Ak 47

A mentally disturbed off-duty firefighter brandished an AK-47 assault rifle near a Staten Island dock yesterday and was shot to death in a confrontation with FBI agents, police said. The firefighter, Steven Lopez, 38, a 15-year veteran assigned to Engine Co. 245 in Brooklyn, was under the delusion that two FBI agents he knew were wiretapping his phone and had recently burglarized his apartment. "He had mental problems, psychological problems and a drinking problem," said Capt.

Not one shot has been fired in the 17 days during which student-led protesters have held the Chinese government at bay. Except, that is, by the tourists. Here, in Changping County, about 30 miles northwest of martial law in Beijing, the Chinese have come up with a Disneyland for the Rambo Set. Welcome to the China North International Shooting Range, where for a fistful of dollars anyone can be Clint Eastwood, the Enforcer, the Terminator or an infantryman in the Soviet army.

The gun lovers went to Trenton last week to defend their freedom to own weapons that can spew dozens of rounds of ammunition per minute. They claimed that in seeking to ban semiautomatic weapons in New Jersey Gov. Florio was following in the footsteps of Hitler and Stalin. The point was that both those tyrants had also been big on confiscating guns. And the point was preposterous. Gov. Florio, after all, is not trying to deprive citizens of hunting rifles, or even Saturday night specials - just semiautomatic weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles and Uzi submachine guns.

AS HUNDREDS of mourners poured into a cavernous auditorium at Holy Ghost Headquarters on North Broad Street on Monday morning, police implored the public to help crack the case of two teen boys violently gunned down on a Fairhill street last week. "We can always use the public's help. A lot of people saw it, and we just need someone to call and tell us what they saw," Homicide Capt. James Clark said, adding that a $40,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest.

Maybe Americans are getting soft. But we seem to have forgotten that liberty and freedom don't come easy. Noble sacrifices must be made. And that can mean Americans giving their lives for these cherished causes. Last week we saw a clear example of those who give their lives for the liberty and freedom of others. I'm referring to the five little kids in California who were gunned down by a man who sprayed a school with a military assault weapon. Surprisingly, most Americans didn't realize that what they were seeing was patriotic self-sacrifice.

In nearly every corner of this incredibly frightening country, there looms at least one individual who harbors a dangerous resentment against some old or fancied offense and who is searching for a way to vent his or her anger. Occasionally, these individuals blow. They show up in unsuspected places, gun or rifle in hand. The worst places they appear are where innocent children play. Invariably, when the noise goes away, men, women, or children are left dead, and the community is gripped by overwhelming guilt and great questions concerning why the whole thing happened.

The casino security guard accused in last week's roadside murder of three Pleasantville men is scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court this morning. Lloyd Massey 2d, 21, of West Wright Street in Pleasantville, was under the jurisdiction of Atlantic County law enforcement officers yesterday, less than 24 hours after he waived his right to an extradition hearing in an Atlanta courtroom. Police said Massey, a Sands Casino employee, arrived by train at the Georgia home of an unidentified uncle on Sunday.

Gun lovers went on a buying spree in small towns and big cities across the country yesterday, snapping up semiautomatic assault weapons in the face of a government ban on their import. Meanwhile, a newspaper reported today that the U.S. Treasury Department blocked a decision to ban the import of additional kinds of semiautomatic weapons after the National Rifle Association objected. Although a government ban on imports announced Tuesday is temporary - while experts review whether the weapons have a legitimate sports use - many collectors apparently feel the case is already closed.

FURTHERMORE ... Right to bear arms, even in national parks Currently, 40 states have "shall issue" concealed-carry gun-permit laws on the books. Applicants who are non-felons and have no mental- health prohibitions will most likely be granted a permit to carry a firearm in those states ("Vote allows national park visitors to bring guns," Thursday). The paranoid anti-gun campaign believes that hikers would somehow be safer from a lawbreaker pointing an AK-47 at them on a hiking trail if the draconian feel-good prohibition against arms in national parks had not been (rightfully)

When U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) went to the June meeting of the Delaware County Field and Stream Association, he presented the club's officers with a flag commemorating the 3,500-member group's 50th anniversary and spoke briefly about local environmental issues. But it wasn't the flag presentation or Weldon's stand on such issues as acid rain that brought more than 60 club members out to hear him Wednesday at the Field and Stream clubhouse in Middletown Township. It was the opportunity to talk to him about gun control.

