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Guns on campus; firearms, students and teachers
11 People Shot at Pakistani University After Bombing
17 June 2013
BBC News
The women's university at the centre of Saturday's deadly twin attacks in the Pakistani city of Quetta has been shut down until further notice.
In the first incident a bomb on a university bus killed 14 women. Gunmen then killed 11 when they laid siege to the hospital treating the wounded.
Sardar Bahadur Khan University is the only all-female university in troubled Balochistan province.
The move is seen as a safety precaution in a city which has seen many... (GunPolicy.org)
Italian School Janitor Guns Teacher Down
17 June 2013
Local (Italy)
A 69-year-old school janitor in Sicily nicknamed "the poet" gunned down a religious education teacher on Saturday, shooting her dead before attempting to flee the scene, Italian media reported.
Giovanna Nobile, 54, had gone into the Pappalardo di Vittoria school in southern Sicily for a teachers' meeting and was confronted by Salvatore Lo Presti as she was leaving the building.
Lo Presti, known as "the poet" around school because of his passion for writing poems, shot... (GunPolicy.org)
How Gun Law Loopholes Tripled Canada's Rifle Magazine Limits
11 June 2013
Global News (Canada)
After a gunman armed with a semi-automatic rifle and 30-round magazine killed 14 women at Montreal's École Polytechnique in 1989, Canada's Parliament was plunged into a debate on how to stop it from recurring.
By the end of 1991, a package of gun legislation designed to respond to the massacre, backed by then-Justice Minister Kim Campbell, made it into law. One key part of the new law restricted the number of rounds rifle and pistol magazines were allowed to hold.... (GunPolicy.org)
Five Dead After Shooting at US Home, College Campus
8 June 2013
BBC News
At least five people are dead and several others injured after a gun rampage in the beachfront city of Santa Monica, California, police say.
The attack began at a house and ended on a college campus where police say they shot the gunman in the library.
Police initially put the death toll at six, but later revised it to five people dead, including the shooter.
The gunman was in his late 20s and had been carrying an assault-style rifle, say witnesses.
President Barack... (GunPolicy.org)
NRA-Backed Kansas Law Bans Government Lobbying On Gun Issues
6 June 2013
Washington Post
TOPEKA, Kansas — Fresh off a series of legislative victories across the country, the National Rifle Association has launched a new effort starting in gun-friendly Kansas seeking to clamp down on the use of government money to lobby on gun-control issues.
While it's not clear how the law would be enforced considering it includes no penalties for violators, critics argue the measure threatens to stifle debate and give the state government far more control over a local... (GunPolicy.org)
Expert Panel Says Better US Data on Gun Issues Needed
5 June 2013
New York Times
WASHINGTON — A panel of experts convened in response to the school shooting last year in Newtown, Conn., gave the federal government an ambitious set of priorities on Wednesday for research on guns, ending what experts said has been a 17-year hiatus in the study of gun violence after Congress took away federal money for the topic in the 1990s.
President Obama has included $10 million for gun-related research in his 2014 budget, the first federal financing for the... (GunPolicy.org)
Police Charge Gun-Runner in French Mass Shooting
3 June 2013
Local (France)
French police have charged a 30-year-old man with supplying weapons used by Islamist gunman Mohamed Merah when he killed seven people in and around the southern city of Toulouse last year.
Fetha Malki, a Toulouse resident with a history of petty crimes, was charged over the weekend with complicity in murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise and ordered held without bail.
He faces other charges of receiving stolen goods and selling illegal weapons.
Judicial... (GunPolicy.org)
Jordan Govt Endorses New Firearms Draft Law to Curb Violence
30 May 2013
Jordan Times / Zawya
AMMAN - A new draft firearms and ammunition law places further restrictions on the acquisition of automatic weapons, a top official said on Thursday, amid a significant increase in the use of guns and violence across the Kingdom over the past few years.
Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications Mohammed Momani told The Jordan Times on Thursday that the government will move to have the bill enacted by Parliament as soon as possible.
According to the draft... (GunPolicy.org)
New Gun Control Movement in America Making Real Strides
28 May 2013
New Republic
On April 17, the bill to expand background checks on gun buyers failed in the Senate, and the fatalistic shrugs in Washington were so numerous they were nearly audible. The legislation had been a modest bipartisan compromise, supported by 90 percent of the public and lobbied for hard by the president. A group backed by Michael Bloomberg had spent $12 million on ads pressuring senators to vote "yes." When the bill fell short — by just five votes — it seemed to... (GunPolicy.org)
Man Injured in Shooting at Swedish School
18 May 2013
Local (Sweden)
Panic broke out at a Gothenburg school on Friday evening as one man was injured in a shooting which could be linked to a violent robbery that took place in the area on the same day.
The man sustained light injuries and was admitted to the Sahlgrenska Hospital.
On Saturday morning, police had made no arrests but were treating the incident as attempted murder or attempted manslaughter after receiving around 30 calls from the public.
At least one cartridge case was... (GunPolicy.org)
US Pediatricians Take on Gun Lobby – Carefully
13 May 2013
NBC News (USA)
To pediatricians, gun control is a public health issue, not a political one. But they're treading a fine line, and they know it.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has begun a renewed push to try to get Congress to pass gun control measures, sending more than 100 pediatricians to Capitol Hill earlier this month. But others who have taken on the issue over the past decade have a warning for them: they can run afoul of the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun... (GunPolicy.org)
US Gun Homicide Falls, What Does This Mean for Gun Control?
9 May 2013
Economist, Blog
HOUSTON - Gun-control legislation fell short last month in a close Senate vote, but some spy flickers of hope in the "world's greatest deliberative body". However, the sense of urgency that followed the Newtown massacre has definitely faded, and new studies from the Department of Justice and the Pew Research Center showing an astonishing drop in gun violence over the past two decades seem to call into question the need for new, stricter regulations. Americans have been... (GunPolicy.org)
Report Shows Drop in US Gun Violence but Most Killings Still With Guns
8 May 2013
Washington Post
Gun violence dropped dramatically nationwide over the past two decades, but nearly three-quarters of all homicides are still committed with a firearm, the Justice Department said in a report released Tuesday.
