Automatic Weapons

WASHINGTON -- In an answer to a question during Tuesday night's presidential debate about assault weapons, Mitt Romney said, “we of course don't want to have automatic weapons, and that's already illegal in this country to have automatic weapons.” Fully automatic weapons -- guns that fire continuously when the trigger is held down -- are legal to possess in the United States but are tightly regulated. The National Firearms Act of 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the Hughes Amendment in 1986 have all placed limits on how automatic guns can be bought and sold, but did not make it illegal to possess them entirely.

Re "Mourn first, then act," Opinion, Dec. 18 Jonah Goldberg writes, "It's not even obvious that mass killings are on the rise. " From 1999 to 2006, we averaged slightly more than one incident a year. From 2007 to 2012, we averaged four. Seven have take place in 2012 alone. Nothing could be more obvious. Goldberg mentions that none of these "rampages by the mentally ill" involved automatic weapons. It's not that the weapons were automatic but that they could fire up to 30 rounds without reloading.

Federal agents tracing the guns that ended up in the hands of two men who staged a violent holdup at a North Hollywood bank said the weapons initially were purchased legally and most passed through several owners before being used in the botched holdup. But most of the guns were illegally modified to automatic weapons, and agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are focusing their efforts on who may have done the work. The robbers' superior gunfire on that terrifying Feb.

WASHINGTON -- In an answer to a question during Tuesday night's presidential debate about assault weapons, Mitt Romney said, “we of course don't want to have automatic weapons, and that's already illegal in this country to have automatic weapons.” Fully automatic weapons -- guns that fire continuously when the trigger is held down -- are legal to possess in the United States but are tightly regulated. The National Firearms Act of 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the Hughes Amendment in 1986 have all placed limits on how automatic guns can be bought and sold, but did not make it illegal to possess them entirely.

Federal agents evacuated 32 homes Tuesday after they raided a house in Valencia and confiscated a collection of military explosives and automatic weapons. Joseph Yohanna, 31, was taken into custody on suspicion of possessing multiple unregistered firearms after agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms served a search warrant at his Via Maduro home. Yohanna, a bodyguard for a record company and a reserve member of the U. S.

Three former presidents endorsed legislation Wednesday to ban the future manufacture, sale and possession of combat-style assault weapons as a closely divided House neared a showdown today on the hotly controversial issue. Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan sent a letter to all House members expressing their support for the measure, effectively joining President Clinton in urging approval of the ban.

I ponder the shoot-up (April 20) of the MCA Tower--less than a day after the automatic weapons fireball at the Apocalypse Ranch. These events now distance us from a weekend made notable by the absence of expected rioting in a hysterically armed Los Angeles and the expected usual gang warfare with automatic weapons. I restrain myself: Damn the National Rifle Assn.! Damn the Brady bill opposition! Damn the gutless Congress! KENNETH V. KNIGHT Woodland Hills

Two Irwindale police officers who were placed on administrative leave returned to duty this week after an internal investigation found no evidence to support allegations that they possessed illegal firearms, authorities said. Irwindale Police Cmdr. Chuck Crawford said the officers, whom he refused to identify, were placed on paid leave last month after Los Angeles police said they may own illegal firearms.

U.S. Treasury agents suspect that a Placer County gun dealer and his wife are illegally manufacturing automatic weapons, according to documents filed in Sacramento federal court. A raid of Curtis and Joyce Debord's home and machine shops in Foresthill turned up parts for M-60 and Thompson machine guns and Uzi, AK-47 and Browning automatic weapons, along with a rocket launcher and several assembled guns, a court affidavit said.

About 150 militants armed with rockets and automatic weapons attacked a transport terminal in a northwestern region that lies along a key supply route used by U.S. and NATO troops, wounding three guards and setting fire to eight cement trucks, police said. Militants frequently attack cargo terminals and other stops used by vehicles taking supplies to Western troops in Afghanistan through the legendary Khyber Pass. Scores of trucks have been damaged and several people have died, adding urgency to U.S. efforts to find safer supply routes.

