A proposed hotel workers' union contract will give staffers panic buttons so "they can quickly and easily activate to effectively summon prompt assistance to their location." And here's a non-DSK reason why it seems like a good idea: Apparently a Midtown hotel guest from Ohio was arrested after allegedly trying to "hug" room service waitresses, who spotted guns in the room. more ›

A Tennessee state representative with the friendly name Frank Niceley is upset that New York City takes its gun laws seriously. He's so upset, he's writing resolutions about it! In the wake of the incident involving a woman who brought her loaded gun to the 9/11 Memorial, Niceley has gone and introduced a resolution in his state that gently threatens New Yorkers driving there. But only gently! more ›

Who believes that carrying a firearm into iconic, highly secured New York landmarks is a good idea? Metal detectors are designed to expose weapons, not belt buckles, yet clueless tourists keep getting hauled into court for packing heat at the Empire State Building. Now some Marines are claiming that Indiana native Ryan Jerome, himself a Marine who was arrested for trying to check his .45 Ruger with authorities in September, is more equal than others who have made the same mistake. more ›

Last month, Californian lawyer and influential Tea Party leader Mark Meckler was arrested for trying to board a plane at LaGuardia Airport with a handgun and ammunition. This week, Meckler pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct (reduced from felony criminal possession of a concealed weapon), but he wasn't too happy about it. He made his displeasure known in a long entry on his website, in which he railed against "NYC’s unconstitutional or tyrannical behavior:" "Until you have felt the handcuffs on your wrists, and until you have heard that cell door close behind you, it is impossible to understand what it means to actually lose your liberty." more ›

Nevermind those pesky strip searches—people still like to bring guns on planes, goshdarnit. The TSA has found 1,238 firearms, or roughly four a day, at airport checkpoints last year. It's unclear whether that figure includes the many, many stun guns that seem to keep popping up around New York, but either way—that's a lot! more ›

Leave the machine gun at home! Along with the 9/11 Memorial you know another great place to not bring your loaded weapon? The subway. Especially if your weapon is a loaded Intratec Luger Tec-9 machine gun with extra ammunition—unless, it seems you've decided to try and skip the fare at Times Square. In that case just do make sure you get caught, okay? more ›

Tomorrow night is New Year's Eve and though the town seems empty now, New York City, and Times Square especially, will soon be filled with celebrating folks. So naturally, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly wants people to remember to please, not fire their firearms into the sky to celebrate 2012. "Obviously, we urge people not to do that. The bullets come down and hit people," he told reporters Thursday. Guns aren't firecrackers! more ›

On December 22, 39-year-old Tennesseean Meredith Graves brought her loaded .38 pistol in her purse to the 9/11 Memorial and, after she asked a guard if there was a place she could check it, was promptly arrested. She posted bail on Wednesday and yesterday at least one local pol started pushing for lenience (she faces a minimum sentence of 3 1/2 years on a single felony weapons-possession charge) since her gun was properly registered in her home state. Also, police say that besides the gun Graves, a fourth-year medical student, had "two envelopes of what they suspected to be cocaine" in her purse. more ›

Cops in the Bronx got a break last night after a 16-year-old chose to shoot a 19-year-old man multiple times early this morning directly outside of a police precinct. The shots were fired just after 1:25 a.m., according to the NYPD, and the perp was nabbed soon after. more ›

Pro tip: You need to be licensed by the State of New York if you're in possession of a handgun. Just another way the guv'ment CONTROLS real patriots like Mark Meckler, a lawyer from California who is an influential Tea Party leader. Meckler has a gun permit in California, but unfortunately for him, LaGuardia Airport is in Queens, New York. And so when he went up to the Delta Airlines ticketing agent yesterday and tried to check his semi-automatic handgun and ammunition, that raised a red flag. See, this is why the federal government should just take over gun licensing and make gun owners buy a nationwide permit! more ›

The laws governing private gun sellers' online transactions are alarmingly lax. For one thing, there's no background check required—unless the seller has reason to believe the potential buyer might not pass a background check. But an investigation coordinated by Mayor Bloomberg found that in many cases, gun sellers will unload firearms to shady buyers anyway. Investigators called up 125 private online gun sellers located in 14 states, and found that 62 percent of them were willing to commit a felony by selling to an undercover investigator who freely admitted he could not pass a background check. And in most cases, they had a good laugh while doing so; check out the video: more ›

Three people were killed and another was injured in separate shootings in the Bronx and Queens last night—and that included one of NYC's top tax cops. Police found 42-year-old Tracey Young shot in the torso and head in her Briarwood home at around 11 p.m. According to the Post, she lived with her husband, former 32nd precinct cop Clarence Cash, who later turned himself in and remains in custody at the 107th precinct. “She was an incredible investigator—one of the top 10 in New York State. She made so many cases,” the assistant director of investigations for the department told the Post. more ›

Should a man who is legally blind and has accidentally shot himself in the shin be able to own firearms? Prosecutors in Morris County New Jersey are moving to revoke the gun rights of Steven Holper, who has been blind for most of his adult life. But they can't legally take away his weapons because he can't see, so according to the Times, authorities are attempting to use a 2003 disorderly conduct conviction to prove that Holper is an alcoholic, and therefore shouldn't be permitted to possess a firearm. Justice may be blind, but is she also a little tipsy? more ›

