Officials said the suspects arrived, and allegedly stated they were there to serve a warrant and were seen wearing bulletproof vests, ski masks, and badges around their necks.
At one point, they tried to force their way in and opened fire through the front door, causing the homeowners to shoot back, officials said.
HPD said that the homeowners were not injured, but did hit both suspects. Both were pronounced dead at the scene.
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The reporting party advised a homeowner encountered a suspect on their property attempting to take a 4-wheeler. During the encounter shots were fired injuring both the homeowner and suspect who then fled on foot.
Bingham County Sheriff’s Deputies arrived on scene and requested further assistance from nearby Law Enforcement agencies to establish a perimeter and search for the suspect. Officers from Shelley and Blackfoot Police responded along with Idaho State Police and Bonneville County Sheriff’s Deputies. Shelley Fire and Ambulance personnel were also called to the scene and transported the injured homeowner to EIRMC in Idaho Falls for treatment of a gunshot wound.
A perimeter was set up around the residence and Deputies began searching for the suspect who was believed to be wounded and armed. During the search, Bingham and Bonneville County Deputies located the suspect in a field next to the residence and shots were fired by Deputies from both agencies. Deputies immediately began life saving measures, however the suspect died at the scene.
Akron police say a 16-year-old boy is in custody after being shot and then returning fire downtown late Thursday morning.
According to a release from the department, the teen said he was walking along the 200 block of Opportunity Parkway when an SUV pulled up and "a male dressed in all black clothing" got out. The suspect then fired at the boy and shot him, while the 16-year-old fired back with his own gun before the suspect got back in the passenger seat of the car and fled.
Bear approaches door of home. Image from Winter Springs, Florida, Police Department
On June 21, 2024, Governor DeSantis of Florida signed HB87, restoring the right of people to protect themselves, their pets, and their homes against aggressive black bears. The law went into effect on July 1, 2024.
From July to December, 2024, FWC recorded four instances where people killed bears, but were not charged under the new law. There were seven situations where people were charged with illegal kills. In 2021, during the same period, there were 17 illegal kills recorded, in 2022 there were seven illegal kills recorded during the same period. In 2023, there were seven illegal kills recorded in the same period (July - December). In 2024, one of the defensive situations where the new law made a difference made the news. From the account. The defender used a 9mm pistol.
The FWC said Tittle called his dogs, but the puppy did not return to him. The man grabbed his larger dog, but it pulled him toward the bear, and he ended up on the ground, officials said.
“I noticed that it was a bear. I called the dogs, and only the big dog came. Me and him kind of wrestled around here, and I was trying to hold him down. He wanted to go back because he wasn’t coming back,” Tittle told News 6.
Tittle said he saw the bear near his pup, so he attempted to fire a “warning shot” to scare the animals but struck the bear, according to the FWC, which said the animal tried to climb a tree but fell to the ground.
Most bears killed by humans in Florida are killed in vehicle accidents. In the last five years, 1,467 bears have been killed in vehicle accidents, about 293 per year. Officials killed 73 bears in the same period, about 15 per year. The number of bears killed under the new law will probably be lower than those killed by Florida officials, amounting to about 3% of those killed on the highways in vehicle collisions. The hunt conducted in 2015 only stabilized bear numbers for a few years.
Ten years ago, the bear population in Florida was estimated at 4,350. No official estimation has been recorded in the last ten years. A study of the Florida bear population is underway. The current number is probably over 7,000.
On May 5, 2025, the a fatal bear attack was the first officially recorded in Florida. On June 24, 2025, a pistol was used to kill a black bear in self defense under the new law in Ft. Walton Beach Florida.
“The bear did not seem right,” records show he told an investigating wildlife official. “It was not afraid of me and was walking around during the daylight.”
He grabbed a pistol, he said, to protect himself and his wife. From behind a cracked door, he yelled at the bear to go away. Robinson said it knocked over his griddle and walked toward him. The bear, a male, weighed roughly 180 pounds and was estimated to be between 2 and 4 years old, according to wildlife officials.
“I felt extremely threatened and thought the bear was going to come through the door,” records show he told an investigating wildlife officer. “So I then began shooting the bear.”
Robinson shot it 12 times, records show. He stopped firing when the bear turned away from him, and he watched as it walked a few dozen feet before dropping to the ground.
In spite of dire warnings by those opposed to nearly any killing of bears in Florida, the number of bears killed under the new law has resulted in the death of an insignificant number of bears. The total numbers will be available when the 2025 report from the FWC is published. The number is projected to be less than nine in the first full year.
