United States
US Supreme Court Nears 'Up-or-down Vote on the Limits of Gun Control'
Washington Times
16 Mar 2008
WASHINGTON -- The District of Columbia's fight to preserve its nearly 32-year-old ban on handguns before the U.S. Supreme Court has drawn nationwide attention as an up-or-down vote on the limits of gun control. "Regardless of who wins and loses, the crucial thing is really going to be what [the justices] are going to say about the Second Amendment," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Combat Gun Violence. "It will set the ground rules for analyzing almost every gun law in the country for years to come." Attorneys for the city and Dick Anthony Heller -- a special police officer whose failed effort to register a handgun in 2002 helped... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Supreme Court Justices Offer 'Scant Public Record' of Gun Law Intent
Washington Post
16 Mar 2008
Not much in the public record indicates how the Supreme Court justices interpret the Second Amendment, even though advocates on both sides of the issue have searched their writings for clues. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said during his confirmation hearings in 2005 that the court's 1939 decision in U.S. v. Miller "sidestepped" the essential questions about the meaning of the amendment. Then he did the same, predicting that the issue would come before the court. "So people try to read the tea leaves about Miller and what would come out on this issue. But that's still very much an open issue," he said. Justice John Paul Stevens joined the majority... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US High Court Steps Into Guns, Cultural Conflict for First Time in 69 Years
Newsweek (USA)
16 Mar 2008
This week the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the most important gun-control case in 69 years. And almost lost amid all the political posturing on both sides of the case about the constitutional contours of the "right to bear arms" is the quiet, crucial fact that the high court is about to step into a cultural conflict for the first time in 69 years. Think about it: abortion, homosexuality, affirmative action, separation of church and state, the death penalty. The court has waded into almost every hot-button social issue dividing this country. And both conservatives and liberals suspect that in doing so, the high court has messed things up. Its... ( gunpolicy.org )
Canada, United States
US Handguns Smuggled to Canada, Used in Crime as Soon as 2 Days Later
Toronto Sun (Ontario)
16 Mar 2008
American handguns are ending up in the hands of Toronto street thugs within days of being purchased legally in the U.S. Just this week, Toronto Police seized four guns in two separate incidents including a fully-loaded .45-calibre handgun with its serial number scratched off. Police believe that gun was likely smuggled across the border. It's a familiar story repeated over and over as hundreds of handguns and other firearms have been recovered in crimes and seizures in the past few years. When a U.S. source gun turns up in an Ontario crime a Toronto-based member of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms goes to work trying to track... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States, Mexico
US Gun Shows, Dealers Fuel Mexican Drug Wars with Assault Weapons
Reuters
16 Mar 2008
PHOENIX -- The agent raised the machine gun to his shoulder and let rip a deafening hail of shots that smacked through a bullet proof vest, punched holes in a car door and spat up a plume of sand in the levee behind. Taking the plugs out of my ringing ears, I walked over the gritty desert firing range to look at the damage from the Kalashnikov. The traffic of guns of this type from the United States to the warring Mexican drug cartels is the less-reported flip side of the drugs trade north from Mexico and South America. I have covered crime on the U.S.-Mexico border for several years, and was trying to grasp first hand the devastating power... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Gun Control Advocates, Opponents Ready for Supreme Court Argument
Fox News (USA)
16 Mar 2008
WASHINGTON -- The nine justices of the highest court in the land will meet Tuesday to hear arguments on who the Founders Fathers intended when they called for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms: a well regulated militia or all individuals. Tuesday's arguments in front of the Supreme Court -- the focal point for gun rights advocates and foes alike -- will be the first significant Second Amendment case in front of the high court since 1939. Supporters and opponents are equally excited and concerned by the prospect of what the court's ruling -- expected by June -- could mean for individuals seeking clearer laws on the right to bear arms. Washington,... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Church Security Guard Fires at Purse Snatcher, Hits 11yr-old Boy
WDIV-TV News (Michigan)
16 Mar 2008
