Arizona Woman Practicing Constitutional Carry in Las Vegas Loses It

Local news reports

A woman was charged with attempted murder in a shooting on the Las Vegas Strip that police say was related to road rage.

According to Las Vegas Metro police, Brittanie Merritt-Burwell, 21, was arrested on Monday in connection to the Dec. 23 shooting on Las Vegas Boulevard south of Harmon Drive.

In an arrest report, police said several witnesses saw a woman exit a white Chevy Impala and walk over to a vehicle's driver side. Witnesses told police the woman produced a handgun and shot at the driver inside the car.

Las Vegas Mom Accused of Shooting Son With Gun She Used to Kill Ex-Husband 20 Years Earlier

Linda Cooney

The Sun Sentinel

A woman who was acquitted of murder after killing her ex-husband more than 20 years ago in South Florida is now facing charges of trying to kill her adult son — with the same gun.

Prosecutors in Las Vegas want a jury there to learn about the trial Linda Cooney won in 1993, when she was accused in the Feb. 7, 1992 shooting death of prominent Palm Beach County tax attorney James Cooney.

No Charges in the Accidental Shooting Death of Las Vegas Teen Brooklyn Mohler

Local news reports

Las Vegas Murders Up 50% from Last Year

Huffington Post

The city's homicide rate for the first quarter of this year is up 50 percent from the same period in 2012 In February, for example, a fatal shooting on the Strip only a couple of blocks from our hotel led to a car crash that also killed a cab driver and his passenger, for a total of three deaths, and just two weeks before we arrived, two died and two were injured in a gun-related, double murder-attempted suicide.
The Vegas police department has above average success arresting the perpetrators -- 75 percent against the national rate of 65 percent -- but oddly, as columnist J. Patrick Coolican of the Las Vegas Sun reports, "In nonlethal shootings, when the victim survives, the criminal is more than 90 percent likely to get away with the crime... In 2012, for instance, there were 313 nonlethal assaults with firearms. Just 20 of the cases led to an arrest." 

And the day before we arrived in Las Vegas, Nevada's Governor Brian Sandoval vetoed a bill authorizing universal background checks for gun purchases in the state. According to the website ThinkProgress,"The bill, passed by Nevada's Democratically controlled state legislature, would have required a background check prior to all gun sales and would have increased reporting of mental illness data. The National Rifle Association's lobbying arm called the proposal 'misguided gun control legislation being forced on law-abiding citizens of Nevada.'"

In fact, an April poll found that 87 percent of Nevada voters favored the background check, but "Sandoval said his decision was in part due to the loud voices of that small minority that does not believe criminal background checks should be required prior to gun purchases. He told a local TV station that he'd received 28,000 calls from opponents, and only about 7,000 from supporters."

There's the real power of the NRA and the gun lobby for you. Not just the money they throw at media buys and at officeholders and candidates -- in fact, last year only three of the sixteen U.S. Senate candidates endorsed by the NRA won. No, it's the sheer stridency and lungpower of their opposition to any perceived threat to gun ownership. 

Las Vegas 13-Year-old Dead - No One is Responsible - Not the Gun Owner, Not the Parents, Not the Teen Shooter

Local news reports with video

An emotional vigil was held Friday evening at Desert Bloom Park, for a young girl whose life was taken too soon. 

On Tuesday, 13-year-old Brooklyn Mohler was killed when she was accidentally shot by another teen girl.

Her accidental death happened just one day before the last day of school.

Mohler's close family members were in the crowd on Friday, but were understandably too devastated to talk on camera.

The Latest Las Vegas Shooting

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Las Vegas Murder Suicide on The Strip

USA Today reports

A man shot and fatally wounded a woman, then killed himself Friday at the Excalibur hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip, sending many frightened patrons fleeing.

The shootings happened at about 8:30 p.m. near the high-rise hotel's front entrance, Las Vegas Metro Police Lt. Ray Steiber said.

The man shot the woman, who was a vendor at Excalibur's concierge desk, then turned the gun on himself, Steiber said. The man died at the scene, and the woman was pronounced dead later at a local hospital.