The bear population in Florida has to be managed. A number of bears need to be removed to stabilize the population. The removal of problem bears, which do not fear people, is the best first step to bring the population down to desired levels. When the number of bears removed are less than four percent of the number of bears killed in vehicle accidents, they are insignificant to the total population numbers. To the people who have to deal with problem bears, they are very significant.
©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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The reporting party advised a homeowner encountered a suspect on their property attempting to take a 4-wheeler. During the encounter shots were fired injuring both the homeowner and suspect who then fled on foot.
Bingham County Sheriff’s Deputies arrived on scene and requested further assistance from nearby Law Enforcement agencies to establish a perimeter and search for the suspect. Officers from Shelley and Blackfoot Police responded along with Idaho State Police and Bonneville County Sheriff’s Deputies. Shelley Fire and Ambulance personnel were also called to the scene and transported the injured homeowner to EIRMC in Idaho Falls for treatment of a gunshot wound.
A perimeter was set up around the residence and Deputies began searching for the suspect who was believed to be wounded and armed. During the search, Bingham and Bonneville County Deputies located the suspect in a field next to the residence and shots were fired by Deputies from both agencies. Deputies immediately began life saving measures, however the suspect died at the scene.
During an initial investigation, police learned Major met the teen to buy a ring he posted for sale on OfferUp. While completing the transaction, authorities said the teen pulled a handgun and robbed Major before running away.
Police said Major had his own gun and shot at the teen, hitting him in the leg. The teen shot back, but did not hit Major. Several homes were struck by gunfire during the incident. For the Castanon family, multiple bullets tore through their home, getting dangerously close to the family of four.
"This one could have hit me," said Alfredo Castanon, who pointed out one of two bullet holes in his room.
Image of grizzly bear by Troy Nemitz, used with permission.
In 1975, when grizzly bears in the lower 48 states were regulated as "threatened" by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service of the Department of the Interior, the standard required to use deadly force against grizzly bears, in defense of self and others, was unclear. In 2017 and 2021, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit created binding precedent which clarified the standard to be used in cases when a person claimed defense of self and/or others against grizzly bears in the lower 48 states.
The standard is different and lower than the standard to be used for self defense against humans. From the opinion by the Ninth Circuit issued in 2017, bold added:
We hold the “good faith belief” defense for a prosecution under 16 U.S.C. § 1540 is governed by a subjective, rather than an objective, standard, and is satisfied when a defendant actually, even if unreasonably, believes his actions are necessary to protect himself or others from perceived danger from a grizzly bear. Because the district court applied an objective standard, we vacate Wallen’s conviction and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
The Wallen case was engendered on May 27, 2014 when Dan Calvert Wallen shot three grizzly bears on his family property in
Ferndale, Montana with a banged up .22 rimfire rifle. The bears had killed most of his chickens. He had chased the three adolescent bears from his property with a truck, but the bears returned. Wallen plead not guilty and asked for a jury trial. Because the charges were misdemeanors, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or restitution for the bears, a jury trial was not allowed. In the bench trial, Wallen was found guilty by Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch, sentenced to three years of probation, and $15,000 in restitution. The District Court Judge, Dana L. Christensen upheld the verdict by the Magistrate.
Wallen appealed the case to the Ninth Circuit. The three judge panel found the Magistrate, and the District Court Judge, Dana L. Christensen, had not used the proper standard for defense of self and others against the bears. At the second trial, Magistrate Lynch again found Wallen guilty, because he found Wallen's testimony to be less than credible. Lynch increased the restitution for the three bears from $15,000 to $25,000. At the District Court, Judge Christensen agreed with Judge Lynch for the second time. Wallen appealed to the Ninth Circuit for the second time.
On the second appeal to the Ninth Circuit, the thee judge panel again found the Magistrate and the District Court judge had acted in error. Too much emphasis was placed on Wallen's credibility, while ignoring quite a bit of evidence that Wallen was indeed fearful of the bears. From the opinion from the second appeal to the Ninth Circuit:
On remand, the trier of fact could not convict based on an adverse credibility finding without then completing the analysis by connecting that finding to the elements of the good faith defense, including taking 5 account of evidence as to Wallen’s state of mind other than his own statements.
