Associated Press Nov 6, 2009
Troubling Portrait Emerges Of Fort Hood Suspect
WASHINGTON -- His name appears on radical Internet postings. A fellow officer says he fought his deployment to Iraq and argued with soldiers who supported U.S. wars. He required counseling as a medical student because of problems with patients. There are many unknowns about Nidal Malik Hasan, the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base. Most of all, his motive. But details of his life and mindset, emerging from official sources and personal acquaintances, are troubling. For six years before reporting for duty at Fort Hood, Texas, in July, the 39-year-old Army major worked ...read the full article


ABC News Nov 6, 2009
Alleged Fort Hood Shooter Nidal Malik Hasan Was 'Calm,' Methodical During Massacre
Witnesses to Thursday's massacre at Fort Hood said alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was calm as he opened fire at a crowd of young soldiers, pausing only to reload before he was taken down by a female officer that many hailed as a hero today. "It was very deliberate in his approach, they said that he was calm," Lt. Gen. Robert W. Cone, the base commander at Fort Hood, told "Good Morning America" Friday. "Several soldiers shot multiple times and were recounting how they were shot." The attacker killed 13 people, mostly military, and wounded 30. The Fort Hood Web ...read the full article


New York Times Nov 6, 2009
Gunman Shoots 6, Kills 1 In Orlando
A 40-year-old engineer who was dismissed from his job two years ago returned to his former workplace in downtown Orlando, Fla., on Friday morning and opened fire, killing one person and shooting five others, the authorities said. A police SWAT team detained the man, who was identified as Jason S. Rodriguez, about three hours later. The police said Mr. Rodriguez fled the building -- the 18-story Gateway Center, a glass-and-granite office tower with easy access to major highways -- and went to his mother's house, about an eight-mile drive away, after the shooting. "He was located at his mother's residence, and he ...read the full article


Associated Press Nov 6, 2009
AP Sources: 1 Rampage Gun Purchased Legally
WASHINGTON -- A 5.7-millimeter pistol used in the Fort Hood shooting was purchased legally by suspect Nidal Hasan at a Texas gun shop, law enforcement officials said Friday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case. Records indicate Hasan bought the FN 5.7 at store called "Guns Galore" in Killeen, Texas, well before the attack that left 13 people dead, one of the officials said. The pistol has been dubbed a "cop killer" by those who have tried to stop its use. The most powerful type of ammunition for the gun is available only to ...read the full article


Associated Press Nov 5, 2009
Supreme Judicial Court Hears Challenge To Mass. Law That Requires Guns To Be Locked In Homes
BOSTON - Gun control proponents argued before the state's highest court Thursday that a Massachusetts law requiring gun owners to lock weapons in their homes saves lives while gun advocates pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling holding that people have a constitutional right to keep weapons for self-defense. The case involves a Billerica man whose mentally disabled son allegedly shot at a neighbor with a BB gun. The 18-year-old showed police where his father kept other unlocked guns. Under the Massachusetts safe gun-storage law, the youth's father, Richard Runyan, was charged with improperly storing a 12-gauge shotgun, a semiautomatic hunting rifle ...read the full article


Boston Globe Nov 4, 2009
State's Highest Court To Mull Gun Safety law
The state's highest court will review the validity of a state law that requires gun owners to safely store their weapons. It will be the first test in Massachusetts of a landmark US Supreme Court ruling that Americans have the constitutional right to own guns and stow them as they see fit. The state Supreme Judicial Court will hear oral arguments Thursday in the case of a Billerica man whose disabled son was accused of shooting a BB gun at a neighbor and who then showed police officers where his father kept other unlocked weapons. A Lowell District Court judge cited the ...read the full article


Philadelphia Daily News Nov 2, 2009
“Don’t Lie For The Other Guy”
ON THE GLASS cases featuring guns for sale at the Delaware Valley Sports Center, the stickers warn: "Don't Lie for the Other Guy." Behind the cases, center manager Dwayne O'Brien stands ready to rat out scofflaws, with dozens of cops' numbers programmed on his cell phone, some on speed dial. You'd never suspect that this shop was once among the city's top crime-gun dealers, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The center, using data supplied by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ranked gun shops in 2000 by how many crime guns were traced back ...read the full article


The State Nov 1, 2009
Gun Culture's Dark Side Filled With Horror, Grief
Sumter -- Last Halloween, when Tony "T.J." Darrisaw happily ran up to a single-story house in Sumter, he was met by a burst of fire from one of world's deadliest weapons - an AK-47 assault rifle. T.J. died instantly, a bag of trick-or-treat candy in his hand and more than a dozen bullets in his body. The AK-47 was set on fully automatic. It was, in effect, a machine gun. T.J. was 12 years old. His death illustrates the horror of the unintended consequences of South Carolina's love affair with guns - an affair marked by easy access to firearms by just about anyone. "One ...read the full article


Union Leader Oct 24, 2009
Guns not seized before deadly shooting
MANCHESTER - Jonathan Charbonneau should not have had the gun he used to murder his wife, wound his father-in-law and commit suicide Thursday. In the hours leading up to the murder-suicide, Charbonneau was served with papers that required the confiscation of any weapon. One paper, a domestic violence petition delivered by a deputy sheriff, barred him from possessing any gun. It also specified that Charbonneau kept his hunting rifle in the closet at 223 Jewett St. But no gun was confiscated, and Charbonneau fatally shot his wife, Melissa, Thursday afternoon at the house before shooting himself. Her father was wounded in the ...read the full article


New York Times Oct 22, 2009
Editorial: Virginia and Gun Control
Lost in the public polling fine print of the Virginia governor's race is a strikingly vital statistic: a vast majority of Virginians want to plug the gun-show loophole that for years has fed the "Iron Pipeline" of weapons flowing into states and cities with stricter gun controls. The issue of gun control has traditionally been a third rail in Virginia campaigning, and it still is. But a new poll for The Virginian-Pilot by Christopher Newport University found that 8 out of every 10 likely voters want to end the practice of allowing unlicensed dealers at "sportsmen" shows to sell guns wholesale ...read the full article