United States
Vulnerable US Schools Need Protection: Let Professors Like Me Carry Guns
Chicago Tribune, Opinion
19 Feb 2008
Thirty-nine students attend my American literature seminar this semester. Our classroom is the first one you see on the left, as you enter the unlocked humanities building. If a psychotic gunman were searching for a tight cluster of multiple bodies -- an easy target for seeking revenge, casting out demons, achieving immortality or whatever else his perverse purpose happens to be -- he would find my classroom door wide open. He could assume a position straddling the threshold and blocking the exit, so that he could fire at the trapped students at will, reload his weapon and fire once again. We would be sitting ducks in yet another American schoolhouse tragedy.... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Leaders Missing: Clinton, Obama Crouch Below Radar on Gun Control
Boston Globe, Column
19 Feb 2008
Barack Obama offers hope and Hillary Clinton offers solutions, but they offer little of either on gun control. In the wake of the Feb. 8 shootings at Louisiana Technical College that took three lives, Hillary "Solutions" Clinton issued a statement that said, "I am saddened and my heart goes out to the victims and families of those affected today by the senseless crime that took place at Louisiana Technical College. "Violence of any kind should not be tolerated and hits too close to home when it's directed at our young people. America has witnessed school violence before and it is always tragic. We must do all we can to prevent such acts and keep our children... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Gun Dealer Supplied Two School Killers, Now Touts for Hidden Handguns
Green Bay Press-Gazette (Wisconsin)
19 Feb 2008
The Internet firearms retailer who sold guns and accessories to the shooters involved in the Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University incidents is now promoting a concealed weapons law. Eric Thompson, the owner of Internet-based TGSCOM Inc., has launched a Web link, www.gundebate.com, as a location where people can discuss ways to prevent further tragedy. Cho Seung-Hui used TGSCOM's Web site to buy a firearm used in the Virginia Tech shootings in April. Last week, Steven Kazmierczak, who killed five people at NIU on Wednesday, received two Glock magazines and a holster he ordered through TGSCOM. Thompson called the purchases an unfortunate... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Editor 'Inundated' with Letters to Allow Guns on Campus: Police Say No
New Hampshire (University of New Hampshire), Editorial
19 Feb 2008
He's an avid hunter, supports the NRA, believes in the importance of the second amendment ... and still feels that allowing guns on college campuses is a bad idea. No, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not making this up. He does exist, and he even has a letter published in the very paper you're holding. His name is Paul H. Dean, and he's the Deputy Chief of Police and Emergency Operations Coordinator for the UNHPD. I caught up with Deputy Dean on the phone Monday evening while he was in Texas to teach a program for the Department of Homeland Security. Having been inundated with letters about how much safer our school would be if only we were allowed to have... ( gunpolicy.org )
Congo (DRC)
UN Experts Call for Increased Monitoring of Gun-running to Congo, Africa
UN News Service (New York)
19 Feb 2008
The Group of Experts dealing with illegal arms flows into and around the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has called for the strengthening of the monitoring capacity of the United Nations Mission in the vast African nation. In recommendations in its report that was made public today, the five-member panel urged that the mission, known as MONUC, should be notified of "all incoming shipments of military supplies in a timely fashion." The report was written based on six weeks of investigations that the Group carried out in the DRC, as well as neighbouring countries such as Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, late last year. When investigating reported... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Thousands Denied Gun Permits for Mental Illness: Not Illinois Campus Killer
Chicago Sun-Times
19 Feb 2008
Thousands of mentally ill people have been barred from holding gun permits in Illinois over the last five years. But even though he had undergone mental treatment since his teens, 27-year-old Northern Illinois University killer Steve Kazmierczak was not one of them. Police are seeking Kazmierczak's medical records, which could determine whether there was a breakdown in the state's system for keeping mentally ill people from getting guns. Every day, State Police officials compare the names of state gun permit applicants and gun permit holders against an Illinois Department of Human Services database of people who have been in mental facilities.... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Shootings Energise US Lobby to Carry Handguns in Eateries, Cars, Bars