I'm guessing it was a domestic dispute, everyone knows guns are bad news for women.  Also I figure the guy was a lawful gun owner with a concealed carry permit.  About that, we'll never know because many concealed carry permit holders commit crimes and go undetected as such. You see, when murder happens, it suddenly becomes unimportant if the guy had a license to carry a gun or a library card.  No one checks.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Murder - Suicide in Las Vegas

Local news reports

Accidental Shooting of Las Vegas 10-year-old by Himself - Mom in Jail

Local news reports

North Las Vegas Detectives arrested Carmen Gustin of North Las Vegas on charges stemming from a shooting that occurred in her home on Aug. 9 that left her 10-year-old sun in critical condition with an allegedly self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head

Gustin, 38, was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of child abuse with substantial bodily harm, two counts of child neglect, and one count of destroying evidence.

Authorities say the boy appears to have found a handgun in the house and shot himself Aug. 9 while he was home alone with a 3-year-old brother.

Charging documents accuse 38-year-old Gustin of initially telling police her son's head injury came from a fall. They say she also took the gun her son had used and hid it in a dresser drawer.

It's not the amazing negligence of leaving a gun around kids that gets people locked up. It's lying to the police about it. That really pisses them off.

What's your opinion?  Please leave a comment.

Las Vegas Schools and Guns

Local Las Vegas News reports

CCSD sees spike in guns on campus

It's like a joke. In one of the most gun-friendly states, in the city where guns are glorified like nowhere else, the cops are baffled at the increase in teen gun possession.

What's your opinion? Wouldn't it be fair to blame this on the individual families of these kids, and the society they grew up in and by extension the gun-rights advocates who work so hard to normalize gun ownership, in addition to the criminal kids themselves, of course.

Please leave a comment.

O.J. Simpson's Appeal

Finally we're seeing some progress on what I predicted at the time of his sentencing; I'm referring to the ridiculously excessive sentence for trumped-up charges like kidnapping.

After his sentencing, I predicted the whole thing will be overturned in a year or so. General opinion of O.J. is such that, by spending a year or two in jail for this nonsense the public blood-lust will have been appeased, but in America a sentence like this cannot stand in such a high profile case.

That "in America" bit sounds a little optimistic, but we'll see.


The Christian Science Monitor reports.

O.J. Simpson's lawyer told a panel of Nevada Supreme Court justices Friday that the former football star's conviction in a gunpoint hotel room heist amounted to prejudicial "payback" for Simpson's 1994 double-murder acquittal.

"This was not a search for truth but became a search for redemption," attorney Yale Galanter said as he pleaded for the court panel to overturn Simpson's conviction and grant a new trial in the September 2007 confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers in Las Vegas.

Justices Mark Gibbons, Michael Cherry and Nancy Saitta won't make an immediate ruling. A decision is expected later this year.

What's your opinion? Should he get a new trial?

Please leave a comment.

High-Tech Weapons

Wired has published a series of photographs of the latest products introduced at the SHOT show in Las Vegas last week. I was enjoying the innovative guns and rifles very much until I got to this little gem. When I read its description, specifically what the serrated edge is for, I remembered what we're dealing in here. We're dealing in tools of death. Anyone who is fascinated by these products, I would say has mental problems. These are tools for killing other human beings, and anyone who is fascinated with that is sick.





"A sales representative told us that the serrations on the inner edge are designed for beheading people."

How cool is that, I ask ya?

Is Obama Finally Coming After the Guns?

The Doom Daily Newspaper reports the executives and employees of military and law enforcement products companies that were arrested in Las Vegas while attending the 2010 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show (Shot show), represents the first volley of Obama's War on Guns.

What’s being touted as the largest single investigation and prosecution against individuals in the history of the Justice Department’s enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act occurred Monday in Las Vegas.

The indictments allege that the defendants engaged in a scheme to pay bribes to the minister of defense for a country in Africa but the alleged sales agent was in reality an undercover FBI agent.

The defendants allegedly agreed to pay a 20 percent commission to a sales agent who the defendants believed represented the minister of defense of an African country in order to win a portion of a $15 million sale to outfit the country’s presidential guard.

Whether you call that practice bribery or paying a commission, it's part of doing business in many countries and is certainly tolerated as such most of the time. Do you think this crackdown indicates a turning point for the Obama administration as far as guns go?

David Codrea had this to say:

It's too early to assess what is going on there beyond the information we have at hand, but here's my initial reaction: We've seen apparent efforts to directed at gun shows. Now we're seeing one directed by high levels in the Justice Department at the trade show of the year. Will the NRA Annual Meeting be the next convenient "opportunity"?

We're dealing with a federal law enforcement establishment that hasn't exactly earned the trust of gun owners over the years, and one that appreciates the benefits of high profile media coverage. And it's not like there isn't renewed administration emphasis on international arms trade treaties.

