Penny Dean and Your Rights

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.

NEW YORK — The State Senate passed a bill Wednesday that aims to make it a felony to “harass, annoy, or threaten a police officer while on duty.”

Bill S.2402, sponsored by Senator Joe Griffo, would potentially make it a crime for a person to make any type of physical action aimed at intimidating a police officer. Harassment of a police officer would be recognized as a Class E Felony, punishable by up to four years in prison.

<img src="http://www.opposingviews.com/sites/opposingviews.com/files/imagecache/30... align="right">“How does choosing a white, rich old man with an offensive degrading speech about the war of 'Northern Aggression' as NRA president forward a sense of reasonableness?” Swindell wrote.

Swindell was referring to new NRA president, James W. Porter Jr., who he believes is not interested in compromise or bringing in support from Republicans to pass future legislation

Federal Judge & appeals court has upheld the Federal Rifle Sales Registry & Registration by the Obama Administration, to be enforced in Southwestern border States by the ATF – Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

This ATF rifle sales registry, effectively a federal gun registry, requires federal registration and recording of private citizen rifle purchases of 2 or more rifles by gun sellers in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and California.

<img src="http://www.unionleader.com/storyimage/UL/20130530/NEWS03/130539977/AR/0/... align="right">BRENTWOOD — A Deerfield man charged with assaulting a police officer who responded to a 911 call was recently freed on bail and given a new trial date.

Stanley West, 40, will go on trial the week of Aug. 5 on three counts of simple assault on a police officer and a single count of resisting arrest.

West was expected to go on trial last Monday in Rockingham County Superior Court, but his case was rescheduled.

An Oregon man is facing charges for firing a warning shot with his AR15 when a wanted felon attempted to break into his home.

A veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Corey Thompson, 36, told KDRV that he jumped into combat mode when put in a “stressful” situation.