Top of PageGun Policy News, 17 April 2009
Assault Weapon Ban Faces Too Much Opposition, Obama Tells Mexico
17 April 2009
Washington Post
MEXICO CITY — President Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón, outlined a common approach Thursday to combating drug violence, climate change and trade disputes but appeared to part ways over the urgency of reinstating a U.S. ban on assault weapons.
On his first presidential visit to Mexico, Obama praised Calderón for taking on the drug cartels, whose potent arsenals and economic power are threatening the integrity of the Mexican state. Obama... (GunPolicy.org)
Obama Blames US for Mexico Gun War, Urges Senate Gun Control Battle
17 April 2009
Washington Times
MEXICO CITY — Meeting face-to-face with Mexican President Felipe Calderon, President Obama on Thursday said the U.S. is to blame for much of Mexico's drug violence, and he set up a major congressional gun-control battle by calling on the Senate to ratify a treaty designed to track and cut the flow of guns to other countries.
Mr. Obama said he wants to renew a ban on some semiautomatic weapons but that it is not likely to pass Congress. Instead, he called for the... (GunPolicy.org)
Licensed Gun Dealer Charged with US-Canada Trafficking, Shop Closed
17 April 2009
CBC News (Canada)
City council in Port Coquitlam, B.C., has revoked the business licence of a gun shop run by a man charged with smuggling and selling illegal high-powered tactical weapons and ammunition.
The council was concerned about guns still stored at the vacant shop because the owner was legally banned from returning to it, and could no longer ensure sure the inventory was secure.
"We felt having a vacant store with guns and other material like that in the store was not in the... (GunPolicy.org)
US Gun Lobby, Democrats Line Up to Deny Obama's Plea for Gun Treaty
17 April 2009
ABC News (USA), Blog
While President Obama has indicated he's not willing to expend any political capital to try to re-new the ban on semi-automatic assault weapons that expired in 2004 — despite pleading from Mexican President Calderón that he do so — he did announce a step this week that is meeting with opposition from the powerful National Rifle Association — an international gun treaty that the Senate refused to ratify under former President Bill Clinton.
The Inter-American... (GunPolicy.org)
Gunman Kills 2 Workmates, Shoots Himself at California Medical Center
17 April 2009
Los Angeles Times
A pharmacy technician showed up for work at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center on Thursday brandishing two handguns, killed his boss and another manager and then fatally shot himself, witnesses said.
The shootings just before noon sent panicked patients, visitors and hospital workers running for cover as the agitated gunman stalked the corridors in search of his victims.
Long Beach police officers called to the scene found two bodies, one inside the hospital and... (GunPolicy.org)
US Pledges to Improve Abysmal Record, Stem Flow of Guns to Mexico
17 April 2009
Wall Street Journal
President Barack Obama on Thursday told Mexican President Felipe Calderón that the U.S. would stem a flow of weapons across the border into Mexico. But while Washington has spent more than $30 billion since the early 1990s to keep illicit goods and illegal immigrants from entering the U.S., it has had virtually nothing in place to check — let alone stop — what is flowing out.
Mexican authorities have long pressed the U.S. to do more to stop the southbound... (GunPolicy.org)
Fear and Greed Have American Sales of Guns and Ammo Shooting Up
17 April 2009
Wall Street Journal
FAYETTEVILLE, Georgia — The way Jay Chambers sees it, the semiautomatic weapons in his firearm collection might be the most promising investment in his financial portfolio.
Like many gun enthusiasts, Mr. Chambers, a manager for a door wholesaler here, believes President Barack Obama and the Democrats in Congress soon will reimpose a version of an expired federal ban on the sale of so-called assault weapons. If such a law passes, he figures his collection — enough... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Trafficker Found Ally in NY Mayor, Flipped to Help City, Got Probation
17 April 2009
New York Times
David P. Winfield was just the kind of gun trafficker that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has been trying to drive from the city's streets.
He was arrested in 2005 and accused of using his wife and others as "straw buyers" to acquire more than two dozen sawed-off shotguns, semiautomatic pistols and rifles in Virginia, most of their serial numbers obliterated, and selling them for thousands of dollars in New York City. He faced up to five years in prison if... (GunPolicy.org)
Obama Won't Challenge Decision to Prohibit Hidden Handguns in Parks
17 April 2009
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday it will not appeal a federal court ruling that prohibits carrying loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.
Instead, the Interior Department said it will conduct a full environmental review of an earlier policy that allowed concealed, loaded guns in parks and refuges.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down the gun policy last month. She called the rule, issued in the waning days of the Bush... (GunPolicy.org)
Houston Man Gets 8 Years for Selling 103 Guns to Mexican Drug Lords
17 April 2009
Houston Chronicle (Texas)
A Houston man, who authorities contend supplied a Mexican drug cartel with 103 military-grade weapons, including some used in the "Acapulco Massacre" of police officers, was sentenced to eight years in federal prison Friday.
