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New York Daily News Blasts NRA Chief as a ‘Terrorist’ (Photo)

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The New York Daily News continued its crusade for tighter gun control on Friday, issuing a front cover that grouped NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre with terrorists.

Titled, “He’s a Terrorist,” the newspaper shows an image (pictured above) of San Bernardino shooter Syed Farook above images of perpetrators of domestic mass shootings. Under him reads,”But so are these guys…”

“These guys” included Newtown shooter Adam Lanza, Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Dear, Charleston church shooter Dylan Roof and Aurora movie theater James Holmes.

*Also Read:* NY Daily News San Bernardino Shooting Cover Sparks Passionate Online Debate

“And this guy,” text reads over a picture of  LaPierre, lumped in the same row with notorious shooters.

Underneath the lineup of shooters and Daily News-perceived terrorists, the paper wrote: “Syed Farook joins long list of murderous psychos enabled by NRA’s sick gun jihad against America in the name of profit.”

*Also Read:* Geraldo Rivera Calls NRA 'Full of Sh-t' After San Bernardino Shootings

This is not the first time the Daily News has taken on the NRA and LaPierre; the paper’s been borderline crusading for tighter gun control for several years.

On Thursday, the paper sparked social media buzz for a different cover reacting to the San Bernardino shootings titled, “God Won’t Fix This,” referring to Republican presidential candidates offering their thoughts and prayers following the massacre. Reported by The Wrap 9 hours ago.

Americans Have Never Tried To Buy So Many Guns In November... Ever

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Americans Have Never Tried To Buy So Many Guns In November... Ever Two things happened after the most recent widely publicized US mass shootings/domestic terrorism acts: i) Obama once again made a concerted effort to push for gun-control, and ii) *gun sales soared to record highs for November* most likely in response to i). As we reported in September, citing the FT, "gun sales this year could surpass the record set in 2013, when gun purchases surged after the December 2012 Sandy Hook murders." And given that Black Friday background checks broke all previous records, it appears we are well on our way.



... the calls for tighter gun laws lead to an increase in weapons sales. “Once the public hears the president on the news say we need more gun controls, it tends to drive sales,” said Mr Hyatt, who owns one of the largest gun retailers in the US. “People think, if I don’t get a gun now, it might be difficult to get one in the future. The store is crowded.”

 

"We don’t want our business to be based on tragedy but we have to deal with what we have no control over,” Mr Hyatt said. “And after these shootings and then the calls for tougher gun laws, we see a buying rush.”



This is not surprising: as Wired noted back in 2013, sharp spikes in gun sales usually following mass shootings for several reasons.



*The desire to protect one's self *In many cases, gun shootings followed by 24/7 media coverage prompt citizens to arm themselves, according to testimonies. In Aurora, for instance, Jake Meyers of Rocky Mountain Guns and Ammo told The Post shoppers cited self-protection when checking out new weapons. "A lot of it is people saying, 'I didn't think I needed a gun, but now I do,' " Meyers said. "When it happens in your backyard, people start reassessing — 'Hey, I go to the movies.'"

 

*The fear of stricter gun laws *Another logical factor is that gun owners' or soon-to-be-gun owners' sense a tide of gun control regulations following a massacre and seek to purchase guns ahead of fast-moving laws. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, spoke to this following a 60 percent uptick in gun sales in the aftermath of the Tucson shootings in 2011. "Some Americans fear tougher gun control laws in the aftermath of Saturday’s attack so they want to stock up now," he told Politico. “What it shows is maybe gun owners in Arizona and these other states feel that there’s going to be some change in the law, which is what I hope our elected officials” trying to enact. Obviously, that fear has been unfounded. Since coming into office, Obama has been virtually silent on the issue of gun control, despite the protestations of liberals.

 

*The feeling of uncertainty *It's important to remember, spikes in guns sales don't just coincide with shooting sprees. They also coincide with violent events of any kind, as Fredrick Kunkle at The Washington Post reported. "People also rushed to buy guns after the 1992 riots in Los Angeles and the breakdown of order in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina." That has led some industry experts and law enforcement officials to point to a general feeling of uncertainty as a driver of gun buying habits. "People often buy firearms during periods of uncertainty," Gary Kleck, a researcher at Florida State University's College of Criminology and Criminal Justice, told the paper.



