Concealed weapons permit holder shoots and kills teen over loud music

45-year-old Michael Dunn, of Satellite Beach, Florida was in Jacksonville for his son's wedding when he and his girlfriend stopped at a convenience store. Dunn waited in the car while his girlfriend went inside. While waiting in the parking lot Dunn asked a group of teens in an SUV next to him to turn their music down.
Dunn and 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who was sitting in the back seat of the SUV, exchanged words. Dunn then pulled out a gun and shot eight or nine times into the SUV. Jordan was hit twice and died of his injuries.
Dunn and his girlfriend left the scene and drove back to their hotel and when they saw the news the next morning that someone had been killed in the shooting, they went back to Dunn's home in Brevard County.
Police were able to get a description of Dunn and the license plate of his car from witnesses to the shooting. Police tracked Dunn to his home and arrested him on charges of murder and attempted murder.
Dunn's lawyer told reporters, "We can't say what the defense will be at this state..but Stand Your Ground is a possibility."
According to Dunn's lawyer Dunn is "an avid firearms owner" and "has a concealed weapons permit" and felt threatened when "he started hearing epithets."
Dunn's lawyer said Dunn "rolled down his window and politely said, 'Would you mind turning that music down?' and the driver apparently turned it off immediately. Then he hears from the back, 'That (expletive), he can't, that (expletive), we ain't going to tell us where to turn our music down.'" The lawyer continued, saying Dunn "saw a shotgun barrel come up in the rear passenger window, he saw about three of four inches of it. He estimated the gauge of the shotgun, the type, everything, he's very familiar with firearms, as I said, owns firearms and has since he was in third grade. He immediately went into self-defense mode, which any responsible firearms owner would do."
Police, however, did not find any guns in the SUV.
Psychology studies have found that someone holding a gun is more likely to perceive others as also being armed, even when they are not.
One such study, Action alters object identification: Wielding a gun increased the bias to see guns, published in the Oct. 2012 Journal of Experimental Psychology, concluded:

Participants determined whether another person was holding a gun or a neutral object. Critically, the participant did this while holding and responding with either a gun or a neutral object. Responsing with a gun biased observers to report "gun present" more than did responding with a ball. Thus, by virtue of affording a perceiver the opportunity to use a gun, he or she was more likely to classify objects in a scene as a gun and, as a result, to engage in threat-induced behavior (raising a firearm to shoot).

Concealed weapons permit holder drops gun in elementary school, doesn't realize it

Over the weekend, a teacher at Plaza Towers Elementary school in Moore, Oklahoma, and her relative went to the school to fix a computer in another teacher's room. The unidentified man had forgotten that he had a handgun in his pocket. While there, the gun fell out of his pocket and the two left, not realizing they were leaving a gun behind.
Monday morning, the classroom teacher came in and found the loaded gun on his chair. He notified administrators who locked down the school. Police were called and they searched the building while the students were kept in the school cafeteria.
When the owner of the gun saw reports on the news he realized that the gun was his and contacted police. The man has a concealed weapons permit which allows him to carry the loaded, hidden gun in public.
Police have turned the investigation over to the district attorney's office for possible charges.
There is no excuse for not knowing where your loaded gun is at all times.

Man shoots and kills highway patrol officer during routine traffic stop

Tuesday morning around 8:30 a.m., California Highway Patrol Officers pulled over 36-year-old Christoper Lacy, of Corning, CA on southbound I-680. According to a sheriff's spokesperson, video from a CHP dashboard camera showed Officer Kenyon Youngstrom speaking with Lacy for about 30 or 40 seconds when Lacy pulled out a gun and opened fire without provocation. Lacy was then shot and killed by Youngstrom's partner.
Officer Youngstrom was stuck in the neck and his spinal cord was severed. He died the next day.
Investigators are unsure of a motive. They found a loaded semi-automatic handgun, two ammunition magazines and a knife in Lacy's Jeep.
Lacy had no criminal record. He was arrested for DUI in 2006 but the charges were later dropped for lack of evidence. He had one fine for speeding.
According to Lacy's father, Lacy was diagnosed as bipolar and put on lithium after he suffered a psychotic break during his senior year at San Francisco State University.
37-year-old Officer Youngstrom leaves a wife and four children.