While John Hernandez, a 26-year-old unemployed machinist who lived with his parents, didn't know precisely that the guns would be used to kill police and gangsters, he knew well that he was arming cartel hit men, prosecutors said.
As part of a... (GunPolicy.org)
United States,Mexico,Guatemala
Dallas-Fort Worth Cases Highlight US-Mexico Gun Trafficking Problem
17 April 2009
Dallas Morning News (Texas)
Weapons seized in local cases show North Texas isn't immune from the gun trafficking that's feeding Mexico's drug cartels.
While the volume of trafficking locally isn't clear, it is happening.
"The cartels will get guns anywhere they can," said Richard Roper, who was U.S. attorney here until January.
Thomas Crowley, a special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said, "We have had cases where they have come up to Dallas to... (GunPolicy.org)
Obama is Right: US Assault Weapon Ban Is Not Easy, But It Is Necessary
17 April 2009
Christian Science Monitor, Editorial
President Obama is not flip-flopping on gun restrictions. He's not even flipping. But he is standing still, pointedly refusing to push ideas he supported as a candidate — reasonable ideas such as requiring criminal background checks on buyers at gun shows and reinstating the federal ban on assault weapons.
For instance, Mr. Obama said in Mexico yesterday that he has "not backed off at all from [his] belief that the … assault-weapons ban made sense." Mexico is... (GunPolicy.org)
10 Years Later, Lessons of Columbine School Shooting Remain Strong
17 April 2009
Associated Press
LITTLETON, Colorado — Teenage gunmen spilled the blood of children before Columbine — in Alaska, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oregon. After Columbine, more blood was shed in Minnesota and California, in Germany and Finland.
But none of those tragedies cast a shadow as long or dark as the rampage at Columbine High School, where 13 people were gunned down 10 years ago Monday.
Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, seniors at the suburban Denver school, detonated homemade bombs... (GunPolicy.org)
Obama Hits US-Mexico Gun Running, But Assault Weapon Ban Too Hard
17 April 2009
New York Times
MEXICO CITY — President Obama, vowing to confront drug cartels that are "sowing chaos in our communities," called Thursday for the Senate to ratify a long-stalled treaty aimed at curbing illegal arms trafficking. But Mr. Obama also suggested that he would not press lawmakers to revive an expired ban on assault weapons.
On the first day of a four-day swing through Latin America that will also take him to Trinidad and Tobago, Mr. Obama declared "a new era of... (GunPolicy.org)
Obama Insists He Hasn't Backed Off On Plan to Ban Assault Weapons
17 April 2009
Reuters
MEXICO CITY — President Barack Obama stood alongside Mexico's Felipe Calderon on Thursday and promised to help his "courageous" fight against ruthless drug cartels waging turf wars along the joint border.
In his first trip to Latin America as U.S. president and fresh from his first big foray onto the global stage in Europe last month, Obama said Mexico and the United States both needed to strengthen and coordinate their drug war efforts.
Obama said he had not... (GunPolicy.org)
Obama: 'I Have Not Backed Off' on Assault Weapon Ban
17 April 2009
The Hill (Washington DC)
Political realities make reinstating the assault weapons ban extraordinarily difficult, President Obama said Thursday, but he stressed he is still in favor of the gun control measure.
Obama, joined by Mexican President Felipe Calderon at a press conference in Mexico City, said he and Calderon discussed the ban "extensively" during their meeting earlier in the day.
Mexican officials have said in recent days that they would like to see the ban reinstated, noting that... (GunPolicy.org)
55,064 Illegal Guns Collected, 60 Convicted of Possession in Angola
17 April 2009
Angola Press
LUANDA — Some sixty people were sentenced this year by the Court to correctional terms of six to seven months of effective prison for illegal possession of firearms, said Friday the second commander-general of National Police, Paulo de Almeida.
Speaking to Angop, at the first anniversary of the approval of Government's programme for disarmament of the population, the commissioner de Almeida announced the need to work hard toward taking measures of the criminal... (GunPolicy.org)
Kenya Police Demand Illegal Guns in Rift Valley, Residents Cry Foul
17 April 2009
Standard (Nairobi)
The Government has launched a security operation to mop up illegal firearms at the troubled Kwanza and West Pokot border.
Some members of the Pokot community, however, claimed security officers carrying out the operation were harassing them.
But police dismissed the claims saying they were there to deal with armed gangs that have been raiding homes.
"They attack and kill people and come up with baseless claims whenever we conduct crackdowns," said a police officer.... (GunPolicy.org)
