Africa, World
Africans Have Reason to Celebrate: Gun Runner Victor Bout is Behind Bars
Chicago Tribune
9 Mar 2008
JOHANNESBURG -- Africans have an extraordinary reason to celebrate this week. True, for untold thousands of their war dead, the news comes too late. But this is a rare occasion, a bittersweet coda, to remember them by: Victor Bout is finally behind bars. Most people have never heard of Bout. That's the way he has always liked it. Bout, Butt, Boutov, Budd or Bulakin -- the paunchy and mustachioed Russian former intelligence officer accused by Interpol of assembling the world's largest and most destructive arms-trafficking empire has used a host of aliases. When I first stumbled across his trail in Congo in 2000, he was going by "Commandant Victor." ... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
America's Handgun Problem Can't Be Ignored - Ban Pistols for All But Police
Waterloo and Cedar Falls Courier (Iowa), Opinion
9 Mar 2008
We recently witnessed, yet again, another case of firearm violence with the shooting deaths of five people on the Northern Illinois University campus. One of the most surprising things in the aftermath was an almost complete lack of discussion on the topic of gun control. The conversation that did occur centered mostly on keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally unstable. Have we as a country given up on the notion of limiting access to firearms for the general population? Interestingly, in the Northern Illinois killings, even though the shooter had a shotgun, most of the shots were fired by the handguns he carried. He apparently fired only six of 54 shots... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Chicago Rally, City Mayor Call for Tougher Gun Laws After Student Shot
Chicago Tribune
9 Mar 2008
The day after a Crane Tech High School student was shot to death on the school's campus, Mayor Richard Daley used the tragedy to call for stricter gun laws. Standing Saturday before about a half-dozen parents who had lost children to gun violence and a crowd of parents, teachers, students and community members during a rally at Revere Elementary School on Chicago's South Side, Daley said gun violence is glorified on television and used as entertainment. But it becomes all too serious when someone dies, he added. "It's not entertainment when a child loses his life," Daley said, drawing shouts and applause. "This child should not have lost his life. ... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
In Argument Over Bad Haircut, Pennsylvania Stylist Shoots Her Angry Client
Associated Press
9 Mar 2008
WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania -- A hairstylist shot an unhappy client after she complained about her haircut, police said. Lauren Newton, 28, was getting her hair cut Thursday at the home of Monique Reed when the two began to argue about the style, police said. "She (Reed) went to the bedroom, got a gun, fired a shot in the ceiling," Police Chief James Blyth said. Newton, who was trying to flee with her sister, was then shot in the lower back, he said. Reed, 38, was charged with aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. She remained in jail in this southwestern Pennsylvania town in lieu of $50,000 bond. Newton's injuries were not considered... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Licensed California Gun Collector Arrested Again for Drugs, Machine Guns
Associated Press
9 Mar 2008
TORRANCE, California -- A Torrance man arrested last month for having a cache of weapons in his home has been booked after a second raid this week. Russell Josiah Powell was arrested at his home Wednesday night when police allegedly found drugs, newly purchased illegal ammunition and parts that enable guns to fire as automatic weapons. Police Officer Dave Crespin says the 35-year-old Powell was booked for investigation of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and weapons and ammunition offenses. Powell was first arrested Feb. 28 when police, acting on neighbor complaints about drug activity, served a search warrant.... ( gunpolicy.org )
South Africa, Thailand, Russia, United States, Africa, World
'Merchant of Death' Gun Runner's' Secret Connections in Southern Africa
Cape Argus (Capetown)
9 Mar 2008
An arrest at a luxury Thailand hotel has sent shockwaves rippling through various governmental, aviation and murky arms-trade, diamond-dealing and money-laundering circles from Johannesburg and Polokwane through to Kabul, Kinshasa, Ostend and Washington. Former Johannesburg resident Viktor Bout, the man dubbed the Merchant of Death and said to have inspired the blockbuster movie The Lord of War, was arrested on Thursday in a sting operation following a trans-continental probe involving six countries. With an associate, Andrew Smulian, Bout faces extradition to the US. But Bout's role as a "postman" for the powerful, as one Gauteng-based friend describes... ( gunpolicy.org )
Thailand, United States, World
Revealed: Trap that Lured the Merchant of Death, Gun Runner Viktor Bout
Observer (UK)
9 Mar 2008
His notorious expoits as an arms dealer have been captured in a Hollywood film. Now, after fuelling wars for a decade, Viktor Bout is behind bars. Here we uncover the elaborate sting operation that led to the downfall of the former Soviet officer with his own fleet of planes who evaded justice for so long. The war between Israel and Hizbollah was three days old when American intelligence spotted a bear-sized man with a moustache and hangdog face meeting high-ranking Hizbollah officials in a safe house just outside Beirut. With Israeli F-16s roaming the skies above the city and military commanders growing increasingly desperate to find and kill high-value Hizbollah... ( gunpolicy.org )
Uganda
Uganda Continues Drive to Disarm Karamoja Herders, 91 More Guns Seized
New Vision (Kampala)
9 Mar 2008
KAMPALA -- The UPDF has recovered 91 guns in the first six days of March in the on-going operation to recover illegally owned firearms in Karamoja sub-region. In a telephone interview with The New Vision, the spokesman of the 3rd Division, Captain Henry Obbo said 18 of the guns were recovered after the infantry supported by a reconnaissance helicopter raided Morungole mountains in Kaabong District. Obbo said one warrior was killed in an exchange of fire that lasted about four hours while another was arrested adding. He added that no aerial bombs have been used in the operation. ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Washington, DC Gun Ban Case Draws Crowd of Supreme Court 'Friends'
Washington Post
9 Mar 2008
With the Supreme Court examining for the first time in 70 years the right to bear arms guaranteed by the Second Amendment, a group of gay and transgender gun owners called the Pink Pistols could not miss out on a chance to tell the justices about its special needs. With the opaque and oddly punctuated 27 words of 18th-century prose at last under the microscope, linguistic professors wanted the court to know that "the Second Amendment's absolute construction functions as a sentence modifier." With the intentions of the Framers in question and modern social policy at stake, justices considering whether the District of Columbia's ban on handguns violates... ( gunpolicy.org )
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