Which brings us to today when in the latest FBI background check data - a proxy for total gun sales in the United States as most gun purchases require a background check - we find that, as expected, Obama's latest threat to implement stricter gun controls backfried once more, *and the month of November saw a record number of background checks.*

 

As Free Beacon previously noted:



Gun rights activists have pointed to Democrats’ calls for new gun control measures as one reason why gun sales have increased. Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has said that the Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment, that Australian style mandatory gun buybacks should be considered in the United States, and that she would implement new gun control through executive action.

 

“Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton are the best gun salespeople on the planet. The more they scream for new gun control laws the more guns walk off the shelves at gun stores,” said Alan Gottlieb, the head of the Second Amendment Foundation. “To quote the lyrics of Peter, Paul and Mary, ‘When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn.’”



The biggest irony, however, as we reported previously, is that "homicide rates have been cut in half over past 20 years as new gun ownership soared."

 

So thanks Obama: courtesy of your inept approach to resolving every social issue not to mention your naive, recurring attempts to uproot the Second Amendment, you are making the US safer one teleprompted, faux-emotional speech at a time.* Granted, everyone knows that was not your intention, but the public will take whatever it can.*

 

So what changed? Why did Americans suddenly start getting more interested in guns inj and around the end of 2008? Reported by Zero Hedge 7 hours ago.

Judge orders Aurora, Colo., theater gunman James Holmes to pay $955,000 in restitution - @AP

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Reported by Breaking News 7 hours ago.

As a Japanese Man Living in America, Gun Violence Is My New Reality

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When I was growing up in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan, I remember watching stories of American gun violence unfold on a television screen with confusion. Japanese news analysts and I had similar questions: Why do so many Americans have guns? What are they afraid of? If gun violence is such an issue, why don't Americans do something to control access to them? Since 1992 -- when Japanese exchange student, Yoshihiro Hattori was shot by a Louisiana homeowner because he went into the wrong house for a Halloween party -- many Japanese civilians have found it incomprehensible that Americans continue to endure mass shootings at the mercy of the gun lobby.

Such questions may seem initially naive, but in the context of Japanese attitudes towards guns, they are completely natural. After the death of a Japanese student at the hand of American guns, thousands of Japanese civilians have signed petitions calling for America to model their gun control policies on Japan's.

This seemingly makes sense: Japan has one of the tightest gun control policies in the world. It comes at no surprise that Japan also has one of the lowest firearm ownership rates in the world. As a result, the annual rate of all gun deaths per 100,000 population in 2014 was zero -- a pipe dream in the United States.

This is partly due to Japan's firearm policies as established in it's firearm law. Whereas the American constitution is premised on the idea that all Americans have the right to keep and bear arms, Japan's firearm law explicitly states, "No person shall possess a firearm or firearms or a sword or swords."

Today, most Japanese nationals continue to observe the gun violence in America with confusion and exasperation. Japanese journalist, Akira Ikegami raised some questions about American gun culture when he observed Texan children being taught to shoot firearms in his Toyo Keizai special, "American Gun Culture's malady." Ikegami said, "It's understandable [for Americans] to want to have small-scale guns for self-defense. However, it remains questionable when gun shops are selling larger assault guns. It became painfully aware to me that to accept the fact that everyone has the right to gun ownership is too much and some sort of control is necessary."

These sentiments are widely reflected by Japanese civilians. Shortly after the Sandy Hook mass shooting in 2012, CNN interviewed Japanese citizens of what they thought of America's gun policies. One business man said, "The U.S. is recognized as a modern democracy in the world, but when it comes to guns, it is a barbaric and undeveloped country." Subsequent interviewees echoed each other thoughts that it was "absurd" that normal families and civilians have access to guns and called for stricter gun control in the United States.
I am no longer in Japan watching the news on a television from thousands of miles away.

Since moving to the United States, gun violence has become my reality. My first year in the United States saw both the tragedies of Aurora and Sandy Hook, and these events shattered any sense of safety I had taken for granted from living in a gun-free country.

Fear has seeped its way into every movie theater visit, airplane ride, and university lecture. Every large pop or crack I hear on campus, I duck down in fear. When a balloon pops at the mall, I jump. In fact, San Diego State University, where I am now a student, was the target of a shooting in 1996, when a grad student shot three professors during his master's thesis defense. Just last October, a house roughly two blocks down from my own became the scene of an armed robbery. I used to navigate these spaces with ease in Japan and now, in the United States, gun violence sits at the back of my mind constantly. I am slowly realizing the ways that American gun culture is affecting the way I navigate my day-to-day life.

