Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola, China
Cargo of Chinese Guns, Ammunition Visits Namibia on Way to Zimbabwe
Namibian (Windhoek)
22 Apr 2008
A Chinese ship carrying six containers of ammunition for Zimbabwe has applied to take on fuel at Walvis Bay this morning. The An Yue Jiang is carrying three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1 500 rocket-propelled grenades and more than 3 000 mortar rounds and mortar tubes. Attempts to get comment from Government yesterday were unsuccessful. Messages were left for Minister of Information, Joel Kaapanda, but he had not returned them by the time of going to press. Yesterday, the Legal Assistance Centre said it would approach the High Court to stop the ship from entering Namibia at Walvis Bay. Interviewed on One Africa TV News... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Chicago Newspaper Prints Front Page in Reverse to Highlight Gun Violence
Editor and Publisher (USA)
22 Apr 2008
CHICAGO -- To draw attention to the launch of a campaign to stop gun violence against children, the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday printed its front page in reverse. "Stop the killing," the bold headline read in mirror image. "Turning our backs doesn't help," the newspaper said in normal type beneath a photo of the backs of pedestrians waiting at a street corner. The tabloid said it was kicking off a series examining the reasons for the violence, which since the beginning of the school year has taken the lives of more than 20 Chicago Public School students. Last weekend, the first with warm weather since the fall, there were at least 36 shooting... ( gunpolicy.org )
Zimbabwe, China, South Africa, United States, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia
China Says Ship Carrying Ammunition, Guns to Zimbabwe May Head Home
Associated Press
22 Apr 2008
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- A shipment of weapons to Zimbabwe may be returned to China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday, after the troubled southern African nation's neighbors prevented the cargo from being unloaded. The Chinese freighter arrived in South Africa last week, and human rights groups and others said they feared the mortar grenades and bullets onboard could be used by President Robert Mugabe's regime to clamp down on its opposition. Zimbabwean church leaders issued a joint statement Tuesday calling for international intervention, saying people were being tortured, abducted and some murdered in a campaign against opposition supporters. ... ( gunpolicy.org )
Zimbabwe, China, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia, Zambia
Chinese Ammunition 'Ship of Shame' Adrift in Southern African Controversy
IRIN (UN News)
22 Apr 2008
JOHANNESBURG -- There were conflicting reports about the whereabouts of a Chinese ship, laden with a cargo of small arms destined for Zimbabwe, after it was turned away from South Africa's port city of Durban. According to some reports, the 150-metre multipurpose cargo vessel, the An Yue Jiang - registered in China and one of 600 vessels owned by the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO), dubbed by South African media as the "Ship of Shame" -- is now en route to the Angolan capital of Luanda, while others said it was bound for Mozambique's second city, Beira, and another said China had ordered the vessel to return home. The ship was denied entrance to... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Florida's New 'Take Your Guns to Work' Law Faces Heavy Legal Challenge
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale)
22 Apr 2008
Florida's so-called "guns-to-work" law is the target of a lawsuit filed Monday in federal district court in Tallahassee by the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation against Florida's attorney general. The law, signed April 15 by Gov. Charlie Crist and effective in July, allows employees with concealed-weapons permits to keep guns locked in their vehicles at work. The business groups are challenging the law as unconstitutional. They also claim it will increase the risk of serious physical harm to customers, employees or others invited to Florida's places of business. The National Rifle Association and other supporters... ( gunpolicy.org )
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, China
Global Gun Control Campaign Protests Chinese Arms Shipment to Zimbabwe
New Era (Windhoek)
22 Apr 2008
WINDHOEK -- The Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) yesterday called on all Namibians to raise their voices in protest against the docking of the Chinese ship, An Jue Jiang, at a Namibian harbour. The ship is carrying arms bound for Zimbabwe, including three million rounds of ammunition and desperately trying to find a way to deliver the cargo to that country. After the International Action Network on Small Arms, IANSA, a global movement against gun violence, won a court order in South Africa to prevent the consignment of arms on the ship from docking in Durban, appeals have gone out to SADC countries, especially Angola, Mozambique and Namibia, to prevent... ( gunpolicy.org )
Zimbabwe, China, South Africa, United States, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia
Gun Cargo Rejection 'Dramatic Turn' for Africa's Embrace of Zimbabwe
Washington Post
22 Apr 2008
