Yep, a good one. Had this been true, the NRA would have had the news out long before the Alpine paper even knew anything had happened.
On April Fools' jokes...the best one I ever heard was pulled off by a radio station in Albuquerque back around 1994 or so. The space shuttle had landed once at the White Sands missile range in southern NM in the 80s, so it was relatively easy to convince the public it was going to happen again. The shuttle was in orbit, though it was not scheduled to land for several more days.
The radio station began broadcasting around 6am that NASA had concerns for the landing sites in CA and FL because the weather was deteriorating, and it wasn't all that good at White Sands either. So, NASA was going to bring the shuttle down that morning at Kirtland AFB, which is essentially in the middle of Albuquerque (at least all the major base gates are.
This prompted a HUGE public response that completely jammed all surface transportation for miles in the vicinity of the base for many hours. Probably the worst traffic jam ever seen in Albuquerque to this day. Estimates ranged up to 50,000 vehicles trying to get on the base to see the landing....even though the shuttle would have come right over town had it really been landing.
The city police and the USAF understandably were not amused. However, it has to rank among the all-time best scams ever perpetrated on the public, anywhere. There were calls for the radio station to pay for the emergency services and to fire the DJs. The station told the city and USAF a) it was a joke, b) get a life. However, the DJs never again pulled a stunt like that. It was profoundly irresponsible in retrospect and clearly no one really expected large numbers of people to actually fall for it, and certainly not to the degree they did. Of note is the fact that the police and USAF were aware of the broadcasts (every 15 minutes or so) and apparently were not concerned with the obvious joke until the public reaction became apparent and it was too late.
Today the radio station would probably be charged with 'terroristic' activities in the current climate of fear equating anything out of the normal as a potential 'threat'. Of course, so would have Orson Welles if the 'War of the Worlds' radio broadcast that created nationwide panic in the 1930s were to have resulted in the same reaction today.