There is no telling whether or not the Japanese approach to gun control will work in the United States due to significant cultural and political differences between the two countries. Whereas Japanese society views guns as a tool for death, American society views it as protection against death. But, it cannot be denied that there is an injustice in how cyclical gun violence has become in the United States. These events were shocking at first, but even I have realized that the longer I stay in the United States, the less surprised and shocked I am. I believe this is true for Americans and this needs to change on a societal level.

In the words of President Obama, the normalization of these tragedies is a "political choice we make." When we submit to the gun lobby's agenda and remain silent, we are excusing these mass shootings as part of an American reality. The solution does not lie in outright banning guns, but in making access to weapons harder for the general public.

In Japan, in order to buy a gun, an individual must attend an all-day class, pass a written exam, go to the hospital for mental and drug tests and undergo a rigorous background check on criminal activity. Gun owners are subject to annual police inspections of their new firearm and are required to retake the class and exam every three years. These measures seem absurd in an American context, but they are necessary given the reality of gun access. A New York Times analysis found that the guns used by gunmen in 15 recent mass shootings in the United States were bought legally, and at least eight of these gunmen had criminal histories and documented mental health problems.

There is nothing normal about 351 mass shootings in 335 days. There is nothing normal about America's submission to the gun lobby and their ban on gun research. There is nothing normal about a society that accepts that death is a necessary cost of "freedom and liberty."

I remember a time when I lived day-to-day without fear of gun violence. It is a reality that shouldn't be exclusive to Japan. It is a reality that I hope will come true for many Americans.

But, change starts when the status quo is challenged, and Americans need to realize that their current reality is a threat to all the values we hold dear.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 5 hours ago.

Colorado Shooter James Holmes Ordered to Pay Nearly $1 Million in Restitution

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Colorado shooter James Holmes has been ordered by a judge to pay almost $1 million in restitution for the horrific July 2012 rampage that left 12 people dead and 70 injured.

However, Friday’s ruling is considered to be largely a symbolic gesture as it is highly unlikely that he will ever make that much money in prison.

Judge Carlos Samour ordered that Holmes pay $851,493 to the Victim Compensation Fund and $103,385.95 directly to the victims, which is the exact amount the prosecution requested, reported ABC 7 in Denver.

*Also Read:* San Bernardino Shooting: FBI Declares Massacre 'An Act of Terrorism'

“The Court also orders the defendant to pay restitution for all future expenses incurred by the victims and Victim Compensation as a result of his shocking crimes,” Samour said.

“This includes, but is not limited to, lost wages, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, counseling, psychological care, psychiatric care, prescription drugs, medical services, medical equipment and any other treatment or therapy.”

The shooter was also ordered to pay 12 percent annual interest, which will likely increase the amount to more than $1 million.

*Also Read:* San Bernardino Female Shooter Pledged Allegiance to ISIS on Facebook

“It’s important that we, as a community, hold defendants accountable,” prosecutor Lisa Teesch-Maguire said. “For a crime of this magnitude, frankly us, seeking just less than a million dollars in restitution, is really not an exorbitant amount of restitution.”

On July 16, almost three years after the massacre during a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” in Aurora, Holmes was found guilty on 24 counts of first degree murder, two for each of his victims, after a nearly three-month trial. The jury rejected his lawyers’ argument that Holmes was not guilty by reason of insanity.

Holmes, a former doctoral student in neuroscience, walked into the theater 30 minutes into the movie dressed in black tactical gear. He dropped two smoke-emitting canisters and then opened fire on the crowd with a 12-gauge shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle.

*Also Read:* New York Daily News Blasts NRA Chief as a 'Terrorist' (Photo)

The 27 year old is currently housed at the Colorado State Penitentiary in Canon City after being sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for the murder charges, and an additional 3,318 years for the attempted murder and explosives possession charges. Reported by The Wrap 3 hours ago.

