Saturday, July 01, 2006



MI: Homeowner surprises intruder: Shots were traded this morning when a man returning to his home in Oak Park surprised an intruder in his home. According to police, the incident occurred at about 4 a.m. in a home on Moritz and Northfield streets. The unidentified home owner -- who was wounded in the shoulder, but is expected to recover -- drove himself to the police station after the shootout. The intruder escaped. Tracking dogs were brought in to try and locate the suspect, but at this time he remains at large. Police have no description of the intruder and declined to say whether or not there was anyone else living in the home at the time of the incident"


FL: No charges in backyard shooting: "A North Fort Myers man will not be charged with murder thanks to Florida's recently-passed Stand Your Ground law. The victim's widow says she plans to challenge the law, to get justice for her husband and save other lives as well. A day after finding out no arrests will be made in her husband's death, Michelle Frazzini prepares for one of the biggest fights of her life. "I'm doing it for him. I'm doing it for my boys," said Frazzini. "My intent is to see that this law is changed." On March 28, a masked Michael Frazzini was hiding in his mother's backyard. He was trying to videotape her neighbor, Cory Rasmussen, who he believed was harassing his mother. "He's a very kind man who would have not hurt a single soul. He loved his mother dearly and he didn't want them harassing her anymore," said Frazzini. But things went wrong when the Rasmussens spotted him. During a confrontation, Todd Rasmussen fired a single shot that ultimately killed Frazzini, a decorated military man and a father of two. The Rasmussens told detectives they didn't know who was under the mask and that they fired in self-defense. "If it wasn't for the mask, there would be no questions. The Rasmussens would be prosecuted today," said Frazzini."


What utter nonsense! "Safety catches do not always prevent firearm accidents and even newfangled biometric guns, which check the identity of a user by their fingerprint, cannot stop thieves from using stolen ammunition in other weapons. The way to make firearms really safe, says Hebert Meyerle of Germany, is to password-protect the ammunition itself. Meyerle is patenting a design for a modified cartridge that would be fired by a burst of high-frequency radio energy. But the energy would only ignite the charge if a solid-state switch within the cartridge had been activated. This would only happen if a password entered into the gun using a tiny keypad matched one stored in the cartridge. When they are sold, cartridges could be programmed with a password that matches the purchaser's gun. An owner could set the gun to request the password when it is reloaded, or to perform a biometric check before firing. The gun could also automatically lock itself after a pre-set period of time has passed since the password was entered. The system would undoubtedly cost more than a conventional gun, but many firearm enthusiasts would surely pay a premium for such added security."

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