Man suffers minor injury at annual machine gun sho

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Man suffers minor injury at annual machine gun shoot
By Associated Press, 7/21/2002 22:13
DOVER-FOXCROFT, Maine (AP) Lots of summer festivals have hot dogs, homemade ice cream and a kids' climbing wall. But how many have machine guns, dynamite and exploding cars?

The Hiram Maxim Military Shoot and Expo, which attracted thousands of gun enthusiasts to this Piscataquis County town over the weekend, had all of the above.

There was also an incident Saturday that marred the event. A shooter was struck in the arm by a brass bullet casing when his weapon misfired, the Bangor Daily News reported.

An immediate cease-fire was called to get medical attention for the man. He was hospitalized and released, according to a nurse on duty at nearby Mayo Regional Hospital.

''It shakes people up, but this was very minor,'' said organizer John Keene. ''While safety is a main concern, there is always that possibility.''

Meanwhile, the annual festival, which is named after the man who invented the machine gun and considered the largest of its kind on the East Coast, continued.

Staccato bursts of machine gun fire echoed as bullets reduced a van to a flaming shell on Saturday afternoon. Alex Burgdorf, an 11-year-old from Rockport, Mass., was wearing the required earplugs, but he still held his hands to his ears.

''The van got shot up pretty good,'' he said later.

Alex was happy to make the trip, even though his father wasn't quite ready to let pull him the trigger.

''It's just good to show them what they really can do,'' Dave Burgdorf said.

Event organizers gave participants explicit instructions on where, when and at what they could fire their weapons.

''Nobody's in the movies here; this is real life,'' one official told shooters before they took their places on the tightly controlled, roped-off firing line, instructing them to keep both hands on the weapon at all times.

Shooting may have been the main attraction, but many visitors also took time to browse in vendors' booths stocked with camouflage and military hardware.

The Burgdorfs' 9-year-old son Tom left the event with an empty ammunition box given to him by a collector.

Dave Burgdorf is an avid gun enthusiast, but he advised his son to fill the souvenir with something other than ammunition.

''Maybe you can put your bubble gum or baseball cards in it,'' he said.

On the Net:

www.bangornews.com http://www.boston.com/dailynews/202/region/Man_suffers_minor_injury_at_an:.shtml


"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

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'Impressive' shooter takes three golds

By RYAN CLARK
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer

Dallas Smith made his competition a family affair.

As his wife and daughter drank blue Kool-Aid and watched from the crowd at the Pinetucky Gun Club, Smith put on a performance that impressed the officials at the Georgia Games shooting competition Saturday. Smith, a native of Evans, took gold medals in both the smallbore kneeling and standing competition as well as the smallbore prone competition.

"I happened to see it, and it was very impressive," said Roy McClain, a shooting official. "It was a great tournament, but he really stood out."

Smith shot a 1,121 in the kneeling and standing competition, hitting 93.4 percent of his targets. In the prone, he hit 576 out of 600 -- 96 percent.

Other gold medalists were Alex Lin (174, Male Standard Pistol Class J3 and 183, Male Sport Pistol Class J3); Frank Moore (465, Male Standard Pistol Class M and 450, Male Center Fire Pistol Class M); Johnny Scott (550, Male Standard Pistol Class O); Wei Zhu (119, Female Sport Pistol Class J1); Kirk Ware (545, Male Center Fire Pistol Class O); Asa Coxwell (75, Male Skeet Class J1); Kyle Major (92, Male Skeet Class J2); Vincent Handcock (96, Male Skeet Class J3); Charles Schultz (98, Male Skeet Class M); Jimmy Tiller (94, Male Skeet Class O).

In Saturday's badminton competition, Atlanta natives Junjian Huang and Sanju Rai took home gold medals. Huang struck gold in the under-14 boys singles competition as well as the mixed doubles. Rai won gold in the under-19 boys singles.

Emily Masghapi also won gold, on her own in under-14 girls singles and with Huang in under-14 mixed doubles.

In Saturday's fencing competition, the Atlanta Fencers Academy boasted several medal-winning athletes.

Bruce Vail won golds in the mixed open epee and the under-20 mixed epee. Stuart Miller took gold in the under-14 mixed epee, Benjamin Mitchell won silver and Christopher Simpson took bronze. Daniel Miller took silver in the under-20 mixed epee, while John Nolan won bronze in the same competition. Darrel Fields took gold in the open final sabre and the mixed open sabre; Audrey Borroso took bronze. Borroso also took the golds in the women's sabre competition and the under-20 sabre.

http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/sports/0702/0721gagames.html



"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

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Factional fighting splits Zapata fair


BY TRICIA CORTEZ
Times staff writer

ZAPATA - There's a major tug-of-war going on at the Zapata County Fairgrounds long after the crowds have gone home.