Man pulls gun on door-to-door salesmen, arrested for assault

51-year-old Charles Cook, of Mansfield, Massachusetts, thought that two men selling magazines door-to-door were being too "aggressive" and didn't have permission to be on the property, so he pulled a gun on them.
The men had come to Cook's apartment and he told them he wasn't interested. He then confronted the two men outside his neighbor's apartment when they knocked on the neighbor's door. Cook held the handgun in his jacket pocket, pointed it at the men and told them to move on.
He was about to call the police to report the men for trespassing when the police came to his door in response to a call from the two men.
Cook had recently moved from Texas to Massachusetts. He had a concealed weapons permit in Texas but had not yet gotten a Massachusetts gun license. Police confiscated his .380-caliber, semi-automatic handgun, which was loaded with seven rounds of ammunition.
Cook was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition, improper storage of a firearm, and two counts of assault by means of a dangerous weapon.

Concealed weapons permit holder pulls gun in store, shoots shopper during argument

66-year-old Jerry Harryman, of Clarkamas, Oregon was standing in the checkout line at a Fred Meyer store. According to another customer, William Young, Harryman was looking over Young's wife's shoulder as she punched her personal id number into the checkout terminal.
"I told him to get back but he kept staring," said Young.
Young and Harryman got into an argument when Harryman pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and pointed it at Young.
As Young grabbed the gun, forcing Harryman's arm down, Harryman pulled the trigger, shooting Young in the leg, just above the knee.
Young was able to get the gun away from Harryman and other shoppers joined in, helping to hold Harryman down.
Both men were taken to the hospital for treatment of their injuries.
Harryman was arrested and charged with first-degree assault. His concealed weapons permit was revoked. He has no previous criminal history.

Man who once pulled gun on meter reader shoots and kills door-to-door salesman

Kenneth Roop, 52 of Cape Coral, Florida told detectives that the man he shot should have respected his three "No Trespassing" signs and that the reason he didn't warn the victim to get off his property was because "I'm not going to give him the chance to do something to me, I was in fear."
30-year-old Nick Rainey, an employee of Blue Ribbon Steak and Seafood,was going door to door selling products. A co-worked who witnessed the shooting said Rainey had knocked on Roop's door but received no answer. He was walking back down the driveway when Roop pullled up in his pickup truck.
The two men had a brief conversation and then Roop pulled out a black handgun and shot Rainey. As Rainey lay on the ground, Roop fired another bullet into the back of his head. Roop told police that he was in fear and thought Rainey was reaching for something and he shot him in the head "for effect."
An off-duty sheriff's deputy who lives in the neighborhood held Roop at gunpoint until the local police arrived.
A former state prosecutor, Ray Sotomayor, called Roop a "time bomb" who "had a screw loose." Sotomayor was the prosecutor in a case against Roop seven years ago when he was accused of pointing a gun at a woman who simply wanted to read his electric meter. He said Roop's attitude was similar to "militia-minded, anti-government" types and that he was obsessed with the idea of guarding his home.
Roop was found not guilty by a jury.
Roop told police he thinks he has about 14 firearms. He also has a valid concealed weapons permit.

Brother of man who shot and killed five people said "we could see this coming"

On Wednesday morning, 40-year-old Ian Stawicki walked into the Cafe Racer restaurant in Seattle, Washington and shot five people. Four of them died. About a half an hour later, Stawicki fatally shot a woman in a parking lot and drove off in her SUV. Four hours later, with police closing in on him, Stawicki knelt down on a city sidewalk and shot himself in the head.
His brother, Andrew, said over the past five years or so Stawicki had changed. "Angry. He was really angry toward everything," Andrew said. "It's no surprise to me this happened. We could see this coming. Nothing good is going to come with that much anger inside of you."
Stawicki had been collecting guns for years and had a concealed weapons permit. He was arrested in 2008 on a domestic-violence charge and in 2010 for fourth-degree assault but both charges were dismissed.
According to his father, Walt, the family knew Stawicki was troubled, but there was nothing they could do to get the concealed carry permit revoked.
"The response to us was, there's nothing we can do, he's not a threat to himself or others, or we haven't had a report of it, or we haven't had to pick him up - call us when its worse," Walt said in a radio interview. "And now it's too late - much worse now, six people are dead."