The report, by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, painted an encouraging picture of long-term trends at a time of divisive political debate over guns and legislation to regulate them. Firearms-related homicides declined 39 percent between 1993 and... (GunPolicy.org)
More US Women Taking Up Guns, For a Variety of Reasons
1 May 2013
Korea Herald / Agence France Presse
FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia ― Proudly brandishing a target she had riddled with bullets, 62-year-old Sharon Schaefer could not hide her delight at joining America's growing number of gun-toting women.
"It was fun!" she exclaimed breathlessly, much to the approval of her instructor Teresa Ovalle.
"You did a good job, Sharon," said the former Marine, who had just given the senior citizen a crash course in pistols at the Fredericksburg Range, some 80 kilometers southwest... (GunPolicy.org)
Opinion: Gun Makers and the NRA Capitalise on Shooting Tragedy
1 May 2013
Guardian (UK), Opinion
After the Sandy Hook massacre when 20 school children were gunned down in their classrooms along with several of their teachers, many of us thought the country would finally wake up to the insanity of allowing civilians to arm themselves with weapons designed to inflict mass carnage. Instead, what we have seen is tragedy descend into farce as all efforts to pass sensible gun reform measures have collapsed and gun makers, their lobbyists and now security companies are... (GunPolicy.org)
2 Injured After Thai School Shooting
29 April 2013
SINA (China)
BANGKOK - Two people was hurt in a gun attack on a school in the restive southern province of Narathiwat late Sunday night [sic].
Police said a number of assailants arrived at Buke Bakong School in Narathiwat's Yingo district on a pick-up truck when seven people, including assistant teachers and members of village defense unit, were on security duty in front of the school.
One of the men fired three shots at them with a war weapon. One bullet grazed the ear of Amran... (GunPolicy.org)
Opinion: Easing Gun Rules Ignores the Pain of Those Grieving
26 April 2013
Sydney Morning Herald, Opinion
This Sunday marks the 17th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, where 35 people were killed and 18 wounded by a lone gunman brandishing high-powered longarms.
In response to the killings, Australia's gun laws were significantly tightened. The prime minister at the time, John Howard, was able to gain bipartisan support from all state governments for a 10-point plan to regulate firearms - known as the 1996 Nationwide Agreement on Firearms.
This agreement... (GunPolicy.org)
GE Capital Joins Cerberus in Cutting Ties to Gun Industry in US
25 April 2013
Associated Press / NPR
NEW YORK — General Electric's finance arm is cutting ties with gun dealers, halting financing offers at about 75 gun shops across the U.S. in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre that took the lives of 20 schoolchildren and six teachers and administrators.
The December school shooting ignited a national debate about gun laws and drove some companies to distance themselves from the gun industry. Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced a few days... (GunPolicy.org)
GE Takes Further Steps to Stop Loans to Gun Shops, Industry in US
24 April 2013
Reuters
General Electric Co discovered it was financing a small number of firearm purchases in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings - despite deciding five years ago to avoid the practice - and moved to stop future loans, the company said on Wednesday.
Many of the conglomerate's employees live in or near Newtown, about 25 miles from GE's Fairfield, Connecticut, headquarters. Peter Lanza, the father of the Newtown gunman, is a GE executive.
The company's GE... (GunPolicy.org)
Dutch Police Arrest Former Pupil Over School Shooting Threat
22 April 2013
BBC News
Dutch police have made an arrest following a threat, posted on the internet, to carry out a shooting at a school in the city of Leiden.
The suspect is a former pupil of the British School, which has a site in neighbouring Voorschoten.
More than 20 schools were told to stay closed on Monday in response to the threat posted on internet forum 4chan.
The anonymous writer said they would shoot their teacher "and as many students as I can".
He or she said they would be... (GunPolicy.org)
Opinion: US Gun Lobby Rhetoric, Not Money, Blocking Gun Control
17 April 2013
Guardian (UK), Opinion
Of all the senators who attempted Wednesday to rally support for the doomed Manchin-Toomey background check amendment, Connecticut's Democratic freshman representative, Chris Murphy, probably faced the greatest temptation to borrow the moral authority of the Newtown families. They are his constituents and many were present in the chamber.
He's young – the youngest sitting senator, actually – and an early Obama supporter, given to occasional bouts of... (GunPolicy.org)
Mother Of Newtown Victim Steps In For Obama, Pleas For Gun Control
13 April 2013
Edmonton Journal (Alberta)
WASHINGTON - The mother of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting made a deeply personal plea from the White House for action to combat gun violence, choking back tears almost from the start of her speech.
Francine Wheeler, whose 6-year-old son, Ben, was killed in the Dec. 14 attack inside Sandy Hook Elementary School, stepped in for President Barack Obama to deliver the president's weekly radio and Internet address. She is the first... (GunPolicy.org)
Toronto Artist's Bullet-riddled School Bus Turns Heads at White House
10 April 2013
Toronto Star (Ontario)
The torn up shell of a school bus, pockmarked with gashes and dents from 6,000 bullets, was paraded through the streets of Washington, D.C. this week, centre of the action in the swirling American gun control debate.
Was it the remains of an unspeakable horror? Some kind of war zone relic?
No. It's art, and in post-Sandy Hook America, where the bullet-riddled bus installation by Toronto artist Viktor Mitic is on display, the stark portrayal of the destructive power of... (GunPolicy.org)
CDC Ban on Gun Research in US Caused Lasting Damage
9 April 2013
ABC News (USA)
President Obama may have ended the 17-year ban on gun violence research at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but even if Congress restores research funds, experts say the damage runs deeper than funding cuts.
Since the 1996 ban, many of the leading researchers of the 1980s and 1990s have moved on to other specialties, and some said they've even discouraged students from specializing in gun violence research because the work doesn't pay. The ban also... (GunPolicy.org)
Legally-Owned Guns Weapons of Choice in Domestics in Canada
5 April 2013
Ottawa Sun (Ontario)
Police say it's nearly impossible to prevent domestic-related murders like the one that rocked a Gatineau daycare Friday morning.