Over the past 29 years, the Zapata County Fair has grown from a single livestock exposition tent to a costly event that draws thousands of visitors to the South Texas community of 13,000 and brings top name bands, such as Grammy Award winners Intocable.

Despite this nearly 30-year tradition, a faction of the Zapata County Fair Association splintered off and created a competing event, called the Zapata County Junior Livestock Exposition, held for the first time this February, a few weeks before the county fair.

Jorge Montes III, co-founder of the Expo, said that internal bickering and disagreements over the county fair's shifting priorities and the feeling of being snubbed and excluded forced him, brother Baldemar and Nico Gutierrez to break off and create their own fair.

The Expo was "very successful if you consider that we raised $72,300 for livestock projects for the kids. That's not bad for a first-time show," Montes said.

However, the resulting ill-will, negative publicity and lost revenue have caused the International Bank of Commerce and its president Renato Ramirez, two major sponsors, to declare that they will no longer support the county fair.

In 2002 alone, IBC contributed $15,000 to $20,000 to the county fair and many IBC volunteers manned the gates, ran the auction, planned the trail ride and handled the fairgrounds and other events. Ramirez, personally donated $30,000 to the event this past year and expressed outrage at the shortfall in turnout, which he attributed to the advent of Montes' Expo.

"Imagine if a group in Laredo attempted to have an Abraham Lincoln Celebration Organization to compete with the George Washington Birthday Celebration exactly 10 days prior to the WBCA activities. Imagine the school boards, the city council, the commissioners court supporting such an effort with the same funding level for each of the celebrations," Ramirez said.

"Both organizations would collapse," he said.

Zapata County Commissioner Pope Gonzalez, who sits on the ZCFA board, said the recent upheaval has caused four board members to submit resignations and forced the association to regroup and name new board members last week to prepare for next year's county fair.

Montes, however, gave further insight into why he felt compelled to break away and create the competing Junior Livestock Exposition, which is being organized by about 20 members.

The two Montes brothers and Gutierrez were part of the livestock committee of the Zapata County Fair Association for more than 20 years and were responsible for the livestock projects that kids raise before they show them off at the county fair and sell them at auction for scholarship money.

The livestock committee's duties include validating the projects, weighing the animals, awarding ribbons and trophies to winners and collecting final payment for each project after the sale. Projects include steers, sheep, goats, rabbits, hogs and other animals.

"We had been asking the association for some repairs to the grounds, and we wanted funds to expand the livestock shows. We also needed new bleachers and repairs to the portion of the auction ring where the grand champions are displayed. But, most times, our requests were denied," Montes said.

"Every year, the fair was making so much money, but we didn't see any of it," Montes said, adding that the focus of the fair had long been turning toward entertainment and expensive bands, rather than on livestock.

He added that nobody from the livestock committee was ever named to the ZCFA board, which shifted away from having ZCFA members elect board members. Instead, board members were the only ones who could name new board members.

Commissioner Gonzalez disagreed.

"It takes a lot of work and volunteer hours to put together one of these fairs. But here in Zapata, there are very few people who want to volunteer. The livestock committee never appointed any of their members to serve on the board and they never said anything about it," Gonzalez said.

Montes said he and others from the livestock committee "also didn't see eye to eye on the County Fair Queen contest. A lot of girls competing had never ever raised an animal project in their lives, and we felt that was wrong."

"We just wanted a little bit of input, so for the past five years, we had talked about breaking away from the fair and starting our own show. Even though our community is small, we felt we could do it," Montes said.

The upshot was that the livestock committee approached the board of directors of the ZCFA with certain "non-negotiable" demands," Ramirez of IBC said.

"They wanted to name the parade marshal, name the County Fair Queen, get 5 percent of the gate at the entertainment section of the fair, two seats on the board of the ZCFA and full absorption of expenses incurred in operating the livestock part of the fair in order to name the scholarship recipients," Ramirez said.

"We met them halfway but there were some things they would not agree to. They gave us an ultimatum, so we knew they would split," Commissioner Gonzalez said.

As a result of holding the two county fairs within three weeks of each other was a decline in $8,000 for the ZCFA from carnival rides since the Junior Livestock Exposition brought the carnival to Zapata three weeks earlier.

