United States
Frightened US Students, Faculty, Parents Lobby to Carry Guns on Campus
Philadelphia Inquirer (Pennsylvania)
1 Mar 2008
Along with books, laptop and cell phone, there is something else that Jeremy Clark thinks is essential to bring to class: his gun. The Villanova University law student said the sickening spate of campus shootings, from Virginia Tech to Northern Illinois University, left him feeling vulnerable without his Glock 9mm semiautomatic handgun. "If I'm in a classroom where a shooting is taking place, I'd like a chance to be able to defend myself," said the 29-year-old Army veteran from Bethlehem, Pa., who served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Villanova, like nearly all colleges and universities nationwide, bans firearms on campus. A new group, called... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Road Rage Turns Fatal as Licensed Handgun Carrier Pulls Glock, Kills Man
ABC Action News (Florida)
1 Mar 2008
THONOSASSA, Florida -- A man is in custody after he killed a passenger in a car after an argument, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. Detectives say 24 year old Casey Landes and another man had left the home of a friend on Bayhills Circle after 11pm Friday night. The two were traveling in a pickup truck at a high rate of speed, detectives say. When the two returned to the area, detectives say the suspect, Charles Podany rode his bicycle over to the car and confronted the driver, telling him to slow down. Detectives say Landes became upset, exited the truck, starting beating Podany. Detectives say Podany, who has a permit to carry... ( gunpolicy.org )
United Kingdom
Suffolk, UK Police Issue Shotgun Licences to Children as Young as 10
East Anglian Daily Times (UK)
1 Mar 2008
Children as young as 10 are being issued with shotgun licences by Suffolk police, an EADT investigation has found. Anti-gun campaigners have condemned the decision, arguing children are not responsible enough to use the powerful weapon. A Freedom of Information request found that an 11-year-old has been given a shotgun licence by police already this year, while in 2006 a 10-year-old was handed one. In the past five years 182 under-16s have received shotgun licences from Suffolk police which are valid for five years. Rebecca Peters, director of the International Action Network on Small Arms, said: "A child of 10 is by no means equipped... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US: Close Gun Show Loophole, Ban Assault Weapons, Limit 1-gun-a-month
New York Times, Editorial
1 Mar 2008
The Valentine's Day massacre at Northern Illinois University, like the killings at places such as Columbine High School and Virginia Tech, has evoked expressions of horror and sympathy and familiar questions about the killer's motives and mental health. Atrocities like these make Americans feel angry and perhaps helpless. Our political leaders are not helpless. They could match public shock with prompt, concerted and effective action to make mass shootings a less frequent fact of American life. But neither party's leaders have shown any sign of stepping up their responsibilities. The latest campus carnage barely caused a ripple in presidential politics, where... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Gun Show Loophole Allows Almost Anyone to Buy Guns Unchallenged
Tennessean (Nashville), Opinion
1 Mar 2008
Weapons used by Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to kill 13 people at Columbine High School in April 1999 were procured at a gun show. When citizens and policy-makers consider whether to close the loophole on background checks at gun shows, they should remember the effortless way these two teenagers obtained firearms for their deadly purpose. Gun shows, notorious for their no-background-checks-required purchase practices, are emblematic of how easy it is for the wrong people to acquire firearms in America. There are more than 200 million privately owned firearms in the United States, including 65 million handguns. Regrettably, we as a society have failed to adopt... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Supreme Court: Should Washington, DC Residents be Allowed Guns?
Washingtonian (Washington, DC)
1 Mar 2008
Dig into the debate over gun rights that will be argued when the Supreme Court takes up the District of Columbia's gun ban and you will find the tale of Adrian Plesha and the burglar. It is not a stretch to say that Plesha's story triggered the Supreme Court case. On February 4, 1997, Plesha found a burglar in his Capitol Hill home near Union Station. According to Plesha, he heard the burglar upstairs, went out to his backyard, saw the man climbing out a window, and told him to freeze. In Plesha's version, the man climbed back in. Plesha went inside to get his nine-millimeter Sig Sauer semiautomatic pistol. He confronted the burglar on his porch.... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
White Male Suburban Gun Owners Flock to Oakland to Sell Guns at Buyback
Contra Costa Times (California), Opinion
1 Mar 2008
Contrary to your criticism of state Sen. Don Perata's, "One Less Gun," gun buy-back program as bungling, I want to thank Perata for enlightening, albeit indirectly, many Oakland residents as to the source of crime guns in Oakland, Richmond and all of the U.S. I was at all three sites for the buy-back in the morning and spent the rest of the day at True Vine Church in West Oakland. There was universal bewilderment at all of these out-of-towners, usually EuroAmerican males riding three and four deep in Hummers and large trucks, coming into Oakland with stockpiles of all types of weaponry. The 1997 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF)... ( gunpolicy.org )
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