The Ninth Circuit sent the case back for a third trial. In a separate concurrence, Judge Van Dyke, a member of the Ninth Circuit three judge panel, reminded the Magistrate and the District Judge the federal prosecution had misspoke (lied) to the district court and the Ninth Circuit panel, claiming Wallen never said he was fearful, felt threatened, or that his family was threatened by the bears when he shot them. From footnote 1 of the concurrence:
1 The government misspoke by telling the district court and our court that on the night of the bear shooting, Wallen never said that he was fearful, felt threatened, or that his family was threatened by the bears when he shot them. The record shows that the local game warden repeatedly testified that Wallen told him on the night of the shooting that “he was afraid of [the bears]” and afraid for “[h]is children and the neighbors that were playing in the yard.” In his review of the magistrate judge’s decision, Judge Christensen relied on the government’s misstatement as a “significant” reason for his decision affirming Wallen’s conviction.
Judge Van Dyke reminded the Magistrate Judge and the District Judge they needed to apply the strict standards of criminal law to a possible third trial.
In 2021, the federal prosecutor in the case asked for dismissal of the case, and asked the restitution money, $25,000, be returned to Wallen. In the docket for the case, the money is reported as being returned on February 10, 2021.
The precedent is now well established in the Ninth Circuit. To convict a person who claims they killed a grizzly bear in defense of self and/or others, the government must prove the defender did not believe they were threatened or that others were in imminent danger by the bear. The subjective belief on the part of the person making the defense of self and others claim is the key criteria. The person making the claim does not have to show they were objectively threatened. They need to show they believed they and/or others were in imminent danger.
Self defense against humans has a higher standard. The person claiming the defense has to show they had a "reasonable belief" they and/or others were in imminent danger from the other person.
Defense of self and others is a clear exception to the ban on firing guns in National Parks.
Most of the grizzly bears in the lower 48 states are within the area served by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The exception is Wyoming. It seems likely the Ninth Circuit standard will be advocated and/or used in future Wyoming cases.
Grizzly bears are not classified as threatened in Alaska. The state statue covering defense of life and property (DLP) cases apply to defensive shootings of bears in Alaska.
©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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When officers arrived, they met with a 35-year-old security guard for a nearby business who told police that he was asked by staff to remove the woman from the business, due to her actively causing a disturbance.
She was escorted out to her vehicle and asked to leave. She got inside her vehicle and allegedly tried to run over the security guard multiple times in her white Ford F150 truck.
The guard then fired multiple shots towards her vehicle, and she drove off. Nobody was injured.
After Constitutional Carry went into effect in Indiana, the number of non-criminal homicides in Indianapolis doubled.
Indiana had been a "shall issue" state since at least 1983. In 2022, Indiana became a Constitutional Carry state, with the law going into effect on July 1, 2022. The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department (IMPD) has been keeping records of homicides in the city for a number of years. They differentiate between criminal homicides and non-criminal homicides. IMPD has made the numbers available to the media. Non-criminal homicides include defense of self and others, homicides by police and fatal firearms accidents. Fatal firearm accidents are a tiny percentage of all fatalities associated with firearms. A proportion of them are self inflicted, and can be confused with suicides.
In 2021, there were 271 homicides in Indianapolis. 249 were recorded as criminal. 22 of them were non-criminal. Half of 2022 passed before the Constitutional Carry law went into effect on July 1. Half of 2022 was under the new law. In 2022 there were 226 total homicides. 211 of them were criminal. 15 of them were non-criminal. In 2023, the first year the law was fully in effect, there were 216 total homicides. 171 were criminal. 45 of them were non-criminal.
The FBI definition of justified homicide is extremely restrictive. It undercounts justified homicides by an order of 4 out of 5. The counting by the IMPD appears to be closer to reality.
As more people are able to legally carry firearms in public, it is reasonable to assume the number of recorded justified fatalities will increase. To be justified in using deadly force, a defender has to reasonably believe deadly force is necessary to prevent severe bodily harm or death. Here is the statutory language. From IC 35-41-3-2:
(c) A person is justified in using reasonable force against any other person to protect the person or a third person from what the person reasonably believes to be the imminent use of unlawful force. However, a person:
(1) is justified in using deadly force; and
(2) does not have a duty to retreat;
if the person reasonably believes that that force is necessary to prevent serious bodily injury to the person or a third person or the commission of a forcible felony. No person, employer, or estate of a person in this state shall be placed in legal jeopardy of any kind whatsoever for protecting the person or a third person by reasonable means necessary.
Perhaps someone will do a rigorous study of the increase in non-criminal homicides in Indianapolis. Correlation does not prove causation. Proof requires more. Correlation is an indicator.