Mass Shootings Are Changing Us

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Can you even call it Groundhog Day when we are beginning to approach two mass shootings a day? Have we come to the place where it’s become Groundhog Morning and Groundhog Afternoon? It seems we used to have weeks or months to recover from a Columbine or an Aurora. More and more we have days or hours, and whether we are coping or going slowly numb is still open to debate. Reported by Slate 1 hour ago.

What It's Like To Be A Cop Involved In A Mass Shooting

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This article was originally published by The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletter, or follow The Marshall Project on Facebook or Twitter.

The anger. The numbness. The flashbacks. Mass shootings such as the one in San Bernardino, Calif. this week can haunt, for years, the police officers who are often first to the scene. It is a trauma that Sergeant A.J. DeAndrea of Arvada, Colo. knows firsthand. He was one of the first to enter Columbine High School in 1999, searching for the gunmen who killed 13 people and injured 21 more.

“When you walked out of the building, it was like, ‘Holy shit. What did we just experience?’” he said of Columbine. “It was surreal. People didn’t know what to say … you felt like you were on an island.” Though he said it never got to the point where he could not do his job, images of victims would appear in his mind without warning long after the shooting. To this day, an unexpected trigger can resurface a memory. “Anniversaries are always hard. They get easier in time, but these things stay with you,” he said.
 
Cops are trained to confront tense and life-threatening events every day, but the sheer scale of mass shootings, like the one in San Bernardino on Wednesday — in which 14 people were killed, and 21 wounded, making it the deadliest mass shooting in nearly three years — are different. “These incidents have the power to render a person nearly defenseless emotionally,” said police psychologist Jack Digliani.

The ensuing media coverage and national attention can also make it harder for officers to move on. “The media was so brutal. All of the so-called experts coming out saying how we could have done things better,” DeAndrea said. “After the first day, I quit watching.”

In San Bernardino, soon after police cleared the crime scene, a group of mental-health professionals arrived at the San Bernardino Police Department to help officers process what they had just seen.

“We do a lot of psychological first aid,” said Nancy Bohl-Penrod, director of the Counseling Team International, a private practice that responds to crisis incidents in Southern California. Bohl-Penrod and her team — comprised of chaplains, counselors, and fellow officers — began preparing officers for what might lie ahead: difficulty sleeping, hypervigilance, anger, isolation, and flashbacks. “There are parts of the event that get stuck in your memory. It keeps replaying on a loop: you smell it and see it and hear it.”Former Newtown police officer Thomas Bean was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn., in which 20 children and six adults were killed. He sued the police department for disability benefits (the debate overwhether police should receive workers compensation for PTSD is ongoing in several states). Bean said he drank and thought about cutting himself after the image of dead children was seared in his brain.

Former Aurora police chief Daniel Oates experienced how mass shooting can shake an entire police department. One hundred and twenty-six officers were working the night that James Holmes killed 12 and injured 70 in a movie theater in Colorado. “What the whole organization went through was cataclysmic,” said Oates, who left Aurora in 2014 to become chief of police in Miami Beach. “The cops that weren’t there were tremendously traumatized because there was a sense of, ‘I wasn’t there to contribute.’”

Oates brought in police psychologist John Nicoletti to meet with any officer who wanted to talk. Sergeants organized trips to the hospital for police to meet the surviving moviegoers they had helped. Eight days after the shooting, they gathered every officer working that night to listen to each radio transmission and walk through exactly what happened. While reliving the shooting can be traumatic, it helps officers see the big picture, Nicoletti said. Without it, they can spiral, wondering what they might have done differently to save more lives.

Even three years later, during Holmes’ trial, many police officers broke down in tears remembering the bodies they carted to the hospital. “Hopefully weeks or months down the road, they’ve moved to where it’s not consuming and it becomes more of a memory,” Nicoletti said. “But there will be trigger events that wake up the ghosts.”

With each mass shooting (and there have been many this year) police chiefs are thinking more about how to prepare their officers for such an event. “Fifteen years ago, there was no active shooter training, there was no mass casualty training,” said Dan Phillips, chief of crisis services for the U.S. Marshals Service. “That’s a huge shift in law enforcement.”

These programs instruct officers on how to approach an active shooter, as well as how to take care of themselves in the weeks and months after the event. “We let them know there will be peer support and mental health professionals available. We tell them to stay away from the TV and media as much as possible,” Phillips said. “We prepare them as best we can that whatever you’re feeling afterwards is normal — it’s the event itself that’s abnormal.”
Departments that have weathered mass shootings hope to help other cities prepare for the worst. A group of police chiefs is working with the National Alliance on Mental Illness to compile a manual for police departments on how to assist officers responding to high casualties and to deal with the resulting trauma.