According to recently released data [pdf], shootings that involved the NYPD were at an all-time-low in 2010, with officers firing their weapons 92 times total, killing 8 and wounding 16. It's the lowest amount of shootings since the department began keeping the numbers in 1971. "The improvement is due to police training, restraint, and our success in reducing crime over all," Commissioner Ray Kelly told NY1. To put the numbers in perspective, 40 years ago, shootings involving the NYPD killed 93 people and injured 221 others. more ›

Nineteen alleged members of the “Goodfellas” gang in Harlem have been arrested for smuggling guns and stashing them in every conceivable place they could find, including gutters, mailboxes, roofs, and under stoops. All 19 were charged with conspiracy, and some were also charged with weapons possession, firearms trafficking and attempted murder. “With today’s law enforcement action, we believe we have dismantled one of Central Harlem’s most violent and destructive street gangs,” said Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. more ›

Mayor Bloomberg is donating $25,000 apiece to six Democratic Virginia State Senate candidates to ensure that the party maintains control of the Senate and opposes weakening Virginia's already-lax gun laws. Five of them are from Northern Virginia (or "NoVa," for those who have survived it) and the sixth is in the Hampton Roads area. Virginia Republicans are pushing to loosen gun regulations, including the one gun per month restriction currently on the books. Virginia is New York's number one source of illegal handguns. more ›

One of the unintended consequences of kicking people out of their homes that they bought with subprime mortgages is that it makes the community less safe. There are so many empty homes that the federal government is considering renting them out. This couldn't happen soon enough in Jamaica Queens, where many vacant homes are rife with drugs, prostitution, and gang members. "They're becoming a magnet for criminal activity," the commanding officer of the 113th Precinct tells the Times. "They hang out in these abandoned homes that may be foreclosed, or the owners walked away. Every day we respond to something of that effect." more ›

Oh sure, everything's dandy when life is all guns, unsubtle threats and major pwnage...at least until Mom gets home. In the video below, one would-be gangster videotapes a response to some folks from New Jersey whom he says have greatly disrespected him and his widely-known "hardness." And then he does something that is very un-P. Diddyish. more ›

The Reverend Al Sharpton has vowed to find out who killed 56-year-old Denise Gay, an innocent bystander who was shot and killed in a fierce Crown Heights shootout on Labor Day. "We don't know where the bullet was from," Sharpton said as he stood with the Gay family on Friday, "We know where it wasn't from—the guy at the shootout. We will not give up until we find out what happened to Denise." more ›

The violence that Mayor Bloomberg mentioned yesterday—25 shot in one day—grew as another six people were shot in Brooklyn by this morning. The Post reports, "Police sources believe the three shootings this morning are connected to the pre-dawn festivities leading up to today's West Indian Day parade." more ›

A teen was arrested this week in the stray-bullet shooting of a young Bronx mom—and police say that the fatal accident occurred because of a petty argument over line-cutting. Jeffry Ramirez, 19, confessed to mistakenly shooting 24-year-old mom Yaritza Pacheco at a bodega on E. 174th Street early Sunday morning. And it all started because one of Ramirez's friends cut in line of another man: "The guy went and got more people with guns...I went home and got a gun," Ramirez told cops of the incident. more ›

After conducting stings in Arizona that proved how easy it was to obtain firearms illegally, the mayor is again pressing the issue with a new ad campaign. Mayor Bloomberg's coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has released a new TV spot that features Al Qaeda's American-born operative Adam Gadahn extolling the virtues of America's gun show loophole, saying "America is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms…So what are you waiting for?" more ›

A Bronx teen has been hospitalized after she confronted two men shooting guns in the air outside a party, and one of the gunmen shot her in the head. Yvette Marie Torres, 15, was at a party in Fordham Heights on Saturday night when a fight spilled out into the street; she approached the men and asked why they were wantonly shooting into the air. "She didn't know this kid. She turned around and he shot her in the back of the head. It was a sucker move," said her brother Jonathan Dimentel. more ›

An 8-year-old boy took a loaded 9mm pistol to his school in Flushing yesterday and sold it to a third-grade classmate. The deal went down at P.S. 107, and sources tell the Post the gun had its serial numbers scratched off. Everything about the transaction went swimmingly until the buyer, age 9, went home and bragged about the amazing deal to his mother. He reportedly paid just $3 for it! What is going on with the NYC school system; don't they teach kids basic economics anymore? more ›

Republicans love to skewer President Obama about his need for a teleprompter—after all, why would a politician ever want things to go as scripted? It was in this spirit that Dudley Do-Right chinned star of American Dad Brooklyn/Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm cast aside pre-approved questions for the real thing at a town hall meeting for constituents yesterday. Shockingly, as the Wall Street Journal reports, it devolved into a wall of "cheers and boos," with Grimm threatening two women with being "escorted out." more ›

Mayor Bloomberg is no fan of guns, but two gun advocacy groups are accusing him of violating the Second Amendment by making guns cost prohibitive in this town. In a lawsuit filed against the city (below) the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association and the Second Amendment Foundation say that the $340 fee for issuance or renewal of a 3-year “Residence Premises” handgun license is "excessive and is not used to defray administrative costs, and hence, it impermissibly burdens the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms." But Bloomberg already said he'd fix everything! more ›

Former Giants star receiver Plaxico Burress has been lifting weights and getting existential in prison ever since he mistakenly shot himself in the thigh at a nightclub in Nov. 2008. But finally, he can see the light at the end of the tunnel: Burress is due to be released from prison three months early, in June. And just in time for the NFL lockout! more ›