DETROIT -- An 11-year-old boy was accidentally shot in the arm by a security guard on Detroit's west side Sunday afternoon after a bullet aimed at a purse-snatcher missed its mark. According to police, a security guard at the Hope Evangelical Ministries Church on Livernois witnessed a man attempting to steal a woman's purse. The guard noticed that the man had a gun and fired a shot at him. The shot missed the man and instead grazed the arm of the boy, who was sitting in the back seat of a car nearby. He was taken to a local hospital, where he is expected to recover. Police are questioning the security guard and a search is on for the... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Texas Prosecutors Fear New 'Shoot First' Law Will Let Murderers Go Free
Dallas Morning News (Texas)
16 Mar 2008
For many Texas legislators, last year's castle law seemed like a no-brainer. Anyone breaking into your home, car or business poses a grave threat; you should have the right to shoot first -- and ask questions later. The new law has yet to see its day in court, but that day is coming. Homicide cases that pivot upon it could emerge by the middle of this year. Meanwhile, some prosecutors worry the law will cause more confusion than clarity in the courtroom. Worse, they fear it will let real murderers off the hook. They are particularly concerned about a legal concept, called a "presumption," used in the law by legislators who appear not... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Supreme Court Gun Ban Decision 'Could Reverberate Throughout the US'
Los Angeles Times
16 Mar 2008
WASHINGTON -- For more than 30 years, the District of Columbia has had the nation's strictest gun-control law -- a ban on having handguns at home for self-defense. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to that law from those who say it violates the 2nd Amendment's right to keep and bear arms. Few would cite D.C.'s gun ban as proof that gun control leads to crime control, as the city continues to have one of the nation's highest rates of violent crime. Even some gun-control advocates don't support it. The case has drawn wide attention not because of the city's law itself, but because the court may decide for the first time whether... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Supreme Court Case May Set Broad Precedent for Gun Control in America
Washington Post
16 Mar 2008
Despite mountains of scholarly research, enough books to fill a library shelf and decades of political battles about gun control, the Supreme Court will have an opportunity this week that is almost unique for a modern court when it examines whether the District's handgun ban violates the Second Amendment. The nine justices, none of whom has ever ruled directly on the amendment's meaning, will consider a part of the Bill of Rights that has existed without a definitive interpretation for more than 200 years. "This may be one of the only cases in our lifetime when the Supreme Court is going to be interpreting the meaning of an important provision of the... ( gunpolicy.org )
Bulgaria
Shooting by Licensed Owner Prompts Bulgaria to Vow Tough New Gun Law
Xinhua
16 Mar 2008
SOFIA -- Changes in the law that regulates issuing permits for possession of firearms are urgently required, local press reported Saturday citing Bulgaria's Interior Minister Rumen Petkov. According to the minister, stricter rules are required, because 90 percent of the appeals against the Interior Ministry over rejections for arms permits are accepted by the court while permits are then issued. Petkov declared that in the next few days the ministry would publicly announce the law changes it is going to propose to the parliament. Petkov commented on the gun laws in relation to the recent tragic shooting case in Bulgaria's western town of Tran.... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Historic Gun Control Case to Be Heard Tuesday by US Supreme Court
Chicago Tribune
16 Mar 2008
WASHINGTON -- It's a shooting war, for certain. Democrats versus Republicans, cities versus states, cops versus cops, scholars versus scholars, and most bizarrely, the Bush administration against itself. The root of the conflict lies in a case that will be argued before the Supreme Court on Tuesday, one as dramatic as any in recent memory. For the first time in almost 70 years, the court will consider whether the 2nd Amendment grants an individual the right to own a gun. It's a day long awaited by gun-rights activists and long feared by those who favor gun control. At issue is Washington, D.C.'s near-total ban on gun ownership, a ban... ( gunpolicy.org )
Canada, United States
Guns, Drugs, Tobacco Enrich Smuggling Gangs at US-Canadian Border
Toronto Sun (Ontario)
16 Mar 2008
The scourge of gun violence plaguing Toronto streets is being fuelled by a cross-border guns for marijuana trade, law enforcement officials tell the Sunday Sun. A $2,000 half-kilo of Canadian marijuana trafficked into the U.S. jumps in value to around $4,000, double that if it's sold in southern states. Meanwhile, a handgun picked up for $250 in an American gun shop can fetch $2,000 on Toronto's streets. It's a supply and demand illegal trade-off that rewards thugs and has the cops fighting an increasingly costly war against drugs and guns. Worse, gang and gun violence are leaving a growing number of bloody casualties. Shutting... ( gunpolicy.org )
United Kingdom
Gun Injuries Increase as Armed UK Police Shoot Themselves, Colleagues
Daily Mail (UK)
16 Mar 2008
