What a laugh! "Jefferson County [KY] Sheriff John Aubrey is investigating how a plastic pellet gun got through security at the Hall of Justice and into a juvenile court hearing Wednesday. The gun was brought out in court as the mother of a boy facing an assault charge tried to illustrate to the judge that it was just a toy, said Lt. Col. Carl Yates, sheriff's department spokesman. The judge then asked how the gun had gotten through security. Yates did not know which judge was presiding. As a result, Aubrey is reviewing a courtroom videotape and reports on the incident to determine whether deputies providing security need to change procedures or get additional training, Yates said."




Assault weapon irrationality: "The so-called assault-weapons ban is about to sunset. About time. It was one of the goofiest gun laws on the books. It outlawed guns because they look mean -- the perfect law for a superficial world. The assault-weapons ban was racial profiling for guns. Before we start, you should know I used to be like you when it came to firearms. I had a religious-like hatred of guns. In fact, I was a member of the anti-gun organization Handgun Control Inc. It was a long slow, conversion for me, spurred by the patient influence of my older brother Paul, who bought a gun. We weren't raised with guns. I thought he was nuts. He slowly taught me guns don't have free will. Mean-looking guns are not actually mean. We'd argue back and forth about gun-violence statistics and gun policy. Which just led me to do my own research and reach my own conclusions -- guns are not evil, only people are."




"The defendant in a manslaughter trial lived in fear of the 20-year-old he's accused of shooting near Vicksburg [MS] High School last September, witnesses said Wednesday. 'This was all done in self-defense,' Clyde Ellis, attorney for Walter Jefferson, said before calling teachers and others to the witness stand on the trial's third day. Jurors may deliberate this afternoon whether to convict Jefferson, 20, of manslaughter in the death of O'Dare Lee Earl Mims, who was 20.The state rested its case after presenting eyewitnesses to the single shot fired from the car Jefferson was driving into the chest of Mims, who had rushed up to the vehicle as the school day was ending on Sept. 20."