Finland, Yemen, Switzerland, United States, United Nations
Global Gun Ownership: Finland, Yemen, Switzerland, USA - Keith Krause
Chicago Public Radio, Audio
23 Oct 2008
Last month, a 22-year-old student walked into his trade school in Finland and opened fire. He killed 10 people before shooting himself. The school massacre was the second Finland experienced in less than a year. Keith Krause is the Program Director of the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project located at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Switzerland. The Small Arms Survey puts out an annual study on the production, stockpile, and effects of small arms. The 2008 survey found that Finland ranks fourth globally in civilian firearm possession with approximately 45 firearms per 100 citizens in Finland. In the U.S.,... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States, Mexico, United Nations
'Global Treaty Against Guns' Could Slow US Weapons to World Criminals
Foreign Policy In Focus (USA)
23 Oct 2008
We've heard a lot about gun control and the second amendment in this election season. A McCain-Palin poster, featuring Alaska's 44-year-old governor with a big gun and the viewer in her rifle sights, is just one of the more graphic indications that gun control is a lightning-rod issue that distracts, distorts, and dismays. More than 200 years after our founding fathers enshrined the right to "bear arms" in our Constitution, we have more arms than we can bear. Wars are fought, fortunes are made, and nations rise and fall on these weapons. At the human-to-human level crimes are committed, vengeance is taken, rage is given full range, and terror is wreaked from... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
Hunting Group Say 15yr-old Utah Boy Killed by Stray Bullet, Not Dad's Gun
Ogden Standard-Examiner (Utah)
23 Oct 2008
FARR WEST -- As a kid, Nick Joynt loved to play cops and robbers, and every time, he insisted on being the cop. He even told friends he wanted to be a Texas Ranger when he grew up. The 15-year-old Fremont High School sophomore occasionally wore boots and a cowboy hat and recently joked to friends that one reason he wanted to move to Texas was because all the girls from there on MySpace liked him. But Joynt's dreams of living like a cowboy came to an end when he was killed in a hunting accident Sunday. Joynt, his father, an uncle and a cousin were hunting cow elk in a rural part of Daggett County when the teen was killed by a stray bullet, say... ( gunpolicy.org )
Pakistan
Pakistan Plans to Give AK-47s to Tens of Thousands of Tribal Fighters
Washington Post
23 Oct 2008
Pakistan plans to arm tens of thousands of anti-Taliban tribal fighters in its western border region in hopes -- shared by the U.S. military -- that the nascent militias can replicate the tribal "Awakening" movement that proved decisive in the battle against al-Qaeda in Iraq. The militias, called lashkars, will receive Chinese-made AK-47 assault rifles and other small arms, a purchase arranged during a visit to Beijing this month by Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistani officials said. Many Bush administration officials remain skeptical of Pakistan's long-term commitment to fighting the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other extremist groups ensconced... ( gunpolicy.org )
Canada
Proper Use of Gun Registry Could Have Saved Canadian Policeman
Ottawa Citizen (Ontario) / CanWest News
23 Oct 2008
A thorough check of the gun registry before Laval police carried out a botched drug raid could have spared the life of Const. Daniel Tessier, says the provincial workplace health and safety commission. Const. Tessier was killed on March 2, 2007, after he and a group of Laval officers stormed a Montreal-area home. He was fatally shot by Basil Parasiris, and another officer was wounded, but the investigation determined neither would have been inside the house that morning if they knew Mr. Parasiris had a registered firearm. Mr. Parasiris, who was acquitted of first-degree murder earlier this year, kept four loaded firearms in his home. One was registered... ( gunpolicy.org )
Canada
Québec's New Gun Trafficking Squad Starts With 22 Cops, 10 Arrests
Montreal Gazette (Québec)
23 Oct 2008
Information obtained by law-enforcement agencies that sheds any light on Quebec's black market for firearms, ammunition or explosives has been channelled through a specialized Sûreté du Québec squad since April. The newly formed unit has an annual budget of $1.6 million and a staff of 22. It's part of the province's augmented efforts to suppress street gangs and follows the implementation of Anastasia's Law, SQ Chief Inspector Jocelyn Latulippe told reporters yesterday. The tightened gun law is named after Anastasia De Sousa, shot and killed at Dawson College in September 2006 during a gunman's rampage. The squad's work has led to the development... ( gunpolicy.org )
South Africa
South Africa, Mozambique Police Cooperate to Destroy Guns, Ammunition
Star (Johannesburg)
23 Oct 2008
A giant mushroom cloud of grey smoke followed by an ear-splitting boom and a shuddering of the earth heralded the successful conclusion of Operation Rachel's 27th mission into Mozambique. The mass destruction of firearms has been the focus of the continuing operation, which this month put an end to tons of firearms, ammunition and other military explosives. It's a bilateral cooperation agreement between SAPS and Mozambican police, ongoing since 1996, aimed at obliterating the arms caches left behind after Mozambique's civil war and which have served as a source of weapons being used to destabilise the Southern African region. It took 27 South African... ( gunpolicy.org )
Australia
Sydney Security Guard Shoots Friend While Showing Off His New Pistol
Sydney Morning Herald
23 Oct 2008
A security guard who accidentally shot his friend in the stomach in western Sydney has told police he was trying to make sure the gun wasn't loaded. The 29-year-old Merrylands man was showing off his semi-automatic handgun to mates inside a relative's garage at Lidcombe, about 9.30am today. He told police he had taken the gun out of its holster and was checking to see no bullets were loaded when the weapon fired off one round, hitting his 36-year-old friend in the stomach. Detective Inspector Chris Goddard, from Auburn police, said the security guard fled the Railway Parade house in a white Holden Barina, but turned himself into police an hour... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States, Iraq
US Can Finally Track Guns Given to Iraq: Bush Signs White House Letter
Chicago Tribune / The Swamp, Blog
23 Oct 2008
It took years to reach this point but the Bush Administration has finally put in place a system to track the weapons it's providing to Iraqi security forces. For years, there've been concerns about thousands of weapons delivered to the Iraqi military and police that have gone missing with the obvious fear that some have wound up in enemy hands to be used against the U.S. military. The White House notified Congress today by letter: The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release October 23, 2008 Text of a Letter from the President to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Committees on Armed... ( gunpolicy.org )
United States
US Gun Lobby Obama Attack Ad 'Misleading,' Not True Story - Newsweek
Newsweek (USA)
23 Oct 2008
The National Rifle Association's misleading attacks on Obama continue. A new ad shows a terrified woman grabbing a gun after an intruder smashes his way into her home. It accuses Obama of voting repeatedly for a measure that would "make you the criminal" in such cases, and voting to "deny citizens the right of self-protection." The NRA says the incident depicted is "a true story." Not quite. The actual 2003 burglary didn't involve a woman, and it didn't become violent until the male homeowner went downstairs and started firing before calling police. The ad fails to mention that the issue was a local handgun ban that made the homeowner's gun... ( gunpolicy.org )
|
|
