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WASHINGTON (AP) — The mother of a Newtown, Conn., shooting victim is making a deeply personal plea from the White House for all Americans to take action on gun violence.

Francine Wheeler's 6-year-old son, Ben, was killed inside Sandy Hook Elementary School. She's stepping in for President Barack Obama to deliver the president's weekly radio and Internet address. She is the first person to deliver the address other than Obama or Vice President Joe Biden since the two took office in 2009.

Wheeler says thousands of families are drowning in her family's grief and asks for help to do something, in her words, "before our tragedy becomes your tragedy."

In the Republican address, congresswoman Jackie Walorski of Indiana criticizes Obama's budget blueprint as a blank check for more spending and debt.

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - When a gunman killed 26 children and staff at a Connecticut grade school, proposals to let teachers carry hidden guns into the classroom soon proliferated in many Republican-led states.

But less than four months later, the quest to put guns in schools has stalled in many traditionally gun-friendly states after encountering opposition from educators, reluctance from some governors and ambivalence from legislative leaders more focused on economic initiatives.

So far, South Dakota is the only state to respond with a new law allowing school personnel to carry guns into elementary and high schools. A similar proposal is poised for passage in Kansas. And Arkansas has enacted a new law allowing colleges to let staff with concealed gun permits bring their weapons on campus.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Authorities have arrested two men suspected of shooting a St. Louis man after he answered a Craigslist ad about a car.

 

Officers arrested the men Thursday, one day after the shooting happened.

 

The victim saw an ad for a used car on Craigslist and went to the city's north side to look at it. Police say two men approached his car as he pulled up to the home. One of the men began firing shots into the victim's vehicle.

 

The victim was able to drive to an auto parts store to get help. He was shot several times. Two people who were in the car with him weren't injured.

 

Police Chief Sam Dotson urged people "to always use caution when conducting business online."

A man was found shot in South County this afternoon.

 

Police say the man was found around 12:30 on Old English Road near the River Des Peres. The victim was taken to the hospital in unknown condition.

A West Virginia sheriff with a reputation cracking down on drug dealers was shot in the head at point blank range and killed outside a county courthouse today, officials and witnesses said.

Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum was shot and killed while sitting in his vehicle during his lunch break in the town of Williamson, state Delegate Harry Keith White told ABC News.

A witness told ABC News that he watched the suspect approach Crum's car, where he was known to eat lunch, and fire twice into the vehicle. The suspect then calmly walked to his truck, described as a tan Ford ranger, and drove away.

Another witness, Larry Dove, told the West Virginia Gazette he saw a man shoot Crum "right in the head."

The shooting suspect was wounded, captured and taken to a hospital, the Associated Press reported.

Crum was elected sheriff in January.

His death follows a string of high-profile assassinations of law enforcement officers and prosecutors in recent weeks, including two Texas prosecutors and the chief of Colorado's prison system.

Investigators from around the country are working to determine if there is any connection among the killings.

Since April 2, 2012, 28 police officers have been killed nationwide, according to preliminary data by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund. Of those deaths, 13 were caused by guns.

CLAYTON, Mo. (AP) — A St. Louis County teenager has been sentenced to 49 years in prison for a drive-by shooting that mistakenly killed the twin brother of the intended target.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that 19-year-old Justin Lewis of Ferguson was convicted last month of second-degree murder. He was sentenced Friday in the 2010 death of 18-year-old Dorione Thomas of Florissant.

Thomas was shot to death while parked with his girlfriend in Kinloch. Police say it was a case of mistaken identity because Thomas' identical twin was the one actually being targeted in a gang feud.

Lewis was the driver of the vehicle used in the shooting. The shooter, Kevin McDavis, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2011 and is serving life in prison.

Three Marines are dead after a shooting at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.

The suspected shooter, a male Marine, was killed from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound when authorities found his body inside a barracks building near the Officer Candidate School early this morning, Lt. Agustin Solivan told ABC News.

Authorities found a second victim dead in the Officer Candidate School, Solivan said. The gender of that Marine was not given.

The gunfire started at 11 p.m. Thursday when the suspected gunman killed a male Marine, Solivan said. The suspect barricaded himself inside a barracks building near the east side of the base near the Officer Candidate School, setting off a standoff with authorities.

The base had been put on lockdown but it has since been lifted.

"Marine Corps Base Quantico is Code Green at this time. All normal activities are cleared to resume," Quantico said on Twitter.

No further information on the victims have been released.

Police have a suspect in custody after a shooting and chase through North County.

The suspect allegedly shot someone just before 1PM at 314 Hair Gallery on West Florissant. Witnesses told police that suspect ran out of the salon and got into his car. He then led police on a chase that found its way into North St. Louis. That is when the suspect got out of the car and tried to run away, but officers caught him.

No word on the condition of the shooting victim.

A gunman wearing an Afghan police uniform opened fire at a police training facility in eastern Afghanistan today, killing at least two American troops and three Afghans, officials say.

The shooting took place while the troops were visiting the facility to help train the Afghans, a key part of the U.S. handover strategy before combat troops leave in 2014. According to coalition officials, the shooting also left several wounded.

A joint U.S.-Afghan team is investigating the shooting.

This latest insider attack in Wardak, a restive province in the country's east, comes one day after a deadline set by Afghan President Hamid Karzai for all U.S. Special Forces to leave the province. Karzai set the deadline two weeks ago, after accusing Afghans who work for U.S. Special Forces of harassing, torturing and murdering innocent civilians.

The attack also comes just a day after new U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's trip to Afghanistan, one marred by controversy.

Osama bin Laden's Son-in-Law Pleads Not Guilty in NYC Court Watch Video On Saturday, a suicide bomber on a bicycle struck just outside the Afghan Ministry of Defense, one of the most heavily fortified buildings in the country. At least nine Afghan civilians were killed. Though Hagel was in a meeting at a coalition military base at the time and never in any danger, nearby bases were put into lockdown, and reporters travelling with Hagel's press pool were ushered into a safe room in the basement of the base they were on.

Then on Sunday, Karzai implied the Taliban were serving U.S. interests by creating instability in Afghanistan. The inflammatory comments were made during a nationally televised speech.

Referring to recent insurgent attacks, including the one outside the Ministry of Defense, Karzai said the attacks were "not aimed at showing their strength to the USA, but to serve the USA.

"In fact, yesterday's bombings in the name of the Taliban were aimed at serving the foreigners and supporting the presence of the foreigners in Afghanistan and keeping them in Afghanistan, by intimidating us," Karzai said.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Joseph Dunford, quickly rejected the comments, calling them "categorically false."

"We have fought too hard over the past 12 years, we have shed too much blood over the last 12 years, to ever think that violence or instability would be to our advantage," Dunford said.

Later that evening, Hagel cancelled a scheduled joint press conference with Karzai. A spokesperson cited security concerns, though a Karzai spokesperson said it was due to "scheduling pressures." The two still held a private dinner meeting with Dunford in attendance, but the cancellation of the joint press conference was widely seen as a snub to Karzai in response to his inflammatory remarks.

One man is dead, another is in critical condition after two separate weekend incidents on Laclede's Landing.

St. Louis Police were called to the landing about 3 a.m. Saturday after man was shot in the arm following a fight in the 600 block of North Second Street.

Then, just before 2 a.m. on Sunday, a metro-east man was stabbed to death in the 100 block of Laclede's Landing Boulevard. Police identified the victim as 28 year old Kyle Roberts of the 1200 block of Old Ripley Road near Sorento, Illinois.

Investigators say Roberts was killed after a heated exchange with another man. They're still looking for that man, but a suspect is in custody in the Saturday shooting.