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Police: Death toll reaches 17 in Germany school shooting
STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Police say a girl seriously injured in a school shooting near Stuttgart has died of her wounds in the hospital, bringing the death toll to 17, including the gunman.
Police say 17-year-old Tim K., a former student who graduated from the Albertville high school last year, opened fire in two classrooms early Wednesday morning before fleeing.
He hijacked a car, triggering a manhunt, and was found in a nearby town where he was confronted by police and killed in the ensuing shootout.
The death toll brings the killing on par with Germany's worst school shooting ever, when a 19-year-old killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer and himself in Erfurt in 2002.
A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black opened fire at his former high school in southwestern Germany on Wednesday then fled in a hijacked car, killing at least 15 people before police shot him to death, state officials said.
The gunman entered the school in Winnenden and opened fire, shooting at random, police said. He killed nine students, three teachers and a passerby outside the building, officials said.
"He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath," said regional police chief Erwin Hetger. "I've never seen anything like this in my life."
Triggering a land and air manhunt, he hijacked a car, freed the passengers and drove about 25 miles before police found him. When confronted, he killed two bystanders in a shootout with police before he was slain, Baden Wuerttemburg governor Guenther Oettinger said. Two officers were seriously injured, but there was no immediate information on other casualties.
Four hours after the shootings began, police announced the teenager's death.
It was the nation's worst shooting since another teenage gunman killed 16 people and himself in another high school in 2002.
Concerned parents quickly swarmed the school, which was evacuated.
Police have have identified the gunman only as Tim K, who graduated last year from the school of about 1,000 students.
The German government was "deeply shocked and incensed about the appalling killing spree," Ulrich Wilhelm, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin.
In 2002, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany.
Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor's note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-03-11-germany-school-shooting_N.htm

Alabama Shooter Michael McLendon Was 'Quiet'
The gunman who turned a rural stretch of Alabama into a slaughterhouse was described repeatedly today as a "quiet " guy who didn't have much to say but who abruptly quit his meat plant job last week.
Michael McLendon, 27, of Kinston, Ala., worked at the Kelley Foods, a sausage manufacturer and food distributor in nearby Elba., Ala.
"Michael was employed from July 27, 2007, until he voluntary quit on Wednesday of last week," said Erik Ennis, a spokesman for Kelley Foods Inc.
Ennis declined to say whether McLendon, who killed 10 people Tuesday in a rampage that targeted members of his family as well as strangers, had given a reason for quitting his job.
According to Ennis, McLendon had worked in the store's manufacturing division and was a "reliable team member."
"Michael by nature was a quiet person that never had very much to say. He just did his job," said Ennis.
"He was liked by his co-workers and worked well with others," he added.
Cecil Knowles, who lives in Samson, Ala., said he graduated from Samson High School in 1999 beside McLendon, and also knew him to be reserved.
"He was always very quiet," said Knowles, who said that with only 36 students in the graduating senior class everyone was "close like a family."
"He was an A student and had no problems. He never got into any trouble," said Knowles. "He stuck to himself a lot of the time."
Knowles said that after graduation he "never heard from McLendon again" except from seeing him occasionally around town.
"I never would have expected [McLendon] to do anything like this," said Knowles. "I'm shocked."
A receptionist at Samson High School said she was being inundated by media requests and declined to answer questions about McLendon.
Neighbors told ABCNews.com that McLendon had also worked at the Reliable Metal Products Factory in Geneva, Ala., the same location where he ended his shooting spree – several years ago.
Investigators who have been following the 24-mile trail of death led by McLendon are still unsure as to what set the shooter off.
"He cleaned his family out," Coffee County coroner Robert Preachers said. "We don't know what triggered it."
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=7056936&page=1

After attacks, Europe hurries to tighten gun laws
HELSINKI – Several European countries have restricted gun laws in the wake of school massacres, gang violence and other gun-related crimes:
_Finland announced plans Wednesday to impose stricter restrictions on firearms, including raising the minimum age for handgun ownership from 15 to 20. The proposal was prompted by two school massacres within a year in which lone gunmen opened fire on classmates and teachers.
_Germany, where a gunman killed at least 11 people Wednesday, raised the legal age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21 following a 2002 shooting in Erfurt that killed 16 people, including 12 teachers.
_Belgian lawmakers passed strict new gun control laws in 2006 in reaction to the racially motivated shooting deaths of a toddler and her black baby sitter in Antwerp.
_Swiss citizens are demanding a referendum aimed at confining army weapons to military compounds and banning private purchases of pump-action rifles and automatic weapons — following a spate of suicides and homicides.
_The Portuguese Parliament is currently discussing a government proposal to tighten gun laws, including denying bail to anyone suspected of a gun crime.
_Denmark's government said last week it will raise the penalty for illegal gun possession as part of a crackdown on gang violence that has killed three people and injured 25 in recent months.
_European Union lawmakers proposed tighter gun control across the bloc last year, including guidelines saying that only people over 18 not deemed a threat to public safety could buy and keep guns. EU members have until 2010 to adopt the measures.
In addition, some U.S. states have recently tightened gun laws as well:
• Colorado, a year after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, made it a felony to buy a firearm for another person who should know the transaction is illegal, barred anyone from giving a firearm to a juvenile without the consent of the parents; made it illegal for a person not to try to prevent a juvenile from committing a gun crime; and increased the penalty for possession of a weapon by a felon.
But three years later, the state expanded gun rights instead, by requiring sheriffs to issue gun permits to people who pass a criminal background check, prohibiting local governments from making gun laws more restrictive than the state's, and abolishing local registries of gun owners.
• In Virginia, where a student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech in 2007 before committing suicide April 16, 2007, the governor signed an executive order requiring that anyone ordered by a court to get mental health treatment be added to a database of people barred from buying guns.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_gun_laws_1