The number of armed police officers accidentally shooting themselves -- and other colleagues -- has soared in the past five years. Now, nearly half of all injuries caused by police shootings are the result of officers blasting themselves or a colleague, often during bungled training and demonstrations. Since 2003, there have been seven incidents in which armed police injured themselves or a fellow officer due to the careless handling of a gun, compared to just four in the previous 12 years. The disturbing statistics call into question the competence and training of the 6,700 officers authorised to carry firearms in the 43 police forces in England... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Gun Control Should Be, But Is Not a Hot Topic for US Presidential Aspirants
International Herald Tribune / Bloomberg News
16 Mar 2008
This Tuesday is a rare one in the United States, without a presidential primary. The political fireworks instead will be at the Supreme Court, which will hear a case on whether the government can limit firearms. In a country racked by gun violence, this should be a hot topic among presidential aspirants. It isn't. The Democratic candidates, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, and, less surprisingly, the likely Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, are ducking the issue. There is minimal attention to guns on any of their Web sites. Every reputable poll shows most Americans believe in limits... ( gunpolicy.org )
Uganda
Former Rebels Told to Surrender Illegal Guns Hidden in West Nile Region
New Vision (Kampala)
16 Mar 2008
KAMPALA -- The army has called on former combatants in the West Nile region to surrender military weapons in their possession. Capt. Robert Kamara, the regional UPDF spokesman, said they had evidence that former soldiers had guns hidden in discreet arms banks. "There were various rebel groups that signed peace agreements with the Government and declared their arms. But we believe that some of them did not have the opportunity to surrender them. It is time to do so," Kamara said. Addressing journalists at Yumbe army detachment, he displayed the cache of illegal arms that were recovered between March 5 and 10. It included 20 submachine guns, three... ( gunpolicy.org )
Canada, United States
Canadian, US Criminals' Preferred Choice of Illegal, Smuggled Handguns
Toronto Sun (Ontario)
16 Mar 2008
Handguns are the most popular U.S. source weapons that turn up in Ontario through official tracing. The top four weapons that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms trace are: Smith and Wesson .38 revolver, Glock 9-mm, Ruger 9-mm and a Hi-Point. Street prices, which police estimate range from $3,000 for a Glock 9-mm to $1,000 for a low-end firearm, are also tough to state equivocally. "It really comes down to opportunity -- guys will take whatever they get," said Det. Steve Horwood of the Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit. "If they get to pick, my guess would be that they would be picking semi-automatic type pistols because that... ( gunpolicy.org )
Canada
Canadian Park Wardens Lost 21 Rifles, Shotguns in a Single Gun Theft
Canadian Press
16 Mar 2008
OTTAWA -- Thieves nabbed 12 gauge shotguns and scores of rifles in a massive heist at one of Canada's national parks, says a newly released document. Parks Canada's inventory of items stolen from Manitoba's Riding Mountain National Park lists 21 guns -- and the agency says the Mounties have recovered just two of them. An official from Parks Canada says the weapons, stolen in November 2006, were not kept in special gun lockers or monitored by surveillance cameras. But they were kept in a locked inventory room, said Andre Leger, the agency's chief financial officer. "Since this incident, they've improved upon the way they are stored,"... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
98% of Americans Call Gun Ownership a 'God-given' Right - NRA Director
Waco Tribune (Texas), Opinion
16 Mar 2008
Grassroots. That's the American way. Neighbors helping neighbors, Americans helping Americans, uniting together for like-minded causes that we really believe in and deeply care about. If there is one defining all-American, self-evident truth that has galvanized good families across this country since the inception of this experiment in self-government, it surely is our God-given right to keep and bear arms for self defense. If there is one glaring, lame, irresponsible condition that conscientious American citizens also agree upon, it is that being unarmed and helpless is a surefire recipe for victimization. After all, that is why brave people... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States, Iraq
200,000 Missing Guns at Centre of US, Iraq, Kuwait Military Corruption Probe
KippReport (Dubai) / Trends Magazine
16 Mar 2008
Major Gloria D. Davis of the US Army was buried in Washington's Arlington Cemetery, the last resting place of many of America's military heroes, on December 23, 2006. But the 47-year-old Davis, of Missouri, an 18-year army veteran, did not perish fighting her country's enemies. Instead, the US Army said, she died in "a non-combat-related incident" in Iraq. In fact, Gloria Davis put a bullet in her brain on December 12 in her quarters in the sprawling US military base at Baghdad International Airport. The previous day she had confessed to military investigators that she had taken $225,000 in bribes in 2004-05 from a US defense contractor that operated warehouses... ( gunpolicy.org )
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