Analysis:
People who support the Second Amendment and self defense see an increase in non-criminal homicides as an indicator the need for self defense was being suppressed by the restrictions on the legal carry of weapons. Remove the restrictions, and more people are able to prevent criminal homicides, assaults, rapes and other felonies. The drop in overall homicides is consistent with this explanation. Alternatively, when the restrictions on carry are removed, fewer people will be concerned whether the carry of the firearm was legal or not. They are more willing to talk to the police and show evidence the homicide was justified. Thus, more justified homicides are recorded as such.
Those who want a disarmed population argue no one should ever be shot and killed. They argue allowing people to defend themselves only causes more people to be shot and killed. This argument assumes ordinary people are not capable of moral armed self defense.
The year before Constitutional Carry went into effect in Indianapolis, there were 249 criminal homicides and 22 which were not criminal, for a total of 271. In 2022, Constitutional Carry was in effect for six months, the criminal homicides dropped to 211, with a non-criminal homicide count of 15, for a total of 226. In 2023, when Constitutional Carry was in effect for the full year, there were 171 criminal homicides and 45 non-criminal homicides, for a total of 216.
All non-criminal homicides are investigated. For a justified homicide, the evidence has to indicate there was a reasonably understood defense against serious bodily injury or death (except the extremely rare fatal accident). Without such serious danger, the incident would be criminal. The increase in non-criminal homicides in Indianapolis indicates the number of people killed has decreased.
The people being killed include more criminal predators and fewer innocent victims.
©2024 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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"Mr. Childs has eight prior arrests, and is listed in our criminal database as a member of the Folk Nation gang – a violent gang that terrorizes Brooklyn and is responsible for at least half a dozen shootings so far this year," the commissioner said Monday. She said three of the other shooting victims are also linked to the Folk Nation gang.
St. Louis, the youngest shooting victim who allegedly also opened fire at the Brooklyn club, had no "relevant" criminal history, the commissioner said.
Investigators believe the 19-year-old gunman opened fire first, shooting Childs following a brief argument inside the club. Tisch said the argument was caught on video surveillance.
The two other alleged shooters joined the gunfight. As of Monday morning, they were still being sought by the NYPD.
The shooting was reported at 9:20 p.m. Saturday in the 8000 block of South Hooper Avenue, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The victims were alerted to an alarm sound from their vehicle, which was parked in an alley, and saw three suspects attempting to steal it.
“When they confronted the suspects, a fourth suspect, standing near the south entrance of the alley, produced a firearm and opened fire on the victims,” according to the Sheriff’s Information Bureau.
One of the victims, armed with a handgun, returned fire in what appeared to be self-defense, sheriff’s officials said. A 41-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. The second victim was struck in the leg and taken to a hospital.
Rowland said Jordan Wright, a male from Johnston, was treated at the Augusta hospital and released into Richmond County Sheriff’s Office custody for extradition to South Carolina on charges of attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a crime.
Rowland said deputies took one person, Lasavion Johnson, into custody at the shooting location.
Rowland said late Friday afternoon that Johnson was being questioned but wasn’t likely to be arrested because it appeared to be a case of self-defense.
Rowland said it appeared that Wright and one of the two injured females had gone after Johnson.
Raleigh police decided not to bring charges against the person who shot Byron Bracey, 35, determining that the shooting was an act of self-defense.
Police said the shooter was an employee of the hotel but did not release that person's name because they will not face charges.
Officers were called to the Days Inn on Glenwood Avenue around 10:30 p.m. to investigate a report of trespassing. They said Bracey was trespassing on the property and the employee shot him multiple times. He died later at a hospital.
An investigation revealed that a 48-year-old man threatened and pointed a gun at a 36-year-old man, police said.
After both exchanged gunfire, the 48-year-old man was shot in the upper thigh, according to police
Police said the 48-year-old man was driven to an area hospital by private vehicle and is in stable condition.
The 36-year-old man is licensed to carry a firearm, police said. The 48-year-old, who police said is a suspect, was placed in custody.
A 38-year-old man was shot to death with his own gun during a struggle inside a Queens house, police said Wednesday.
Vick Ramjit got into an argument with an acquaintance inside the multi-family home with a front porch on 103rd St. near 97th Ave. in Ozone Park about 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, cops said. As the pair quarreled, Ramjit whipped out a gun, according to cops.
The victim and his acquaintance struggled over the gun and Ramjit was shot in the head when his pistol went off, cops said.
Ramjit died at the scene. He lived about half a mile away from the home he was killed in, according to cops.
What we know:
One driver pulled in front of the other Tesla, got out, and began approaching the other driver, who threw something at him to make him stop. However, the man continued walking, prompting the other Tesla driver to open fire.