Reducing gun violence by addressing heavy drinking and off-premise alcohol outlets
New research has found that heavy drinking and being near off-premise alcohol outlets, such as take-out establishments and delis, can increase the risk of gun violence.
Reducing the density of off-premise alcohol outlets, and better training of servers in these outlets, may help to reduce gun violence.
While inappropriate gun use certainly contributes to gun violence, other contributing factors, such as alcohol, deserve greater scrutiny. New research has found that heavy drinking near off-premise alcohol outlets, such as take-out establishments and delis, is a risk factor for being shot in an assault. The authors suggest that reducing the density of off-premise alcohol outlets and better training servers in these outlets may help to reduce gun violence.
Results will be published in the May issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
"Strategies to reduce gun violence often focus on the guns themselves," said Charles C. Branas, associate professor of epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania and corresponding author for the study. "While most Americans agree that gun violence is something we need to reduce, there is less certainty as to how we should intervene while striking a balance between gun owners' rights and public safety."
Yet the issue clearly needs to be addressed, according to Rose Cheney, executive director of the Firearm and Injury Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
"Firearm injury is a significant public health problem, in the US and globally," she said. "Annually, 100,000 Americans are killed or injured by firearms. Furthermore, families and communities are impacted by these interpersonal and self inflicted shootings; gun violence imposes an economic burden on individuals, businesses and communities far beyond the medical costs of treating injuries; and the brain sciences are beginning to identify how exposure to high levels of violence profoundly impacts many aspects of youth development."
Although there is no "single answer" on how to prevent gun violence, Cheney added, local communities need as much information and policy tools as possible in order to reduce risk. "Research findings such as these allow us to intervene earlier, more comprehensively interrupt pathways toward violence, and better document the impact of investments in prevention," she said. "In addition, while firearm homicides are most visible, focusing on the broader outcome of firearm injuries and their repercussions to individuals and communities will increase our chances of success."
Branas and his colleagues reviewed gun assault cases that occurred in the City of Philadelphia from 2003 to 2006: 677 cases of individuals shot during an assault, and 684 controls randomly sampled from the adult general population of Philadelphia. The relationships among individual alcohol consumption, alcohol outlets in the surrounding environment, and the outcome of being assaulted with a gun were then analyzed.
"This study found that the gun-assault risk to individuals who are near off-premise alcohol outlets was about the same as or statistically greater than the risk they incurred from heavy drinking," said Branas. "The combination of heavy drinking and being near off-premise outlets resulted in greater risk than either factor alone. Individuals in and around off-premise alcohol outlets were shot as the victims of predatory crimes, possibly because they had heavily consumed and were easier targets, or they were shot as the victims of otherwise tractable arguments that became violent because one or more of the combatants had consumed alcohol."
In contrast, he said, light drinking and being near on-premise alcohol outlets, such as bars and taverns, were not associated with increased risks for gun assault. "On-premise outlets were by comparison highly monitored, relatively safe havens, even in neighborhoods with high levels of gun violence," he said.
Cheney said that cities can use these findings to create interventions on at least three levels. "One, reduce risks associated with take-away alcohol outlets – such as their physical design, hours, service limits, or staff training – through a number of mechanisms, including zoning, ordinances, education, training, inspections and taxes," she noted. "Two, target enforcement to these high-risk hot spots and toward public drunkenness. And three, target individual interventions to reduce alcoholism, gun carrying or conflict-related behaviors by persons with a history of public drunkenness."
Branas agreed, and also suggested that off-premise alcohol outlets begin to function more like their on-premise counterparts in some aspects. "For example, training off-premise servers to cut off heavy drinkers as well as promptly report the outbreak of arguments to police could be effective gun-violence reduction strategies," he said.
At an individual level, Cheney recommended that people become more aware of not only the personal risk and responsibilities of heavy drinking and gun ownership, but also the risks of simply navigating near risky establishments such as off-premise alcohol outlets. "People can monitor and respond to high-risk establishments and behaviors in their neighborhoods and, furthermore, collect data that can be used to help improve local quality of life, and advocate for change that lowers both environmental and individual risks," she said.
Branas added that this study was designed to represent the entire city of Philadelphia, and be informative for US cities in general. "Perhaps strategies to reduce gun violence that focus on the involvement of alcohol are less politically volatile and as such may be more readily implemented with similar returns," he said.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/ace-rgv030309.php