On the eve of the Christian celebration of the Resurrection, men and women came together to pray on a North Philadelphia corner where young people count the dead on both hands. "Lord, look down on this community and give us strength," implored Richard Dukes, a member of Men United for a Better Philadelphia, at the start of Saturday's "Stop the Violence" march through Fairhill. Organized by State Rep. W. Curtis Thomas, who called the march a "plea for the preservation of life," about two dozen residents gathered at Ninth and Cambria Streets - an intersection near the scenes of recent bloodshed and the heart of an area once nicknamed the Badlands.

LAST I checked, the city's homicide rate stood at a disgraceful grand total of 84 for the first three months of 2012. That's practically one a day. Not to take anything away from the hoodie rallies and marches around the country protesting the death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed, black Florida teen killed last month while returning home after buying Skittles and iced tea, but where's the outrage for the homicidal madness that passes as...

AS HUNDREDS of mourners poured into a cavernous auditorium at Holy Ghost Headquarters on North Broad Street on Monday morning, police implored the public to help crack the case of two teen boys violently gunned down on a Fairhill street last week. "We can always use the public's help. A lot of people saw it, and we just need someone to call and tell us what they saw," Homicide Capt. James Clark said, adding that a $40,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest.

THE DAUGHTER of former City Councilman Angel Ortiz yesterday refused to answer questions during a preliminary hearing for three men facing assault charges stemming from an alleged home invasion that left the young woman bloodied by a bullet that grazed her collarbone. Pilar Ortiz's decision to exercise her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent about her alleged attackers resulted in Municipal Judge Bradley K. Moss dropping all charges against Roger Smith, one of the three defendants and the one whom she had identified as the triggerman.

ALBANY, Pa. - A burglary suspect who fatally shot a Berks County sheriff's deputy trying to serve a warrant had left a suicide note days earlier and was dressed in camouflage gear when he was killed in a shootout with police, authorities said Thursday. The 25-year-old suspect, Matthew Connor, and Sheriff's Deputy Kyle Pagerly died in the exchange of gunfire after police arrived at the Albany Township home of Connor's girlfriend Wednesday night with a warrant for his arrest, state police said.

FURTHERMORE ... Right to bear arms, even in national parks Currently, 40 states have "shall issue" concealed-carry gun-permit laws on the books. Applicants who are non-felons and have no mental- health prohibitions will most likely be granted a permit to carry a firearm in those states ("Vote allows national park visitors to bring guns," Thursday). The paranoid anti-gun campaign believes that hikers would somehow be safer from a lawbreaker pointing an AK-47 at them on a hiking trail if the draconian feel-good prohibition against arms in national parks had not been (rightfully)

The father of Twanita Johnson's baby needed a gun, but he couldn't buy one, because he's a convict. So Johnson, 21, who had no criminal record, went to a Bucks County gun shop and bought her baby's father a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol, law-enforcement officials said. Yesterday, the recently formed Gun Violence Task Force announced that arrest warrants had been obtained for Johnson and 13 others accused of committing illegal "straw" purchases. The task force, a joint effort of District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham and state Attorney General Tom Corbett, has opened more than 70 investigations since being launched with a $5 million state grant last year.

Golf-ball-size holes pocked the walls outside the Springfield Township High School library, in the hall where 11th grader Shane Halligan fired five shots before killing himself Tuesday. He was prepared to fire many more from the weapon, Montgomery County officials said yesterday. "I think he was planning to . . . make a bigger show, but not to hurt anybody," Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce Castor said. He said township police, whose headquarters is only a few blocks from the school, were in the building within 50 seconds of being called.

Sixteen-year-old Shane Halligan tried to keep his report card from his parents. But they found it in his backpack on Monday, and did what parents do. They said he'd have to cut back on the volunteer firefighting he loved so much and forgo a National Guard boot camp this summer. So, while his parents slept, Halligan - a junior at Springfield Township High School in Montgomery County, an Eagle Scout, an experienced target-shooter - set into motion a plan to end his life, authorities said yesterday.