm becoming quite a good shot."
(Family day out ... relaxing with weapons. Photo: Chris Bott / Barcroft)
Dad is Lee Miracle, of Sterling Heights, Michigan. After the events of 9/11 Lee, his wife Katerina, 43, and their children aged from six to 17 are preparing for attacks from foreign invaders. They believe such readiness - including a house full of 25 FIREARMS - is their civic duty. [emphasis in original]
Top dog at the South East Michigan Volunteer Militia, 42-year-old Lee has schooled his military brood in advanced firearm training and also Ray Mears-style outdoors survival techniques.
The couple and their brood - Morgana, Raven, Elijah, ten, Caleb, 11, Cameron and Megan, both 13, Emily, 15, and 17-year-old Christian - meet hundreds of like-minded souls once a month on a farm to hone their skills against outside threats. ...
SAN DIEGO -- A best-selling novelist from San Diego County is taking on the issue of guns traveling from the U.S. to Mexico where they are used by drug cartels, 10News reported.
T. Jefferson Parker's new novel, out this week, is fiction but based on a grim reality.
Parker has written 17 novels, has won several awards and has been on best-seller lists. He enjoys the Southern California lifestyle at his Fallbrook home, but he became increasingly concerned hearing about the drug violence in Mexico.
"These are all murders by gun. Where are they getting the guns? You can't buy them in Mexico. You can't go to a store and buy a gun," said Parker.
Parker said he found most of the guns used by Mexican drug cartels -- some say 90 percent -- come from the U.S. along what is called the Iron River, running from San Diego to Corpus Christi, Texas. "Iron River" is the title of Parker's newest novel. ...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Vision Science Research Center investigator who also is an expert marksman has found a more intuitive way to aim a pistol.
Associate Professor Timothy Kraft, Ph.D., has developed a new gunsight design that relies on subconscious ability. Opti-sight, a UAB-protected innovation, updates a pistol-aiming device that has remained unchanged for more than a century. Opti-sight promises to reduce the time law enforcement, professional and amateur shooters need for target practice to improve marksmanship.
Opti-sight is a precision-milled half-triangle shape that replaces the traditional pistol gunsight. The design relies on subjective contours, an optics principle that explains how the subconscious mind fills in the blanks when the eye sees half of a familiar shape like a circle, square or triangle, Kraft says.
The rear opti-sight notch looks like an incomplete triangle sitting atop the gun barrel. When a shooter looks through the notch, the brain tells the eye where the missing triangle apex should appear, and that apex is the precise point of aim, Kraft says. "This triangular shape that I've created allows the brain to visualize concentric triangles whose imaginary apexes focus the shooter's attention on the exact target bullseye.
"Opti-sight makes shooting very intuitive by allowing gunsight alignment to become subconscious."
Marksmen, especially beginning shooters, will see improvements more quickly with opti-sight than a traditional gunsight, he says. ...
The federal government has no right to regulate guns made, sold and used within Utah, state lawmakers at a committee hearing decided Wednesday.
The Legislature's Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee advanced a bill that its sponsor, Sen. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem, calls the "Firearms Freedom Act." If upheld in federal courts -- a big if, considering past rulings on states' rights -- Utahns purchasing Utah-made guns would not face federal requirements such as background checks.
"I love the idea of the firearms," said Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, "and I love to swipe at the federal government on this one."
The bill taps the flip side of the Constitution's commerce clause, which the federal government used to impose civil-rights legislation, among other rules, on companies doing business across state lines. Modeled after a measure that Montana lawmakers passed this year, it asserts that the federal government lacks enforcement powers when no interstate commerce exists.
The bill would maintain a federal prohibition on machine guns, but otherwise would leave regulation of locally produced guns to the state. Perry Dayton, the senator's son and former intern who helped present the bill Wednesday, said there are a few gun makers in Utah, but "nothing on a real large scale." ...
A recent phone conversation with my 17 year old daughter proceeded like this:
Me: “You did what?”
Daughter: “I shot a 7x6 bull elk today”
Me: “Are you sure?”
Daughter: “Mom…”
Me: “Did you count right?”
Daughter: “Mom...”
OK, I actually did believe her. But not because I am her mother and am required to believe her. No, I believed her because she has taken to hunting with a zealous obsession that may require therapy at some point in time. As I congratulated her and got off the telephone I began to wonder when this transformation occurred? When did our daughters actually turn into hunting junkies and how did it happen? When, exactly, did the universe tilt?
...
As our daughters are now teenagers, we have found that their love for hunting only grows with each new experience. 2008 brought a beautiful muley buck for my youngest daughter. 2009 brought an intense mountain goat hunt and a trophy bull elk for my oldest daughter. Our home becomes a jumbled heap of camouflage, optics, ammunition and boots during these weeks. Family meals are replaced with protein bars and Gatorade. Sleep is minimal, homework is often done in the truck and no one could be happier. The girls are disappointed when the seasons close and they look forward to the next year. They take immense pride in outdoing their male counterparts and always have photos of their most recent hunts on hand for anyone who asks. Our mission is complete ... we raised hunting junkies. ...
Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama on Wednesday for the second time in seven months and were thwarted by private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship who fired off guns and a high-decibel noise device.
A U.S. surveillance plane was monitoring the ship as it continued to its destination on the Kenyan coast, while a pirate said that the captain of a ship hijacked Monday with 28 North Korean crew members on board had died of wounds.
Pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama last April and took ship captain Richard Phillips hostage, holding him at gunpoint in a lifeboat for five days. Navy SEAL sharpshooters freed Phillips while killing three pirates in a daring nighttime attack.
Four suspected pirates in a skiff attacked the ship again on Wednesday around 6:30 a.m. local time, firing on the ship with automatic weapons from about 300 yards (meters) away, a statement from the U.S. Fifth Fleet in Bahrain said.
An on-board security team repelled the attack by using evasive maneuvers, small-arms fire and a Long Range Acoustic Device, which can beam earsplitting alarm tones, the fleet said.
Vice Adm. Bill Gortney of the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said the Maersk Alabama had followed the maritime industry's "best practices" in having a security team on board.
"This is a great example of how merchant mariners can take proactive action to prevent being attacked and why we recommend that ships follow industry best practices if they're in high-risk areas," Gortney said in a statement. ...
However, Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said the international maritime community was still "solidly against" armed guards aboard vessels at sea, but that American ships have taken a different line than the rest of the international community.
"Shipping companies are still pretty much overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of armed guards," Middleton said. "Lots of private security companies employee people who don't have maritime experience. Also, there's the idea that it's the responsibility of states and navies to provide security. I would think it's a step backward if we start privatizing security of the shipping trade."
A former soldier who handed a discarded shotgun in to police faces at least five years imprisonment for "doing his duty".
Paul Clarke, 27, was found guilty of possessing a firearm at Guildford Crown Court on Tuesday – after finding the gun and handing it personally to police officers on March 20 this year.
The jury took 20 minutes to make its conviction, and Mr Clarke now faces a minimum of five year's imprisonment for handing in the weapon.
In a statement read out in court, Mr Clarke said: "I didn't think for one moment I would be arrested.
"I thought it was my duty to hand it in and get it off the streets."
The court heard how Mr Clarke was on the balcony of his home in Nailsworth Crescent, Merstham, when he spotted a black bin liner at the bottom of his garden.
In his statement, he said: "I took it indoors and inside found a shorn-off shotgun and two cartridges.
"I didn't know what to do, so the next morning I rang the Chief Superintendent, Adrian Harper, and asked if I could pop in and see him.
"At the police station, I took the gun out of the bag and placed it on the table so it was pointing towards the wall."
Mr Clarke was then arrested immediately for possession of a firearm at Reigate police station, and taken to the cells. ...
Prosecuting, Brian Stalk, explained to the jury that possession of a firearm was a "strict liability" charge – therefore Mr Clarke's allegedly honest intent was irrelevant.
Just by having the gun in his possession he was guilty of the charge, and has no defence in law against it, he added.
...
Judge Christopher Critchlow said: "This is an unusual case, but in law there is no dispute that Mr Clarke has no defence to this charge.
"The intention of anybody possessing a firearm is irrelevant." [emphasis added]
HOUSTON - Five-year-old Simon Hughes stands three foot something and 44 pounds dripping wet, but like many kids in the piny woods of Texas, he can handle a gun, a skill he's been practicing for over a year.
His father Scott Hughes says there's good reason for the early training.
"Everything on the ranch will either bite you or stick you," he explains.
To make his point, the elder Hughes walks to the marshy edge of his property where under murky water a dangerous predator has lurked, largely undetected for a good chunk of a half century. Call it long running luck that would run out for the creature with a single bite into a baited hook and a face-to-face encounter with a 5-year-old.
"It come out, the biggest alligator I've ever seen," says young Simon of the highly hostile reptile, twenty times his size.
His father Scott had a different description.
"Like a Tyrannosaurs Rex or something," he says.
In a flash Simon brought his single barrel, 4-10 shotgun to bear and blasted.
"Simon was a champ, couldn't ask for any better. He was just fearless," recalls Chuck Cotton, a veteran guide and family friend who witnessed the shot.
The small charge of bird shot hit the brain of the 800-pound reptile. ...
While her mother was busy doing other things, Giovanna Fausti and her two sisters would climb the stairs to the small workshop above their apartment and watch their father building firearms – and his reputation as one of the finest gunmakers in Italy.
It was not considered a place for young girls: Stefano Fausti, who founded the family business in 1948, would not even let his young daughters touch the guns he made.
(Sisters Elena, left, Giovanna, centre and below, and Barbara Fausti have taken the arms manufacturing business their father started to new successes. Courtesy Fausti Stefano Arms Factory)
“Twenty or 30 years ago it was not considered normal to give a shotgun into the hands of women,” Ms Fausti said.
“My father wanted to have a boy,” she added. “It was not common for a woman to be in this business. It’s a male business.”
But today the three daughters, Barbara, Elena and Giovanna, now with families of their own, are running the business and expanding the Fausti brand internationally. As part of that goal they will be bringing some on their company’s handmade, intricately engraved shotguns to the International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition that begins Thursday in Abu Dhabi. ...
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