Hunting shotguns similar to the gun used in Friday's incident can be legally owned but police no longer know who they belong to.
"Since the long gun registry was abolished, there's absolutely no way now for law enforcement to know who owns or possesses long guns," said Ottawa police weapons expert Det. Chris O'Brien.
Most often, it's women... (GunPolicy.org)
NRA Publishes Study Claiming US Schools Need Armed Guards
3 April 2013
Washington Post
A 225-page study commissioned by the National Rifle Association has endorsed and amplified the gun rights group's immediate response to the mass killing in Newtown, Conn.: that all schools in the United States should have police or armed staff members trained to confront a shooter.
Although ostensibly independent of the NRA, the examination of school safety issues, released Tuesday, provides the organization with an alternative narrative to the various gun-control... (GunPolicy.org)
US State Agrees to Tough Gun Law Changes After Mass Shooting
2 April 2013
BBC News
Lawmakers in the US state of Connecticut have agreed to a sweeping set of gun restrictions, including a ban on new high-capacity magazines.
The proposal requires background checks on all gun sales and expands the state's assault weapons ban.
It comes as new federal gun measures appear to have stalled in Congress.
Debate over US gun laws was reignited after a gunman killed 26 people, including 20 children, at a Connecticut primary school in December.
Tighter gun... (GunPolicy.org)
Venezuela Struggles With Guns, Violence in Schools
29 March 2013
InfoSur Hoy (USA)
CARACAS, Venezuela – Violence is becoming part of the school day for Venezuelan students.
Of the 289 educational centers surveyed by the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (FVM), 85% reported acts of aggression in their schools. Six in 10 reported incidents of this type occur at least once a week.
On Jan. 8, Michelle Buraglia, a 15-year-old student, died after being shot by another child at Andrés Bello High School, one of the largest in Caracas.
After the murder,... (GunPolicy.org)
US Begins to Notice Scandal of Federal Ban on Gun Control Research
23 March 2013
Los Angeles Times, Opinion
Like a lot of people who follow the gun debate, I was surprised to learn earlier this year that for more than a decade, Congress has made it nearly impossible for our premier federal health research institutions to study gun violence.
That became evident when President Obama announced his series of executive orders in response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
In one of those orders, he directed the Centers for Disease Control and... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Law Heads to US Senate, Leader says Background Checks a 'Must'
21 March 2013
Reuters
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Thursday any gun-control bill that passes his chamber can only be effective if it includes universal background checks, an embattled centerpiece of President Barack Obama's bid to curb gun violence.
Reid voiced hope an elusive bipartisan compromise could soon be reached on requiring virtually all firearm purchasers to be screened for possible criminal and mental-health records.
Republicans have voiced concerns that a proposed... (GunPolicy.org)
School Shooting 'Likely' in Sweden - Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency
21 March 2013
Local (Sweden)
There will likely be a school shooting in Sweden sometime in the foreseeable future, according to the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, which warned that local authorities are woefully unprepared to deal with such an event.
"Many people have access to hunting weapons, even if you can't go to just any store and buy a gun, access to them is nevertheless pretty wide," MSB risk analyst Magnus Winehal told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.
In a report looking at... (GunPolicy.org)
NRA Lobbies for Domestic Abusers and Drinking, Disturbed Gun Owners
20 March 2013
al Jazeera
The National Rifle Association's guns-at-all-costs mentality and total disregard for public safety has already put it in the uncomfortable position of opposing the most basic laws to protect the public safety. It opposes the regulations that would help stop disturbed young men from going on shooting sprees in schools with weapons that are as easy to fire as video game controllers. It opposes the international Arms Trade Treaty, which according to the Washington Post... (GunPolicy.org)
US Company Puts Plans for 3D Gun Parts Online to Bypass Laws
2 March 2013
BBC News, Video
As the gun debate around automatic rifles continues in the United States, one company has decided to combat possible legislation by designing a gun that can be made at home.
The design uses 3D printers and is being made available online for free.
Anti-gun advocates are worried about the future of gun... (GunPolicy.org)
American Doctors Beg Govt to be Able to Do Gun Research
28 February 2013
NBC News (USA)
Dr. William Begg wiped away tears as he pleaded with Congress on Wednesday to help rescind laws that limit medical research into gun deaths and that restrict doctors from asking patients about guns in their homes.
Begg's testimony highlighted a growing battle between some doctors and some gun advocates over whether federal health dollars should be spent on research into gun violence, and on whether doctors should counsel their patients about gun safety.
Medical groups... (GunPolicy.org)
A Guide to Mass Shootings in America
27 February 2013
Mother Jones (USA)
It is perhaps too easy to forget how many times this has happened. The horrific mass murder at a movie theater in Colorado last July, another at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in August, another at a manufacturer in Minneapolis in September — and then the unthinkable nightmare at a Connecticut elementary school in December — are the latest in an epidemic of such gun violence over the last three decades. Since 1982, there have been at least 62 mass shootings* across the... (GunPolicy.org)
Shotguns Found Hidden at Irish Primary School
27 February 2013
Independent (Dublin)
Three shotguns and ammunition have been discovered hidden at a primary school.
Gardai recovered the firearms during a search of the school on Basin Lane in Dublin's south side.
The guns, which had been wrapped in plastic, were found on the roof of the building at around 11.30am on Wednesday.
Gardai carried out the search following reports of suspicious activity around the school over recent days.
The area was sealed off for a forensic technical examination.
Gardai... (GunPolicy.org)
US Gun Maker Threatens to Stop Police Sales if Gun Rights 'Infringed'
23 February 2013
Christian Science Monitor
ATLANTA - A growing number of firearms firms in the United States are vowing to reverse-boycott local and state governments that enact any new infringements on the Second Amendment.
Vowing to close what they're calling "the police loophole," at least 50 US companies, ranging from gun machinists to gun shops, are now saying publicly they'll refuse to sell weapons and gear to police in places where governments have banned the use of the same gear by civilians.