“There’s this perverse and growing fraternity of chiefs who have been through this,” Oates said. “Sandy Hook, Oak Creek, Wisconsin, now we’ve got Chatanooga, San Bernardino, Colorado Springs … it just goes on and on.”

*Also on HuffPost:*

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 1 day ago.

Leading Faithfully On Monday After A Week Of Tragedy

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Photo by Anthony Delanoix, Unsplash We are living in a world of regularly recurring tragedy. This week, it was shootings in San Bernandino. Last month, it was Paris. Before that? Sandy Hook. Aurora. Columbine. This list could go on. So what are business leaders to do in the wake of tragedy? How [...] Reported by Forbes.com 14 hours ago.

Silicon Valley, capitalist conscience of America, struggles with gun technology

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While many households stared at their screens in shock as a lone gunman opened fire last week in a Colorado Springs shopping mall, Chris Herr had a more muted reaction: "Here's another one."

Herr has always lived in or around Colorado Springs. Like many growing up in Colorado, his life has been punctuated by a steady drumbeat of bullets and bloodbaths. He remembers being in high school when two teenagers went on a shooting spree at the Columbine High School two hours away, killing 13. More than a decade later, a couple people he knew were at a Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado when James Holmes shot and killed 12 and wounded 70. Read more...

More about Startups, Silicon Valley, Business, Social Good, and Gun Control Reported by Mashable 14 hours ago.

Aurora police looking for two who robbed armored car

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Aurora police are looking for two men wanted for robbing an armored car on Nov. 25 at a Walmart store. Reported by Denver Post 10 hours ago.

College Student from Northbrook Rescued by SWAT in New York

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College Student from Northbrook Rescued by SWAT in New York Patch Glenview, IL -- The young man had been abducted early Saturday morning, along with a classmate from Aurora. Reported by Patch 20 hours ago.

College Student from Aurora Rescued by SWAT in New York

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College Student from Aurora Rescued by SWAT in New York Patch Batavia, IL -- The young man had been abducted early Saturday morning, along with a classmate from Northbrook. Reported by Patch 20 hours ago.

2 new cameras to help monitor Nebraska highway conditions

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AURORA, Neb. (AP) — Construction is scheduled to begin this week on video camera towers near Aurora in south-central Nebraska. The Roads Department says the cameras installed on each will be added to others on the system that monitors highway conditions throughout the state. One tower will be situated along Interstate 80 at the O Road overpass. The other will be built where Nebraska Highway 14 crosses the interstate. Minor shoulder closures will occur during the project, which is expected to be finished this month. Reported by SeattlePI.com 16 hours ago.

Police Nab Man Accused of Armed Robbery

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Police Nab Man Accused of Armed Robbery Patch Naperville, IL -- The Aurora man allegedly held up a Naperville 7-Eleven. Reported by Patch 12 hours ago.