I usually can't resist the opportunity of pointing out the paranoia and grandiosity of gun enthusiasts. But in this case I think David may be right. Of course the "apparent efforts directed at gun shows," was about the background-check loophole, which most gun owners themselves favor. The arrests at the SHOT show, although I don't think a little bribery here and there is such a bad thing, may very well indicate a long overdue attempt to zero in on the real source of the gun problem, the gun manufacturers. At least I hope so.

Mr. Codrea's remark about the NRA convention being next, is not only silly but also misleading. To place the other two incidents, attacking the gun show loophole and arresting international arms dealers for improprieties, in the same category as harassing NRA conventioneers, is misleading at best.

What's your opinion? Do you think the Obama administration is about to launch the War on Guns? Are these efforts at Las Vegas all the more interesting because of the recent United Nations efforts globally? Would it make sense to tackle the problem from the top down instead of what we've been doing up till now?

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Las Vegas Undercover

Are police sting operations unfair to criminals? I mean, how far should the police be allowed to go to entice people to commit crimes?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Las Vegas Shootout

The Los Angeles Times reports on the headline-grabbing shootout in Las Vegas which left 2 dead.

Reporting from Washington and Las Vegas - A 66-year-old retiree apparently upset over losing a lawsuit related to his Social Security benefits opened fire in a federal courthouse lobby Monday morning, killing one person and wounding another in a chaotic shootout.

The gunman, identified by law enforcement sources as Johnny Lee Wicks, died from gunshot wounds after fleeing across the street as court officers returned fire.

Is this the case of just another nut or is there a growing trend of disgruntled folks who are heavily armed and are nearing "the edge?"

In 2008, Wicks, who had moved from California to a local retirement home, filed a complaint against a regional Social Security Administration commissioner, contending that his monthly benefits had been reduced by $317 because he was black.

"It's all about race," he wrote in the complaint, although he cited no evidence. "I am no fool."

A lawyer for the Social Security Administration responded in court documents that Wicks' payments had been cut because, as a Nevada resident, he was no longer entitled to a supplement he had received while living in California.

This man went over "the edge." It's exactly the same thing the folks in the video of the New Mexico gun rally were talking about. People commented asking what's wrong with that rally, what did I find objectionable. Well, it has to do with the subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle, threat these people make. In essence they're saying if certain things happen, too severe gun laws, too much "socialism" from Obama, they will respond with gun violence.

Poor Mr. Wicks went over the edge about his Social Security claim which was denied, proving that people like this don't need reasonable or factual situations to justify their decision to attack. Many gun owners are precariously close to that very same edge. The glib and irresponsible pro-gun writings on the internet are more than enough to push some of them over. And just like the social security decision that Wicks found so unacceptable, an unstable gun owner doesn't need reasonable or factual ideas to lose it.

As an example, Joe Huffman frequently writes that gun-owners today are persecuted in a similar way as the Jews in 1930s and 1940s Germany. Does anyone really believe that? I don't think the gun bloggers, who for the most part are extremely well written and seemingly intelligent folks, do. But the vast majority of gun owners probably do, like the ones depicted in that video the other day.

So, my contention is the Las Vegas incident was not an anomaly but rather an example of a large and growing trend of disgruntled armed people who are going over the edge. These poor characters are aided in their insanity by well-meaning gun bloggers who are continually pushing ideas which may be debatable but which do serious harm to their own cause.

What's your opinion? Please leave a comment.

Las Vegas Shooter Gets 26 to 90 Years

The Associated Press reports on the extremely harsh sentence given to the man who shot up the New York New York Casino two years ago.

A 53-year-old unemployed house painter apologized to his victims before he was sentenced Monday to 26 to 90 years in prison for opening fire with a handgun and wounding four people in a Las Vegas Strip casino more than two years ago.

"Please forgive me for my actions," Steven Francis Zegrean said, standing in shackles before Clark County District Court Judge David Barker, who moments later meted out a harsher sentence than the 16 to 64 years recommended in a state pre-sentencing report.

"I know I will go to prison," Zegrean said during his only public statement since his gun jammed after the 16th shot and he was tackled by two off-duty military reservists on a balcony at the New York-New York casino early July 6, 2007.

What kind of a gun is that, I wonder? Sixteen shots and it only stopped because of a jam? And I wonder where it came from, if he owned it legally?