Quality... (GunPolicy.org)
German Teen in Court After Taking Gun to School to Impress
21 February 2013
Local (Germany)
A 15-year-old German boy who became embroiled in a tense armed stand-off with police after taking guns into his school has been sentenced to four and a half years in youth custody.
The boy, then 14, who was not named, was in a fragile state after splitting up with his girlfriend in May and took the weapons in to his classroom.
He did not go with the intention of creating a bloodbath, ruled the regional court in Memmingen, southern Germany, but rather of impressing his... (GunPolicy.org)
Ballistic Network Shrinks as US Police Don't Bother Tracing Crime Guns
20 February 2013
KING 5 News
Detectives from 31 police agencies packed a seminar this week at the Washington Criminal Justice Training Center in Burien to learn how ballistics testing can reveal links between guns in their evidence lockers to crimes that may have been committed in their jurisdiction or across the country.
"Is the gun from your murder case hiding in the evidence vault of a neighboring police department?" firearms expert Pete Gagliardi asked the group of detectives and personnel... (GunPolicy.org)
Proposed US Assault Weapon Ban Leaves Out Over 2,200 Guns
18 February 2013
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Congress' latest crack at a new assault weapons ban would protect more than 2,200 specific firearms, including a semi-automatic rifle that is nearly identical to one of the guns used in the bloodiest shootout in FBI history.
One model of that firearm, the Ruger .223 caliber Mini-14, is on the proposed list to be banned, while a different model of the same gun is on a list of exempted firearms in legislation the Senate is considering. The gun that would... (GunPolicy.org)
Finland,United States,European Union,Germany,Switzerland,Russia,South Africa,Mexico
Registry Shows Germans Fourth in World For Guns
17 February 2013
Local (Germany)
Figures compiled for Germany's new National Weapons Registry reveal that there are 5.4 million legally owned guns in the country, making it the world's fourth most-armed nation per capita.
Der Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday that the state of Bavaria topped the list with 1.1 million, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia with 1 million and Baden-Württemberg with 700,000.
The new national gun register bundles together the data from over 500 local authorities, which... (GunPolicy.org)
United States,Norway,Australia
Former Australian PM on Gun Suicide Prevention, Mass Shootings
17 February 2013
CNN / Global Public Square, Transcript
Fareed Zakaria: On April 28, 1996, in Port Arthur, Australia, a man named Martin Bryant went on a killing rampage. In the first 15 seconds of his spree, Bryant killed 12 people and injured another 10, all with an AR-15 assault rifle. In the end, 35 people lie dead, men, women and children.
If his weapon of choice sounds familiar, it should. That's what Adam Lanza is believed to have used in the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre of 20 school children and six educators.
In... (GunPolicy.org)
Canada Govt Claim to Have Curbed Illegal Guns Falls Flat
16 February 2013
Yahoo (Canada) / Macleans (Canada)
As Americans debate their culture of guns with unprecedented intensity, concern in Canada about the spillover of firearms across the border might be expected to heat up too. Even before the school-shooting carnage at Newtown, Conn., which prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to propose a raft of politically contentious new gun-control measures, Canadian federal politicians regularly talked tough about the scourge of U.S. handguns turning up on Canada's city streets.... (GunPolicy.org)
Second US Teachers Pension Fund Drops Gun Shares
15 February 2013
Financial Times (UK)
A New York City teachers' retirement fund has withdrawn $13.5m in investments in gun manufacturers, in the latest move by a public pension fund to distance itself from the firearms industry after a mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school.
John Liu, New York City's comptroller who serves as investment adviser to the $46.6bn fund, said on Friday that the shooting that left 20 children dead in Newtown, Connecticut, and "the continued prevalence of gun violence... (GunPolicy.org)
US Pre-Teens Take Handgun, Knife to School, Plan to Kill Schoolmate
15 February 2013
Reuters
Two fifth-grade boys are in custody in Washington state after they brought a knife and gun to school with the goal of killing a schoolmate in a foiled murder plot that shocked their rural town because of their youth, prosecutors said on Friday.
The boys, accused of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder despite their tender ages of 10 and 11, also planned to harm other students by luring them away one at a time, said Tim Rasmussen, a Stevens County prosecuting... (GunPolicy.org)
Reducing Gun Access Could Lower US Suicide Rate
13 February 2013
New York Times
DAYTON, Wyoming — Craig Reichert found his son's body on a winter morning, lying on the floor as if he were napping with his great-uncle's pistol under his knee. The 911 dispatcher told him to administer CPR, but Mr. Reichert, who has had emergency training, told her it was too late. His son, Kameron, 17, was already cold to the touch.
Guns are like a grandmother's diamonds in the Reichert family, heirlooms that carry memory and tradition. They are used on the... (GunPolicy.org)
Female Gun Ownership in US About Protection, Power
10 February 2013
New York Times
PAINESVILLE, Ohio — Mary Ann Froebe stood feet apart with knees slightly bent and aimed the .22-caliber Ruger semiautomatic.
"You've got some adrenaline running through you right now," said Esther Beris, the coordinator of the northeastern Ohio chapter of A Girl and a Gun Women's Shooting League. "It's O.K., just relax."
Ms. Froebe, 42, a small-business owner who described herself as a "virgin gun shooter," concentrated and pulled the trigger. "It was awesome," she... (GunPolicy.org)
Yemen,France,United States,Switzerland
Three Dead, Two Injured in Swiss Shooting
8 February 2013
Washington Post
DAILLON, Switzerland — On Jan. 3, the day Sandy Hook Elementary students returned to school in Newtown, Conn., Florian Berthouzoz leaned out his window and opened fire on this tranquil Swiss village with an old military carbine and a 12-gauge shotgun.
By the time he finished shooting, three women were killed, apparently at random, and two men were wounded. Berthouzoz was brought down by a police officer's bullet in the chest.