Woman convicted of threatening teens with gun

33-year-old Susan Sin Desantiago, of Chesterfield, Virginia, claimed she was acting in self-defense when she pulled a 9mm handgun from her car, waved it at a group of teens standing in the road, and held the gun to the head of a 16-year-old girl. But a judge rejected her plea and agreed with the prosecutor who argued, "You don't get to claim self-defense when you're the aggressor."
Desantiago, a law abiding citizen with no criminal record, was found guilty of brandishing a weapon and assault. She was sentenced to 12 months with 10 months suspended on the brandishing charge and to 12 months with all but two weeks suspended on the assault count.
Desantiago was on her way to a doctor's appointment when she passed a group of teenagers who had just gotten off the school bus. Desantiago said the 16-year-old girl cursed at her, and she stopped to admonish the girl about her language, which led to more cursing. Desantiago returned to her home and then headed out again. She said that the teens blocked her path and she panicked and grabbed a gun from the console in her car. The 16-year-old testified that Desantiago walked up to her and placed the gun to her head. "I thought she was going to shoot me."
At that point Desantiago's husband appeared and took the gun from his wife. He testified that the gun used was his, and he put in the car for her protection, "I keep it there for my wife," he said.

Drunk, armed Eastern Wash U. student pulls gun on police

21-year-old Chandler Gayton, of Cheney, Washington, was out drinking at Eagle's Pub. Police were called on a report of a fight where a suspect had reportedly pulled a gun. When police arrived they found Gayton outside, urinating on a wall. They told him to stop, at which point he allegedly turned around and pulled a loaded 9mm handgun out of his pocket.
After some tense moments, police were able to get Gayton to comply with their demands to drop the gun and lay down on the ground. He was then arrested and charged with intimidation with a weapon and possession of a firearm in a controlled place.
Gayton has a concealed weapons permit however, under Washington law it is illegal to have a firearm in a bar.
Gayton is a student at Eastern Washington University and a defensive back on the EWU football team. As a result of this incident he has been kicked off the football team and suspended from the university. The university will decide if he can continue to attend classes at a code of conduct hearing.

Anti-illegal Immigrant Extremist Kills 3 Generations of Women Before Killing Himself

39-year-old J.T. Ready, of Gilbert, Arizona, was a well-known anti-illegal immigrant extremist. He was one of the founders of the U.S. Border Guard, a fringe militia group that took it upon themselves to hunt undocumented immigrants and drug gangs in the Arizona desert. He had also been a member of the Minutemen Project, the Maricopa County GOP Precint Committee, had run for Mesa City Council and was running for Pinal County sheriff.
But the Southern Poverty Law Center called Ready an "outright Neo-Nazi" who advocated using deadly force on the border. And he was described as "cruel and controlling" by someone who knew him.
On Wednesday, Ready shot and killed his girlfriend, Lisa Mederos, her daughter, Amber, Amber's boyfriend Jim Hiott, and Amber's 16-month-old daughter Lilly. He then turned the gun on himself.
Lisa's 19-year-old daughter was in the house and heard the gunfire but was not wounded. Reports said she either survived the spree or was the person who discovered the bloodbath.
Even though Ready had been arrested several times and was court-martialed twice while in the Marines, none of the charges put him a category that prohibited him from legally possessing firearms.

North Carolina man objecting to neighbor's political sign shoots it

A North Carolina man objected to a sign his neighbor put up that asked people to vote against an upcoming amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage, civil unions, and domestic partnerships. Not only did the man decide to express his dislike by shooting the sign, he took the additional step of filming the shooting and putting it up on YouTube.

The Kannopolis, North Carolina police department is investigating to see "what will be classified a crime if the shotgun was fired onto property that includes a home or business."

Public Safety Advisory Committee member arrested for DUI and firearm charges

65-year-old Carter Lord, of Sedalia, Colorado was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, careless driving, and prohibited use of a weapon. Lord has a concealed weapons permit and had a gun in the car with him when he was arrested. But, in Colorado, it is against the law to be in possession of a firearm while intoxicated.
Lord ran for Douglas County coroner in 2010 but lost in the primary. He is a member of Douglas County's Public Safety Advisory Committee. The Committee advises the local sheriff on issues regarding operations, the budget and community safety.
Following his arrest, Lord resigned from the Committee and relinquished his concealed weapons permit. According to reports, he spends most of his time fixing guns at his in-home gun shop.