The New York Times Is Right About Assault Weapons

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In just three mass shootings -- Aurora, Sandy Hook and San Bernardino -- the final toll is 147 killed and wounded. Think about that number: 147. That's three busloads, two completely-full Amtrak passenger cars. The New York Times, in a nearly unprecedented front-page editorial, calls it a "moral outrage and national disgrace." The purpose of this column is to explain why we agree and why the editorial board's call for a ban on civilian ownership of assault weapons deserves to be supported in the strongest possible terms.The gun industry has been promoting assault rifles by advancing a big, fat lie; namely, that assault rifles are just another type of 'sporting' weapon, no more dangerous than the old Remington or Winchester that Grandpa and then Dad used to lug out to the woods. Most sporting rifles load ammunition by the manual use of a bolt or lever, which considerably slows the speed at which the gun can fire multiple rounds. Semi-automatic sporting rifles like the Remington 742 increase the speed at which the gun can shoot more than one round, but the standard semi-auto hunting rifle still only holds 4 or 5 rounds.What makes the AR so different, so lethal, and so non-sporting is not the fact that it looks like a military gun (which it is); not the fact that it might be fitted with a laser which makes it extremely accurate, particularly in indoor, low light; not the fact that the stock can be folded so that the gun can be easily carried or even concealed; not even the fact that the front barrel lug can also be fitted with a bayonet, just in case a little extra oomph is needed to finish the job.What makes the AR an assault rifle and not a sporting rifle is one thing and one thing only, namely, that it fires ammunition specifically designed to kill or maim military combatants (who happen to be humans, by the way) and can easily fire 50 or 60 high-powered rounds in 30 seconds or less. This is not to say that mass shootings involving scores of victims can only be accomplished with an AR; Seung-Hui Cho killed and wounded 56 people at Virginia Tech in 2007 using a Glock 19. But Cho's attacks were spread over more than three hours; Adam Lanza killed 26 with an AR in five minutes or less. Better coordination and communication might have saved many lives at Virginia Tech; in San Bernardino the carnage was over almost as soon as it began.What the Times calls a moral outrage and national disgrace is more than that; the ability of private citizens to get their hands on these highly-lethal weapons fitted out with high-capacity magazines is a risk to the nation's health. When two cases of Ebola occurred in the same hospital where a patient stricken with the virus had previously died, it wouldn't have taken more than one or two more confirmed cases and the city of Dallas would have ceased to exist. But the risk was recognized by the CDC and the threat was quickly brought to an end.We are suggesting that the same situation now exists as regards the ownership and use of AR-15s. How many more senseless slaughters are we going to endure while politicians dither around and pretend they are truly concerned about Constitutional rights? And if anyone wants to believe that banning assault rifles would be an infringement on the sacred 2nd Amendment, the recent decision by the 2nd Circuit upholding Connecticut's assault rifle ban lays that NRA-concocted nonsense to rest.The Constitution wisely gives government the right to institute comprehensive public health measures when the community's health is at risk. If 147 dead and injured human beings in just three assaults with AR rifles doesn't constitute a risk, then it's time to save the taxpayers some money and close down the CDC.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website. Reported by Huffington Post 11 hours ago.

Charges Pending Against Plainfield Man in Fatal Drag Racing Crash

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Charges Pending Against Plainfield Man in Fatal Drag Racing Crash Patch Plainfield, IL -- A 49-year-old Aurora man died after his vehicle was hit by two people drag racing, police said. Reported by Patch 8 hours ago.

Families of Sandy Hook victims are lashing out at an AR-15 manufacturer for advertising the gun’s ‘capacity to inflict mass casualities'

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Families of Sandy Hook victims are lashing out at an AR-15 manufacturer for advertising the gun’s ‘capacity to inflict mass casualities' Getty

The AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, a common link in many U.S. mass killings such as last week's California massacre, is recklessly marketed for its "capacity to inflict mass casualties," families of Connecticut elementary school victims said on Monday.

In an opinion piece published in USA Today, relatives of some of the 26 children and staff killed in the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School lashed out at the manufacturer of some AR-15 rifles, a firearms conglomerate known as Remington Outdoor.

"What should surprise - and horrify - us is that Remington actively promotes the AR-15's capacity to inflict mass casualties," the Sandy Hook families wrote in the opinion piece.

Getty

"In an era when mass shooters are often equipped with fatigues, vests or other combat gear, this type of marketing is not only unethical, it also is reckless," the piece said. It was written by the families of victims Benjamin Wheeler, Dylan Hockley, and Noah Pozner, all age 6, Daniel Barden, 7, and Victoria Soto, 27, under the byline "Sandy Hook families."

Last week a married couple opened fire with AR-15s at a holiday party in San Bernardino, killing 14 people, and a similar weapon was used by the killer at Sandy Hook. An AR-15 also was used by shooters at an Oregon college in October where nine people died and an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater where 12 died in 2012.

In response to the Sandy Hook slayings, the families said, George Kollitides, who was then chief executive of Remington Outdoors, said, "It's very easy to blame an inanimate object. Any kind of instrument in the wrong hands can be put to evil use."

Getty

After the Sandy Hook massacre, the Obama administration tried but failed to enact new gun control measures. In the opinion piece on Monday, the Sandy Hook families noted that U.S. unwillingness and inability to control guns puts a harsh spotlight on Remington's marketing push for its assault rifles.

"Extolling a weapon's destructive potential might actually attract the wrong hands," the families said.