The shooting in Daillon, on a steep... (GunPolicy.org)
How the Gun-Control Movement in America Got Smart
7 February 2013
Atlantic (USA)
Here is how advocates of gun control used to talk about their cause: They openly disputed that the Second Amendment conferred the right to own a gun. Their major policy goals were to make handguns illegal and enroll all U.S. gun owners in a federal database. The group now known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence was once known as Handgun Control Inc.; a 2001 book by the executive director of the Violence Policy Center was entitled Every Handgun Is Aimed at... (GunPolicy.org)
Australian Gun Crime Data Misused by US Pro-Gun Groups
5 February 2013
CNN / Global Public Square, Blog
I had a stark introduction to gun violence when I moved from Australia to Tucson, Arizona 12 years ago.
As I walked to my hotel room one evening, I passed some young people apparently holding a party in another room. They seemed mostly harmless, and I acknowledged them with a "g'day." A short time later, I heard a car pull up, followed by the sound of gunfire and screaming. The next morning I saw police tape and markers in the car park. There were bullet holes in a... (GunPolicy.org)
Tom Diaz on Converting to Gun Control and the Effect of Newtown
4 February 2013
Macleans (Canada)
Tom Diaz, 72, is one of the most prominent gun control advocates in the United States. A former senior policy analyst at Washington's Violence Policy Center — which considers firearms violence to be a public health issue rather than criminal issue — Diaz wrote Making a Killing: The Business of Guns in America in 1999. It explored the links between political lobbying by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and gun manufacturers. Last year, dismayed by a decade of... (GunPolicy.org)
Obama Speech Indicates Action on Gun Crime, Not Gun Control
4 February 2013
Guardian (UK)
Observers billed Obama's speech here in the Twin Cities Monday afternoon as the first stop for a White House road show promoting gun control legislation, but the event's tone, its location, and, yes, even its content signal that the White House has chosen a circuitous route in pursuit of its goals. The goals themselves have changed, too, as the White House shifts our attention away from the specific horror of Sandy Hook to the more mundane living nightmare of daily gun... (GunPolicy.org)
UK Officials Say Most Gun Crime Traced to Under 1,000 Illegal Guns
2 February 2013
Washington Post
LONDON — When police on a weapons raid swarmed a housing project after London's 2011 riots, they seized a cache of arms that in the United States might be better suited to "Antiques Roadshow" than inner-city ganglands. Inside plastic bags hidden in a trash collection room, officers uncovered two archaic flintlock pistols, retrofitted flare guns and a Jesse James-style revolver.
These days, that kind of antiquated firepower is about the baddest a British gang member... (GunPolicy.org)
12 Separate Polls Show Americans Support Gun Control
1 February 2013
Salon (USA), Poll
Another day, another poll showing a majority of Americans favor many of the proposed gun control measures being discussed in Congress right now. Today's poll comes from the University of Connecticut and the Hartford Courant, which found that majorities of American nationally favor requiring background checks on all firearm purchases, thus closing the so-called gun show loophole (84 percent); support reinstating the ban on assault weapons (57 percent); and back banning... (GunPolicy.org)
Russia,Afghanistan,Israel,Belgium,United States
How Video Games Fund Arms Manufacturers and Sell Guns
31 January 2013
EuroGamer
The American confectionery company Victoria Sweets claims to have invented the candy cigarette. A thin stick of chocolate, wrapped in edible paper and designed to impersonate a roll-up, it debuted in 1915 and soon became the accessory of choice for children keen to play grown-up. Hollywood star, GI Joe, team captain: the sweet gave kids the chance try out one of the vogue props of adulthood.
Within 20 years it was so popular that cigarette companies began to take... (GunPolicy.org)
Expert Clears Up 'Misrepresentations' of Australian Gun Data
31 January 2013
Courier-Mail (Brisbane)
With the debate raging in the US over firearms laws, several misperceptions are being aired in their media about guns and their relationship to crime in Australia.
Some misrepresentations are linked to reports and statistics published by the Australian Institute of Criminology.
Older data and findings from the early-2000s are being used to argue that the Howard government gun reforms had little effect on violent crime in Australia.
Australia is often cited in the US... (GunPolicy.org)
US Author: Australian Gun Deaths Fall After Ban, Buybacks
31 January 2013
PolitiFact
Author Stephen King once asked his publisher to pull one of his novels off the shelves.
Six people had died — in real life.
Four boys in 10 years brought guns to school. One killed a teacher and two students. Another shot five members of a prayer group, killing three. All four teenagers had read Rage, a book King wrote when he was a teen himself and published under another name.
King, in a blunt, impassioned essay, wrote that when he learned of the copycat crimes,... (GunPolicy.org)
Answers to Ending Gun Violence May Lie in Nonsmoking Campaigns
30 January 2013
Christian Science Monitor
For those looking for quick action by Congress to curb guns in America, here's a lesson from the effort to ban smoking in public places: An official curb on risky products or practice isn't nearly as powerful as a shift in public attitudes about what is acceptable.
Nonsmoking zones became commonplace in the 1990s, but not until public concern about the hazards of tobacco smoke to nonsmokers had doubled in the 1970s and the '80s. By the '90s, smoking was already in... (GunPolicy.org)
Hollywood Divided Over Effect of Movie Gun Violence on Reality
30 January 2013
Guardian (UK)
The Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman has dismissed the depiction of gun violence in Hollywood as "fraudulent" and claimed that studios actively discriminate against actors who refuse to carry firearms onscreen.
Interviewed on National Public Radio in the US, The Graduate star became the latest high-profile figure to wade into the debate following the killing of 20 children and six adults at the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.... (GunPolicy.org)
Personalised Guns Delayed by US Gun Lobby Boycotts
28 January 2013
Washington Post / Associated Press
NEW YORK — It sounds, at first, like a bold, next-generation solution: personalizing guns with technology that keeps them from firing if they ever get into the wrong hands.
