Top of PageGun Policy News
Plea for Ban on Semi-automatics
10 June 1999
Age (Melbourne)
The father of a girl killed in Britain's Dunblane massacre yesterday warned that more tragedies like the Port Arthur killings could happen in Australia unless semi-automatic pistols were completely banned.
Mr Mick North, whose five-year-old daughter Sophie was killed by Dunblane gunman Thomas Hamilton, urged Australian authorities to prevent sporting shooters from owning semi-automatic handguns.
Mr North said Hamilton's status as a sporting shooter gave him access to... (GunPolicy.org)
10 June 1999
New York Times; Essay
Amendment II: A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
WASHINGTON — Twenty years ago, I asked Richard Nixon what he thought of gun control. His on-the-record reply: "Guns are an abomination." Free from fear of gun owners' retaliation at the polls, he favored making handguns illegal and requiring licenses for hunting rifles.
Last week, when ABC's Charles Gibson... (GunPolicy.org)
10 June 1999
ABCNews.com
Can you make a safer gun?
That's the question now being debated by the gun industry and gun-control groups.
At issue is "smart gun" technology, design changes to make firearms less likely to be fired accidentally or used by someone other than its owner. The designs range from trigger and combination locks to radio bracelets or fingerprint sensors that allow the gun to recognize its authorized user.
Advocates say the technologies would protect children from accidental... (GunPolicy.org)
Improving Gun Safety; Chat With Professor Stephen Teret
10 June 1999
ABC News (USA)
Can you improve gun safety through education and the creation of "smart guns"? Or would that be just be giving the public a false sense of security? Stephen Teret, professor of Health and Public Policy and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, joins us Thursday, June 10, at 11 a.m. ET to answer your questions.
Teret had worked as a poverty lawyer and trial lawyer in New York before becoming a full-time faculty member of the Johns Hopkins... (GunPolicy.org)
4 Firms to Get Large Sums If City's Gun Lawsuit Succeeds
10 June 1999
Boston Globe
As the City of Boston pursues its lawsuit against the gun industry, Mayor Thomas M. Menino has agreed that the four law firms taking on the case would get 25 percent of any settlement — the same fee structure that fueled concerns about the state's tobacco settlement.
With the city claiming damages of more than $100 million, it's entering the legal partnership with the expectation of waiving some $25 million.
The arrangement offers an obvious cushion: If the lawsuit... (GunPolicy.org)
NRA Drops Effort to Revise Concealed Weapons Law
10 June 1999
Detroit Free Press
LANSING — The drive to revise Michigan's concealed weapons law — pushed off the front burner in recent weeks by a vigorous counteroffensive from anti-gun groups — has been quietly shut down altogether at the urging of the nation's most prominent gun rights advocate, the National Rifle Association.
A representative of the NRA told backers of Michigan's legislation in a Tuesday meeting that the measure is ill-timed and would lead to an expensive and probably... (GunPolicy.org)
10 June 1999
USA Today
Jimmy Allen Cubello, a fugitive wanted on marijuana smuggling charges since 1993, returned to the United States in March after years of lying low in the border town of Reynosa, Mexico.
The 47-year-old U.S. citizen registered to vote, got a Texas ID and renewed his driver's license — all without trouble. Then, on March 12, he tried to buy a gun at a pawnshop in McAllen, Texas. Big mistake.
The shop's owner called the FBI for an instant background check on the man who... (GunPolicy.org)
Hastert's Gun Control Initiatives Panned
10 June 1999
Washington Post
Only a day after rallying Republicans behind a common agenda, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) found himself struggling to salvage his initiatives on gun control, an issue that has haunted his party since the mass shootings in Littleton, Colo., in April.
Moderate Republicans, Democrats and President Clinton all voiced disappointment yesterday over a new package of House GOP gun control measures — drafted with the input of the National Rifle Association —... (GunPolicy.org)
Newark Joins Suit Against Gun Industry
10 June 1999
Boston Globe / Reuters
NEWARK — This depressed city joined a move yesterday to sue gun makers, asserting that the violence caused by firearms has cost millions of dollars annually in police and medical costs, and that the losses stifle economic development.
The Newark mayor, Sharpe James, said at a news conference that the city had filed suit against 29 gun makers, three gun industry associations and two gun distributors, seeking punitive damages "for the misery their products have caused... (GunPolicy.org)
Clinton Faults House GOP Gun Measures
10 June 1999
New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Clinton assailed House Republicans' gun-control proposals Wednesday as flawed measures that had been "plainly ghostwritten" by the National Rifle Association, which he said was successfully whittling away at the modest new restrictions on firearms approved by the Senate last month.