The victim was shot in the arm and drove himself to Washington Hospital in Fremont.
KTVU cameras captured the victim's Tesla outside the hospital, smeared in blood.
The other Tesla was seen heading south on Interstate 880, traveling at least 100 mph, including on the shoulder.
Deputies said they found 21-year-old Dakota Hayes outside the residence with two gunshot wounds.
Deputies then encountered 24-year-old Willie Hayes, who said he had shot his brother (Dakota) after witnessing him stab his (Willie's) girlfriend, according to the report
MCSO said deputies entered the home and found a 23-year-old woman suffering from multiple stab wounds.
The man in the black hoodie punched the victim in the face and the victim then draws a handgun he had holstered on his hip but leaves it down by his hip.
The subjects exit the store and walk towards the suspect vehicle.
The defendant enters the driver's door of the suspect vehicle and the subject in the red hoodie circles back to the front of the store and begins shooting at the store.
This is when the victim was struck from gunfire and returns fire.
During the course of the investigation, Tavarse Reed, was identified as the man that punched the clerk and fled the scene with the shooter.
Investigators said Britton and another man got into an argument at the Sheraton Place apartments, before Britton allegedly pulled out a gun and started shooting: hitting three people.
The 65-year old man he was arguing with was wounded, but was able to tackle Britton who was than shot by a 62-year-old woman who picked up his gun, according to investigators.
Police said two others who were shot were innocent bystanders and were not involved in the argument. They were a 64-year-old man with a gunshot graze to the cheek, and a 70-year-old woman who was shot in the ankle.
The 65-year-old man suffered gunshot wounds to his right armpit and abdomen, officials said.
The National Instant background Check System (NICS) numbers are in for July of 2025. July of 2025 is the first month in almost six years where the adjusted NICS numbers estimate firearm sales of less than one million. The adjusted figures, as computed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) are almost twelve thousand sales short of one million at 978,731. In July of 2024, the NSSF calculated adjusted gun sales of 1,064,791. These figures show an eight percent drop in gun sales from last July. The NICS checks themselves fell by only four percent, from 2,021,235 to 1,936,621. About half of NICS checks are being used for purposes other than firearm sales.
The NSSF chart comparing firearm sale over the last twelve months shows a pattern which is very similar. How is it that the numbers from a presidential election year, and an off year without midterm elections are so similar? One possibility is President Trump dominated the news cycle during both years, both before and six months after his election as president of the United States.
It may be because the old news media has been attempting to drag down President Trump for all of the twenty-four months.
Several factors combine to have slowly reduced demand for firearms at this time. President Trump is winning his legislative and court battles. This, combined with a population which contains a majority of Trump supporters, means there is less concern the country will devolve into a nationwide kleptocracy or Anarcho-Tyranny as conceptualized by Samuel Francis in 2022. Victor Davis Hanson sees the Trump administration as an historical counter-revolution. Most of the people in the United States see the United States as moving in the right direction.
The coalition of bureaucrats, college educated single women, and some minorities, directed by woke cultural Marxists, is a minority of voters, perhaps 25-30 percent. These groups have not been large gun owners in nearly the numbers Trump supporters have been. The Democratic Party voters desire to arm themselves against the false fears of a "Trump dictatorship" cannot make up for the reduction of the fears of Constitutionalists. President Trump's supporters saw what the Democratic Party was capable of in Biden years. The Trump supporters do not fear the federal government as much as they did before President Trump was elected President.
The potential for high sales remains, even if the motivation has gone down for the moment. There are about 535 million cartridge firearms in the United States of America. There is the possibility of market saturation. There are about 268 million people over the age of 17 in the United States of America. The number is probably close to 265 million when violent felons and the dangerous mentally ill members of the population are subtracted from the figure. Those 265 million are potential legal firearms owners.
It is not hard to see potential demand for a rifle, pistol, and shotgun for each adult. Those who become firearm owners are likely to discover they want more specialized products such as target pistols, historical rifles, waterfowl shotguns. A reasonable number could be demand for five firearms per each adult. The potential becomes 265x5 or one billion, three hundred and twenty-five million firearms, more than double what it is today. Today's private stock of 535 million has taken about a hundred and twenty six years to achieve. This does not take into account population increase or technological advancement. There is a lot of potential for more firearm sales.
A great deal of effort has gone into demonizing the ownership of firearms. When such demonization is countered with factual arguments, demand for firearms is likely to go up.
©2025 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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