Ammunition

Baltimore police have charged three people - a Pikesville woman and two men already in federal custody - with the 2009 homicide of a man who was kidnapped and held for ransom, and later found dead in the Patapsco River. Among those charged is Darryl Nichols, 37, who has been tied to the case since the first day Eric Pendergrass went missing and was convicted on ammunition charges related to search warrants executed during the investigation. Pendergrass had been abducted Feb. 1, 2009, and called his girlfriend and said she needed to retrieve a bundle of money from a closet in her home and give it to a courier named “Darlene.” The girlfriend delivered the money to Pendergrass' mother's home in Northwest Baltimore, where a woman who identified herself as “Darlene” took the money and climbed into a silver-colored Cadillac STS. Witnesses recorded the license plate number, and police discovered that the vehicle was registered to Nichols.

Last month, I received emails from two people I know but who don't know each other: one a close friend and Second Amendment supporter, and the other a regular reader who sends me news items she believes the "liberal media" are willfully suppressing. Each sent me a story link about recent U.S. Department of Homeland Security purchases of huge stockpiles of ammunition, including hollow-point bullets. A Forbes.com column penned by Larry Bell, replete with conspiratorial overtones, suggested that the Obama administration is up-arming itself while trying to disarm the citizenry.

The only people who should have assault weapons should be the military. I feel that if legitimate people want to buy ammunition at a gun store or a department store, they should have to be finger printed and a undergo a back round check. After they pass, the government should give them an ID card. This way we could keep the ammunition out of the wrong hands. I am sure some people wont care for this law, but it just may save some lives. Gerald Yamin, Pikesville Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Annapolis Police collected 16 guns as part of a statewide gun turn-in day. The police accpeted six handguns, five rifles, four shotguns and one air rifle during Saturday's event. They also accepted 20 boxes of ammunition. The police said the most common reasons for guns and ammunition to be turned in were that they belonged to a deceased person and the person no longer wanted them in their home. The statewide gun turn-in was organized by the Office of the Attorney General.

Laurel police report felonies, arrests and property crimes. Prince George's County police report violent crimes and property crimes. Howard County police report major crimes, break-ins and car thefts. Laurel City Bryan Court , 100 block, July 8. Pioneer CD, radio player stolen from truck. Main Street , 300 block, July 7. Male broke window to occupied apartment in entry attempt. Resident moved blinds and man fled from roof. North Arbory Way , 7600 block, July 7. No signs of forced entry.

Letter writer Jonathan Reidy quoted my testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee out of context ("High-capacity magazines mean more stray bullets," Feb. 11). I would like to correct the record. I told the committee that magazine capacity was a matter of personal choice regarding my ability to protect myself and my family. We are currently limited to 20-round magazines in Maryland, yet only the law-abiding are likely to follow that restriction. After my testimony was complete, one of the senators asked me if I thought fully automatic weapons were OK on the street.

We are living in an historic era ("Re-elected," Nov. 7). We have read about the fall of other once great civilizations like the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians. Now, we actually get to live it. We will see America, a once great country, become a government-controlled, third world socialist state. No shots will be fired, no army will invade. It will all happen from within. Unemployment, health care costs, and entitlement living will all increase. Civil unrest, demonstrations, and riots will be widespread.

Baltimore mayoral candidate Otis Rolley needed to get some attention and to boost his name recognition. That he has done, though most of the attention from his proposal to tax ammunition at a dollar a round in the city has been derisory. The Internet is abuzz with reaction to his suggested ammo tax, just one of 12 steps he promises to take as mayor to "make every neighborhood in Baltimore safer. " Calling himself "the man with a plan," the challenger to Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's attempt to win a term on her own after succeeding the ousted Sheila Dixon says he's not at all disturbed by the scorn stirred up by his tax idea.

Police seized more than 2 kilograms of cocaine, a handgun and ammunition yesterday from an Edmondson Village couple, both of whom have convictions on felony drug charges. During a routine scan last month of the ammunition sales log at Wal-Mart in Catonsville, detectives from the federal High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force found that the woman had bought ammunition for a .45 caliber handgun and that she was a felon, said Baltimore Police Lt. John Hess. It is illegal for a convicted felon to possess guns or ammunition.

Firearms, ammunition and a color television set were stolen Sunday from a Harmans home, county police said.Charles Merton Laios, 34, told Western District officers that the theft occurred between 1 p.m. and 8:43 p.m. The thieves broke a back basement window and pried out half of the window frame to get into the house, police said.The thieves took the television, a Colt .45 automatic and a 12-gauge Remington 1200 shotgun from the bedroom. Two loaded magazines for the handgun, 1 1/2 boxes of Colt .45 ammunition and eight boxes of shotgun shells also were taken.