Ramirez of IBC said he places "the blame for the current situation squarely on the commissioners court, and specifically on the county judge," who approved the creation of a competing event.

The fact that it was a political season with the county judge, David Morales, and two commissioners, Norberto Garza and Angel Garza, up for re-election did not help matters either, Ramirez said, noting that the Montes and Gutierrez families have strong pull within some of the county's precincts.

Zapata County Judge David Morales did not return phone calls last week.

Commissioner N. Garza said he had "no comment," and Commissioner A. Garza said that extent of the commissioners court has in the matter is allowing both groups use of the county fairgrounds and awarding $7,000 to each from the hotel/motel tax fund for advertising.

Though he sits on the board of the ZCFA, Commissioner Gonzalez said he supports the idea of having two fairs, but would prefer staggering them so that they are six months apart.

"If the real purpose of the fairs is to raise money for the kids who have livestock projects, then we should have the fairs six months apart, so kids can present their summer animals at one fair and winter animals at the other," Gonzalez said.

Montes and Commissioner A. Garza disagreed.

"The commissioners court has no authority setting dates. We can't tell them when they should hold their fairs," A. Garza insisted.

Montes said that because of the growing season for animals, it would be very difficult to get animals to show in September.

"Plus, all fairs are basically scheduled to happen in early spring, and most start in February," he added.

Though some commissioners hope that both groups could re-join forces, Montes said "that is something very difficult to answer."

In the meantime, plans for the second annual Junior Livestock Exposition are under way.

"Because we had a lower turnout than expected this year, we will not concentrate on a parade or street dance. And we won't have any food booths, either. We will concentrate on the livestock show, the carnival, trail ride and dance where we crown the queen," Montes said.

(Staff writer Tricia Cortez can be reached at 728-2566 or tricia@lmtonline.com.) http://www.lmtonline.com/news/s3.htm



"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

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Police Beat: Edmond teen among top shooters at law enforcement conference
2002-07-21
By Ken Raymond
The Oklahoman


An Edmond teen-ager ranked among the top 20 shooters in a field of 100 at the National Explorer Law Enforcement Conference earlier this month.
Brian Tomasak, 17, was a standout among about 4,000 youths who attended the conference at Northern Arizona State University, ranking among the best marksmen.

He was one of nine competitors from the Oklahoma City area who spent July 8-12 at the university under the care of Oklahoma City police sponsors.

Master Sgt. Ed Onley, who heads the city police Explorers program, took Tomasak and others from Norman, Tuttle and Oklahoma City to the conference.

Until they got to the college, the youths didn't know which of 12 law enforcement events they would be competing in, Onley said, forcing them to prepare in advance for all of the events.

Ultimately, Onley's three-person teams were chosen to compete in white-collar crime, hostage negotiation, bomb threats and domestic violence, working fake cases as if they were law enforcement professionals.

Judges included FBI hostage negotiators, Drug Enforcement Administration representatives and Arizona highway patrolmen.

Funding for the trip was provided by the police association. No taxpayer dollars were used.

The Explorers are part of the Learning for Life division of the Boy Scouts of America. Participants can experience any number of careers, from crimefighting to broadcasting to clog dancing.

The program is coeducational and open to youths ages 14 to 21.

Those interested in participating may contact Kristy Goodpasture, district executive for the Last Frontier Council of the Boy Scouts, at 840-1114.

Child safety
New child identification kits are now available for free from the Oklahoma City police.

"In the past," Sgt. Charles Phillips said, "the kits that were utilized required parents to get their children's fingerprints taken by police at some organized function."

The new kits, however, include an ink pad so parents can obtain copies of their children's fingerprints without official supervision or help. Space also is provided for photographs, dental records and hair samples, which can be used at a later date for DNA profiling.

"What you have is a very comprehensive record in the event that your kids, God forbid, come up missing," Phillips said.

Police suggest storing the completed kits in air-tight bags in the freezer to maintain the integrity of the hair samples.

Kits are available at all city police briefing stations or by contacting the police community relations office at 297-1230.

Art lovers?
Police are searching for three suspects after a theft from a Thomas Kinkade Gallery.

On June 14, two women and a man entered the gallery at Quail Springs Mall and slipped out with a pair of paintings valued at $3,775.

Security guards pursued, and the thieves dropped the paintings on the ground and fled in an extended-cab pickup with Texas plates.

The art work was recovered, and soon "Moonlight Cottage" and "Lombard St., San Francisco" were back in the gallery.

However, store workers advised police that the suspects may have committed as many as four other thefts at Kinkade galleries.
http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=889702&TP=getarticle




"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878