Friday, May 01, 2026

WA: Kent - 1 of Home Invaders Shot by Homeowner

According to investigators, residents inside the home reported several armed suspects entered the home and the homeowners shot at the intruders, hitting one of the suspects several times. 

The suspect was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. Kent police have not released the identity of the suspect who was shot. 


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Thursday, April 30, 2026

GA: Atlanta - Gunfight At MARTA Station Initiator Killed

Detectives obtained CCTV footage from the MARTA bus that showed two masked individuals, including the victim, 16-year-old Xavier Wright, getting off the bus.

Before exiting, the warrants state that both the suspect and the other person looked out the window toward three men walking toward the bus loop.

 As Wright and the other unknown masked man got off the bus, detectives say gunfire was exchanged immediately. 

Warrants state that Wright appeared to initiate the gunfire, and one of the three men returned fire.

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Wednesday, April 29, 2026

NY: Yonkers - 17-Year-Old Armed with Knife Shot by Off Duty Female State Trooper

Authorities said the trooper, a female member of Troop NYC, was refueling her vehicle when the teen approached her, took out a knife, and got into the driver’s seat of her car. 

The trooper then fired a single shot from her off-duty firearm, striking the suspect in the left arm. The bullet continued into his chest, police said. 


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TN: Memphis - Man found Dead May have been Attempting Robbery

Officers located a man who was pronounced dead at the scene.

No other injuries were reported.

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PA: Birmingham - Security Guard Shoots Man at Greyhound Station

A fight Sunday afternoon at the downtown Greyhound Intermodal Facility ended with a security guard fatally shooting a man, Birmingham police said.

The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as Angelo Herbert Hill Jr. He was 46 and lived in Valdosta.


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Review of Pistols, Crime, and Public: Safety in Early America by Clayton Cramer

Queen Ann's type flintlock pistol circa 1740, courtesy Rock Island Auctions


Pistols were commonly owned in America at the time of the Revolution. Clayton Cramer & Joseph Edward Olson lay out extensive evidence in their paper.

This correspondent has noted numerous people make the claim pistols were not common at the time of the American Revolution. This is done to imply concealed arms were not included in the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Clayton Cramer and Joseph Edward Olson published a paper laying out the extensive evidence of pistol ownership at the time of the American revolution. The paper was published in the Willamette Law Review dated June 3, 2008, pages 699 - 722.

In early America, pistols were distinguished from guns or firearms. The literary separation of pistols from guns and firearms continued in common usage until 1828. One of the most telling pieces of evidence showing the commonality of pistols is the accounting of the weapons turned in to General Gage after the battles of Lexington and Concord occurred on April 19, 1775. On April 23, 1775, General Gage offered to allow Boston residents to leave, *if* they surrendered their arms. Boston, through the selectmen, voted to accept the offer. By April 27 the people had delivered over 3,400 weapons. From the paper:

 As an incentive, General Gage offered passes to leave Boston to all who turned in their weapons, because no weapons or ammunition were allowed to leave Boston. On April 27th, the people delivered to the selectman 1778 fire-arms, 634 pistols, 973 bayonets, and 38 blunderbusses.

Other than the bayonets, pistols were over 25% of the weapons turned in. This was probably an undercount, because pistols are easier to hide than the other weapons. After telling the Bostonians the weapons would be returned to them, General Gage confiscated them some months later.

The paper goes on to show numerous examples of pistols being offered for sale, pistols in estates, pistol powder for sale, and remnants of pistols found from the era.

In addition, at least one law exempted pistols from regulation of long guns, opposite of what is generally seen today.  Boston banned people from leaving unattended loaded firearms in buildings, because of fire hazards. There was no law banning the carry of loaded firearms. The usage of the time separated firearms from pistols. The ban may not have included a prohibition on leaving loaded pistols in houses. Pocket pistols were mentioned in an account from 1772. There were many concealable arms during the revolutionary period. No evidence of laws against the carry of concealed weapons has been found from this period.