Gun rights advocate, currently serving time in jail for homicide, loses civil rights complaint over open carry arrests

24-year-old Jesus Gonzalez, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin is currently serving a 20 year sentence for a 2010 shooting that left one man dead and another paralyzed.
In October, a jury found Gonzales guilty of first degree reckless homicide and first degree reckless injury in the death of 29-year-old Danny John and the shooting of 22-year-old Jered Corn. The two men were shot as they left a Milwaukee bar and were heading to a friend's house down the street. Gonzales encountered the two men when he went to move his car. During to a 911 call made by Gonzalez he said, "I just had two individuals try to assault me when I was going outside to move my car." He told the dispatcher that he shot out the window of a car, and one of the men fell down, but he wasn't sure whether he hit either or both of the men, and that he ran after firing the shots. When the dispatcher asked if the men had a gun Gonzalez replied, "I don't know what they had, but they must have thought that I was not armed."
Gonzalez argued at trial that he acted in self-defense but presented no real case. After calling 911 on the night of the shootings Gonzalez waited for police and surrendered. He made no other statement to investigators and did not testify at trial.
Prior to the shootings Gonzalez had no criminal record and was well known in the open carry movement. He had been arrested twice for disorderly conduct for openly wearing a holstered gun into stores in 2008 and 2009. No charges were ever filed in either of the arrests and Gonzalez subsequently filed a civil-rights complaint over the arrests. The case was dismissed in May of 2010, two days after the shootings, and Gonzalez appealed the decision in September of 2010. Thursday, a federal appeals court denied the appeal and threw out the complaint.

Gun instructor arrested, charged with shortening course & giving answers

51-year-old Richard Wykel of Cherokee County, South Carolina was certified as a concealed weapons permit instructor in 1996. But after an undercover investigation, Wykel has been arrested and charged with perjury and subornation of perjury in connection with improper training in his concealed weapons permit class.
South Carolina requires eight hours of training, including classroom instruction, firing a weapon, and showing proficiency in a weapon, before someone can obtain a concealed weapons permit. After receiving a complaint about Wykel an undercover agent signed up for his class. The agent reported that he paid $65 for the class, was fingerprinted, filled out the application and was then given the answers to the test. He also said the class lasted less than one hour and did not include firing the handgun.
Police are asking people who took Wykel's course to come forward and requalify for permits. They warn that anyone who applied for and received a concealed weapons permit without completing the eight-hour training course are subject to perjury charges for the falsification of the applications process.

Man breaks into home, terrorizes resident for hours before killing himself

Investigators have concluded that 30-year-old Jesse Cook of Central Falls, Rhode Island, committed suicide after breaking into a home in Warner, New Hampshire and terrorizing the resident there for hours. But they still don't know why Cook broke into the man's house.
Cook didn't have drugs in his system, investigators were unable to identify any mental illness, friends said he had never behaved violently, and he had no criminal record.
Yet one day Cook stole a car in Providence in an armed carjacking, drove to New Hampshire, and kicked in the cellar door of 82-year-old Gordon Smith. Cook terrorized Smith throughout the night, acting "paranoid and erratic." In the morning, while the two were in the kitchen, Cook put a .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun to Smith's head. But after Smith told Cook he would spend the rest of his life in prison for killing him, Cook took Smith's hand "and placed it on the gun with his own hand, pointed the gun at his own head, and the gun discharged."
Investigators were unable to determine where Cook got the gun. The gun was traced to a consignment shop in Louisiana but investigators were unable to trace it from there.

Michigan couple each fires gun in domestic dispute

Police do not know what the Jackson, Michigan couple was fighting about, but they do know that they both had valid concealed weapons permits.
Police received a report of shots fired around 9:20 p.m. They also received a call from a man who said his girlfriend had shot at his parked car. The man's response was to get his gun and shoot at his girlfriend's car as she drove away.
According to reports, the woman claimed she shot at her boyfriend's car five or six times. The man claimed he shot at his girlfriend six times.
Police said they both had been drinking and they both were arrested. Their semi-automatic handguns were confiscated as evidence.