Gun-wielding ecoterrorist calls for reduction in human population, gets wish

I guess we’ll see how much coverage this guy’s views and apparent motivation gets. I’m guessing not nearly as much as if he was an NRA activist.

Armed man fatally shot at Tennessee high school

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. — An armed man was fatally shot by deputies Monday at an east Tennessee high school after he went inside and pointed a gun at the principal’s head, a sheriff said.

Well done, deputies!

But there’s another interesting tidbit:

[The gun man] Cowan entered the school with a .380-caliber semiautomatic and a .25-caliber handgun in his back pocket, Anderson said. The sheriff said that after Cowan grabbed the principal, Melanie Riden, and pointed the semiautomatic at her head, student resource officer Carolyn Gudger pulled her gun on Cowan and moved the principal to safety. [emphasis Murdoc's]

What sounds like a bit of a standoff followed, and deputies shot Cowan after he pointed his gun at Gudger.

Not only did an armed individual prevent a school attack, but the deputies didn’t seem to have trouble knowing who the good guys and the bad guys were. We keep being told that armed people in schools won’t help and will just make it tougher for the authorities to do their jobs.

Does Dressing Up as a Cop, Staging Fake Traffic Stops, Looking for Drugs, and then Keeping the Drugs Violate the Fourth Amendment?

At the Volokk Conspiracy:

In United States v. Torres-Sobrado, — F.Supp.2d –, 2010 WL 3290958 (D. Puerto Rico 2010), handed down last week, twelve defendants allegedly dressed up as police officers and pulled over motorists for traffic violations. One of the twelve was an actual police officer, but apparently the rest were not. They would then look for drugs, and when they found drugs they would keep the drugs and later sell them.

At least one man was killed during the, um, operations. Among the charges against them was an accusation that they violated the Fourth Amendment:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

But

In last week’s decision, the defendants moved to dismiss this count of the indictment as a matter of law. They made two arguments. First, the defendants argued that they are not real police officers, and therefore are not state actors under Fourth Amendment law. Second, they argued that even if they were state actors, they did not violate the Fourth Amendment because their stop and seizure complied with Fourth Amendment standards. The stop was based on probable cause, the drugs were in plain view, etc.

One commenter writes:

I certainly think it’s just for those that pretend to be state actors to suffer the same consequences of their actions as if they were in fact state actors. If we are going to enhance the punishment for a cop that uses his badge and uniform to assist him in carrying out a crime, why would we not want to treat an impostor in the same way?

That makes me wonder about places with minimum sentences for using a gun during a crime. Does that minimum sentence apply if the defendant uses a fake gun which the victims believe to be real? How about “assault with a deadly weapon” if the “deadly weapon” is not real?

Another commenter:

I think that the civil rights violation is the least of their problems.

Agreed. And I guess I sort of wonder why that charge was made in the first place. But all I know of the case is what I quickly read today, so there is certainly a lot of detail that I am ignorant of.

Via Instapundit.

Pitbull shot in Grand Rapids; its puppies remain missing

Very odd. The missing pups were offspring of the shot dog. My guess is that it was the mother and she was defending her pups and property. It was still alive when police arrived but had to be put down.

There’s no indication that the pups are somehow particularly valuable. Was it worth shooting a dog over?

Murdoc is not really a dog person, but we’ve got a couple and love them. And I’ve never been a fan of the pit bull thing, but unless the dog had done something to warrant it, this is obviously out of line.

I’ve always thought that the way people treat animals says a lot about them.

DC Sniper Claims Conspirators In Shatner Interview

William Shatner (yes, that William Shatner) interviewed DC sniper Lee Boyd Malvo fro an A&E television special:

In a telephone call from a southwest Virginia prison, Malvo told Shatner two men planned to join in the attacks to make them more deadly but reneged. Malvo said his fellow shooter, John Allen Muhammad, killed one of the men in retaliation.

In the TV interview, Malvo initially denies his psychiatrist’s claims that he and Muhammad had co-conspirators. Once pressured, he says someone in Arizona helped them get weapons and explosives, and a man in New York was supposed to help them get out of the country “when it’s all said and done.”

He said both later backed out of plans to help with the shootings.

“There was supposed to be three to four snipers with silenced weapons,” said Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings. “In this way we could do a lot more damage along the entire Eastern Seaboard.”

Gold and silver-plated jewel-encrusted guns allegedly owned by drug cartel boss are seized in Mexico

More pics at the Telegraph.

Father killed in failed plan to get custody of child

Dwayne Lamont Moten wanted custody of his child. So he devised a plan with another man to get the new boyfriend of the child’s mother out of the way, according to Dallas police.

Jacob Wheeler would shoot to wound Moten. Then Moten would call 911 and pin the shooting on the third man.

Except instead of shooting Moten in the thigh and shoulder, Moten ended up somehow shot in the chest and dying of his wounds.

The shooter was arrested on an unrelated charge and was later charged with murder.

It sounds like something out of a Coen Brothers movie.

Michael Greaves of Gladwin ordered to pay fines

ST. IGNACE, Mich. (AP) – A Gladwin man found guilty of illegally killing a gray wolf in the Upper Peninsula has been sentenced.

Forty-seven-year-old Michael Greaves was ordered to pay $500 in fines and costs and $1,500 in restitution during his June 15 sentencing in 92nd District Court in St. Ignace. Judge Clayton Graham also suspended Greaves’ hunting privileges for one year.

The wolf was wearing a collar transmitter which alerted US Fish and Wildlife Service officials.

A thief, dressed for the winter and rummaging through a car outside a Glasgow residence late Tuesday, had the tables turned on him when he was held at gunpoint by the resident he was stealing from until police arrived, officials said today.

via The Armed Citizen.

Daley won’t say if 80-year-old will be charged under gun ban – Chicago Breaking News

Mayor Richard Daley refused to say today whether an 80-year-old Army veteran who shot and killed an intruder will be charged under the city’s handgun ban.

Asked about the possibility of charges, the mayor ended a news conference he had called about summer curfew in the city.

“I don’t know. Thank you very much,” Daley said and stepped away from the microphone.

Before walking away, Daley acknowledged people's frustration over the issue of gun control but insisted “I don’t think the answer is guns.”

A parolee with a record of drug and gun arrests broke in an reportedly fired two shots before the homeowner dispatched him.

The man has been hailed as a hero by his family and neighbors, but Daley cautioned that “guns is not the answer to the problems that we see in a home, in the streets of America. It’s as simple as that.”

Actually, Mayor Daley, I think that this story illustrates that you are just plain wrong. As simple as that.