JOHANNESBURG -- A Chinese ship carrying weapons and ammunition for Zimbabwe's military may be headed back home, reports said, after repeated attempts to deliver its cargo were frustrated by a coalition of legal activists, union workers and human rights groups. The region's resistance to the shipment, which drew praise from the United States on Tuesday, marks a dramatic turn from southern Africa's traditional embrace of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe and its reverence for national sovereignty. It also signals the strength of South Africa's mounting backlash against President Thabo Mbeki's traditionally deferential dealings with Mugabe. The resistance... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Gun Rights Trample All Others as Florida Passes 'Take Guns to Work' Law
Tampa Tribune (Florida), Editorial
22 Apr 2008
Like a majority of lawmakers, Gov. Charlie Crist places gun rights above all others. By signing a bill that allows people to keep guns in their cars at work, he ignored the private property rights of business owners, who must pay the price for any gun-related incidents on their land. The guns-at-work law also allows a secret group of citizens to buy constitutional protection by obtaining a permit to carry a concealed weapon. The National Rifle Association says none of the 480,000 people carrying concealed weapons in Florida pose a danger, suggesting there's never been a gun-related incident among them. But you'll have to take their... ( gunpolicy.org )
World
Internet Sleuths Could Scour Web for Gunmen, Prevent Campus Shootings
Globe & Mail (Toronto)
22 Apr 2008
Alone in his bedroom, week after week, the young killer-in-waiting stares into his computer screen, plotting the worst and telling the world. But his plans to shoot up his high school or university campus never materialize. Instead, there's an early-morning door knock from police who've been stealthily tracking his online activities. A plausible scenario? Could mass school shootings be averted with cyberspace snooping and sleuthing? Probably, say experts who study such things, if the resources were there. The obstacles, however, are formidable. In Montreal Tuesday morning, such theories met reality when Cegep du Vieux Montreal junior... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Nine People Shot Dead in 36 Shootings Over the Weekend in Chicago
Associated Press
22 Apr 2008
CHICAGO -- Nine people were killed in 36 shootings over the weekend in Chicago, reflecting what some community leaders say is a deadly breakdown in discipline among gang members after a crackdown over the past few years put many of their leaders behind bars. "The older guys in the past looked out for the little ones. Now they're all locked up," said Nick Stames, a social studies teacher at Crane Tech High School on the city's gang-ridden West Side. "There's no sense of discipline in the projects. Everybody's doing their own thing." Now there is growing fear that Chicago could be in for a long, bloody summer. "If this happened on this weekend,... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia, Angola, China
Southern African Ports Shun Ship Carrying Guns to Zimbabwe; US Agrees
Los Angeles Times / Chicago Tribune
22 Apr 2008
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Public outcries have forced a rusty Chinese cargo ship to avoid South Africa, Mozambique and Angola, leaving it at sea Tuesday with 77 tons of munitions bound for Zimbabwe, where an election crisis has reportedly turned violent. The An Yue Jiang was carrying about 3 million rounds of Chinese ammunition, 1,500 rockets and 3,000 mortar shells. The State Department's top Africa envoy, who is to arrive in the region today, will urge governments to hold firm against the shipment. Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa this week broke ranks with African colleagues, pressing them to deny the ship access to their ports and prodding landlocked... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
To Buy a Gun in Michigan, Mentally Ill Rampage Killer Merely Lied on a Form
Detroit Free Press (Michigan)
22 Apr 2008
Three days before he went on a shooting spree at the Troy office building where he had been fired, Anthony LaCalamita went target practicing at a local gun range, using a Remington shotgun, the kind of gun he then bought and used to shoot three of his former colleagues. "He was normal customer, a nice guy, nothing out of the ordinary," said Roy Jihad, manager of Target Sports, a Royal Oak gun shop and range told jurors in the second day of LaCalamita's murder trial. LaCalamita arrived at the gun shop on April 6, 2007, the morning after he was fired from Gordon Advisers PC, asking to buy a gun. He paid $48 for a half hour of target practice in... ( gunpolicy.org )
Iraq
To Curb Children's Aggressive Behaviour, Iraq Mulls Ban on Toy Gun Imports
Associated Press
22 Apr 2008
BAGHDAD -- A parliamentary committee is drafting a bill that would ban imports of toy guns and fireworks into Iraq, hoping to curb increasingly aggressive behavior among children who have grown up amid real war, a lawmaker said Tuesday. "The culture of violence has prevailed in our society and controlled the Iraqi family, and that has affected the culture of children," said Samira al-Moussawi, head of parliament's committee on children and women, which is preparing the proposed ban. "It has become a habit among a majority of our children to take what they want by force and we want to change this culture," al-Moussawi told The Associated Press. She... ( gunpolicy.org )
Zimbabwe, South Africa, Namibia, China
Under African Pressure, China Recalls Cargo of Zimbabwe Guns, Ammo?
