Rifle

A 42-year-old man who was naked and wielding a rifle at a Lansdowne motel is in critical condition after Baltimore County police officers shot him early Wednesday, police said. Two officers responded to the Beltway Motel in the 3600 block of Washington Boulevard about 3:40 a.m. after a 911 call reported a naked man was shooting a rifle toward the outside of his second-floor room. When they arrived, the man came out of the room still armed with the rifle. When officers ordered him to drop the weapon, the man did not comply and began to walk toward the officers, police said.

It was such a short mention in Thursday's newspaper ("5-year-old accidentally kills sister with own rifle," May 2) that I thought it deserves more attention. Five-year old boy accidentally kills two-year old sister with own rifle! Then it goes on to say that parents bought the rifle as a present for the boy's 5th birthday recently. The NRA may have it right about the right to bear arms, and the Constitution doesn't say at what age. And there is no law that will ever protect us from stupidity.

A man with a rifle robbed a taxi driver of an undisclosed amount Sunday as he arrived to pick up a fare in the Warfield Townhouses community in Severn, county police said.Carl S. Davis, 42, told police he was called to the 8300 block of Flintlock Court about 10 p.m. for a fare. When he arrived, a man opened the rear passenger door, pointed a .22-caliber rifle at his head and demanded cash.Davis complied and the gunman asked if that was all the money. When Davis told him it was, the gunman fled.

I have several comments on the commentary written by Peter Morici ("The false security of gun-control measures," April 16). The common conclusion from gun rights advocates, one that has become quite wearisome, seems to be that if every shooting incident, injury, or death cannot be precluded by gun-control measures, then why even bother. This is a bankrupt argument. Were one to follow this philosophy to its (il)logical conclusion, one would stop brushing one's teeth upon the discovery of a cavity.

A 47-year-old Owings Mills man suffered injuries to his right hand when a powerful cartridge exploded as he jammed shut the bolt of a 1943 rifle at the Dug Hill Rod and Gun Club about noon yesterday.Ronald E. Cappelini of Tollgate Road was taken to the Raymond M. Curtis Hand Center at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore for treatment. His condition was listed as good to stable by a hospital spokesman, who said Mr. Cappelini was to be operated on last night.Tfc. John G. Carhart III said Mr. Cappelini had loaded a shell magazine into the model Moisen Nagant rifle and the top cartridge apparently became misaligned in the barrel of the weapon.

A man armed with a long-barreled rifle robbed a Pasadena bank branch Wednesday of an undisclosed amount of money, county police said.The robber walked into the Signet Bank branch in the 8000 block of Ritchie Highway about 11: 30 a.m., pulled out the rifle and walked into the bank manager's office.Police said the robber forced the manager out to a teller's counter, demanded that the teller put money into a canvas bag and threatened to shoot the teller if she did not comply.After he got the cash, the man fled west on Jumpers Hole Mall parking lot. Police did not have a detailed description of him.Pub Date: 3/21/97

A Western Maryland College freshman accused of taking a semiautomatic assault rifle onto campus has been expelled from the Westminster liberal arts college, the school confirmed yesterday. Glenn Wynn Robinson, 19, of Peach Bottom, Pa., was arrested Nov. 5 by Westminster police and charged with one count of possession of a regulated firearm by a person under age 21, police said. He was released on personal recognizance, police said. Robinson, who had told police that he was intending to shoot the rifle on his uncle's Maryland farm, had been suspended from the school until a hearing of the school's Honor and Conduct Board could be held.

Howard County police charged two Columbia men early Friday with threatening a Columbia man with a rifle at Allview Liquors in Dorsey's Search village.Warren Todd Epstein, 26, of the 12000 block of Little Patuxent Parkway and Mitchell Ian Weitzman, 27, of the 4900 block of Reedy Brook Lane were charged with first-degree assault and weapons violations.Christopher Ashley Turner, 20, was leaving the liquor store on Old Annapolis Road about 1 a.m. when two men drove a black Saturn near him, staring at him as he went to his car, charging documents show.

A man with a rifle walked into the 7-Eleven store in the 7600 block Woodbine Road, said nothing, and walked out with a handful of money about 2:15 a.m. Tuesday.State police said the night clerk of the convenience store reported that a young white male -- about 5 feet 8 inches tall, with blond hair and wearing a turtle neck sweater pulled up over his nose -- pointed the rifle at the employee and walked slowly toward the cash register.The clerk opened the register, took out the money and placed it on the counter, according to police reports.

County police arrested three Baltimore residents Monday night and charged them with reckless endangerment for shooting a rifle in the direction of Route 10 near Ferndale, police said.Officer Eric Gennett was on routine patrol at 8:30 p.m. when he heard several gunshots coming from an address in the 6700 block of Chesapeake Center Drive. He searched the area and found two men and a woman standing near a Ford Probe.He asked them about the shooting and noticed a rifle in a camouflage case, police said.