The paper is worth reading for any Second Amendment supporter. It shows handguns were in common use at the time of the revolution, and into the early Republic. Clayton Craymer is well known for his meticulous historical research.

Pistols, while not as common as long guns during the American revolution, were common and readily used.  The story of Samuel Whittemore during the battle of Lexington and Concord is an illustration. From warhistoryonline.com:

 Samuel Whittemore learned of the British attack and armed himself with his prized sword and pistols, grabbed his trusty musket, and went to defend his home. By this point, Whittemore was at least 78, possibly as old as 80. He found a position to hide and observe the British advance and when they got close enough he revealed himself and shot one of the soldiers at nearly point blank range. With no time to reload Whittemore drew his pistols and killed two more soldiers.

Whittemore was shot, clubbed, and bayoneted at least 13 times. Against all odds, he survived and lived for two more decades.

Modern handguns were estimated to be 27% of the privately owned firearms held in the United States in 1945, according to the figures in Gary Kleck's highly acclaimed book, Point Blank. As America has become more urban, handguns have become more popular.  In 2023, handguns made up 54% of the firearms added to the private stock in the USA that year.

 

©2026 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.
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PA: Philadelphia - Gunfight with Bouncer, Male refused to drop Gun, was Shot, Killed

The second shooting happened on the 3900 block of Frankford Ave just a few minutes after. In this case a male was in a speakeasy and got into an argument outside with a bouncer. That argument was heated and the male pulled a gun on the security guard. This guard then pulled is own weapon .

The guard told the male to drop his gun and when he reused to do so, the guard opened fire, shooting the male at least three times. It is unknown if the male got off any shots at the guard. Police said at least 70 shots were fired.


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TN: Nashville - Carjacker gunfight, Carjacker Shot, Killed, Victim Wounded

According to police, a 44-year-old DoorDash delivery driver had picked up an order from a nearby restaurant and was walking back to his parked Dodge Charger when a gunman approached and demanded the car.

Investigators said the driver retrieved a pistol from inside the Charger. The suspect then shot the driver in the leg.

Police said the driver returned fire, fatally wounding the suspect.


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AZ: Phoenix - Man Smashes Cars, is Shot, Killed

Police said Bruce Roanhorse, 43, was driving just after 4 a.m. in the area near Seventh Street on Alice Avenue, south of Dunlap Avenue, when he hit several parked cars and other property.

A nearby homeowner and his adult son went outside to see the commotion, and then the son went into his parked truck. Roanhorse put his truck in reverse and tried to hit the other truck with the son inside, police said.

That’s when the son shot and killed Roanhorse, police said. The shooter was questioned and later arrested for an outstanding felony warrant. 

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Monday, April 27, 2026

FL: Miramar - Domestic Defense? Man shoots Woman, Cooperates with Police

Miramar Police spokesperson Janice McIntosh said officers at the scene encountered a second person, a male, who was with the woman in the apartment and was cooperating with the investigation.

"They are actually known to each other and we are just trying to piece, put together what is happening and our detectives are still on scene," McIntosh said.

The man, who lives at the apartment, is believed to have shot the woman, officials said


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TX: Corpus Christi - Shooting may have been Defensive

A witness who remained at the scene said the male in the red hoodie, later identified as Anthony Rodriguez "was challenging the males to fight while he was trying to reach into the food truck."

The witness stated the employees at the food truck "shut the window to the register and Anthony tried to open it again. [The witness] told me she observed one of the employees, who was later determined to be Sebastian, holding a handgun that was in his waistband. Lesdy looked down at her phone and heard the gunshot."

The witness says she looked up and saw Anthony fall, then both employees exited the food truck and called 911.


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TX: Brownwood - Wife Assaults Husband's Girfriend, Shoots Self in Foot

Upon arrival and initial investigation, officers learned that a male subject had arrived at the location with his girlfriend in a vehicle.  Shortly thereafter, the male’s wife arrived and became upset upon discovering him with another woman.  The wife began physically assaulting the girlfriend, who was seated in the passenger seat of the vehicle.

