Top of PageGun Policy News, 11 October 2000
Firearms-Show Ballot Measure Survives Latest Legal Challenge
11 October 2000
Denver Rocky Mountain News (Colorado)
A ballot measure to close the so-called gun show loophole survived its latest legal challenge Tuesday.
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled it was OK for backers to collect signatures last summer to put Amendment 22 on the Nov. 7 ballot while the court was reviewing a separate legal challenge to the measure.
But supporters, led by SAFE Colorado, now fear the National Rifle Association will pump millions of dollars into TV ads to kill their proposal.
The NRA three years... (GunPolicy.org)
Gore, Bush Keeping Powder Dry on Gun Control Issue
11 October 2000
Cox News Service (USA)
WASHINGTON — While Al Gore and George W. Bush talk incessantly about education, prescription drugs, Social Security and taxes, one topic is missing on the campaign trail-gun control.
This is true little more than a year after one of the worst school massacres in American history introduced the word "post-Columbine" into the national lexicon. And it's true despite concerted efforts by gun control advocates to attack Bush's record on guns in Texas and President... (GunPolicy.org)
Mother of Shooting Victim Emphasizes Importance of Tougher Gun Laws
11 October 2000
Kansas City Star (Missouri)
Until 1994, Mary Leigh Blek thought of gun violence as something that always happened to somebody else.
That changed when her 21-year-old son was shot and killed in a botched robbery.
Now the president of the Million Mom March, Blek started fighting for better gun laws so other families would never lose what she lost.
"No one-and I mean no one-is immune from gun violence," Blek told an audience of at least 60 persons Wednesday at Congregation Beth Shalom.
The talk... (GunPolicy.org)
Free Gun Locks Under Scrutiny: Malfunctions Halt Program
11 October 2000
Sacramento Bee (California)
The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department has stopped distributing free gun locks through its community service centers after the trade organization providing them announced that the locks might fail.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation of Newtown, Conn., has distributed 400,000 of the locks across the country but announced Tuesday that it would not send out more after it was learned the devices can spring open under certain circumstances.
In Sacramento, 5,000... (GunPolicy.org)
Safety Locks for Guns Pop Open
11 October 2000
Denver Post (Colorado)
The Larimer County Sheriff's Office Tuesday recalled almost 5,000 gun safety locks it had given to local residents after the national program that distributed the devices warned that they can pop open.
Officials in several other Colorado counties said they had received no complaints and were continuing to distribute the locks. But they said they were staying in close touch with the program sponsor, Project HomeSafe, and in some cases were submitting sample locks for... (GunPolicy.org)
Evolution
11 October 2000
New York Daily News, Editorial
One of the things that has endeared Sen. John McCain to voters is his ability to admit error. Unlike other politicos, he considers himself human and therefore capable of making mistakes. And better yet, of correcting them. How refreshing is that?
The Arizona Republican has made a very public turnaround on an issue most conservatives hold sacred: gun control. Specifically, he is now supporting the idea of criminal-background checks for people who buy weapons at gun... (GunPolicy.org)
Columbine Massacre Casts Shadow on Election
11 October 2000
USA Today
LITTLETON, Colorado — On a brisk early-autumn morning, with barely a month to go before the November election, Nora Lund is talking politics as she waits for the train on the Denver area's new light rail line.
She's got a husband with multiple sclerosis and a 73-year-old mother who buys prescription drugs, so health care is definitely on her mind. But she's got a 6-year-old son who will eventually enroll at Columbine High School, so gun control is on her... (GunPolicy.org)
Perjury Charges Lodged Against 11 on Gun Cards
11 October 2000
Chicago Tribune
COOK COUNTY — Eleven men have been charged with perjury for allegedly presenting false information on their applications to obtain a Firearms Owner Identification Cards, law enforcement sources announced Tuesday.
The Illinois State Police, which processes FOID applications, conducts criminal-background checks on all individuals seeking to obtain a gun.
Ten of the 11 said on their application they had not been convicted of a felony when in fact they had, authorities... (GunPolicy.org)
