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Arizona Shooting & The 2nd Amendment

admin — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:37:44 +0000

In 2008, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment to

the Constitution protects the right of individuals to keep and bear arms for the purpose of

self-defense.

On Saturday morning, January 8, 2011, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner,

armed with a 9-millimeter Glock semi-automatic pistol and 90 rounds of ammunition,

opened fire on a political rally, killing 6 people and wounding 14 others. The target of

Loughner’s terrorist act was Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, whom he shot in the

head. The bullet passed through her brain, but she was holding her own three days later.

While guns and rifles are permitted for self-protection, it is clear that semi-

automatic and automatic guns and military-style weapons should be banned. They don’t

call these types of arms assault weapons for no reason. They are used by fanatics, drug

dealers, murderers, and other criminals to commit crimes, not for self-protection.

Congress should act swiftly and pass a law making it illegal to own or possess these

dangerous weapons.

The right to defend oneself and one’s family from intruders is one thing. The right

to own or possess semi-automatic and automatic weapons such as a 9-millimeter Glock

with a removable magazine or an AK-47 is something entirely different. Write your

Congressperson and Senator today and urge them to immediately pass a law banning

these weapons of assault, not self-protection.

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Court Throws Out Death Penalty for Slayer of Three

John Fiore — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:40:49 +0000

The Arkansas Supreme Court has ordered a new sentencing for a death row inmate convicted of killing his girlfriend and her two young children around the holidays in 2006. Justices on Thursday upheld James Aaron Miller’s murder conviction but ordered that he be resentenced. Miller was convicted of killing Bridgette Barr, 5-year-old Sydney Barr and 2-year-old Garrett Barr while the children visited their mother in Fort Smith for Christmas. The children lived with their father in Oklahoma.

Justices ruled that two witnesses should not have been allowed to recommend that the jury impose the death penalty during the sentencing phase. Justices rejected Miller’s argument that the bodies were discovered during a warrantless search of his apartment.

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Guilty Plea Date Set for Ponzi Scheme Case

John Fiore — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:40:30 +0000

A judge has set a Jan. 27 date for a disbarred South Florida lawyer to plead guilty to charges stemming from what authorities call a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. The date was set at a hearing Wednesday after Scott Rothstein’s attorney announced he will plead guilty. Rothstein had initially pleaded not guilty to racketeering, fraud and conspiracy charges after his December arrest.

Rothstein attorney Marc Nurik said plea deal details are incomplete. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 100 years behind bars. Prosecutors say Rothstein used his now-defunct Fort Lauderdale law firm to bilk thousands of investors with the promise of payment from phony legal settlements.

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Missouri Officer Faces Child Sex Charges

John Fiore — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:40:27 +0000

A Boy Scout leader who is also the top police officer in the Missouri town of Fredericktown is facing statutory sodomy charges for allegedly having sex with children. The Missouri State Highway Patrol arrested 42-year-old Kenneth Tomlinson II on Tuesday. Details about the victims weren’t immediately available. Tomlinson is jailed on $100,000 cash-only bond in nearby Cape Girardeau County. It wasn’t clear if he had an attorney, and police in Fredericktown didn’t return phone calls seeking comment.

Tomlinson was captain of the force in Fredericktown, a community of 4,100 southwest of St. Louis. He was also leader of a Boy Scout troop in Fredericktown. The Boy Scouts of America Greater St. Louis Council says his membership has been revoked.

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Woman Charged with Drowning Grandson

John Fiore — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:40:17 +0000

A 71-year-old German woman has been charged with drowning her 5-year-old grandson in a bathtub while vacationing in the Florida Panhandle. Marianne Bordt of Nufringen, Germany, was being held Tuesday at the Franklin County Jail in Eastpoint. She is charged with first-degree murder in the death Monday of Camden Hiers of Roswell, Ga., on St. George Island.

