Weapons

ANTHONY MAGSAM had a decision to make. He opened his front door early yesterday in Northeast Philly and found a group of SWAT cops standing there, search warrant in hand. He decided to cooperate. Magsam, a veteran police officer who's at the center of an ongoing investigation into the Police Department's Firearms Identification Unit, or FIU, let the cops inside and went quietly to Internal Affairs for questioning, said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey. The SWAT officers removed 51 firearms from Magsam's house, on Tyson Avenue near Loretto Avenue.

IF PRESIDENT BUSH is so sure that Iraq has these weapons of mass destruction, why have weapons inspectors investigate at all? This whole thing is crazy. If the inspectors say that they found no such weapons, which every day the president keeps barking that they do, does that mean the inspectors are lying or they overlooked a place where the weapons are? Our all-knowing president should have told the inspectors where Iraq is hiding these weapons. I thank the celebrities who are coming out against the president for his constant rambling about Iraq.

How could you build a collection of guns, knives, throwing stars, brass knuckles, razors and numchuks? Look through the pockets and purses of the people who enter the Chester County Courthouse. A portion of the armory room in the county Sheriff's Department is filled with weapons confiscated by courthouse security officers since metal detectors were installed in the courthouse in December 1986. The 2,047 weapons, including a sword and several stilettos, have been confiscated since President Judge Leonard Sugerman ordered the installation of the three permanent metal detectors and the use of portable hand-held detectors to stop people with weapons from entering the 11 courtrooms and county offices.

JOHANNESBURG - South African police may have altered evidence and planted weapons after they shot dead 34 striking miners near Lonmin's Marikana mines in August, according to photographic evidence presented at a commission of inquiry into the killings. Photographs taken by police the night after the shootings show more weapons by the dead bodies than there were in photographs taken immediately after the violence on Aug. 16. Thousands of miners had gathered at hills in Marikana about 58 miles northwest of Johannesburg where 34 miners were shot dead by police and 78 wounded in the worst state violence since the end of apartheid in 1994.

The Millbourne Borough Council has appointed a new council member and has voted unanimously to allow its police officers to switch from .38-caliber revolvers to 9mm semi-automatic weapons that provide more firepower. Robert C. Barnes of Stephen Court was appointed Monday night to replace Charles L. Stewart, who resigned last month to accept the post of borough tax collector. Barnes, 61, is a salesman for Macy's in King of Prussia. He has lived in the borough since moving from Southwest Philadelphia in 1980.

Washington police said yesterday they are investigating a report that weapons were found inside a locker room at the Verizon Center, where the Wizards play. Last week, the Wizards said that guard Gilbert Arenas stored unloaded firearms in a container in his locker at the arena and that the NBA was looking into the situation. But a Metropolitan Police Department spokeswoman did not mention Arenas or the team in a statement on the investigation. However, Arenas acknowledged he was being investigated after the Wizards' 110-98 loss to Oklahoma City at the Verizon Center last night; he did not specify if it was by the NBA or police.

Next week's catalogue sale at Freeman/Fine Arts will be a three-day event with almost 1,300 lots, including early American furniture, interesting works by Pennsylvania painters, classic clocks and an unusual collection of weapons - including an anti-tank weapon. Among the furniture, which will be sold at the final session, starting at 10 a.m. next Saturday, is a Federal maple double-pedestal dining table. Made by Michael Allison in New York City around 1788, it is expected to sell for between $7,000 and $10,000.

Although the notion of writing on the obvious connection between assault weapons and premature ejaculation is tempting, I will refrain from discoursing on the ultimate in "wham, bam, thank-you-ma'am" and instead propose a solution to the current conflict over local bans of these weapons. The problem: an abundance of these weapons in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, where they are hated, and a paucity of them in Pennsylvania suburban and rural communities, where they are loved. The solution: take these maligned delinquent weapons out of sinful big cities and find them happy homes in purer and healthier countrified environs.

A look at the trouble Philadelphia Police Officer Anthony Magsam, 30, has allegedly caused: 2003: Magsam joins the department as a patrol officer in Northeast Philadelphia's 15th District. Feb. 20, 2008: Magsam is transferred to the Firearms Identification Unit in North Philly. August 2009: Parts from two automatic weapons held by the unit are discovered to have been stolen. Lt. Vincent Testa, the FIU's commanding officer, demands the return of the parts, according to sources.

