Nov 2

By ALYSIA PATTERSON
Associated Press Writer

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. (AP) - Police arrested a convicted kidnapper early
Monday in the fatal shooting of four men in the town that inspired the
idyllic community of Mayberry on the 1960s TV series "The Andy Griffith
Show."
Marcos Chavez Gonzalez was charged with four counts of murder in the
slayings late Sunday outside Woods TV in Mount Airy, about 100 miles
north of Charlotte, police said.

The town, population 8,700, is the hometown of Andy Griffith and has
built a tourist trade on nostalgia for the show that continues to
thrive in syndication.

The four were shot in the shadow of a water tower that says "Welcome to
Mount Airy" and has a picture of Griffith and Opie, his son on the show.

"This is Mayberry ... Andy Griffith's house is in spitting distance
here," said Michael Wood, one of the owners of Woods TV.

Police do not believe the shootings were random, but Mount Airy Police
Chief Dale Watson said they did not plan to release a motive.

Gonzalez, 29, was arrested without incident at a motel about 50 miles
northeast of the town, Henry County, Va., Sheriff Lane Perry said
Monday. Gonzalez was unarmed when he surrendered just before 4 a.m. to
officers who had surrounded the motel.

He was being held in the Henry County jail on charges that included
being a fugitive from justice from North Carolina. He indicated he
would not fight extradition, Perry said. Jail workers said it was not
clear whether he had an attorney.

State prison records show Gonzalez was released more than two years ago
after serving more than two years on a 2002 conviction for kidnapping a
minor and a probation violation.

State records show the felony kidnapping charge required Gonzalez to
register as a sex offender. North Carolina's post-release supervision
of Gonzalez ended last November, Correction Department spokesman Keith
Acree said.

Nursing supervisor Sue Coe at Northern Hospital of Surry County
confirmed that two people died at the store around 2:30 p.m. Sunday.
She said two who were wounded died at the hospital, just across the
street from the store. Woods TV sells televisions and satellite systems.

Police said the victims' names were being withheld because their
families have not been notified. Watson said all four were from Surry
County, which includes Mount Airy.

WXII-TV in nearby Winston-Salem reported that people who knew the
victims gathered near the store Sunday and began crying and collapsing
to the ground. By Monday, someone had set up a makeshift memorial with
flowers and a dozen brightly colored candles.

Gary Chilton, an owner of Chilton Insurance Group, which shares the
building with Woods TV, said the crime is not indicative of the usually
quiet town.

"I'm not sure it's totally sunk in because it's so unusual. On any
given Sunday there is nothing here in this parking lot. There's nothing
here at all," he said. "My biggest question is why in this parking lot
at all. Why Woods TV parking lot?"
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

      What Would America's Founders Say?

  The two enemies of the people are criminals
  and government, so let us tie the second down
  with the chains of the Constitution so the
  second will not become the legalized version
  of the first.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  Those who hammer their guns into plows will
  plow for those who do not.
   --Thomas Jefferson

  It does not take a majority to prevail ... but
  rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on
  setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of
  men.
  --Samuel Adams

  The strongest reason for the people to retain
  the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last
  resort, to protect themselves against tyranny
  in government.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

   A free people ought not only to be armed and
   disciplined, but they should have sufficient
   arms and ammunition to maintain a status of
   independence from any who might attempt to
   abuse them, which would include their own
   government."
-- George Washington

  No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  If the freedom of speech is taken away then
  dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep, to
  the slaughter.
  -- George Washington

  When governments fear the people there is liberty.
  When the people fear the government there is tyranny.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  Oppressors can tyrannize only when they achieve a
   standing army, an enslaved press, and a disarmed
   populace.
    -- James Madison

  If the representatives of the people betray
  their constituents, there is then no resource
  left but in the exertion of that original
  right of self-defense which is paramount to
  all positive forms of government ... The
  citizens must rush tumultuously to arms,
  without concert, without system, without
  resource; except in their courage and despair
  ... The natural strength of the people in a
  large community, in proportion to the artificial
  strength of the government, is greater than in a
  small ... the people, without exaggeration, may
  be said to be entirely the masters of their own fate.
  -- Alexander Hamilton

  All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people
  of good conscience to remain silent.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  Every government degenerates when trusted to the
  rulers of the people alone. The people themselves
  are its only safe depositories.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  As our enemies have found we can reason like men,
  so now let us show them we can fight like men also.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act!
  Action will delineate and define you.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  Merchants have no country. The mere spot they
  stand on does not constitute so strong an
  attachment as that from which they draw their gains.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy
  of our monied corporations which dare already to
  challenge our government to a trial by strength,
  and bid defiance to the laws of our country.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  I believe that banking institutions are more
  dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  Experience hath shewn, that even under the best
  forms of government those entrusted with power
  have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted
  it into tyranny.
  -- Thomas Jefferson

  A Founding Father speaks out on
  what's nowadays called "political correctness":

  A Founding Father speaks out on what's nowadays
  called "political correctness":

  Do not suffer yourselves to be wheeled out of
  your liberty to publish by any pretenses of
  politeness, delicacy or decency. These, as they
  are so often used, are but three different names
  for hypocrisy, chicanery and cowardice.
  --John Adams