The woman’s husband, Heinz Bordt, told sheriff’s deputies his wife said she drowned the boy because she didn’t want to see him growing up in a divorced home, authorities said. Investigators said the husband came back from shopping to find his wife wet from the neck down. He told deputies she said she tried to kill herself in the Gulf of Mexico after drowning their grandson, authorities said.

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Defendant Pleads Not Guilty in Mass. Arson Case

John Fiore — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:40:15 +0000

A 25-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to setting a fire at a western Massachusetts home that killed two of his neighbors. It was one of nine fires set within hours of one another in the community of Northampton. Anthony P. Baye was ordered held without bail Tuesday at his arraignment on two counts of murder, arson and armed burglary in Northampton District Court. He has not been charged with the other fires.

Prosecutors said in court that Baye was caught on surveillance video in the area the night of the fires. They said that proves his alibi – that he was visiting his girlfriend – was a lie. The Dec. 27 blaze killed 81-year-old Paul Yeskie Sr. and his 39-year-old son, Paul Yeskie Jr. Baye lives in the Yeskies’ neighborhood. A woman who answered the phone at the Baye home Tuesday declined to comment.

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Two Teens Charged in Ohio Slaying

John Fiore — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:40:12 +0000

Two Missouri teens have been charged in the death of an Ohio man whose body was found in the refrigerated compartment of a tractor-trailer. Six other people also have been charged in the death of 20-year-old James William Boyd McNeely, including the trucker in whose rig the body was found. Missouri officials wouldn’t say whether the teens were related to the other defendants, but an attorney for one of the boys said they were the trucker’s sons.

Juvenile officials say charges of first-degree murder, kidnapping, armed criminal action and felonious restraint were filed last month against a 14-year-old and 16-year-old. Officials have said McNeely was beaten and strangled.

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DeLaughter to Report to Federal Prison

John Fiore — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:39:39 +0000

Bobby DeLaughter, a former judge and prosecutor who helped convict the killer of civil rights leader Medgar Evers, was expected to report to prison Monday for lying to FBI agents investigating judicial corruption. In July, DeLaughter stepped down as a Hinds County circuit judge and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.

The Clarion Ledger reported Sunday that DeLaughter had asked to serve his 18-month sentence in federal prison in Florida or Alabama so his wife, Peggy, could visit. However, the Bureau of Prisons decided he would serve his time in Kentucky. DeLaughter attracted worldwide attention as he pursued and won a case against Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 assassination of Evers, field secretary for the Mississippi NAACP.

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Man Pleads Guilty to 1982 Murder

John Fiore — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:58:58 +0000

A Vermont man has admitted to killing an 18-year-old girl in 1982 in a plea deal with prosecutors. Forty-seven-year-old Theodore Caron of Barre was arrested in February in the strangulation death of Pamela Brown. A DNA sampled linked Caron to the slaying. Caron initially pleaded innocent to first-degree murder. On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree murder. That’s punishable by a 15-to-35-year sentence, but Caron’s attorney said he is likely to become eligible for release in less than seven years, based on 1982 sentencing rules.

The state Parole Board would determine whether to release Caron once he become eligible. Brown was found behind a school the day after people crowded downtown to attend a festival. She had been strangled with a cord from her blouse.

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Bait Farmer Sentenced in Illegal Importation Case

John Fiore — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 15:58:33 +0000

A Wisconsin bait farming business that pleaded guilty to illegally importing fish has been sentenced to probation. Gollon Bait & Fish Farm was sentenced Wednesday to three years probation, fined $6,000 and ordered to pay the cost of additional monitoring of the health of bait fish by U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb. The business pleaded guilty to the charge on Oct. 29.

Federal prosecutors said Gollon received nearly $1.5 million in bait fish from companies in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Arkansas without acquiring the necessary permits or certificates showing they were disease-free. Two other Wisconsin bait companies that pleaded guilty were to be sentenced on Thursday and another was to be sentenced Jan. 8.

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