SW Radio Africa (London)
22 Apr 2008
A controversial arms shipment from China, meant for crisis torn Zimbabwe, might have been recalled back to China following pressure from African countries that refused to allow it to dock at their ports. On Tuesday the China Ocean Shipping Company, owners of the An Yue Jiang ship, announced their vessel was coming back home. Despite Chinese claims that the delivery was 'normal military product trade,' Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa led the chorus of disapproval that urged African countries not to allow the ship to unload its deadly wares. A South African court last week issued an order barring the transit of the weapons through it's territory. The... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Gun Shops, Gun Shows Knowingly Fuel Mexican Drug, Gang Wars - ATF
ABC News (USA)
22 Apr 2008
U.S. gun stores and gun shows are the source of more than 90 percent of the weapons being used by Mexico's ruthless drug cartels, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials. "It's a war going on in Mexico, and these types of firearms are the weapons of war for them," said Bill Newell, the special agent in charge of the Phoenix field division of the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which has primary law enforcement jurisdiction for investigating gun trafficking to Mexico. "It's virtually impossible to buy a firearm in Mexico as a private citizen, so this country is where they come," said Newell. But U.S.... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, South Africa, China
US Seeks to Block Zimbabwe-bound Chinese Ammunition, Gun Shipment
Associated Press
22 Apr 2008
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is intervening with governments in southern Africa to prevent a Chinese ship carrying weapons for Zimbabwe's security forces from unloading its cargo, The Associated Press has learned. At the same time, the State Department's top Africa hand, Jendayi Frazer, plans to visit the region this week to underscore U.S. concerns about the shipment. Frazer also will try to persuade Zimbabwe's neighbors to step up pressure on President Robert Mugabe's government to publish results from a disputed election that the opposition claims to have won, administration officials said Monday. U.S. intelligence agencies are tracking the... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Weekend of Gun Violence Kills at Least 7, Wounds Dozens in Chicago
Chicago Tribune
22 Apr 2008
Weekend gun violence in Chicago that sparked heightened concern from city leaders and the public killed at least seven people and left three dozen wounded, officials reported Monday. The weekend shootings came as warm temperatures in the Chicago area drew many people outdoors. Thirteen of the victims were Chicago Public School students, Mayor Richard Daley said Monday. "One thing we know, it's unacceptable. Whether it's good or bad weather, that's unacceptable," Daley said at a news conference. Chicago police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the total number of casualties is preliminary, and the department's crime tallies are not made official... ( gunpolicy.org )
Zimbabwe, China, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, Namibia
Zimbabwe Bristles at Southern Africa's Rejection of Guns, Ammo Cargo
News24 (Cape Town)
22 Apr 2008
HARARE -- Zimbabwe bristled at criticism for buying arms from China on Tuesday, as pressure mounted on its neighbours to keep a load of weapons from reaching their destination. China said a Chinese ship carrying the shipment might return home without offloading its cargo. The ship arrived in South Africa last week carrying Chinese weapons for landlocked Zimbabwe. South African human rights, union and others groups objected, saying the weapons should not be allowed to cross their country to reach Zimbabwe for fear the mortar grenades and bullets could be used by President Robert Mugabe's regime to clamp down on its opposition. One South African... ( gunpolicy.org )
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