Law Enforcement

  • The president’s 23 executive actions to curb gun violence

    President Obama yesterday announced a comprehensive plan to reduce gun violence in the United States. The president called on Congress to reinstate an assault-weapon ban which expired in 2004 and enact other laws to tighten gun regulations. He said, though, that while Congress deliberates, the administration would take twenty-three separate actions aiming to reduce gun violence — actions which do not require congressional approval.

  • Minnesota counties police make big money from drug seizures

    In 2011, law enforcement in southern Minnesota made a significant profit off crime busts. State Auditor Rebecca Otto released the Criminal Forfeitures Report last month, which offers information on the amount of cash and property seized by Minnesota law enforcement agencies.

  • Police officers in Louisiana do not have to look for a ride home

    Tighter budgets have had an effect on police departments everywhere. In Indianapolis, Indiana, and many other cities, police departments now charge officers a fee to take home their squad cars. Police departments in central Louisiana resist this trend. “This [taking home a squad car] is not a privilege,” says the director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. “It really is about maximizing response times and the ability of officers to be where they need to be.”

  • Obama unveils comprehensive proposal to curb gun violence

    President Obama earlier today proposed the most comprehensive gun-control policies in a generation. He also initiated twenty-three separate executive actions aiming to curb what he called “the epidemic of gun violence in this country.” In addition to executive measures, the president called on Congress to pass legislation to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines for civilian use, and to require universal background checks for all gun buyers.

  • New York State votes for strict gun law

    New York governor Andrew Cuomo yesterday signed into law a sweeping gun-control bill. The bill expands a ban on assault weapons, limits the size of magazines, includes measures to keep guns away from the mentally ill, and make penalties stiffer for using a gun in the commission of a crime. Cuomo signed the bill shortly after the State Assembly approved it by a 104-43 vote on the second day of the 2013 legislative session.

  • Obama on Wednesday will outline executive action to curb gun violence

    President Obama on Wednesday will outline steps the administration can take without congressional approval to curb gun violence in the United States. Vice President Joe Biden told congressional leaders that there are nineteen separate actions the administration can take by using executive power. The president will emphasize that these executive measures are not an alternative to legislative action, and he will also announce his plan to push through Congress the most comprehensive reform of gun laws in two decades.

  • New York to make state’s strict gun laws even stricter

    New York State is nearing an agreement on a proposal to put some of the toughest gun-control laws into effect. The laws include expanding the definition of banned assault weapons, limiting magazines to seven rounds, and requiring background checks on people who buy ammunition

  • Teacher talks a California high-school shooter into putting down his gun

    A 16-year old Taft, California high school student brought a shot gun to school yesterday, carrying enough ammunition with him to kill many people; after shooting and injuring one student in a science class, he shot the teacher, but the bullet only grazed the teacher’s head; the teacher and another staff member then engaged the gunman in conversation, allowing teachers in other classrooms time to lead their students out of the building; the two men persuaded the gunman to put his gun down, and he was arrested by the police

  • Biden hints at executive action on gun violence

    Vice President Biden on Wednesday said the White House could use executive orders to advance gun control measures. Biden held a series of meetings Wednesday in the White Housed on the topic of gun violence and the ways to reduce it; in a meeting with gun-safety and victims groups, Biden said: “There are executive orders, executive action that can be taken,” adding: “we haven’t decided what that is yet”

  • Florida university distances itself from professor's claim that Sandy Hook shooting was staged by the government

    A Florida university professor publicly questioned whether the Newtown, Connecticut shooting happened, or whether it was a government drill, forcing his employer, Boca Raton-based Florida Atlantic University, to distance itself from him; professor James Tracy also raised questions about whether the Aurora, Colorado movie theater shooting ever happened

  • Emergency management technology is customized for use in school security

    School shootings are a very real fear for parents and school administrators, and a Ohio company has customized its emergency response solution for use in schools; the Web-based system which gives first responders eyes-on access to critical situational information, such as maps, floor plans, emergency protocols, call lists, and real-time video feeds where there are cameras

  • White House considering gun-control measures beyond assault weapons ban

    Sources in the White House say the administration is considering a broader and strategy on guns control in the wake of the Newton, Connecticut, mass shooting; the approach being considered will go farther than a ban on certain types of assault weapons; the Biden task force, which will submit its recommendations to President Obama in a few weeks, is leaning toward adoption of measures recommended by the law enforcement community, among them requiring universal background checks for firearm buyers, tracking the movement and sale of weapons through a national database, strengthening mental health checks, and stiffening penalties for carrying guns near schools or giving them to minors

  • U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki purchased tickets for 9/11 terrorists: FBI documents

    Within two weeks of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, FBI investigators had information that New Mexico-born jihadi cleric Anwar al-Awlaki had purchased air travel tickets for some of the hijackers; the information is contained in newly released, and heavily redacted, FBI documents; it appears that after the 9/11 attacks, the FBI, rather than arrest al-Awlaki, tried to work with him or track him for intelligence purposes, to see whether he would lead the agency to sleeping-cell terrorists still in the United States; Al-Awlaki was killed by a CIA drone attack in Yemen in September 2011

  • Newspaper hires armed guards to watch editorial headquarters

    A newspaper in Rockland County, New York offered its readers a map on its Web site which showed the names and addresses of all gun permit holders in Rockland and Westchester counties; worried about an angry reaction to the map, the newspaper hired private security guards to watch over its West Nyack headquarters

  • Gun training for teachers gaining in popularity

    Two hundred teachers in Utah are set to receive special firearms training —  with a plastic gun —  in order to carry concealed weapons in their classrooms in the future; in the aftermath of the mass shooting  in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, gun training and gun safety classes for teachers are drawing attention