During the altercation, the girlfriend produced a firearm and attempted to strike the wife with it. In the process, the firearm discharged, resulting in the girlfriend sustaining a gunshot wound to the foot. The male subject subsequently fled the scene with the injured female and transported her to a local hospital. He then left the hospital and was later located by officers at another convenience store in south Brownwood.


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Sunday, April 26, 2026

Handguns Used in Defense Against Bears: How many Shots?

In the ongoing study of how effective handguns are when used as a defense against bears, there are over two hundred documented cases. Of those, 184 involve only handguns. The others are combination situations where other deadly force was used in addition to handguns. Of the 184 cases 161 include information about the number of shots fired. In 23 cases the number of shots is not known.

The data is likely skewed by unavoidable selection bias. The data is limited to cases which are documented. There is a strong selection bias against cases which do not involve dramatic outcomes or human injury, or which happen far from any civil authority. Those cases are not likely to be reported or recorded in a way which is accessible. Consider a hypothetical:

A bear acts aggressively toward a person who is hiking. Not wanting to kill the bear, for whatever reason, they fire a warning shot or shots. The bear runs off. There is very little drama, almost no news value, and virtually no reason to report the incident to any authority. There is a strong selection bias against successful uses of warning shots.

One way to guard against selection bias is to include every documented case where a handgun was fired in defense against a bear. This  policy was formulated at the beginning of this study and is in effect.

Of the 161 cases where a handgun has been fired in defense against a bear or bears, and the number of shots is known or reasonably inferred, the distribution of the number of shots fired per case is as follows:

1 shot - 46 cases or 28.6% of the cases where the number of shots is known. 8 cases involved a warning shot. One of the warning shots killed a bear. In one case where one shot was fired, killing the bear, two warning shots were fired with a .22 rimfire rifle. Those shots were not effective. It was decided to include that case with other cases where only one shot was fired from a handgun. The other six warning shot cases were successful.

2 shots - 22 cases or 13.7%. There were 13 cases where warning shot(s) were fired. In seven cases, the warning shots were successful, at least temporarily. In eight cases, the warning shots were unsuccessful. There were three cases where the warning shots were both successful (temporarily) and unsuccessful. In one case it could not be determined if the the shots were effective in stopping the bear; in one case the warning shots were not effective, and no bear or human was injured. Because the warning shots were ineffective, the case, involving a .44 magnum and a polar bear is one of the four failures of the firing of a handgun in defense against a bear or bears.

3 shots - 19 cases or 11.8%. Warning shots were fired in 6 cases. The warning shots were successful in three cases and did not work in three cases. There was one failure, where three shots fired from a .357 magnum did not stop the attack by a grizzly bear. It is likely the bear was not hit.

4 shots - 13 cases or 8.1%. Two cases involved two handguns. Warning shots were fired in four cases. 1 warning shot worked for a while. Warning shot failed in all four cases.

5 shots - 16 cases or 9.9%. Warning shots were fired in four cases. The warning shots worked in two cases, one temporarily, and failed in three cases. There was one case where it could not be determined if the handgun shots stopped the attack, and 1 failure with a .38 caliber revolver and a black bear.

6 shots - 14 cases or 8.7%. Warning shots were fired in five cases. They worked in four cases and did not work in two cases. 1 warning shot worked temporarily. One case was a failure against a polar bear with a .22 rimfire handgun.

Six shots or fewer were fired in 80.1% of known documented cases.  There have not been any documented failures were more than six shots were fired.

7 shots - 9 cases or 5.6%. Warning shots were fired in two cases. One worked, one did not work.

8 shots - 7 cases or 4.3%.  One case involved two handguns. No cases where warning shots were fired.

9 shots - 3 cases or 1.9%. No cases involved warning shots.

