Weapons

SALT LAKE CITY — Four guns. A set of Samuri swords. A 2-foot-long artillery shell. Authorities seized or detected those weapons in the past week alone from the luggage of passengers at the Salt Lake City International Airport — a haul that one top official called a spike in weapons, although none of the owners was suspected of intending to do harm.

MORGAN — Every day, J.T. Wild holsters his Colt 1873 Peacemaker pistol and saunters out to subdue the Evil Roy Gang lurking near the barn.

To put it another way, local marksman Joel LaBorde walks to his backyard shooting range for target practice.

LaBorde is a member of the Single Action Shooting Society, a shooting organization that focuses on firearms of the mid- to late-19th century. Or call it a bunch of Belvideres and Calamity Janes out to have a hawg-killin’ good time; either way, it’s true.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world. If any of the nation's 112 million citizens want to buy firearms, there's only one store where they can do it legally. It's on a sprawling military base and run by the army.

That, however, hasn't stopped Mexicans from acquiring firearms. The country is awash in illegal guns, many of them assault weapons in the hands of merciless criminal gangs. President Felipe Calderon says authorities have seized more than 140,000 weapons since he came to office in late 2006. Many of them, Mexican officials assert, were purchased in the United States.

TREMONTON -- A 14-year-old was killed Monday while handling a miniature cannon at his Tremonton home.

The apparent accident occurred around 7:30 a.m., said Tremonton Police Chief David Nance. The boy was identified as Robby Ostberg.

Ostberg was in the living room of the family home playing video games with his 16-year-old brother and handling the miniature cannon when it went off, Nance said.

He was struck in the face and pronounced dead at the scene. Ostberg's father was also in the house at the time.

SAN DIEGO — U.S. troops are increasingly using an easy-to-get herbal mix called “spice,” which mimics a marijuana high, is hard to detect and can bring on hallucinations that last for days.

FARMINGTON -- A man who police say threatened a couple with a knife after breaking into their car has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

OGDEN -- Two men were arrested Wednesday morning after police say they held three people at knife point and stole their possessions.

Tracy Lee Atkinson, 35, and Jay Chad Kearsley, 30, waited outside a home on the 1000 block of 16th Street until about 1:10 a.m. when they saw a woman outside. Armed with knives, they grabbed her and forced her inside the house, said Police Lt. Tony Fox.