What do you think about the severity of the sentence? To me it seems a bit heavy for only wounding 4 people. The article goes on to say he was charged with one count of attempted murder for every shot fired. Is that ridiculous, or what?

Zegrean was not motivated by hatred, his lawyer told the judge, and there was no evidence he aimed at people when he began peppering the casino floor with bullets. Zegrean even asked the first police officer who interviewed him whether anybody had been wounded.

Shouldn't his obvious mental impairment have been taken into consideration? One theory is that this was more an attempted suicide by cop than attempted murder.

What's your opinion?

Arizona's Image

The Arizona Republic published an interesting piece about Arizona's recent image problem due to the widely-publicized incidents of open carry at the presidential appearance.

Just as local and state tourism officials tried to shed Phoenix's unbecoming title as the "kidnapping capital of America," another national moniker has emerged: gun-crazy.

A man carrying a pistol and semiautomatic rifle outside the Phoenix hall where President Barack Obama spoke this month ignited a media firestorm, reinforcing the stereotype of the Grand Canyon State as a gun-loving vestige of the Wild West.

The firearms display, later revealed to be a publicity stunt, was legal under an Arizona law that allows most citizens to openly carry guns in public without a permit.

Before the gun incident, tales of Mexican drug cartels abducting rival smugglers and immigrants and holding them for ransom in Valley homes had already painted Phoenix as a city under siege.

The perception of Arizona is extremely important. The tourism and convention industry pumped $18.5 billion into the Arizona economy last year, generating $2.6 billion in local, state and federal taxes and supporting 170,000 jobs.

Many people denounced the open carry incident as foolish, even some pro-gun folks said it was counter-productive to their cause. The New Yourk Times said this on August 20.

"It is hard to know what is more shocking: the sight of a dozen Americans showing up to flaunt guns outside the venue for President Obama's speech in Phoenix on Monday, or the fact that the swaggering display was completely legal."

But by far the most damage was done by Arthur Frommer.

Founder of the Frommer's series of travel guidebooks, Frommer wrote that he would no longer visit Arizona, fearing for his personal safety after reading accounts of protesters carrying loaded weapons on the streets of Phoenix.

Frommer, who sold his company decades ago, was unavailable for comment. But he told NPR last weekend he was disturbed police officers stood around "like scared rabbits" while armed protesters tried to "threaten" and "intimidate" Obama supporters.

"Open-carry laws have to take second place to public order and to life," said Frommer, a New York Democrat and Obama campaign contributor. When NPR host Guy Raz suggested Frommer was making Arizona sound like war-torn Mogadishu, Frommer responded: "Well, it's getting that way. . . . The number of guns that are now being carried by citizens in Arizona is becoming frightening."

What's your opinion? Do you think the New York Times and Arthur Frommer speak for most Americans? Even if the rhetoric is a bit strong, Mogadishu and all that, is their point well taken? Do you think some of that convention business will move up to Las Vegas? Would it be much different up there?

Please leave a comment.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Loses Guns in Las Vegas

The Las Vegas Sun reports that the famous boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was investigated in a shooting.

Las Vegas police seized two handguns, ammunition and two bulletproof vests from the home of boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and two cars after a shooting outside a skating rink.

Search warrant documents released Thursday said one of the handguns seized Monday was loaded.

No one was hurt in the shooting, and Mayweather has not been named as a suspect by police. Police responded to the shooting at 10:06 p.m. Sunday at the Crystal Palace Skating Center, 4680 Boulder Highway.

The LA Times printed the story under a slightly different headline.

Guns and ammo confiscated from Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s home

Now, that's certainly an attention grabber, but would such an action count as "confiscation," as we use it in the gun debate? I don't think so. But my question is, why were the guns and other items seized? Isn't Nevada one of the most gun friendly states? Can't you have items like that in your home without fear of the police coming in and taking them away? Mayweather is not some gang banger without resources, rather he's a super talented prize fighter, already a very rich one. Wikipedia has the complete rundown, including the famous bout with De La Hoya.

Mayweather's next match was the long-anticipated superfight against six-division champion and current WBC Super Welterweight titleholder Oscar De La Hoya on May 5, 2007. De La Hoya's belt was on the line, which required Mayweather to move up in weight from 147 pounds to 154.

Despite De La Hoya's insistence that money was not a factor, the Mayweather-De La Hoya bout set the record for most PPV buys for a boxing match with 2.4 million households, shattering the record of 1.95 million for Evander Holyfield-Mike Tyson II. Around $120 million in revenue was generated by the PPV, which set another record.