In August Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer by revenue, said it would stop selling the AR-15 and other semi-automatic rifles because of sluggish demand and would concentrate on other hunting and sportsman firearms.

NOW WATCH: President Obama: You shouldn't be able to buy a weapon if you're on the no-fly list Reported by Business Insider 8 hours ago.

First Alert to Exhibit at 2016 International CES, booth Sands 71831

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First Alert to Exhibit at 2016 International CES, booth Sands 71831 AURORA, IL--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Onelink by First Alert® Wi-Fi Smoke + Carbon Monoxide (CO) Alarm – debuting this month – sets the stage for a new era of safe, secure, easy-to-use and simple connected homes. Reported by Business Wire 7 hours ago.

The Supreme Court is repeatedly turning away challenges to gun restrictions

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The Supreme Court is repeatedly turning away challenges to gun restrictions Reuters

WASHINGTON (AP) — Acting in the aftermath of the San Bernardino mass shooting, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from gun owners who challenged a Chicago suburb's ban on assault weapons.

Two conservative justices said they would have heard the case and struck down the ban. The Illinois State Rifle Association, one of the plaintiffs, indicated that it would keep challenging local gun restrictions.

The court, though, left in place a lower court ruling that found that local governments have leeway in deciding how to regulate firearms. The federal appeals court in Chicago had upheld the city of Highland Park's 2013 law that bans semi-automatic weapons and large-capacity magazines.

In October, the federal appeals court in New York largely upheld similar laws in Connecticut and New York, among a handful of states that ban semi-automatic weapons.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly turned away challenges to gun restrictions since two landmark decisions that spelled out the right to a handgun to defend one's own home.

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Antonin Scalia, said the Chicago appeals court ruling "flouts two of our Second Amendment precedents." Without mentioning any mass shootings in California and elsewhere that involved semi-automatic guns, Thomas said the weapons ban "is highly suspect because it broadly prohibits common semi-automatic firearms used for lawful purposes" by roughly 5 million Americans.

"The overwhelming majority of citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting," Thomas wrote.

The case had been under consideration at the high court for two months, but the delay in dealing with it now appears mainly due to waiting for Thomas to finish his opinion.

The appeal filed by Dr. Arie Friedman and the Illinois State Rifle Association argues that Highland Park has violated their constitutional rights by banning some of the most popular semi-automatic guns in the United States, as well as ammunition magazines of more than 10 rounds.

Richard Pearson, the director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, was disappointed the Supreme Court did not hear the case but said his organization is still waiting for the conclusion of a state-court case challenging a similar ban in Illinois' largest county, Cook County. He said the group will also keep looking for new plaintiffs in areas that have enacted assault-weapons prohibitions.

"We are not going to give up and we're not going to go away," Pearson said.

Steven Elrod, an attorney who has represented Highland Park, did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press.

Even though lower courts have mainly upheld gun restrictions, the Highland Park case arises out of a decision by the federal appeals court in Chicago that struck down the only statewide ban on carrying concealed weapons, in Illinois.

In 2013, when state lawmakers reacted to the court ruling by making it legal to carry a gun, they gave cities around the state 10 days to come up with local restrictions on assault weapons, or forfeit their right to do so.

Highland Park was one of fewer than 20 municipalities, all in the Chicago area, to enact regulations or bans, according to the rifle association.

The city's assault weapons ban was upheld by the appeals court in a 2-1 decision.

Judge Frank Easterbrook wrote for the court that there is a "substantial benefit" to the Highland Park ordinance if it makes the public feel less at risk from a mass shooting. Variations of the Bushmaster AR-15, one of the guns specifically banned by Highland Park, were used in the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre and the theater shootings in Aurora, Colorado.

The gun control laws that the appeals court in New York upheld in October were passed after the 2012 massacre in Newtown.

Seven states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws banning assault weapons. The others are California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey, according to the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. In addition, Minnesota and Virginia regulate assault weapons, the center said.

The case is Friedman v. Highland, 15-133.

NOW WATCH: The number of times Obama has had to respond to mass shootings during his presidency is staggering Reported by Business Insider 6 hours ago.

Man Killed in Aurora Club Robbery

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Man Killed in Aurora Club Robbery Patch Naperville, IL -- Police have few clues to go on and are asking for the public's help in identifying the men responsible. Reported by Patch 6 hours ago.
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