"It is wrong to let the N.R.A. call the shots on this issue," the President said this afternoon. "This is a classic, horrible example of how Washington is out of... (GunPolicy.org)
Schoolgirl Accused of Shooting Her Mother, Court Told
9 June 1999
Courier-Mail (Brisbane)
A schoolgirl, 12, allegedly told police she had shot her mother, a Sunshine Coast court heard yesterday.
The girl, who cannot be named because of her age, was facing the start of committal proceedings in a special Maroochydore Children's Court sitting.
She is charged with murdering her mother, 48, at their Mapleton home on October 10, last year.
Police said then that the woman had been found lying on her bed about 9pm with a single gunshot wound to the head.
The... (GunPolicy.org)
Guns Owners May Face 40-hour Training Camp
9 June 1999
Courier-Mail (Brisbane)
Prospective gun owners could face up to 40 hours of compulsory training at a TAFE [a college — ed.] under proposals being considered by state and territory police ministers today.
A meeting of the Australian Police Ministers Council in Sydney also will discuss a Commonwealth plan to establish a national training authority which would sets basic competency standards for new gun owners.
The Federal Government's proposals are part of a push to create uniform standards... (GunPolicy.org)
Clinton Blasts House for Bowing to NRA
9 June 1999
United Press International
WASHINGTON — President Clinton has criticized the House leadership for letting the National Rifle Association "call the shots" on tougher gun control measures and has urged Americans to speak up on the issue.
Speaking before he took part in a civil rights law enforcement roundtable today, Clinton blasted House lawmakers for taking steps to water down legislation already passed by the Senate.
"It is a bill that is plainly ghostwritten by the NRA," the president said.... (GunPolicy.org)
Clinton Hits House GOP for 'Watered-Down' Gun Bill
9 June 1999
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Bitterly evoking the Colorado school massacre, President Clinton accused House Republicans today of pushing a watered- down gun-control bill "plainly ghostwritten" by the National Rifle Association.
At the same time, internal Republican polling shows strong support nationwide for a series of gun-control measures, including an increase in the allowable age for handgun purchases from 18 to 21.
"It is wrong to let the NRA call the shots on this issue," the... (GunPolicy.org)
9 June 1999
Boston Globe, Column
There is an honest desperation about the lawsuits being filed against gun makers by Boston and 19 other cities. There was no alternative as Congress plays the hit man for the National Rifle Association.
As Congress agonizes over the most minor of gun restrictions and clatters in abject cowardice over sweeping gun control, the mayors got the message that NRA money still means more in Washington, even in its somewhat devalued state after the Littleton schoolyard... (GunPolicy.org)
Browning Says Gun-Crime Report Isn't Accurate
9 June 1999
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
A Utah gun manufacturer is listed as one of the 137 "worst" gun dealers in the nation, supplying a significant number of guns used in crimes last year, according to a new study of federal firearms data.
The study, conducted by the office of Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., found that 1 percent of the nation's 100,000 federally licensed gun dealers supplied weapons used in 45 percent of the crimes in which the gun was traced by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and... (GunPolicy.org)
House GOP Backs NRA's Gun Show Bill
9 June 1999
Washington Post
House Republican leaders yesterday embraced gun control legislation written with the help of the National Rifle Association, and announced plans to rush it to a final vote.
The GOP measure significantly modifies a Democratic proposal that narrowly passed the Senate last month and that for the first time would require mandatory background checks on all firearm purchases at gun shows. While retaining the Senate's mandatory checks, the House Republican version modifies... (GunPolicy.org)
Riverdale Gun Shop No. 2 on the 'Worst of Worst' List
9 June 1999
Chicago Sun-Times
His south suburban gun store is targeted in two lawsuits seeking to hold dealers responsible for the violence committed by the weapons they sell.
And now Chuck's Gun Shop in Riverdale is implicated among "the worst of the worst" in a national study that ranks it No. 2 on a list of stores that sell the most firearms that later turn up in criminals' hands.
The store sold 1,176 guns traced to crimes committed from 1996 through 1998, according to the study by Sen. Charles... (GunPolicy.org)
9 June 1999
ABC News (USA)
KEVIN NEWMAN — In Washington today, an accusation from President Clinton of arm-twisting of the highest order. As members of the House wrestle with a new gun control bill, the President charged House Republicans with taking orders from the gun lobby.
Here is ABC's Linda Douglass.
LINDA DOUGLASS, ABCNEWS (VO) Democrats charged that the Republican gun control legislation is riddled with loopholes crafted by the National Rifle Association.
PRES BILL CLINTON It is a... (GunPolicy.org)
Senate Panel OKs Gun Sales Limit
9 June 1999
Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO — Legislation intended to dry up a source of illegal handguns by restricting their sale to one per customer a month passed its first test in the state Senate on Tuesday after winning Assembly approval in April.
Under current California law, legal purchasers of firearms can buy unlimited numbers of handguns and other firearms.
Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles) and a coalition of law enforcement and gun control interests and others told the Senate... (GunPolicy.org)