It is not too much of a stretch to say the National Rifle Assn. profits from mass killings like the slaughter at the theater in Aurora, Colo., and the killings at the Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis. The NRA is, after all, a fundraising machine that runs on fear and a sense of crisis, even when the fear is false and the crisis manufactured. A former Republican lawmaker has made public a four-page fundraising letter from the NRA's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, that was sent out to gun enthusiasts just three days after a young man styling himself as the Joker turned a showing of the new Batman movie into a bloody massacre.

French investigators Thursday were trying to establish whether a gunman killed by police after a 32-hour siege had accomplices still at large or was a lone assassin acting out his own bitter agenda. They also want to determine how Mohamed Merah, 23, amassed an arsenal of weapons while reportedly under surveillance by France's intelligence services after he spent time with Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Merah, who police say confessed to gunning down seven people in a nine-day rampage and told them he was linked to a fringe Al Qaeda group, died late Thursday morning with a shot to the head after battling the French equivalent of a SWAT team.

An immigrant from Morocco armed with a jammed automatic weapon and wearing a suicide vest packed with what he thought were explosives was arrested Friday near the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, officials announced. Amine El Khalifi, 29, who allegedly had overstayed his visa after arriving in the U.S. when he was 16, was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against government property. FBI agents had been closely monitoring him for more than a year in an undercover sting operation.

About 150 militants armed with rockets and automatic weapons attacked a transport terminal in a northwestern region that lies along a key supply route used by U.S. and NATO troops, wounding three guards and setting fire to eight cement trucks, police said. Militants frequently attack cargo terminals and other stops used by vehicles taking supplies to Western troops in Afghanistan through the legendary Khyber Pass. Scores of trucks have been damaged and several people have died, adding urgency to U.S. efforts to find safer supply routes.

A former policeman suspected of wounding East Timor's president last month has surrendered to police, military officials said. Amaro da Costa turned himself in late Saturday, handing over two automatic weapons and some ammunition, Lt. Col. Filomeno Paixao said. President Jose Ramos- Horta is still recovering from the Feb. 11 shooting outside his home. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unharmed from an ambush on his motorcade the same day. Da Costa told reporters that the suspect "was involved" but provided few other details.

Federal agents arrested leading rapper T.I. on charges of buying illegal machine guns, hours before he was due to star at a major hip-hop awards ceremony. Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said they arrested the rapper at his home in southwest Atlanta as he took delivery of three machine guns and two silencers. T.I., born Clifford Harris, was arrested the day he was due to perform at the BET Network's awards ceremony in Atlanta.

Six assailants, thought to be Sikh extremists, fired automatic weapons from Jeeps into crowds at a shopping district today, killing 11 people and seriously wounding seven, police reported. The attackers sped away after killing three shopkeepers and eight passers-by in the Krishna Nagar district on the outskirts of Amritsar. Eight of those killed were Hindus and three were Sikhs.

In single file, hushed, somber and each clasping a solitary pink tulip, a teacher and her 12 young students emerged from the front entrance of Cleveland Elementary School shortly after noon Wednesday. They moved slowly toward a concrete block-lettered school sign obscured by stalks of mums, roses and gladioli. One by one, the ashen-faced children laid their flowers at the foot of the sign.

Want to control guns? Elect Democrats. Want to keep military-style assault weapons off the streets and out of schoolyards? Remove President Bush from the Oval Office. Replace U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Think Americans in other states should be free to buy practically any firearm that intrigues them, with a jumbo clip so they can squeeze off 50 rounds without having to reload?

Hundreds of police reinforcements flew to Indonesia's Sulawesi island after gunmen opened fire on an Easter church service over the weekend, wounding seven people. The attack stoked fears of a return to open fighting between Muslims and Christians that erupted in 1999, killing about 1,000 people. More than 300 members of the Mobile Brigade paramilitary police unit were due to arrive in the region. No one has been arrested in Saturday's shooting in the town of Poso in central Sulawesi.