With the percentages factored in, Oscar De La Hoya ended up earning $58 million for the bout, the highest purse ever for a fighter. The previous record was $35 million, held by Tyson and Holyfield. Floyd Mayweather earned about $25 million for the fight.

Mayweather won by split decision in 12 rounds, capturing the World Boxing Council (WBC) title.

The boxing world awaits the next big showdown between Mayweather and Pacquiao, hopefully later this year. That payday should help Floyd Mayweather afford the lawyers necessary to get his guns back. What do you think?

Please leave a comment.

Las Vegas Detective Cleared in Fatal Shooting

The Mercury News published this story about Officer Jeremy Hendricks of Las Vegas.

A Las Vegas police detective has been cleared of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a sexual assault suspect during a foot chase last month.

A coroner's inquest jury deliberated for about 90 minutes on Friday before returning the unanimous verdict in favor of Jeremy Hendricks, an 11-year veteran of the force.

Hendricks shot John Paul Hambleton in the back as the 32-year-old suspect ran from the detective and his partner in northwest Las Vegas on July 1.

Hendricks and they wanted to question him about his two-year sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl. Police intended to charge him with nine counts of sexual assault.

The first thing I noticed, besides the "shot in the back" part, is the little girlfriend was 16 years old not 6. Does anyone think a consensual relationship with an underage teenager and molesting a 6-year-old should be considered the same? Should they both be called sexual assault?

But, of course, the real question is how can shooting an escaping suspect in the back be considered legitimate?

Interestingly, the Las Vegas sites don't have this story out yet. The information above comes from neighboring California. I guess the Vegas papers are trying to figure out how they want to present the story.

Last month, the Las Vegas Review-Journal published this story on the past history of Officer Hendricks.

When Las Vegas police Detective Jeremy Hendricks testifies before a coroner's inquest jury in August about the slaying of a sexual assault suspect, it won't be his first inquest experience.

Hendricks, who fatally shot Paul Hambleton, 32, in the back as he fled police earlier this month, was called as an inquest witness in 2005.

The case involved the death of 47-year-old Russell Walker, who was shocked with a Taser multiple times by police, including while strapped to a gurney.

Hendricks, then an officer, helped restrain Walker during the incident, which is now the subject of a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court.

The inquest jury cleared two officers in the death of Walker. Autopsy results showed the man had been high on cocaine during the confrontation with police in front of the Western Hotel in downtown Las Vegas.

I think I'm beginning to get it, if they're high on cocaine or thought to be sexual assailants, anything goes. I realize the police have a very difficult job, but shouldn't this kind of thing be discouraged?

What's your opinion? Is holding a man down while other officers taser him to death the kind of behaviour you want from your police? Is shooting a fleeing suspect in the back sometimes justified?

Please leave a comment.

Teen Shooting in Las Vegas - Shared Responsibility

The Las Vegas Fox affiliate carried the story.

A 19-year-old Las Vegas man accepted a plea deal today in the case of a drive-by shooting that left a high school freshman dead.

Ezekiel Williams' lawyer said his client has been promised a sentence of eight to 20 years for voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon and accessory to murder in the February 2008 slaying of 15-year-old Christopher Privett.

What happened was, Williams was driving the car while his passenger, 17-year-old Gerald Davison, shot and killed Privett as he and three friends walked home from Palo Verde High School. Williams admitted handing the gun to the shooter.

What's interesting to me is the shared responsibility. Apparently the courts felt the older teenager who passed the gun to Davison shared in the guilt for this murder. What about the girl? The story says there was a girl in the car as well who had gotten in an argument with the dead boy earlier in the day. Does she not share in the responsibility?

Maybe there's only so much guilt to go around. Direct involvement like passing the murder weapon immediately before the incident counts, but less direct involvement like whatever happened between the girl passenger and Privett is too far removed. In which case, whatever parental or societal influences might have played a factor couldn't possibly be mentioned as excuses or mitigation.

After interviewing the 17-year-old murderer, Metro Detective Clifford Mogg said, "He told detectives he didn't mean to kill anyone.” Is that difficult to believe? Is the idea that an individual who commits murder is not acting in isolation but rather in concert with numerous influences, some of them quite direct, too hard to accept? I say no. I say we lose nothing as a society by giving people like this the benefit of the doubt.

What's your opinion?