All posts tagged: rifle

UC Riverside student who had rifle in room is kicked off campus

UC Riverside student who had rifle in room is kicked off campus

Published by skeptic

A student was ordered to leave UC Riverside after police said they searched an on-campus apartment and found an assault rifle, five high-capacity magazines and a journal with hand-drawn images of a violent act. The content of the drawings was not provided. Police are submitting the case to the Riverside County district attorney to decide whether criminal charges will be pursued. In the meantime, the student is on interim suspension and cannot return to campus pending the outcome of an administrative hearing. Police discovered the weapon and ammunition Friday while executing a search warrant in the North District residential apartments after evidence surfaced of a weapon on campus. Police said in a statement that the incident was unrelated to other campus events. The same day, the UC Riverside administration came to an agreement with pro-Palestinian protesters to shut down an encampment that was set up on the campus April 29. Source link

‘It meant so much to him’: Shane MacGowan’s wife on the hunt for his missing Easter Rising rifle | Shane MacGowan

‘It meant so much to him’: Shane MacGowan’s wife on the hunt for his missing Easter Rising rifle | Shane MacGowan

Published by skeptic

OK, hands up – who’s nicked Shane MacGowan’s gun? MacGowan’s widow Victoria Mary Clarke is not happy and she wants it back now, sparking a widespread search after tweeting: “Shane’s 1916 rifle has gone missing, most likely been stolen.” The gun is not any old gun. It’s a rifle from the 1916 Easter Rising, and was probably used in the takeover of the General Post Office (GPO) by armed groups of the Irish Volunteers and the Citizen Army, commanded by Padraig Pearse and James Connolly. It was given to MacGowan as a 60th birthday present by the singer-songwriter Glen Hansard. Clarke is devastated. Over the phone, she says it’s hard enough living without the former Pogues frontman, who died last November aged 65 of pneumonia, but for the rifle to disappear has just added to her pain. She’d like it returned ASAP – no questions asked. She only noticed it was missing on Wednesday, but she hasn’t got a clue how long it’s not been there. “I looked everywhere, turned the place upside down and …

National Rifle Association, LaPierre Found Liable in Lawsuit Over Misspending 

National Rifle Association, LaPierre Found Liable in Lawsuit Over Misspending 

Published by skeptic

new york —  Wayne LaPierre misspent millions of dollars of the National Rifle Association’s money during his decades leading the powerful gun lobby, using the funds to pay for an extravagant lifestyle that included exotic getaways and trips on private planes and superyachts, a New York jury determined Friday. The jury ordered LaPierre, 74, to repay the group he led for three decades $4,351,231. It also ordered the NRA’s retired finance chief, Wilson Phillips, to pay back the group $2 million. Jurors also found that the NRA omitted or misrepresented information in its tax filings and violated New York law by failing to adopt a whistleblower policy. LaPierre sat stone-faced in the front row of the courtroom as the verdict was read aloud. ‘Same rules’ for all The verdict is a win for New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who campaigned on investigating the NRA’s not-for-profit status. “In New York, you cannot get away with corruption and greed, no matter how powerful or influential you think you may be,” James said in a …

A man in Iran guns down 12 relatives in a shooting spree with a Kalashnikov rifle

A man in Iran guns down 12 relatives in a shooting spree with a Kalashnikov rifle

Published by skeptic

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A 30-year-old man gunned down 12 of his relatives Saturday in a remote rural area in southeast Iran, the deadliest shooting reported in decades. Head of the justice department of the province of Kerman, Ebrahim Hamidi, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency the gunman opened fire on his father, brother and other relatives early morning in a village because of family disputes. The report, which did not identify the assailant, stated he used a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Local media report on occasional shootings, but this attack has had the highest death toll in Iran, where citizens are only legally allowed hunting rifles, common in rural areas. In 2022, an employee, who was dismissed from a state-owned financial conglomerate, opened fire at his former workplace, killing three people and injuring another five before killing himself in the country’s west. In 2016, a 26-year-old man shot 10 relatives in a rural area in the south of Iran. In recent years, violence has spiked in the country suffering from deteriorating economic conditions coupled with …

How Texas church shooter bought rifle despite mental illness and criminal history is under scrutiny

How Texas church shooter bought rifle despite mental illness and criminal history is under scrutiny

Published by Sam

HOUSTON (AP) — The shooter who opened fire at a Houston megachurch before being gunned down by security officers used an AR-style rifle that police say she legally purchased despite a years-long criminal record, a history of mental illness and allegations she threatened to shoot her ex-husband. Key questions remained Tuesday about Genesse Moreno’s motive in the shooting, and police have given no details about where and how she obtained the rifle in December. The shooting joins others in Texas and elsewhere that have involved shooters who legally obtained guns despite criminal history and mental health problems. Authorities say Moreno, 36, entered celebrity pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church on Sunday with her 7-year-old son and began firing in a hallway, sending worshippers scrambling for safety. Moreno did not reach the main sanctuary and was killed after exchanging gunfire with two off-duty officers. Moreno’s son was critically injured after being shot in the head and Houston police did not immediately have an update on his condition Tuesday. Moreno used both male and female aliases, but investigators …

Shooter Entered Texas Megachurch With Young Son and Used AR-Style Rifle in the Attack, Police Say

Shooter Entered Texas Megachurch With Young Son and Used AR-Style Rifle in the Attack, Police Say

Published by skeptic

HOUSTON (AP) — The shooter who opened fire at a Texas megachurch on Sunday before being killed by security officers had a history of mental illness and used an AR-style rifle in the attack that also critically injured their 7-year-old son, authorities said Monday. Houston police identified the shooter at Lakewood Church as Genesse Ivonne Moreno, 36, who used both male and female aliases. However, investigators who looked at past police reports found that Moreno identified as female, Houston Police Commander Chris Hassig said. Houston police and federal investigators said Monday they had not established a motive for the shooting but were looking into a dispute involving Moreno and the family of Moreno’s ex-husband. Court documents in a divorce and child custody battle indicated that Moreno’s ex-mother-in-law had sought advice from church pastoral staff. Moreno’s mother attends the church, which is led by evangelist pastor Joel Osteen. The court documents do not indicate which staff the woman contacted. Don Iloff, a spokesman for Lakewood Church, said the shooter was not known to church staff and …

The Origins of the AR-15

The Origins of the AR-15

Published by skeptic

Eugene Stoner was an unassuming family man in postwar America. He wore glasses and had a fondness for bow ties. His figure was slightly round; his colleagues called him a teddy bear. He refused to swear or spank his children. “Boy, that frosts me,” he’d say when he was upset. He liked to tweak self-important people with a dry sense of humor. He hated attention. A lifelong tinkerer and a Marine veteran, he was also fascinated by the question of how to make guns shoot better. When an idea came to him, he scribbled it down on anything he could find—a pad of paper, a napkin, the tablecloth at a restaurant. He had no formal training in engineering or in firearms design. Yet it was inside Stoner’s detached garage in Los Angeles, during the 1950s, that the amateur gunsmith, surrounded by piles of sketches and prototypes, came up with the idea for a rifle that would change American history. Today, this weapon is the most popular rifle in America—and the most hated. The AR-15 is …