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D.C. Man Won’t Face Gun Charges for Shooting Pit Bull Attacking Boy

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Photo Credit: washington timesAuthorities last week made an agreement not to prosecute a Northwest D.C. man who used his unregistered handgun to kill a pit bull in order to stop it from mauling a child in his neighborhood.

As part of the agreement, Benjamin Srigley, 39, was required to pay a $1,000 fine but will not have criminal charges filed against him for the three unregistered firearms and the ammunition that investigators found in his possession, said Ted Gest, a spokesman for the office of the attorney general.

“We took it into account that he saved this boy’s life,” Mr. Gest said.

Possession of an unregistered firearm or ammunition in the District is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, and prosecutors said Mr. Srigley could have faced up to seven criminal charges in the case.

“In our recent memory this is a unique charge because of the unusual circumstances of this case,” said Mr. Gest, whose office generally prosecutes low-level crime in the District.

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Duck Dynasty Stars Threatened to Walk from AE Over Guns and God

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A North Carolina radio station, 93.1 “The Wolf,” reported this past week that the A&E network had supposedly received complaints from people “about how A&E’s show Duck Dynasty shows praying and using guns all the time.” These people had asked A&E “to remove the show from TV.”

Apparently, the network then contacted the family’s patriarch, Phil Robertson, and asked, “can we stop the praying and the guns?” Robertson responded with an ultimatum: “if We Cant Pray to God on the show, we will not do the show.”

He went on to explain, “God and Guns are apart of our everyday lives to remove either of them from the show is unacceptable.”

Looks like the Duck Commander won this battle as A&E has reportedly signed the family up for another season. And why wouldn’t they? The Duck Dynasty’s message has made it one of cable’s top-rated shows.

Media Bias at Work: US Gun Crime Plunges, but Most Americans Think It’s Increased

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Photo Credit: AFP-GettyGun crime has plunged in the United States since its peak in the middle of the 1990s, including gun killings, assaults, robberies and other crimes, two new studies of government data show…

In less than two decades, the gun murder rate has been nearly cut in half. Other gun crimes fell even more sharply, paralleling a broader drop in violent crimes committed with or without guns. Violent crime dropped steeply during the 1990s and has fallen less dramatically since the turn of the millennium.

The number of gun killings dropped 39% between 1993 and 2011, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported in a separate report released Tuesday. Gun crimes that weren’t fatal fell by 69%…

Despite the remarkable drop in gun crime, only 12% of Americans surveyed said gun crime had declined compared with two decades ago, according to Pew, which surveyed more than 900 adults this spring. Twenty-six percent said it had stayed the same, and 56% thought it had increased.

It’s unclear whether media coverage is driving the misconception that such violence is up. The mass shootings in Newtown, Conn., and Aurora, Colo., were among the news stories most closely watched by Americans last year, Pew found. Crime has also been a growing focus for national newscasts and morning network shows in the past five years but has become less common on local television news.

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Boy Who Held Pencil Like Gun Suspended (+video)

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Photo Credit: DvortygirlA Suffolk school suspended a second grader for pointing a pencil at another student and making gun noises.

Seven-year-old Christopher Marshall says he was playing with another student in class Friday, when the teacher at Driver Elementary asked them to stop pointing pencils at each other.

“When I asked him about it, he said, ‘Well I was being a Marine and the other guy was being a bad guy,'” said Paul Marshall, the boy’s father. “It’s as simple as that.”

Christopher’s father was a Marine for many years. He thinks school leaders overreacted.

“A pencil is a weapon when it is pointed at someone in a threatening way and gun noises are made,” said Bethanne Bradshaw, a spokesperson for Suffolk Public Schools.

Boy who held pencil like gun suspended

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Man Arrested After Trying To Return Pipe Bomb At Gun Buyback

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Photo Credit: ROBYN BECKA man was arrested during the city’s sixth gun buyback event over the weekend after showing up at a drop-off location with a homemade pipe bomb.

KNX1070′s Claudia Peschiutta reports that the man wanted to turn in the explosive.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said the man “told the officers in the line that he had spoken to God that day, and God no longer wanted him to use that bomb to blow up the Hollywood sign, now he wanted him to turn it in.”

“This is not a pipe bomb buyback; this is a gun buyback,” Beck said. “Pipe bombs are illegal to possess, illegal to manufacture.”

Police said they were able to safely detonate the device.

