An employee at the Valparaiso branch of the Porter County Public Library made a shocking discovery this week after cracking open a donated book. The book, which carries the title "Outerbridge Reach," was hollowed out and contained a historic-looking handgun, according to Valparaiso police.And the kicker? This was not the first time it's happened.
The weapon was described by police as a gold, wooden handle, A.S.M. brand, .31-caliber, single shot, black powder gun.
Bishop, 18, had a history of mental illness, addiction to bath salts and violence toward his mother, Imari Shibata, 49, a nursing assistant, according to the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office. Shibata and her boyfriend, Kelley Allen, also 49, a popular swim coach, were so concerned for their safety they removed all the knives from their home before Bishop returned in September from a 10-month stint at a rehab center.Is that allowed? Can you buy a gun for a prohibited person as long as it's not a handgun? Can 18-year-olds do that?
Startled by her son that night, Shibata looked at him and the 12-gauge shotgun he bought through a friend, Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said Sunday. She asked her son what he was doing. Bishop answered by pulling the trigger. He fired several times, reloaded, then fired again — eight rounds total, killing his mother and her boyfriend, the sheriff said. Then he called 911 and admitted to the crime.
Deputies arrested Bishop on two counts of first-degree murder.
Bishop is unemployed and a diagnosed schizophrenic.
Bishop tried to strangle his mother in July 2011, authorities said Sunday, and probation for that incident prevented him from being able to buy a gun.
On July 26, 2011, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records, Bishop was arrested on charges of obstructing justice by tampering with a witness and domestic battery by strangulation, both felonies. The counts were reduced to a lesser battery charge, the records show, and he pleaded guilty. A judge withheld adjudication and the teen was sentenced this year.
Bishop also had been held four times under the state's Baker Act, Gualtieri said.
A few weeks ago, Bishop told an 18-year-old friend he needed a gun for protection from local gangs. He gave the friend $279 he had made by pawning electronic items, according to the Sheriff's Office.
This is in gun friendly Vermont where according to the gun-rights folks this kind of thing just doesn't happen.State police and Border Patrol agents were called to a party in Charleston about 1 a.m. Sunday regarding a shooting.
When police arrived, a crowd pushed 24-year-old Lee Sykes of Charleston against a trooper’s cruiser, telling police he had shot another Charleston man, Eric Baker, during a fight.
Officials say Baker was taken to North Country Hospital by his wife with a gunshot wound to the hip. Sykes was also treated for injuries to his face and hand from the fight and from the crowd that went to Baker’s aid.Sykes is being held on $25,000 bail at the Northern State Correctional Facility on a charge of aggravated assault.
Aren't those the same scare tactics they use for gun rights in general? Yes, that's what the NRA is all about. And the insecure and frightened gun-rights activists love it. It plays right into their damaged psyches.
In four states this November, voters will decide whether to institute a constitutional amendment ensuring the “right to hunt and fish.” These measures are being pushed by the National Rifle Association primarily as a way of preemptively protecting hunters and gun owners from “radical” animal rights groups.
To most people, these amendments probably sound like a solution without a problem. But the NRA has been warning voters and state legislators that “radical” animal rights groups could come for their guns and traps any day now. As the NRA’s legislative arm, the NRA-ILA, wrote on its blog, it’s working to “protect the citizens’ hunting heritage from attacks initiated by well-funded anti-hunting extremists who have assailed sportsmen throughout the country in recent years.”
The main “extremists” the NRA-ILA refers to are PETA and the Humane Society of the United States (unrelated to the organization that runs local animal shelters but often attacked as radical for pushing for things such as crackdowns on puppy mills). But HSUS says it has no plans to go after hunting and fishing rights, and it called the Kentucky amendment “inconsequential and merely window dressing.”
A 10-year-old girl was fatally injured in what appeared to be an accidental shooting at a Saxis Road residence Thursday night.Did you get that? "BUT it appears to have been accidental," as if that makes it all right. That's one of the ways in which they diminish the responsibility of gun accidents. The other is they keep telling us how few they are, as if that makes it all right.
Deputies when they arrived at the residence found the girl had sustained a gunshot wound to the body. The victim was transported by ambulance to Peninsula Regional Medical Center in Salisbury, Md., where she was pronounced dead.
Godwin said investigation into the shooting is continuing but it appears to have been accidental.
Tracy Joyce was riding through Winter Park on Friday afternoon when he saw someone drive by in his stolen blue Volvo.It's a good thing they didn't shoot the kid. But, it's a bad thing that every teenage car thief has easy access to guns. Unfortunately, that's how it is in Florida these days. We can thank the gun-rights advocates and their gun lobby for that.
The scenario ended when the teenager behind the wheel of the Volvo rammed an unmarked police car and accidentally shot himself in the leg as he tried to run away.
He jumped from the car and ran north toward the railroad tracks with officers in pursuit, leapt a hedge and pulled a .44-caliber handgun from his waistband, according to the report. The next thing officers heard was a pop.
Johnson had accidentally shot himself in the right calf. He was booked into Orange County Jail about 11:15 p.m. after being treated at a hospital.
The passenger in the Volvo, Gerald Lavert Jones, 18, also was arrested. He was not hurt.
