Machine Guns

The Supreme Court has made it clear that the "right of the people to keep and bear arms" is strictly limited in this country, despite the National Rifle Association's interpretation of the Second Amendment to the contrary. The jurisprudence on this issue is so settled that the Supreme Court did not even feel the need to explain itself. It has approved without comment a 1986 law aimed at capping the number of machine guns in circulation by banning the manufacture, sale and ownership of new ones.

W. Kennedy Cromwell III, a retired foreign service officer who spent the majority of his 32-year career in Africa, died Dec. 13 from complications of a stroke at the Fairhaven retirement community in Sykesville. The former Washington and Annapolis resident was 88. The son of a stockbroker and a homemaker, William Kennedy Cromwell III — he never used his first name, family members said — was born in Baltimore and raised on Brightside Road in Ruxton. He was also descended from Oliver Cromwell, the English political figure who was lord protector of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland from 1653 to 1658.

A federal grand jury has indicted the owner of a Cecil County hunting shop and two other men on charges of conspiring to sell four machine guns to an undercover agent.The grand jury in U.S. District Court in Baltimore handed up a nine-count indictment against James G. Hardesty, 54, who owns Tri-State Black Powder and Hunting Supplies in North East.Edward G. Miller, 33, of Elkton was charged in three counts of the indictment with conspiracy and unlawful transfer of machine guns, and Terry L. Caron, 33, of North East was charged in two counts.

Bombs falling on Arab neighborhoods ... Homes demolished ... Civilians killed or wounded ... Soldiers shooting at anything that moves. That may sound like a description of the past week's violence between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza. But in fact, it comes from the letters and diary of a Baltimore teacher who volunteered to spend a year at a Quaker school in British-ruled Palestine in 1938-1939, only to find herself in the middle of a war between Arab terrorists and the British army.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court gave its implied blessing yesterday to Congress' power to ban private individuals from having guns -- starting with machine guns.In a brief order, the court left intact a lower court ruling giving the broadest possible interpretation to a 1986 law against the private ownership of machine guns.Congress, according to the lower court, had intended that law to wipe out the private possession of machine guns unless the owner had the weapon before the day that law went into effect: May 19, 1986.

Robert R. Shiflett's lifelong passion for guns could soon trigger a ban on firing automatic weapons in Baltimore County. The owner of a gun shop called Christian Soldier, Shiflett bought 16 hilly acres in northern Baltimore County last year and hopes to build a home there. For now, the land serves occasionally as a private firing range. Shiflett says he has shot there three times since August. But neighbors are outraged that his firearm of choice appears to be a machine gun. Stray bullets, they contend, have dented a car, broken a window of a nearby home and are endangering children.

A Carroll County man who helped police break up an unrealized murder plot by purported cultists in 2001 now faces charges, after state investigators said they found 17 unregistered machine guns at his home -- including two loaded machine guns found next to a sleeping 12-year-old girl. State police announced yesterday that Amir H. Tabassi, 55, of the 5400 block of Ridge Road in Mount Airy was arrested on three misdemeanor charges: possession of an unregistered machine gun, allowing an unsupervised minor access to a loaded firearm and carrying a loaded firearm.

WASHINGTON -- As federal investigators in North Carolina sift through stolen Marine munitions that include dozens of hand grenades and more than 40 pounds of plastic explosive, a government report released yesterday said such weapons "continue to be vulnerable" to insider theft in the military.Weapons and explosives that filled five 27-foot trucks were seized last week by federal agents in North Carolina and Virginia. The haul included more than 100 machine guns and at least 50 crates of small-arms ammunition, said investigators who, speaking on condition of anonymity, offered the most detailed accounting of the seizures.

They are using machine guns to decide who runs Georgia. Don't worry, it's the other Georgia.Mario Cuomo gave George Bush everything he wanted for Christmas.

Two South Baltimore men pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to transferring and conspiring to transfer 12 converted machine guns and a pipe bomb, said Lynne A. Battaglia, U.S. attorney for Maryland.Sentencing for Arthur Nelson Reid, 26, and David Daniel Granger, 25, both of the 3700 block of Everett St. in Brooklyn, was scheduled Feb. 6, Battaglia said.She said conspirators Frankie Lee Lebon, 24, of the 1600 block of Light St., and Alonzo Carle IV, 22, of Old Colony Drive in Upper Marlboro, Prince George's County, pleaded guilty earlier and are awaiting sentencing.

When the biggest rap tour of the season stops by 1st Mariner Arena on Saturday, opening act Machine Gun Kelly will provide a stark contrast to the flashy, dipped-in-gold Maybach Music Group trio of Wale, Meek Mill and headliner Rick Ross. While the MMG clique presents a cool, almost icy demeanor in its songs, the 22-year-old Cleveland rapper, born Richard Colson Baker, takes the opposite approach, fearlessly spitting double-time flows in the face of the audience. When his rapid-fire delivery fails to spark the crowd, MGK keeps a battering ram of a single in his back pocket.

On Christmas Day during the Battle of the Bulge, Paul J. Wiedorfer charged 150 yards across a snow- and ice-covered field under intense enemy fire, single-handedly knocked out two German machine gun nests and took 24 prisoners. His spectacular feat earned him the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor. "Suddenly something popped into my mind. Something had to be done, and someone had to do it. And I just did it. I can't tell you why," Mr. Wiedorfer recalled in a 2008 interview with The Baltimore Sun. Mr. Wiedorfer died Wednesday of heart failure at Loch Raven Community Living and Rehabilitation Center.

Police officers serving an arrest warrant on a Hampden man yesterday stumbled across several weapons and suspicious chemicals that prompted authorities to close a city block and evacuate several houses. The incident began about 7:45 a.m. when Howard County police officers, accompanied by city police, attempted to serve an arrest warrant charging a man with felony theft. The officers entered a rowhouse in the 3400 block of Roland Ave. and discovered items in the house that concerned them, according to a county police spokeswoman.

A federal judge in Baltimore yesterday brushed aside prosecutors' calls to impose a hefty prison sentence on an Indonesian arms dealer who attempted to send almost $1 million worth of American military-class weapons to a Sri Lankan rebel group. U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake instead imposed a prison term of slightly more than three years for Haji Subandi, describing the recommended guidelines calculated for the case - a prison term between 46 and 57 months - as "somewhat higher than necessary."

The other day, Ted Lingelbach, City College Class of '58, who edits the high school's alumni newsletter, contacted me. With Veterans Day coming up, he wanted to call my attention to the three City College graduates who were posthumously decorated with the Medal of Honor for heroism during World Wars I and II. Several years ago, a plaque to Henry G. Costin, Milton E. Ricketts and Isadore Jachman was unveiled outside the City College auditorium. Costin, who lived at 1041 Myrtle Ave., had gained fame playing football and baseball while a student at City College.

The FBI: A History Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones Yale University Press / 317pages/ $27.50 Detectives from the Division of Investigation of the United States Department of Justice cornered George "Machine Gun" Kelly in Memphis, Tennessee in July, 1933. "Don't shoot, G-men!," the gangster whimpered, as he threw down his gun and threw up his hands. A year later, brandishing this new nickname - and the latest Thompson machine guns - the government agents tracked down John Dillinger, whom they dubbed "Public Enemy Number One."

WASHINGTON --Documents captured from Iraqi insurgents indicate that some of the recent fatal attacks against U.S. helicopters are the result of a carefully planned strategy to focus on downing coalition aircraft, one that U.S. officials say has been carried out by mounting coordinated assaults with machine guns, rockets and surface-to-air missiles. The documents, which are said to have been drafted by al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, show that the militants were preparing to "concentrate on the air force."