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Georgia)
19 Feb 2008
It's not the law-abiding gun owner who Ron Wolf worries about. It's the law-abiding gun owner who's had one too many. In a long career as a restaurant and nightclub manager, Wolf has seen what a few drinks can do. He's concerned that Georgia is considering a volatile mix -- allowing people carrying guns to enter restaurants serving alcohol. "Even good people have impaired judgment under the influence of alcohol," said Wolf, executive director of the Georgia Restaurant Association. "It's one thing for them to pick up a glass, and hurl it across the room. It's another if they have a gun in their hand." Wolf and his organization, which represents... ( gunpolicy.org )
India, Russia
Kalashnikov Assault Rifles May Be Made in India, Under Licence to Russia
Daily News & Analysis (Mumbai)
19 Feb 2008
NEW DELHI -- The legendary Assault rifle Kalashnikov (AK) is set to make a 'legal' entry into India. The Russian firm making the AK rifles, Izhmash, is in advanced talks with a reputed Indian industry group to start manufacture in India of the latest AK-100 series. This is the lighter, though deadlier version of the assault rifle born a few months after World War II ended. "We are carrying on negotiations with one major Indian private company. It has a licence from the government of India for small arms manufacture," said Alexander A Zavarzin, foreign economic activity director of Izhmash, an open joint stock company where the Russian government is the... ( gunpolicy.org )
India, Russia
India to Manufacture Kalashnikov Assault Rifles Under Licence to Russia
Times of India / TNN
19 Feb 2008
NEW DELHI -- With the 61st anniversary of the famed Kalashnikov AK-47 series around the corner, the Russian manufacturer of the world's best-known assault rifle announced that the latest AK-100 series will be manufactured in India. The Russian arms company, Izhmash, will shortly issue a licence to an Indian private arms manufacturer with whom negotiations are at an advanced stage. Company spokesperson Alexander Xavarzin said assembling of the AK-103 will begin in a year's time and full-scale manufacturing would start once the technology transfer takes place. The company hopes to sell the gun to various police and paramilitary forces in the country as... ( gunpolicy.org )
Germany, United States, Iraq, Afghanistan
German Gun Maker H&K Dumps 'Unique Partnership' with Blackwater USA
Deutsche Welle (Germany)
19 Feb 2008
Weapons manufacturer Heckler & Koch said it would end its relationship with Blackwater after German media reported that the controversial US-run military firm was using its guns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Blackwater, a private security company which has been contracted to protect high-profile US officials and foreign dignitaries in Iraq, had been using Heckler & Koch machine guns in both Iraq and Afghanistan, German broadcaster ARD's "Report Mainz" program reported Monday, Feb. 19. The German arms manufacturer contacted the program shortly before the report was aired on Monday night and said it would cut all its ties to the US firm, according to "Report... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Chicago's Annual Attempt to Enact Gun Controls in Face of Firearm Lobby
Chicago Tribune
19 Feb 2008
Mayor Richard Daley and other elected officials announced their annual push for new gun-control legislation Tuesday, this time using the fatal shootings at Northern Illinois University and the Lane Bryant store in Tinley Park as stark illustrations of the need for action. The package of proposals includes several bills that have been introduced repeatedly in Springfield, before meeting heavy opposition from gun-rights advocates. They range from a measure requiring state licensing of gun dealers to a proposal banning semiautomatic assault weapons and .50-caliber rifles. "Gun violence is responsible for the deaths of nearly 30,000 Americans every year,... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
America's Gun Culture and the Terror Within: An Indonesian at Harvard
Jakarta Post, Opinion
19 Feb 2008
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- A room full of bright young people in America's oldest university is asked why the U.S. has one of the highest gun-related homicide rates among industrialized countries. Hands shoot into the air and answers flow, attaching the cause to economic disparity, social disunity, racial tension. Not a single one questioned America's penchant for guns. It's a situation many of them fear but that few understand. Friends lost, lives changed, futures squandered. The impact of last week's shooting at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb was sadly familiar. Firearms continue to feature in American school grounds. In the past... ( gunpolicy.org )
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