But when the White House called for pushing ahead with such new technology as part of President Obama's plan to cut gun violence, the administration did not mention the concept's embattled past. As with so much else in the nation's long-running divisions over gun rights and regulation, what sounds... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Lobby Funds Recruitment Drive for Kids Using Games, Peers
26 January 2013
New York Times, Series
Threatened by long-term declining participation in shooting sports, the firearms industry has poured millions of dollars into a broad campaign to ensure its future by getting guns into the hands of more, and younger, children.
The industry's strategies include giving firearms, ammunition and cash to youth groups; weakening state restrictions on hunting by young children; marketing an affordable military-style rifle for "junior shooters" and sponsoring... (GunPolicy.org)
US Could Learn From South Korea's Gun Control
25 January 2013
Korea Times
The recent shooting tragedies in the United States and ensuing debates on gun control are shocking and almost incomprehensible to South Koreans because they don't face such issues pertaining to firearms.
There are strict laws here regarding the possession of hand guns. Citizens can only buy hunting guns and air rifles after obtaining a license from the police. They are only allowed to use guns for a limited period of time, usually during the hunting season.
At other... (GunPolicy.org)
US Author Attacks 'Propaganda-Savvy Gun-Pimps', Gun Culture
25 January 2013
Guardian (UK)
Stephen King has entranced millions with tales of dread but his latest volume will read like a horror only to the National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates. The best-selling author made an unexpected charge into the national debate on gun violence on Friday with a passionate, angry essay pleading for reform.
King, who owns three handguns, aimed the expletive-peppered polemic at fellow gun-owners, calling on them to support a ban on automatic and... (GunPolicy.org)
US Senator Proposes Assault Rifle Ban, Gun Owner Registration
24 January 2013
Guardian (UK)
Senator Dianne Feinstein has introduced to Congress a revised assault weapons bill that would prohibit the manufacture or importation of 158 specific military-style assault rifles, ban large-capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds and possibly introduce a system of federal registration for all existing owners of such weapons and magazines.
The Feinstein proposals were unveiled at a Washington press conference in which several of the listed weapons were on display,... (GunPolicy.org)
United States,Mexico,Venezuela
The Impact of Obama's Gun Control Proposal in Mexico
23 January 2013
InSight Crime (Bogota)
President Obama's push to enact stronger gun control measures answers a long-held wish from Mexican officials, but how likely is it to change the security dynamic south of the Rio Grande?
President Obama announced a new push to pass legislation limiting access to deadly weapons last week, adding, "I will put everything I've got into this." The proposal encompasses 23 executive orders, three of which Obama has already signed and went into effect immediately: an end to... (GunPolicy.org)
Three Shot and Injured at Texas University
23 January 2013
BBC News
Three people were injured as gunfire rang out during an argument at a college in the US state of Texas, say police.
A sheriff's official said both people involved in the altercation at Lone Star College in the Houston area were wounded and taken to hospital.
A college maintenance man was also injured in the cross-fire.
The latest in a series of US shootings, it comes amid a push for gun control by the Obama administration.
Hiding under table
Lone Star College's... (GunPolicy.org)
How the American Gun Lobby Abuses Australian Gun Crime Data
21 January 2013
Conversation (Australia)
The Sandy Hook massacre and President Obama's response to it has refocused attention on impact of regulation on American gun crime. Crime statistics before and after the implementation of gun laws provide a quantifiable measure of their impact. As a consequence, Australia's gun laws and their impact have become part of the American gun debate.
In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre and Monash University shootings, the conservative government of John Howard introduced... (GunPolicy.org)
Action on Bullets Missing from US Gun Debate, say Police
20 January 2013
Reuters
Bullets are one thing Sacramento Police Detective Greg Halstead can count on to root out weapons that otherwise would be impossible to find. They are also largely missing from the gun control debate in Washington.
Since 2008, California's capital has required ammunition dealers to take names and thumbprints of bullet buyers. They send the information electronically to police computers, which compare the names to an FBI criminal database.
Halstead begins his day... (GunPolicy.org)
US Teen Shoots, Kills Five as Gun Lobby Protests for Rights
20 January 2013
BBC News / Associated Press
A teenage boy in New Mexico has been arrested in connection with the fatal shootings of five people.
Two adults and three children were found dead with apparent multiple gunshot wounds at a house near Albuquerque on Saturday evening.
Bernalillo County sheriff's spokesman Aaron Williamson said it was not yet clear what the suspect's motive was, or his connection to the victims.
He faces two counts of murder and three of child abuse resulting in death.
Mr Williamson... (GunPolicy.org)
US Gun Lobby Uses Cable TV to Promote Gun Rights, Raise Money
20 January 2013
Yahoo! (America) / Reuters
LOS ANGELES - When President Barack Obama announced a raft of proposals in the biggest U.S. gun-control push in decades, Cam Edwards, host of Sportsman Channel's "Cam & Company" talk show, wasted no time siding with the National Rifle Association.
"Assault weapon is a made-up name for a gun I can ban," said Edwards, an avowed Second Amendment advocate, who later in the program read, word for word, the NRA's statement in response to Obama's announcement.
Edwards, whose... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Control Becomes Life's Work for Some US Mass Shooting Survivors
20 January 2013
Washington Post
The mass shootings that have rocked communities across the country in recent years — from Blacksburg, Va., to Tucson to Aurora, Colo., to Oak Creek, Wis., to Newtown, Conn. — have left a well-documented trail of carnage and grief.
But those tragedies and others like them also have produced what could prove to be the most formidable, fervent advocates in the looming fight over U.S. gun-control policy: survivors who know what it feels like to be in the crosshairs of... (GunPolicy.org)
5 People Shot at 3 Different Gun Shows on US Gun Appreciation Day
19 January 2013
Think Progress
If the gun advocates behind this year's inaugural Gun Appreciation Day had hoped to use the day's festivities to build support for their anti-regulation platform, they are going to have to wait another year.
Emergency personnel had to be called to the scene of the Dixie Gun and Knife Show in Raleigh, North Carolina after a gun accidentally discharged and shot two people at the show's safety check-in booth just after 1 pm. Both victims were transported to an area... (GunPolicy.org)
Colombia,Paraguay,Brazil,United States
What the US Can Learn From Brazil's Epidemic of Gun Violence
18 January 2013
Latitude News
A man walks into an elementary school with two handguns. Within minutes, more than thirty children are dead or wounded.
