Paul R

There's a person in California who claims to have been in business for the past five years, except court records say he was sentenced to two years in prison during that time. How do I find out how much time he actually served, if any, and where he was incarcerated?

I work at an inner city high school at the far corner of the campus. My classroom is right next to the fence in a high crime neighborhood. A drive by shooting left holes in two walls and a deep indentation on the inside of a steel door due to a ricochet in the teacher's room next to mine a couple of years ago. A women was knifed and robbed by my room just outside the fence earlier this year. Every year, several fights occur near my room inside and outside the fence. Gangs are active in the area. Yesterday, as I was leaving work, there were seven or eight police cruisers, a dozen police, and paramedics in the street just outside my room. Two people were in custody, one injured. A policeman's shirt was covered with dirt suggesting he had wrestled with someone in the dirt. I don't feel safe staying to work after school is out.

My guess is that even if I were to obtain a permit, there is no way I would be allowed to carry concealed between my room and my car, which is when I'm most vulnerable. There is just no way a handgun would be permitted on school grounds. What do you think?

Is there any chance I could carry in my car, park by the gate near my room, and leave my handgun in a locked and bolted down gun-safe in my car? Or, would that be rather pointless?

Any suggestions for alternative ways to protect myself?

The pistol is a semi-auto S&W Model 915. It consistantly shoots high and left about 4 inches at 7 to 10 yards. Always has, but I'm tired of compensating for it.

At 7-10 yards, I'm putting 10 shots into a 2 inch group where the bullseye and 9 ring meet (at 10:30) on a 25 yard slow fire pistol target by aiming at the line between the 7 and 8 rings (at 4:30). I'd like to start gradually moving this target back to 25 yards but aiming would become a real pain at that distance with the sights as they are.

The iron sight on the muzzle end appears to capable of sliding left and right, but it looks like it would take a hammer and punch to move it. I'm not sure what if anything I can do about adjusting vertical.

Any advice? Should I bring a hammer, punch, and some shooting sandbags to the indoor range? Any ideas about adjusting vertical?

Now that Jared Loughner's political registration has been reported as registered independent, and his interests include several communist texts and reading many other books pertaining to government that appeal to paranoid schizophrenics, when will all the would-be pundits who have been trying to link the Arizona Congresswoman's (among others) shooting to their personal political agendas just shut up and go away? This guy cannot be classified, except as mentally ill.

Examples: Big Orange Boehner, Paul GrASSsss, but certainly not limited to those two. There are a dozen or more here on Yahoo Answers, both Democrats and Republicans, spewing their biased questions, and choosing their biased "best answers".

Ref., the Arizona Daily Star:

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/article_7827...

They should know.

My four driving/docking lights are worn out and need to be replaced. My boat is a 25 foot Skipjack Cruiser (hardtop) with a 260HP Volvo Penta DuoProp outdrive. It's an ocean going boat. The current four lights are mounted on a stainless steel rail above the aft end of the hardtop. The center two lights point forward and down like high-beam driving lights on a car. The outer two lights point down and to the sides for docking. Basically, they are falling apart and two stopped working, so I plan to replace them all. Each light is attached to a bracket with a center-bolt that goes down through the rail and is secured with a nylock nut under the rail. I'm looking for something similar, and I want to know if "marine" lights are best way to go, or can I go with off-road land vehicle type lights. Marine hardware is usually it's the best way to go, but it is so overpriced, and I'm thinking that off-road vehicle lights will be waterproof and maybe even more ruggedized than marine lights. Make specific recommendations if you have had a good experience either way with specific brands/models.

After purchasing a new rifle recently, I was brought up to speed (no pun) concerning the regulations concerning the transportation of firearms by car (or truck) in California. The rules are very strict. Transportation by car (or truck) of any firearms is generally illegal in California unless you are going to or from: a gunsmith, a shooting range, a place you plan to hunt or fish or camp, or you are bringing it home after purchase, or you are bringing it to a place of legal sale. Not only that but handguns must be stored in a locked trunk, or a locked gun-case, and the ammunition must be kept in a separate place in the vehicle. No loaded firearm may be transported, period.

It's a fact that many, many more people are killed by drunk drivers than are killed by firearms. So, if firearms merit such strict regulation because they are inherently "dangerous" would it not make sense to regulate alcohol as strictly or more strictly than firearms, because a bottle of malt liquor or scotch in a car is also inherently dangerous? At the very least, shouldn't it be illegal to transport alcohol by car (or truck) unless you are going to or from: a supermarket or liquor store, a motel or hotel, a place you plan to camp, or you are bringing it home after purchase?

I admit to being biased about this question, because I feel I have more to fear from the driver who has access to alcohol in his car than I do from the driver who has access to a gun in his car. However, to be fair, I'll let it go to a vote rather than select a best answer.

This has happened at least three times now that I recall since getting involved with Yahoo Answers a few weeks ago, the latest being a Shawna Forde - Minutemen bashing question. That is, someone posts a biased or foolish question, and when they are set straight, they cut off further answers, and quickly choose as best answer a biased or foolish answer which is what they wanted to hear before they asked the question.

I'm in no way defending Shawna Forde - she sounds like the worst sort of criminal, and the law will deal with her - but the question was ridiculously biased with respect to the Minutemen/immigration issue, and so was the best answer chosen. It seemed like no coincidence that the question asker chose the biased answer shortly after I posted an answer clearly pointing out the bias in the question and most of the other answers.

So, I'm asking, is this common on Yahoo Answers? And, how do you deal with it; do you just give your answer anyway, or do you just say to yourself it's a waste of time and skip it?

Last summer, I went on an out-of-state fishing trip with a friend. We stopped one night in Las Vegas (the hotel was very inexpensive but the rooms were very nice). The next day, another couple of hundred miles down the road, I realized I had left all my vitamin supplements, ibuprofen (for my back), and one prescription medicine on the sink in my hotel room. None of the pills were in the original containers because we were planning to camp on arrival at our destination, and I had repacked everything compactly. I called the hotel, they kindly located the pills, shipped them to my home address, and only charged me for the shipping. I was able to replace my Rx at a pharmacy along the way.

After returning from my trip, I heard that traveling with pills in unmarked containers such as pill dispensers or plastic bags, which was what I was doing, is illegal. I had no idea. Is this true, and if so, what exactly are the laws governing traveling with pills?

Scenario: Anonymous 911 call reports a man holding a handgun in public, in an untrafficked area with no other people present, except perhaps indoors. Police officers respond and approach him cautiously, keeping a safe distance and trying to use cover to avoid being seen. They see he is sitting on the porch of an apartment and appears to be intoxicated, but they are not close enough to notice that the object he is holding is actually not a gun. What is proper police (regular police, not SWAT) procedure at this point, considering that they are still under the assumption the suspect is armed and they do not know otherwise? Please include in your answer the distance from the subject they would take positions, what they should do while waiting for backup, and when & how they would make contact with the subject.

(There's a story in the news, but please do not comment on it or bring up other information relating to it. Facts might come to light to make this scenario not comparable to that story. Best answer will only say how city police are trained to handle this specific scenario or what good judgment would imply.)