Letter writer Jonathan Reidy quoted my testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee out of context ("High-capacity magazines mean more stray bullets," Feb. 11). I would like to correct the record. I told the committee that magazine capacity was a matter of personal choice regarding my ability to protect myself and my family. We are currently limited to 20-round magazines in Maryland, yet only the law-abiding are likely to follow that restriction. After my testimony was complete, one of the senators asked me if I thought fully automatic weapons were OK on the street.

A ban on any firearm or accessory represents an assault on the Second Amendment ("O'Malley to push stricter gun limits," Jan. 15). Any actions toward more gun control lead one to believe that these policies are not trying to curb gun violence, which has gone down 50 percent over the last 20 years, but rather are pushing an agenda to eliminate the Second Amendment. In Maryland, rifles were used to commit murder only two times in 2011. Compare that to 75 murders by knives. Any talk of banning assault weapons is unjustified.

The only people who should have assault weapons should be the military. I feel that if legitimate people want to buy ammunition at a gun store or a department store, they should have to be finger printed and a undergo a back round check. After they pass, the government should give them an ID card. This way we could keep the ammunition out of the wrong hands. I am sure some people wont care for this law, but it just may save some lives. Gerald Yamin, Pikesville Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

What a perverse country we live in. We spend $2 billion on an election where people in this country actually think we are better off with a huge percentage of our population not having health care. Mental health issues are swept under the rug and underfunded and people who make over a million dollars a year in income assert they cannot afford to pay higher taxes. We argue whether or not gay marriage is acceptable and people spend millions still arguing where our president was born - not to mention the plethora of social and religious issues that rip our nation apart and waste our collective time and energy while therealissues that cripple our great country are never discussed due to a fear that campaign donors' checkbooks will close.

Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz and Police Chief Jim Johnson on Monday called on state and federal lawmakers to strengthen laws on background checks for gun buyers and stop the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in the wake of the Connecticut school mass shooting that left 28 dead. "This is not the time to be timid," Kamenetz said at a news conference, reading from an open letter he wrote to Maryland's state and federal elected officials. "We cannot sit by and do nothing.

We are living in an historic era ("Re-elected," Nov. 7). We have read about the fall of other once great civilizations like the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians. Now, we actually get to live it. We will see America, a once great country, become a government-controlled, third world socialist state. No shots will be fired, no army will invade. It will all happen from within. Unemployment, health care costs, and entitlement living will all increase. Civil unrest, demonstrations, and riots will be widespread.

Stanley Plummer Earp, a retired Aberdeen Proving Ground ammunition expert, died of pneumonia Jan. 11 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The longtime Towson resident was 84. Mr. Earp was born in Baltimore and raised on Dixie Drive in Towson. He was a 1941 graduate of Towson High School and joined the Navy in 1943. He served in the Pacific theater as a gunner on a PBY Catalina flying boat. After the war, he briefly attended the College of Wooster in Ohio, then went to sea after joining the U.S. merchant marine.

An article in The Sun yesterday incorrectly reported Sen. Janice Piccinini's vote on a 1991 bill requiring gun owners to secure their weapons so that children can't use them. Senator Piccinini voted for the bill.ANNAPOLIS -- Imagine turning your shotgun into a three-second flamethrower that can spew a 4,000-degree fireball to 300 feet.Heck, why just imagine?For $16.95 per three-round pack, anyone can purchase Dragon's Breath -- a registered trademark -- from the South Carolina-based Blammo Ammo Co.If you're worried about damage from the 12-gauge ammunition, an advertisement for it in Shotgun News last year claims it "blows a load of exotic, fast-burning, high temperature metals.

Baltimore police have charged three people - a Pikesville woman and two men already in federal custody - with the 2009 homicide of a man who was kidnapped and held for ransom, and later found dead in the Patapsco River. Among those charged is Darryl Nichols, 37, who has been tied to the case since the first day Eric Pendergrass went missing and was convicted on ammunition charges related to search warrants executed during the investigation. Pendergrass had been abducted Feb. 1, 2009, and called his girlfriend and said she needed to retrieve a bundle of money from a closet in her home and give it to a courier named “Darlene.” The girlfriend delivered the money to Pendergrass' mother's home in Northwest Baltimore, where a woman who identified herself as “Darlene” took the money and climbed into a silver-colored Cadillac STS. Witnesses recorded the license plate number, and police discovered that the vehicle was registered to Nichols.

Sitting there in an Arapahoe County District Court room with his bright orange-red hair, his eyes downcast and manner withdrawn, James Eagan Holmes didn't have much to say in his first court appearance Monday morning. There was precious little to reveal what could possibly have caused the 24-year-old graduate student in neuroscience to kill a dozen people and wound 58 others in a crowded Colorado movie theater last week, as police allege. There is no rational justification for such behavior, of course, and even knowing whether it was the result of delusion or sickness, madness or uncontrollable rage probably won't produce much comfort for the victims, their families or their fellow Americans.