Northwest Indiana Discussion

(AP) — A second Connecticut town has decided to place armed guards in all its public schools in response to the killings of 20 students and six educators in Newtown.

The Board of Education in Enfield, about 20 miles north of Hartford, voted 5-4 Tuesday night in favor of stationing armed guards at all 11 public schools in town and implementing a series of other security measures beginning next fall. North Branford’s school board approved armed guards in all schools in January.

“We want to throw as many hurdles as we can before an armed gunman can get into a building,” Enfield police Chief Carl Sferrazza said Wednesday. “We refuse in Enfield to accept any casualties in our schools.”

Cities and towns across the country have been debating whether to arm educators or hire armed security guards after the December massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

In February, the school board in Colorado’s Dolores County voted to allow the school superintendent and a high school principal to double as armed security officers. In New Jersey, Passaic Valley High School’s board of education voted unanimously last month to allow the school’s principal, a retired police sergeant, to carry a concealed weapon during the school day.

(NBC Miami) — A father who was robbed while eating with his family took out his own gun and shot the suspect, Miami Police said.

It happened at about 1 p.m. Friday at the Burger King restaurant at Biscayne Boulevard and Northeast 17th Street, police said.

The robber walked in, flashed his gun to the family, demanded their valuables, then headed for the door, according to police.

The father, fearing for his life, took out his gun and shot the suspect in the leg as he stood outside the restaurant, police said.

The suspect, 36-year-old Travis Harris, jumped into a getaway Ford F-150 and took off, police said.

Police said they found him and the driver, 38-year-old Ramon Smalls, a few blocks away thanks to a Good Samaritan who followed them and alerted police. The two suspects were taken into custody at a gas station at Northeast 2nd Avenue and 26th Street after they apparently ran out of fuel, police added.

The Burger King incident followed an earlier incident in which the duo teamed up to rob a young woman of her iPhone 4S at 2200 NE 4th Ave. at about 10:15 a.m., with Smalls driving the truck as they fled, police said. Her phone was later found inside the truck, police added.

Harris was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma to be treated for his gunshot wound, and faces three counts of armed robbery with a firearm, police said.

Smalls faces one count of strongarm robbery for the morning incident, and possible pending charges for the afternoon incident, police said.

President Obama insisted Monday that his push for gun control legislation is about preventing future tragedies, not securing a political victory.

“Some in the press suggest that what happens to gun violence legislation in Congress this week will be a political victory or defeat for me,” Obama said, according to excerpts of an address he is to make in Hartford, Conn.

“You know what? This isn’t about me. And it shouldn’t be about politics. This is about doing the right thing for families like yours that have been torn apart by gun violence, and families going forward,” he said.

Speaking just an hour from the site of the elementary school shooting that left 20 schoolchildren and six educators dead, Obama said the country could not “walk away from the promises we’ve made.”

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — With time running out on the chance to pass gun control legislation, President Barack Obama on Monday warned Congress not to use delaying tactics against tighter regulations and told families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims that he’s “determined as ever” to honor their children with tougher laws.

Obama’s gun control proposals have run into resistance on Capitol Hill, leaving their fate in doubt. Efforts by Senate Democrats to reach compromise with Republicans over expanding required federal background checks have yet to yield an agreement, and conservatives were promising to try blocking the Senate from even beginning debate on gun control legislation.

“The day Newtown happened was the toughest day of my presidency,” Obama said in an emotional speech from Connecticut’s capital, an hour’s drive from Newtown. “But I’ve got to tell you, if we don’t respond to this, that’ll be a tough day for me too.”

the meaning of ironic

FLINT, MI — An 80-year-old Flint man fired two shots at five male teenagers attempting to rob him Thursday, April 11 in the driveway of his Helber Street home.

The homeowner called police around 9:45 p.m. to the home and told officers he’d fired two shots at the suspects, who had guns, in self defense, according to a police report.

All the suspects fled eastbound from the home towards Ballenger Highway. The homeowner thought he may have shot one of the suspects, but no shooting victim was found by police.

The investigative bureau was called to the scene for evidence collection and photographs. No arrests have been made in the case.

The Senate on Wednesday defeated an amendment, introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), that would have reinstated a federal assault weapons ban. The bill failed by a 40 to 60 vote, falling short of the 60-vote threshold to overcome a filibuster.