10 shots - 5 cases or 3.1%. Warning shots fired in one case. The warning shots did not work.

12 shots - 2 cases or 1.2%, no warning shots fired.

15 shots - 1 case or .6%, no warning shots fired.

16 shots - 1 case, no warning shots, two handguns involved.

18 shots - 1 case, no warning shots fired.

19 shots - 1 case, no warning shots, three handguns involved.

21 shots - 1 case, no warning shots, three handguns involved.

31 shots - 1 case, no warning shots, two handguns involved.

There were no cases involving 11 shots, 13, 14, 17, 20, 22-30 shots ,or more than 31 shots in the cases documented as of this writing.

There were 23 cases where the number of shots was not reported. Two of those cases involved two handguns. Four involved warning shots. 1 warning shot worked, two did not work, the effect of the warning shot(s) was unknown in one case.

©2026 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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FL: Miami - Domestic Defense, 75-Year-Old Father Shoots, Kills 47-Year-Old Son

The shooting happened shortly before 5 p.m. Wednesday at a home in the area of Southwest 168th Street and Southwest 92nd Avenue.

Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office officials said 47-year-old David Dylan McPeck was shot and killed by 75-year-old David Ronald McPeck.

Officials said there were mental health issues involved and the incident is currently being treated as self-defense.

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Saturday, April 25, 2026

Handguns were common during the American Revolution

 

 Flintlock pistol from about 1730, courtesy Rock Island Auctions

 

During and after the American revolution, there was no registration of firearms in the colonies which were to become the United States. There is good evidence handguns were commonly owned during this period. One of the primary sources comes from records during the occupation of Boston by General Gage before and after the battles of Lexington and Concord. The history of these engagements were meticulously recorded by Richard Frothingham in the History of the Siege of Boston, published in 1873. Frothingham uses original sources, particularly of the Boston Town Meeting Minutes of 22-28 April, 1775, for the numbers of weapons.

After the disastrous battles at Lexington and Concord, which are considered the start of the American revolution, General Gage was besieged in Boston. There were about 5,000 inhabitants  in the city. Food was running short in Boston. Many people wished to leave. General Gage made a deal with the Selectmen. People could leave the city *if* the inhabitants surrendered their weapons to the town council. They were to identify themselves so the weapons could be returned later. People leaving the city were thoroughly searched.  Even small amounts of food, such as a loaf of bread, were confiscated. It would have been difficult to smuggle out even handguns. It is possible some weapons might have been left hidden in the city.

 

Page 94 from image 118 Frothingham  image

The agreement was for "the inhabitants in general", so it was to encompass all the inhabitants, who were not under the control of General Gage. We have the number of the arms which were turned in.

From Frothingham image 119, page 95.

 

The total number of firearms were 1778 fire-arms plus 634 pistols and 38 blunder-busses or 2,450 total, about one for every two inhabitants. Pistols were almost 26% of the total. This is obviously common, about one for every eight people. All firearms were more expensive in relative terms than they are in the United States in the twenty-first century.  The cost of a pistol in 1776 is difficult to find, with the suggestion common flintlock pistols were about 1.7 British lbs, or roughly two weeks of skilled labor. When the American dollar came into being  there were 20 dollars per ounce of gold and 4.25 British lbs per ounce of gold, or about 8 silver dollars per flintlock pistol. The term "buck" came from one deerskin being worth about 1 dollar. There are about 540 million privately owned firearms for about 340 million people in the USA, or about 1.6 firearms for every person. It is likely firearms were more common in rural areas and on the frontier. An analysis of Plymouth Colony probate inventories during the 1670s showed 13% of the firearms were pistols.

Analysis: It is the experience of this correspondent that firearms, especially handguns, are often taken from an estate before probate, by members of the family. They are frequently given to heirs before death. The numbers from probate records are very likely considerably lower than numbers owned by the population.  The records from the siege of Boston and the probate records show concealable firearms were commonly owned during the immediate period leading up to the ratification of the Constitution. Handguns were not considered "dangerous and unusual weapons". As noted previously, concealed weapons, of which handguns are only one type, were common in the colonies and the early Republic.