This isn't Newtown, Connecticut, but Realengo, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. On April 7th, 2011, Wellington Oliveira murdered twelve children and wounded twenty others. The tragedy sparked a national conversation on gun violence, a huge problem in Brazil.
On Wednesday, in reaction to a different massacre, President Obama proposed a series... (GunPolicy.org)
Johns Hopkins Publishes First Instant Book in Response to Gun Violence
17 January 2013
Publishers Weekly (New York)
Even before President Obama announced Wednesday his plans to take comprehensive action against gun violence in the wake of the December tragedy at Sandy Hook, Johns Hopkins University Press was moving quickly to inform the national debate on gun control by fast-tracking into publication a book that was acquired less than a week ago and is scheduled to be shipped January 28. Reducing Gun Violence: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis, edited by Daniel W. Webster... (GunPolicy.org)
Iceland: Plenty Of Guns, But Hardly Any Violence
17 January 2013
International Business Times (USA)
The tragic shooting deaths of 26 people, including 20 small children, at an elementary school in Connecticut last year has cast a harsh glare on U.S. gun laws and the political power and influence of the National Rifle Association.
Even a political leader in Iceland, a tiny island country of only about 320,000 souls near the Arctic Ocean, has weighed in on the controversy surrounding America's obsession with guns.
According to the Reykjavik Grapevine newspaper,... (GunPolicy.org)
US Public Health Experts Applaud Gun Violence Research Funding
17 January 2013
Toronto Star (Ontario)
In the mid-1990s, Stephen Teret received an unnerving phone call from a friend at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At the time, Teret was director of a CDC-funded injury-prevention centre at Johns Hopkins University. It studied all manner of injury risks: fire, poison, motor vehicles and guns.
"That person told me they would appreciate it if I did not speak about gun policy anymore," recalled Teret, who left the centre shortly after to create Johns... (GunPolicy.org)
Blackout on Gun Violence Research May End After Obama Calls for Action
17 January 2013
USA Today
President Obama's demand Wednesday for research into gun violence could usher in a flood of data on the nation's 32,000 annual gun deaths after decades of an information blackout.
Scientists and policy makers say they have little scientific data about gun violence after Congress prohibited federal agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), from offering research grants to study anything that could... (GunPolicy.org)
Irish Personalised Gun Tech Shown at Obama's Gun Control Meeting
17 January 2013
Irish Times (Dublin)
President Barack Obama signalled he is ready for a fight with House Republicans and the National Rifle Association over gun control when he announced the most far-reaching initiative on the issue in nearly 20 years.
"I intend to use whatever weight this office holds," Mr Obama vowed. Referring to the December 14th massacre of 20 six and seven-year-olds and six adults at Sandy Hook school in Connecticut, he said, "This is our first task as a society; keeping our... (GunPolicy.org)
Brazil Allows Police High Calibre Guns, NGOs Worried About Corruption
16 January 2013
InSight Crime (Bogota)
The Brazilian military will now allow police and firefighters to buy powerful .45 caliber guns for personal use, raising fears over how the weapons will be used and where they might end up.
Prior to the ruling, only federal police were permitted to buy .45 caliber weapons, while other police agencies carried less lethal .40 or .38 weapons. The new regulations open the way for civil, military, and transport police to purchase .45 handguns.
The military command, which... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Violence Research Freeze May End With New Obama Plan
15 January 2013
NBC News (USA)
A little-known kibosh on government research into the public health effects of gun violence is expected to be lifted after President Barack Obama called Wednesday for renewed scientific inquiry - and funding - to address the problem.
Obama issued a presidential memorandum directing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other scientific agencies to research the causes and prevention of gun violence - and he called on Congress to provide $10 million to pay... (GunPolicy.org)
NY State Tightens Gun Laws, Requires Mental Health Checks
15 January 2013
Reuters
NEW YORK - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday signed into law one of the nation's toughest gun-control measures and the first to be enacted since the mass shooting last month at an elementary school in neighboring Connecticut.
The bill passed the Democratic-led Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, a day after sprinting through the Republican-majority Senate. State lawmakers have been in session for just a matter of days.
New York's legislation comes just a day before... (GunPolicy.org)
US Gun Lobby Plans 'Gun Appreciation Day' as Tougher Controls Debated
15 January 2013
Time (USA)
Well, this is awkward: Some Americans are celebrating Gun Appreciation Day on Jan. 19 — two days before President Obama's second inauguration, nine days after a teenager opened fire at a California high school, the same week as the one-month anniversary of the Newtown, Conn. school shooting and the same month as the second anniversary of the Gabrielle Giffords shooting in Tuscon, Ariz.
But Gun Appreciation Day isn't a long-standing tradition with poor timing. Nope,... (GunPolicy.org)
Australian Gun Death Rate Falls After Gun Buyback, Law Change Says MP
15 January 2013
Sydney Morning Herald, Opinion
Since the 1997 gun buyback, your chance of being a victim of gun violence has more than halved. Yet as Monday's Herald pointed out, the number of guns in Australia has increased by nearly one-fifth over the same period. What's going on?
The simplest answer is that the population is a fifth larger than it was in 1997. In reality, Australia has about as many guns per person as we did after the gun buyback. The only way to conclude the gun buyback has been undone is to... (GunPolicy.org)
Australia Re-Stocks Private Arsenal to Pre-Buyback Gun Numbers
13 January 2013
Sydney Morning Herald
Australians own as many guns now as they did at the time of the Port Arthur massacre, despite more than 1 million firearms being handed in and destroyed, new research reveals.
A University of Sydney study has shown there has been a steady increase in guns imported into the country over the past decade, with the number of privately owned guns now at the same level as 1996.
