“Let’s face it, 66-year-old Johnny Lee Wicks — the man who opened fire at a Las Vegas, Nev. federal building Monday, killing retired Las Vegas Police Sgt. Stanley Cooper, 72, who was working as a security guard — was living proof of the abject failure of gun control laws. Wicks, according to the Washington Times, had a criminal background that included murder and drug charges in Memphis, Tenn., in the 1970s and assault and rape charges 20 years ago in California. He did time in prison for killing his own brother in March 1974, a sentence that originally was set at 55 years but was reduced to 12 to 15 years after an appeal, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.” (01/06/10)