So this ish how the news defines arsenal?
Church shooting suspect had arsenal in bedroom
March 11, 2009 - 5:01am
ST. LOUIS (AP) - A man accused of running down and shooting an Illinois pastor to death mid-sermon left an arsenal of guns in his bedroom as well as an index card marked "Last Day Will."
The arsenal in accused gunman Terry Sedlacek's room included two 12-gauge shotguns, a rifle and a box of 550 .22-caliber bullets, according to court documents filed Tuesday.The inventory of items seized from Sedlacek's Troy, Ill., home also lists the "Last Day Will" index card but does not detail what else was written on it. Sedlacek's day planner also singled out Sunday as "death day," prosecutor William Mudge has said.
Authorities have said Sedlacek, 27, fired four times from a .45-caliber Glock handgun, hitting the Rev. Fred Winters once with a bullet that ripped through the preacher's heart before he collapsed and bled to death Sunday at First Baptist Church in Maryville, Ill.
Authorities said Sedlacek also brought to the church enough ammunition to perhaps kill 30 people.
Sedlacek is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated battery, the latter charges related to his alleged wounding with a knife of two congregants who wrestled him to the ground and subdued him after the shooting.
Sedlacek remained in serious condition Tuesday in a St. Louis hospital with self-inflicted stab wounds to the throat. One of the injured congregants, Terry Bullard, was upgraded to fair condition.
Investigators say they still haven't pinpointed why Sedlacek allegedly strolled into the church during its early Sunday service, packing a pistol and 30 bullets _ 10 in each of the three magazines he brought along.
A new affidavit by Illinois State Police detective James Walker said Sedlacek entered the sanctuary and walked down an aisle to the front of the church toward Winters, 45, who addressed him.
Walker wrote that Sedlacek then fired at Winters; investigators have said the first bullet clipped the top of the Bible the preacher held, sending pieces of it spraying like confetti and appearing to many of the roughly 150 onlookers to be part of a skit.
Winters then bolted toward the edge of the stage with Sedlacek running parallel to him, Walker wrote.
"Pastor Winters then jumped from the stage where he landed on the ground. Sedlacek then placed himself next to the pastor and fired multiple shots, striking Winters," Walker's affidavit read.
Investigators have said Sedlacek fired four rounds altogether before his gun jammed. After chasing and mortally wounding Winters, Walker wrote, Sedlacek tried to flee but was subdued by Bullard and Keith Melton.
"The way I feel in my heart is my pastor needed help and I had to help. I can't relate that back to anything. That's just how I feel about it," Melton said. "I've been in car accidents before where it seems like it's slow motion. But this was over so fast, it's harder to make sense of it."
It remains unclear whether Sedlacek even knew Winters, a married father of two who led First Baptist Church for nearly 22 years.
Authorities have not revealed the verbal exchange between the gunman and Winters, who was wearing a body microphone. Mudge, Madison County's state's attorney, has listened to the audio recording but won't publicly discuss it, his spokeswoman Stephanee Smith said Tuesday.
Smith also said Sedlacek has previously been issued a firearm owner's identification card, though Illinois State Police spokesman Scott Compton said Sedlacek did not have a valid one.
Sedlacek attended Southwestern Illinois College in Granite City from August of 2006 until May of 2008, pursuing an associate's degree in computer information systems, but never graduated, registration clerk Julie Boeschen said Tuesday.
Calls to the home he shared with his mother and stepfather went unanswered Tuesday, as have repeated visits to the house since the shooting.
Sedlacek's attorney, Ron Slemer, has told the Belleville News-Democrat that his client's family is "very sorry for the pastor's congregation." Slemer also has said Sedlacek has deteriorated both mentally and physically since contracting Lyme disease.
The attorney has not returned numerous messages left by The Associated Press at his home and office.
First Baptist: http://www.fbmaryville.org
http://wtop.com/?nid=104&sid=1307170

Woman claims gun denied in D.C. because of color
March 10, 2009 - 4:11pm
WASHINGTON - A D.C. woman has sued the city, claiming officials would not let her register a handgun because of its color.
According to the suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Tracey Hanson tried to register a two-tone, stainless steel and black pistol. But the .45-caliber semiautomatic was denied because it doesn't appear on the California Safe Handgun Roster. The roster only lists that model in olive drab green, dark earth or black.
The lawsuit was filed by Alan Gura, who argued the Supreme Court case that overturned D.C.'s handgun ban. The suit, which also lists two other plaintiffs, asks that D.C. be prohibited from enforcing gun regulations based on the California list.
City officials said they had not seen the lawsuit and could not discuss it.
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=458.0