Penny Dean and Your Rights

A small Nebraska gun shop has decided to buy its ink pens and post-it notes somewhere else after they said Staples rejected their entry into a marketing contest because they are in the firearms business.

Travis Vonseggern and Bill Jackson own Maple Creek Gunsmithing in Fremont, Neb. The store offers gunsmithing, guns, ammo, and firearms training.gunsmith

They recently entered the Staples PUSH It Forward Contest – hoping to win a $50,000 marketing campaign for their small business. But a few days later, the men received a rejection email:

<img src="http://libertycrier.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Gun-protestor-350x250... align="right">The ten states given the highest ratings by the Brady Campaign for having the most stringent gun control legislation have about triple the amount of gun deaths compared to the ten states that have the least restrictive gun legislation, according to data compiled by the Examiner.

<img src="http://coxrare.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/073c20c74c7688f153bd1f96515c1... align="right">The sign on the federal courthouse in Detroit reads plain and simple: No weapons allowed.

U.S. Rep. John Conyers’ office manager broke that rule recently when security officers found a gun in her purse.

But unlike others caught doing the same thing, the Michigan Democrat’s clerk didn’t lose her job — or get criminally charged.

<img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/audio/video/2013/6/5/13... align="right">The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.

The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.

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<img src="http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/07/03/third-amendment.jpg" align="right">(This has got to be my first time to see a Third Amendment lawsuit. - Ed.)

"LAS VEGAS (CN) - Henderson police arrested a family for refusing to let officers use their homes as lookouts for a domestic violence investigation of their neighbors, the family claims in court.

A recent case where a police officer attempted to seize a cell phone by claiming it could be a weapon underscores how cops are now being trained to treat phones as potential guns in an underhanded effort to prevent people from recording police activity.

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<img src="/sites/default/files/dog.png" align="right">CONCORD, Calif. (KGO) -- A Concord man is livid because a police officer shot his elderly dog. The police say it was justified, but the dog owner tells ABC7 News that it was completely unnecessary.

"This bottom part is where a fragment of the bullet came out," said Dave Billing, a roommate.

The Concord police officer shot Kirby, a 13-year-old cocker spaniel mix, with his 40 caliber pistol.

"He yelped and just stopped moving for a second. I really thought he was dead," said Zach Grimm, Kirby's owner.

<img src="http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2013/06/20/15/25/6iSXE.WiPh2.91.jpg" align="right">The more Americans rely on their smartphones and the Internet, the more metadata is generated

Metadata with GPS locations, for example, can trace a teenage girl to an abortion clinic or a patient to a psychiatrist’s office, said Karen Reilly, the development director for The Tor Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that produces technology to provide online anonymity and circumvent censorship.

Metadata can even identify a likely gun owner, she said.

<img src="http://www.opposingviews.com/sites/opposingviews.com/files/imagecache/30... align="right">Delaware governor, Jack Markell (D), has signed into law a bill that will require people to report lost or stolen guns to the police within seven days. Individuals who fail to report lost firearms will be subject to fines on the first two offenses, and every offense after that will be a class G felony.

This makes Delaware the eighth state in the nation to require citizens to report gun thefts.