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Armed Citizen Project To Hand Out Free Guns In Crime-Wracked Chicago

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Photo Credit: Opposing Views The Armed Citizen Project (ACP) has the objective of giving every law-abiding citizen in America a free shotgun. The organization has already made waves in Texas – next on its list is the violence-plagued city of Chicago.

Kyle Coplen, founder of the ACP, explained: “It’s our hypothesis that criminals do not want to die in your hallway. We think that society should use that fear to deter crime.”

To that end, the ACP targets citizens in high-crime and medium-crime areas. They give homeowners and single women shotguns and free training with the hopes that the guns will lead to safer neighborhoods.

Supporters of the ACP feel that a shotgun in every home will make criminals think twice about committing a crime. Critics fear that adding guns to crime-wracked neighborhoods will only add more fuel to the fire. Some of the recipients could easily turn around and sell the free guns on eBay or on a street corner in order to make a quick buck.

Read more from this story HERE.

Poll: Almost One-Third of Voters Believe Armed Revolution May Be Necessary

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Photo Credit: leewrightonflickrAccording to a survey from Fairleigh Dickinson University, nearly a third of registered voters — 29 percent — believe an “armed revolution” might be necessary in the next few years in order to protect liberties.

The poll from the university’s PublicMind explored perceptions regarding Congress’ latest gun control push as well as the Sandy Hook mass shooting. That legislative push, launched in the wake of the Connecticut shooting, fizzled last month after the Senate blocked a bill that would have expanded background checks.

The poll showed 50 percent of voters still believe Congress should pass laws to protect the public from gun violence, while 39 percent say the opposite. But there is a huge partisan divide. Among Republicans, 65 percent don’t see new laws as necessary.

And the survey could help explain why applications for gun permits have hit record highs and retailers report ammo has been flying off the shelves. Not only are gun owners worried about new gun laws, but the poll suggests some voters think a revolution could be on the horizon.

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Man Grabs Shotgun From Armed Robber in New Orleans (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTubeWhen a robber armed with a shotgun pointed his weapon in the face of a man in New Orleans at 5am on Saturday morning, he probably was not expecting to be disarmed in a matter of seconds.

CCTV footage released by the local authorities shows the man walking down a street near the French Quarter at about 5am on Saturday morning. He is followed by an armed robber who cocks his weapon as he approaches.

Watch video here:

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Gun Carrying Man Ends Stabbing Spree at Salt Lake Grocery Store (+video)

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Photo Credit: Don HudsonA citizen with a gun stopped a knife wielding man as he began stabbing people Thursday evening at the downtown Salt Lake City Smith’s store.

Police say the suspect purchased a knife inside the store and then turned it into a weapon. Smith’s employee Dorothy Espinoza says, “He pulled it out and stood outside the Smiths in the foyer. And just started stabbing people and yelling you killed my people. You killed my people.”

Espinoza says, the knife wielding man seriously injured two people. “There is blood all over. One got stabbed in the stomach and got stabbed in the head and held his hands and got stabbed all over the arms.”

Then, before the suspect could find another victim – a citizen with a gun stopped the madness. “A guy pulled gun on him and told him to drop his weapon or he would shoot him. So, he dropped his weapon and the people from Smith’s grabbed him.”

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Obama Taking Executive Action on Guns after Senate Vote

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Photo Credit: Svadilfari

Blocked by Congress from expanding gun sale background checks, President Obama is turning to actions within his own power to keep people from buying a gun who are prohibited for mental health reasons.

Federal law bans certain mentally ill people from purchasing firearms, but not all states are providing data to stop the prohibited sales to the FBI’s background check system. A federal review last year found 17 states contributed fewer than 10 mental health records to the database, meaning many deemed by a judge to be a danger still could have access to guns.

The Obama administration was starting a process Friday aimed at removing barriers in health privacy laws that prevent some states from reporting information to the background check system. The action comes two days after the Senate rejected a measure that would have required buyers of firearms online and at gun shows to pass a background check. That’s already required for shoppers at licensed gun dealers.

Stung by the defeat, Obama vowed to keep up the fight for the background check expansion but also to do what he could through executive action.

“Even without Congress, my administration will keep doing everything it can to protect more of our communities,” Obama said from the Rose Garden shortly after the Senate voted. “We’re going to address the barriers that prevent states from participating in the existing background check system.”

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