Suffolk County police arrested Angel Laporte after a woman witnessed him masturbating at the Barnes and Noble book store on East Jericho Turnpike in East Northport at 9:50 p.m. Friday, authorities said. The woman yelled and the 54-year-old man fled, but officers apprehended him at his home Saturday.

Second Squad detectives suspect Laporte also committed public acts of lewdness at the Deer Park Public Library on Jan. 5 and at the Commack Public Library and the West Babylon Public Library on May 7, 2012.

Laporte is wanted by the New Milford Police Department in Connecticut for failing to register as a sex offender. Special Victim’s Unit detectives are also investigating.

Laporte was charged with public lewdness and will be arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip.

President Barack Obama, joined by Vice President Joe Biden, unveiled his long-awaited gun control proposals on Wednesday.

President Barack Obama urged Congress to pass his proposals Wednesday to curtail gun violence in the wake of the Newtown massacre, setting off what may be the fiercest fight of his presidency.

As expected, Obama called on lawmakers to restore the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines as well as pass laws that would require background checks on all guns sales.

“We can’t put this off any longer,” Obama said while flanked by by Vice President Joe Biden and four children who addressed letters to the president shortly after 20 children and six adults were gunned down last month at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Obama conceded that no law can stop senseless acts of violence completely, and there’s no piece of legislation that will prevent every tragedy from occurring, but said he would use the power of his office to protect children from violence.

“If there’s ever one thing we can do to reduce this violence, if there’s even one life that can be saved, than we’ve got an obligation to try,” said the president, who also signed 23 executive orders on gun control.

Obama’s much-anticipated announcement came in the midst of a heated debate about guns in America that has erupted since the mass killings in Newtown and the theater shooting in Aurora, Colo. that claimed the lives of 12 moviegoers and injured more than 70 others.

Gun advocates have been vocal about protecting their Second Amendment rights, arguing that placing limitations on firearms does a disservice to responsible gun owners. Many have said bans on assault weapons won’t do much to put a stop to gun crime because handguns are used in the majority of those instances.

Some of the president’s proposals have the support of many Americans, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll on public support for gun policy. The poll found that 85 percent of Americans are in favor of background checks for private and gun show sales, 55 percent would approve of a ban on assault weapons and 54 percent favor a ban on high-capacity magazines.

The vice president, who said he spoke with more than 200 groups since creating the Newtown task force—including gun advocates, sportsmen and hunters, religious leaders and lawmakers—paid tribute to the families of the Sandy Hook killings and said he was inspired by their strength.

“I have no illusions about what we’re up against or how hard the task is in front of us,” he said. “But I also have never seen the nation’s conscience so shaken by what happened at Sandy Hook. The world has changed, and it’s demanding action.”

While laying out his proposals, Obama said America has a duty to protect innocent children from gun violence, even if mass slayings aren’t totally preventable.

“These are our kids,” he said. “This is what they’re thinking about. And so what we should be thinking about is our responsibility to care for them, and shield them from harm, and give them the tools they need to grow up and do everything that they’re capable of doing—not just to pursue their own dreams, but to help build this country.

“This is our first task as a society, keeping our children safe,” he said. “This is how we will be judged. And their voices should compel us to change.”

Rep. Carolyn McCarty (D-Mineola), a staunch supporter for tighter gun laws, joined the president at the White House for the announcement and said his proposals will “save lives” while challenging Congress to take up the issue.

“Congress must not stand idly by while innocent Americans are killed on a daily basis for no reason,” she said.

Obama’s proposal came one day after New York State passed what many supporters of the bill hailed as the “most comprehensive” gun control legislation in the country. The state was the first in the nation to pass new gun control measures after the Newtown massacre.

The National Rifle Association balked at the proposals and said it will work with members Congress instead.

“Attacking firearms and ignoring children is not a solution to the crisis we face as a nation,” the nation’s largest gun lobby said in a statement after Obama’s announcement. “Only honest, law-abiding gun owners will be affected and our children will remain vulnerable to the inevitability of more tragedy.”

Obama acknowledged that it will be tough sledding to get the bill passed, adding that change will only come if Americans demand it.

“If parents and teachers, police officers and pastors, if hunters and sportsmen, if responsible gun owners, if Americans of every background stand up and say, enough; we’ve suffered too much pain and care too much about our children to allow this to continue—then change will come. That’s what it’s going to take,” he said.

President Obama’s gun control proposals. by

Gov. Andrew Cuomo gave his State of the State address in Albany on Wednesday.

The gun control debate got a shot in the arm this week when a school shooting broke out during a White House task force meeting on the issue the day after Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged New York to pass the nation’s toughest firearms regulations.

Proposed re-enactment of the federal ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that expired in 2004 is at the forefront of the current debate. But pro-gun lobbyists shot down such regulations as an infringement of the Second Amendment right to bear arms. Emotions continue to run high on both sides.

“There has got to be some common ground, to not solve every problem but diminish the probability” of future mass shootings, Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday. “That’s what this is all about.”

Biden was meeting with a group of hunting organizations when a 16-year-old armed with a shotgun critically wounded a fellow student in a California high school. The task force was formed after a gunman massacred 20 school children and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. last month.

The National Rifle Association, whose leader has proposed armed guards in every school—although in the latest case, the school’s armed guard was snowed in at home—characterized the meeting as “disappointing” and said it will work with Congress instead.