 ©2026 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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TN: Memphis - Shots Fired at Convenience Store, Fire Returned from Tire Store Next Door

The injured suspect was transported by Memphis Fire Department to Regional One in critical condition.

Officers also spoke with the injured suspect’s girlfriend, who said her boyfriend was pumping gas when he began arguing with about 5 men. One of the men said he was going to get his gun and started shooting.

Officers spoke with the owner of the tire shop, who said that approximately 2 shots were fired from the gas station parking lot and that a customer got out of his vehicle and returned fire.

 

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OR: Medford - Man Using an AXE to Break In Shot by Apartment Resident

According to the Medford Police Department, officers responded around 4:55 a.m. to a report of a person in mental distress. A caller reported that a neighbor in an adjacent apartment was screaming and behaving erratically.

While officers were heading to the scene, they learned the person was trying to break into a neighboring apartment using an axe. The person inside that apartment fired a gun, hitting the man.


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Friday, April 24, 2026

Police Murders Drop in 2025, First Quarter of 2026



In 2025, the number of officers feloniously killed each year has dropped to the lowest level since 2013.  The Officers Down Memorial Page (ODMP) appears to have more complete data than the FBI Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) data. The LEOKA data depends on voluntary reporting from law enforcement agencies. The ODMP evaluates officer deaths which are submitted to it. The largest discrepancy noticed was in 2013, where ODMP listed 37 officers feloniously killed in that year and LEOKA lists 27.   In 2025, the two numbers are the same.  

The Crime Prevention Research Center has compare the first three months of 2026 with the first three months of 2024 and 2025, using the LEOKA data.  You can see 2026 is lower than the previous years for the first quarter. 

 

 The number of officers feloniously killed has been dropping since the 1970s. There are reasons for this drop. It has not been smooth. The numbers are relatively small, so there are significant changes from year to year. The chart below shows the numbers of officers killed feloniously with firearms from 1963 to 2014

 

 The number of officers feloniously killed with firearms is a pretty good fit to the number of officers feloniously killed, because most homicides of officers in the line of duty are committed with firearms. There are several reasons which may explain the drop. First is the introduction of soft body armor, especially the Second Chance vest in the early 1970s. There was better training on firearms retention, and the use of retention holsters. We also developed much better communications and emergency response systems, as well as better emergency room care. Together these things resulted in a two thirds drop in the numbers of officers killed in felonious attacks. The officers killed numbers tend to follow the overall homicide numbers which also dropped significantly since the 1990s.  The numbers in the first Trump term are lower than the numbers during the Biden administration.

Analysis:  As we continuously improve the technology used by the police, the officers killed feloniously will continue to drop. Robots are already being used to search houses. Cameras everywhere make criminals easier to find, and crimes easier to solve.

©2026 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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LA: Shreveport - Drinking, Assault , Shooting, Disarm, Shooting both Men Killed

Officers reportedly canvassed the neighborhood where the shooting occurred, interviewed witnesses, collected evidence, and executed a search warrant at the home.

Detectives were able to determine that the two individuals had engaged in a verbal altercation, which eventually escalated into a physical confrontation after someone pulled out a gun. Investigators believe a fight over the gun took place, which left both individuals shot.

According to SPD, a woman told police they had all been drinking.


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FL: Bradenton - Managar Retrieves Handgun, Shoots Robbery Suspect

Detectives said that during the robbery, one 44-year-old customer refused to give money to the masked man and a struggle ensued between them.

The masked man then shot the customer at close range multiple times, deputies said.

Meanwhile, the on-duty manager got a handgun from an office in the arcade and shot once in the direction of the masked man, the sheriff's office said, adding that the suspect was not hit and fled from the arcade.


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