Obama Politicizes Gun Control Again:  In comments Thursday following the mass shooting that claimed nine lives at a rural community college in Oregon, President Obama used the tragedy as a platform to call for stricter gun control laws.  Susan Jones of CNS News reports that the president blasted "those who oppose any kind of common-sense gun legislation," as well as the National Rifle Association. Fox News' Bill O'Reilly, on his Thursday night program, directly criticized Obama for politicizing high-profile mass shootings while ignoring the bloodshed taking place in his hometown of Chicago.  On Thursday morning, 26-year-old Christopher Harper Mercer, described as an angry man with disdain for organized religion and seeking notoriety, opened fire on the quiet Umpqua Community College Campus in Roseburg, killing nine and injuring seven.  According to witnesses, he was allegedly targeting Christians before he was shot and killed during a gunfire exchange with police.  The former president of the college says that the school has only one unarmed security guard on duty at a time.

Two Found Guilty in Border Patrol Agent's Murder:  Two men were found guilty Thursday of murdering, with guns supplied by the U.S. government, a U.S. Border Patrol agent, whose death exposed the bungled gun-running Fast and Furious operation.  Aalia Shaheed of Fox News reports that Ivan Soto-Barraza and Jesus Sanchez-Meza, who were part of a five-man cartel rip crew patrolling the Arizona desert targeting drug smugglers to rob at gunpoint, were found guilty on nine charges, including first-degree murder and attempted armed robbery in the death of agent Brian Terry in 2010.  Terry's death revealed the botched Fast and Furious operation in which agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed criminals to purchase guns with the intention of tracking them.  However, the agency lost track of many of the guns, including two AK47-style weapons discovered at the scene of Terry's death.  The two men face life sentences at their next court appearance in December.

UCR Omits Border Crimes, Paints Skewed Picture:  The FBI released its annual Uniform Crime Report (UCR) this week, summarizing violent crime statistics across the county in 2014, but omitted kidnapping and drug- or cartel-related crimes in their assessment, painting a misleading picture of the U.S.-Mexico border.  Sylvia Longmire of Breitbart reports that UCR data does not track crimes that are unique to the border, fooling the average reader into thinking that border communities, specifically in Texas, are "quiet with little criminal activity."  Data used to generate the UCR is voluntarily submitted by thousands of law enforcement agencies and no standards exist for how each agency classifies a particular crime, nor is there an audit process to ensure data uniformity.  Even if there were such standards and processes, the UCR still precludes kidnapping and drug-trafficking related crimes, which are common along the southern border.  Also, the UCR relies on crimes reported to the police and therefore, drug smugglers and illegal immigrants who are targets of border violence are far less likely to report crimes to law enforcement for fear of arrest and deportation.  Longmire notes that crime statistics are merely a starting point in crime analysis and "can be skewed many ways to prove a point or further an agenda."

Two CJLF Cases to be Heard by Supreme Court this Fall:  The U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term - which runs from October through July - on Monday, with arguments being heard on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of the first two weeks of the month.  Legal Director Kent S. Scheidegger has this article on The Federalist Society outlining the criminal cases on the high court's docket, two of which CJLF filed amicus briefs in support of the states,  Kansas v. Carr and Montgomery v. Lousiana.  Carr will be heard on Wednesday, October 7 and Montgomery will be heard on Tuesday, October 13.