Fallston High School and Fallston Middle School were placed on lockdown Friday morning following a report of a suspicious person in the area. A caller from the neighborhood reported seeing someone who might be carrying a rifle, but a search of the area did not find anyone, Eddie Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office, said around 11:30 a.m. Parents of students at the neighboring schools on Carrs Mill Road were informed of...

A Parkville man allegedly seen carrying an antique firearm on an elementary school's property Monday afternoon has been charged with possessing a dangerous weapon on school grounds, according to Baltimore County Police. Robert Cleary, 30, walked across Villa Cresta Elementary School property on the 2600 block of Radar Avenue with a Civil War-era rifle at approximately 3:30 p.m. as students were being dismissed, police said. Investigators determined he was meeting a friend at the intersection of Ardmore Avenue and Radar Avenue to sell the weapon at a nearby pawn shop, where it was later recovered.

A man raised the suspicions of several people at Villa Cresta Elementary School in Parkville on Monday after reportedly walking the perimeter of the school's property at the time of dismissal with what one witness said appeared to be a shotgun, according to Baltimore County Police. Police later identified the man and determined that he was carrying an unloaded, antique rifle, said Elise Armacost, a police spokeswoman, in a news release Tuesday. Police are unsure whether the rifle was operable, and the investigation continues, she said.

I am writing to you to voice my opposition to Gov. Martin O'Malley's extremist gun bill ("O'Malley battling for gun controls," March 22). I oppose it in any and all forms. I was in Annapolis on Feb 6, March 1 and March 5, along with thousands of other lawful gun owners, to register and voice my opposition. There is no crisis of rifle violence in this state, only a crisis of fear driven by opportunistic legislators. The governor's claim that an overwhelming percentage of Marylanders support this bill is a lie. Over 1,300 people testified against this bill, and fewer than 40 were for it. Even a recent online poll in the left-leaning Sun showed that 95 percent of people thought that the AR-15 modern sporting rifle should be removed from the banned list.

Gov. Martin O'Malley and gun-control advocates launched an offensive Thursday to protect his proposed ban on assault-type weapons from a House committee's efforts to scale it back. "Military-style assault weapons belong on the battlefield, NOT on the streets of our cities and towns," said an email O'Malley's political action committee sent to gun-control supporters, urging them to lobby against efforts to exempt some guns used in recent mass shootings. "We need you to ACT NOW. " Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown, flanked by police chiefs and state's attorneys, held a news conference Thursday morning calling for lawmakers to pass the "common-sense, balanced approach" that has already been approved by the state Senate.

When Vice President Joe Biden invited the National Rifle Association to the White House the other day to join in the Obama administration's post-Newtown talks on ways to counter gun violence, it was like letting the fox into the chicken coop. The NRA sent an associate rather than its outspoken cheerleader, Wayne LaPierre, who famously first responded to the Newtown schoolroom mayhem by saying "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. " That was how he launched his plan for putting armed security guards in every school in the land.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- The Duke looks worried. He should be. The fretful expression on the 8-foot-high statue of John Wayne matches the somber mood these days at the U.S. Repeating Arms Co., where Wayne's larger-than-life figure stands watch in the lobby, his left hand clutching the company's most famous firearm - a Winchester rifle, the "gun that won the West." Unless frantic 11th-hour efforts to find a buyer for the factory bear fruit, the plant will shut down Friday. With that, an American legend with a history that stretches back more than 140 years will come to an end. And 186 employees, a shadow of the 19,000 who once filled the now-decaying Winchester factory complex here, will be out of jobs.

A Severn grandmother was arrested Monday night and charged with pointing a loaded .22-caliber rifle at her granddaughter and one of the younger woman's friends, county police said.Tammy Lorraine Plotts, 18, of the 8100 block of Spaulding Circle told police that when she and a friend returned home around 11:25 p.m., her grandmother was waiting at the top of the stairs, pointing a rifle at them, police said.Ms. Potts said her grandmother told her to get out, then motioned to her friend and said, "Come back and take this other one with you."

I feel compelled to respond to Christian Wilson's letter ("Quick-fix legislation won't solve our gun violence problem," Dec. 31). The author really made a compelling case for gun laws, the opposite of what he intended. He is correct that laws cannot keep everyone from doing violence. That is why dangerous weapons like assault rifles should not be readily available. Does anyone think that Adam Lanza would attack an elementary school with a hammer? If he did, there would probably be no one dead there.

The school shooting in Newtown, Conn., once again highlights the need for such sensible gun control measures as restoring the ban on assault rifles and eliminating the gun show loophole for background checks ("What must be done," Dec. 26). The key factor that distinguishes the U.S. from other countries that have far lower murder rates is not mental health or video games but the availability of guns. Beyond those steps, however, it's time to repeal the Second Amendment. The amendment states, "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.