“No one hunts with an assault rifle,” Cuomo said Wednesday while unveiling his gun-control package. “No one needs 10 bullets to kill a deer. And too many innocent people have died already. End the madness now!”

He proposed banning gun clips manufactured before 1994 that hold more than 10 bullets—hardware used by the Newtown gunman and other mass murderers—modernizing the pistol permitting process to ensure felons and others barred from owning handguns don’t fall through the cracks.

Cuomo also gave a nod to the NRA and conservatives such as state Senate Republican Conference Leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), who have suggested the gun control conversation falls short without addressing mental health and stricter punishments.

“There is no doubt that illegal guns are a major threat to public safety—but it is not the only one,” Skelos said after Cuomo laid out his plans in his State of the State address. “More frequently we are reading about crimes committed by people with a history of mental illness who may not be getting the treatment they need.”

The governor’s package includes enhanced sentencing guidelines for those convicted of using illegal guns, which mirrors a series of proposals Skelos unveiled last week. Cuomo also plans to propose measures to ensure mental health professionals alert authorities when they become aware a gun owner is likely to cause harm.

In addition, he also wants to close a loophole that allows private gun owners to sell guns to others without the buyer being subject to the background checks they would face when making a purchase from a licensed gun dealer.

On the federal level, New York Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand are calling on Biden to include measures to crackdown on illegal guns and strengthen background checks into his final recommendations.

The senators are pushing bills mandating that states share records on felons, drug abusers and those seriously mentally ill to be used in background checks for gun buyers. They also are pushing a bill cracking down on trafficking firearms into New York.

Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola) is also reintroducing her legislation to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines for guns—a bill that is likely to be part of the Newtown task force’s recommendations Tuesday to President Obama.

McCarthy has devoted her political career to combating gun violence after her husband was murdered and son critically injured during the 1993 Long Island Railroad massacre. Rep. Diana Degette (D-Colo), whose district includes the infamous Columbine High School and is adjacent to Aurora—where a gunman murdered 12 people and wounded nearly 60 others at a movie theater last summer—is cosponsoring the legislation.

“These devices are used to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time possible and we owe it to innocent Americans everywhere to keep them out of the hands of dangerous people,” said McCarthy. “We don’t even allow hunters to use them—something’s deeply wrong if we’re protecting game more than we’re protecting innocent human beings.”

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood addresses reporters following shooting at Taft High School in California. (Screengrab/23ABC News)

A 16-year-old student armed with a shotgun walked into his California high school, shot a classmate and tried to shoot another before a hero teacher convinced him to surrender, authorities said.

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood told reporters that the victim was in critical condition and was taken to a local hospital. The teacher inside the classroom at Taft High School was also injured. Police did not identify the shooter.

“We’re very fortunate to have the kind of response that we had today,” said City of Taft Police Chief Ed Whiting.

Police said they started receiving 911 calls around 9 a.m. from witnesses who saw the shooter walk inside the school armed with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Authorities described a harrowing scene that unfolded inside the second floor of the school’s science building when the gunman walked into his first period class and fired at another student who police believe was his target.

The gunman then aimed the weapon at another classmate but missed. Authorities said he named the second victim before opening fire a second time. It wasn’t clear how many shots were fired in total.

Police lauded the efforts of the teacher inside the classroom who instructed students to exit the back door as he engaged in conservation with the gunman who was waving the shotgun in several different directions, Youngblood said.

The brave teacher and a campus supervisor convinced the shooter to drop the gun. The distraction allowed the remaining students to  safely flee. Police believe about 28 students were inside the class at the time. Police officers then swooped in and arrested the shooter.

“They really are some awesome people,” Whiting said of the two school heros. “We can’t thank them enough for what they did today.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, (R-California) said, “I think he saved many lives today,” referring to the unidentified teacher who risked his life so students could escape danger.

Authorities acknowledged that they could’ve been walking into a more frightening scene if it wasn’t for the teacher’s bravery.

“We don’t know what might of happened,” Youngblood said. “This is a tragedy but not as bad as we think it might have been.” He added: “They knew not to let him leave that class room with that shotgun.”

The shooting comes less than a month after a madman massacred 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. That shooter committed suicide as police closed in.

The massacre reignited the emotional debate on gun control laws and school safety.

Local governments, including Nassau County, have held seminars educating school officials on how to handle an active shooter scenario.

Ironically, Taft High School staff held a meeting earlier in the morning and discussed their lockdown process and other steps teachers should take in the event of an emergency, the district superintendent said.

Unlike in the Sandy Hook case, where authorities are still searching for a motive, police don’t believe the Taft High School shooting was totally random.

Youngblood noted that there probably had been a “dialogue” between the first victim before Thursday morning. He did not elaborate on what may have been said. He also said there may have been a bullying issue with the shooter but authorities have yet to confirm that had previously occurred.

Others that were hospitalized walked out with relatively minor injuries. One student was hospitalized with possible hearing damage and another was injured after falling over a table as chaos ensued.

Police will continue to search classrooms and backpacks to ensure there are no more firearms inside the school.

Authorities confirmed that an armed police officer guards the school everyday but was not present when the shooting took place.

The shooting comes on the same day Vice President Joe Biden announced he would lay out his gun control legislation recommendations to the president on Tuesday.