The Centennial School District has passed a formal policy governing weapons and other hazardous devices students bring onto school grounds. Under the policy, unanimously approved by the school board Tuesday, a student caught with a weapon or explosive device would be immediately suspended and could be expelled. School board officials emphasized that the district had had very few problems with guns, knives and other weapons, but said that the policy was put into writing so there would be no question as to how to deal with such a situation.

TRENTON - New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa gave a spirited defense Tuesday of the state's gun-buyback program, asserting that thousands of potential crime weapons have been taken off the street. Chiesa, in testimony before the Assembly budget committee, acknowledged criticism from some quarters that the program had little impact on crime, but insisted that "gun buybacks are helping to make New Jersey safer, and because they're paid for with criminal forfeiture funds, they don't cost the taxpayers a penny.

JERUSALEM - Israeli forces have carried out an air strike against a shipment of sophisticated missiles bound for the Lebanese political and military organization Hezbollah, officials in Washington, Lebanon, and Israel told reporters Saturday. The strike took place about 4 a.m. Friday at an air defense facility on the periphery of Damascus International Airport, according to a Lebanese security official who was in the Syrian capital at the time. The airport is known to be the destination for weapons flown in from Iran both for the Syrian government and for its ally Hezbollah.

UNITED NATIONS - Killer robots that can attack targets without any human input "should not have the power of life and death over human beings," a new draft U.N. report says. The report for the U.N. Human Rights Commission posted online this week deals with legal and philosophical issues involved in giving robots lethal powers over humans, echoing countless science-fiction novels and films. The debate dates to author Isaac Asimov's first rule for robots in the 1942 story "Runaround.

WASHINGTON - Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat after that nation's president leaves power and could end up targeting Americans at home, lawmakers warned Sunday as they considered a U.S. response that stops short of sending military forces there. U.S. officials last week declared that the Syrian government probably had used chemical weapons twice in March, newly provocative acts in the two-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more.

WASHINGTON - Proceeding cautiously, President Obama insisted Friday that any use of chemical weapons by Syria would change his "calculus" about U.S. military involvement in the two-year-old civil war - but said too little was known about a pair of likely sarin attacks to order aggressive action now. The president's public response to the latest intelligence reflected the lack of agreement in Washington over whether to use America's military to intervene...

Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein didn't have weapons of mass destruction, but two young Boston bombers did? No doubt many Americans were a bit perplexed Monday when 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was federally charged with "using a weapon of mass destruction," even if the explosions at the Boston Marathon did result in three deaths and injuries to more than 170 people. In the late 1990s, President Clinton and other top officials, in discussing the fears about the Iraq dictator, repeatedly used the term to describe chemical, biological and even nuclear weapons that could kill vast numbers in the Middle East.

Burlington County officials announced Wednesday that they collected 454 guns - including 11 assault weapons - during a buyback program over the weekend. "We're pleased to get these off the street," said Sheriff Jean Stanfield, who noted that the guns were turned in anonymously by a wide variety of owners. "In some cases we had parents who were gun enthusiasts and felt differently about owning guns after they had children," Stanfield said. County officials spent $33,800 to buy the guns Saturday during the event at the Abundant Life Fellowship Church in Edgewater Park.

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is sending about 200 soldiers from an Army headquarters unit to Jordan to assist efforts to contain violence along the Syrian border and plan for any operations needed to ensure the safety of chemical weapons in Syria, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told Congress on Wednesday. The decision to dispatch the First Armored Division troops of planners and specialists in intelligence, logistics, and operations comes as several lawmakers pressed the Obama administration for even more aggressive steps to end the two-year civil war. Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, faced persistent questions from senior members of the Armed Services Committee about efforts to force out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

WASHINGTON - North Korea likely has a nuclear warhead small enough to fit on a ballistic missile, according to a new assessment by the Pentagon's intelligence arm that comes amid growing alarm over Pyongyang's warmongering. The conclusion by the Defense Intelligence Agency said the weapon would have "low reliability," but the disclosure during a congressional hearing Thursday is likely to raise fresh concerns about North Korea's capabilities and intentions. Rep. Doug Lamborn (R., Colo.)