Man shot and killed over spilled beer

55-year-old Vaughn Hilliard, of North Charleston, South Carolina, has been charged with the murder of 46-year-old Troy Cason, also of North Charleston.

According to the police report, the victim had gone to meet some friends when one of the friends threw a beer on the ground. Hilliard came around the corner and began fighting with Cason because he thought Cason had thrown the beer.

Witnesses told police that Cason pushed Hilliard to the ground during the fight. Hilliard then left, came back with a rifle. A witness said that Cason tried to leave, but Hilliard fired a shot, hitting Cason in the left side. Cason was taken to the hospital but died of his injuries a few days later.

News reports do not indicate any prior criminal history for Hilliard and he has not been charged with being in illegal possession of a gun. He has been charged with murder and possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Walmart worker shoots co-worker over 'easier' position

46-year-old Justine Boyd, works at the Walmart in Neenah, Wisconsin. Boyd has a concealed weapons permit and was carrying a Sig Sauer semi-automatic handgun when she recently shot a co-worker.
Boyd shot 56-year-old Sharon Goffard in the abdomen from about 6 feet away.
According to the district attorney, "It appears to be, from all evidence I've seen, an isolated incident between these two regarding what looks like a dispute over positions at the Walmart."
Goffard's boyfriend told reporters that Boyd had recently confronted Goffard about her new position in the liquor department, which Boyd deemed to be easier.
In addition to the handgun used to shoot Goffard, police found a Taurus Rossi .38 special revolver in Boyd's bag.
Boyd has been charged with first-degree intentional homicide. Goffard was admitted to the hospital in critical condition.

Handguns seized at Orlando airport from Florida concealed weapons permit holders

61-year-old Stephen Miley admitted that he had a handgun in his carry-on bag when stopped by TSA officers at the Orlando International Airport. According to the arrest report he said "he did not mean to bring his gun into the checkpoint" and "he produced a State of Florida concealed weapon permit." Miley was arrested and charged with carrying a firearm in a place prohibited by law.
According to airport officials, the majority of people arrested for carrying firearms in their carry-on luggage have state concealed weapons permits. So far this year 23 guns have been seized at the Orlando airport, 26 guns each have been seized at Tampa and Fort Lauderdale and 15 each at Jacksonville and Miami.
Nationwide, the TSA has reported a 30 percent increase over the same period last year of passengers trying to go through security with guns. Last year TSA found 1,549 firearms on passengers, which was up 17 percent from the year before.
The most common excuse offered by passengers is "I forgot it was there." But if someone is given a permit to carry a loaded, hidden handgun in public don't they also have an obligation to know where that gun is at all times? To forget where your loaded, unlocked handgun is is inexcusable.
Jimmy Taylor, a sociology professor who writes about the nation's gun culture, finds it hard to believe airline passengers forget they're carrying guns. "My wife and I check on things like eye drops and Chapstick to see if we're allowed to take them on a plane, so it's a little difficult to imagine that you aren't checking the policies about your loaded firearm before you get to the airport."

Two men, both with concealed weapons permits, fire shots at each other while driving

27-year-old Eric Adamany, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, told police he had just left a Taco Bell restaurant and pulled over to send a text message when a gold Dodge Magnum pulled up next to him. A passenger looked at him and said, "What are you looking at white boy?" showed a chrome handgun and fired a shot at Adamany's car.
"I immediately grabbed my gun, which is just sitting here, and I stuck it out the window and they took off," said Adamany. "They fired over 50 rounds before I ever returned fire."
The police report says Amamany "began to fire his gun at the Dodge Magnum, emptying his clip in an attempt to shoot out the Dodge's tires." He told police "how he is right-handed but shot the gun with his left hand while driving on the freeway because he was steering and calling 911 at the same time."
Roy Scott, the driver of the other car, told police that he and a friend were driving when a blue car passed him. The other driver "mean mugged" him and showed a black handgun. Scott then grabbed his gun and displayed it before driving off. Scott says that Adamany fired first so he fired back. He told police that he fired back out his driver's window, pointing backward over his shoulder with his right hand, while steering with his left.
According to police both men have valid concealed weapons permits.
Adamany has been charged with first-degree recklessly endangering safety, use of a dangerous weapon. No charges have been brought against Scott at this time.

Two licensed gun dealers sent to prison

60-year-old Randolph Rodman, of Maryland, and 59-year-old Idan Greenberg, of Arizona, have been sentenced for their roles in an illegal machine-gun manufacturing and sales operation.  Rodman was sentenced to prison for 121 months and Greenberg was sentenced for 33 months by a U.S. District Court judge.  Both were licensed firearm dealers.
Rodman, Greenberg and four other licensed dealers were charged with conspiring to make newly manufactured machine guns in violation of the 1986 ban. They were also charged with transferring the guns using paperwork for different firearms.
Greenberg was found guilty of conspiracy, illegal possession of a machine gun, and receipt and possession of a firearm made in violation of the National Firearms Act.
Rodman was found guilty of 22 charges, including conspiracy, the manufacturing, possession, receipt and transfer of machine guns in violation of the act, and making false entries on applications and records.

NRA official barred from owning guns while under protection from abuse order

62-year-old Richard D'Alauro was charged in 2010 with misdemeanor assault, endangering the welfare of a child and a noncriminal charge of harassment as the result of a domestic dispute with his wife. At the time of his arrest, police confiscated 39 guns (a variety of handguns, shotguns and rifles) from his East Northport, New York home.
Maribeth D'Alauro, who divorced her husband after the incident, said she suffered from "years of domestic violence" and describes her ex-husband as a bully.
In October D'Alauro pleaded guilty to harassment charges, admitting to the court that he intended to "harass, annoy or alarm" his wife "by subjecting her to physical contact." The judge ordered a protection from abuse order against D'Alauro for one year, during which time he is banned from possessing firearms.
D'Aluro is a field representative for the NRA. And while the NRA declined to comment on the case, D'Alauro's lawyer said is was of "no significance whatsoever" that D'Alauro can't possess a gun adding "the NRA does not require its employees to own guns."

Mom pulls out gun during fight at Chuck E. Cheese

30-year-old Tawana Bourne, of Middletown, Connecticut, was at the Chuck E. Cheese in Newington with her son when she got into a fight with Shkurte Berisha, another mom at the restaurant.
During the fight Bourne allegedly pulled a .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun out of her pocket and chambered a round.
Berisha reported that the fight started when she told Bourne's five-year-old son to not push her two-year-old daughter. She said Bourne then told her to "watch your tone with my son," to which Berisha replied that Bourne should watch her child.
Bourne, who has a valid permit for the handgun, was arrested and charged with breach of peace, three counts of risk of injury to a minor, first-degree reckless endangerment and second-degree threatening. She was released on $50,000 bail.
Bourne is actively involved with There is Hope, a male mentoring program that targets at-risk youth engaging in risky behavior.

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.