Estimates suggest there were 3.2 million firearms in Australia at the time of the Tasmanian... (GunPolicy.org)
Colombia,Venezuela,Mexico,Chile,Brazil,Argentina
Gun Laws in Six Latin American Nations Explained
11 January 2013
Americas Society/Council of the Americas
Following a mass school shooting in Connecticut in December 2012, policymakers in the United States began engaging in a renewed debate about gun control. AS/COA Online looks at gun-related legislation in Latin America's six largest economies, identifying regulations for arms licensing. In Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela, gun possession is legal for civilians, though restrictions tend to be stringent. …
Argentina: Gun ownership in Argentina... (GunPolicy.org)
Gunman Critically Injures US Student as Authorities Debate Gun Control
11 January 2013
Reuters
A 16-year-old boy armed with a shotgun opened fire in a California high school classroom on Thursday, critically wounding a fellow student before two staff members talked him into surrendering the weapon, authorities said.
The accused gunman was arrested at Taft Union High School in inland Kern County following the shooting and investigators later said he felt he was being bullied by one or two students in the class, including the boy who was shot and seriously... (GunPolicy.org)
US Scientists Urge Authorities to End Limits on Gun Safety Research
10 January 2013
Reuters
Research restrictions pushed by the National Rifle Association have stopped the United States from finding solutions to firearms violence, more than a hundred scientists from virtually every major U.S. university told Vice President Joe Biden's task force on gun violence in a letter on Thursday.
In the wake of the December school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, and other mass homicides, the group of economists, health researchers, educators, doctors and... (GunPolicy.org)
US Vice-President to Lead Meeting on Gun Control Measures
9 January 2013
New York Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama is planning a comprehensive effort to pass legislation and use executive orders to prevent gun violence, representatives of about a dozen gun control organizations were told Wednesday at a White House meeting.
"The president and I are determined to take action. This is not an exercise in photo opportunities," Vice President Joseph R. Biden said as photographers were given a chance to take pictures before the closed-door meeting.
During... (GunPolicy.org)
US Bid to Stop Gun Trafficking, Tighten Gun Laws Begins
8 January 2013
New York Times, Editorial
Instructed by President Obama to find ways to curb gun violence after the Connecticut school massacre, a working group led by Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. appears ready to recommend a package of proposals that go beyond reinstating the expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
Mr. Obama has already expressed support for a bill being prepared by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, that would provide a more effective ban on... (GunPolicy.org)
US Mulls Nationwide Gun Registry, Limiting Sales to Licensed Dealers
6 January 2013
Washington Post
The White House is weighing a far broader and more comprehensive approach to curbing the nation's gun violence than simply reinstating an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition, according to multiple people involved in the administration's discussions.
A working group led by Vice President Biden is seriously considering measures backed by key law enforcement leaders that would require universal background checks for firearm buyers, track the... (GunPolicy.org)
Guatemala,El Salvador,Venezuela,United States,Australia,Jamaica,Russia,Colombia
NRA 'Good Guys With Guns' Theory Already Disproved in Latin America
5 January 2013
New York Times
In the wake of the tragic shooting deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last month, the National Rifle Association proposed that the best way to protect schoolchildren was to place a guard — a "good guy with a gun" — in every school, part of a so-called National School Shield Emergency Response Program.
Indeed, the N.R.A.'s solution to the expansion of gun violence in America has been generally to advocate for the more widespread deployment and... (GunPolicy.org)
US School Shooting a Watershed: Think Pearl Harbour, 9/11 – Wintemute
4 January 2013
Sacramento Bee (California)
Gun violence has not been far from our collective minds since the nation was shocked Dec. 14 by the shooting of 20 first-graders in Newtown, Conn. Now a New Year's Eve shootout in Old Sacramento has left two people dead and three wounded in our own community, bringing the issue of public violence closer to home.
Perhaps no one in the Sacramento region is better known for his research on gun violence than Dr. Garen Wintemute, who as director of the UC Davis Violence... (GunPolicy.org)
9 US States Gave Millions in Tax Breaks to Support Assault Rifle Makers
2 January 2013
Pine Tree Watchdog (Maine)
Taxpayers across the country are subsidizing the manufacturers of assault rifles used in multiple mass killings, including the massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. last month.
A Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting examination of tax records shows that five companies that make semi-automatic rifles have received more than $19 million in tax breaks, most within with the past five years.
"I feel horrified at the power of... (GunPolicy.org)
Experts Suggest US Can Learn From Australia's Post-Port Arthur Laws
30 December 2012
Sky News (UK)
When Martin Bryant massacred 35 people with semi-automatic weapons at a tourist spot in Tasmania in 1996, then-Australian prime minister John Howard reacted swiftly by pushing for tough new national gun laws.
Just 12 days after the shootings at Port Arthur, legislation was agreed which banned most people from owning rapid fire rifles and shotguns.
In a government buyback scheme more than 600,000 weapons were handed in and destroyed.
There have been no mass killings... (GunPolicy.org)
Africa,United States,Americas,Oceania,Europe,Asia
US Gun Lobby Accused of Lying to Public About UN Arms Trade Treaty
28 December 2012
Reuters
The leading U.S. pro-gun group, the National Rifle Association, has vowed to fight a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global arms trade and dismissed suggestions that a recent U.S. school shooting bolstered the case for such a pact.
The U.N. General Assembly voted on Monday to restart negotiations in mid-March on the first international treaty to regulate conventional arms trade after a drafting conference in July collapsed because the U.S. and... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun, Ammo, Bulletproof Gear Sales Rocket in US Due to Fears of Ban
28 December 2012
CBS News (USA) / Associated Press
The phones at Red's Trading Post wouldn't stop ringing. Would-be customers from as far away as New York wanted to know if the Twin Falls, Idaho gun shop had firearms in stock. Others clamored to find out if their orders had been shipped.
Overwhelmed, gun store manager Ryan Horsley had to do what no employee would ever think of doing just days before Christmas: He disconnected the phone lines for three whole days.
"We had to shut everything off," says Horsley, whose... (GunPolicy.org)
US Teachers Flock to Gun Class, Aim to Carry Hidden Handguns in School
28 December 2012
ABC News (Australia) / Agence France Presse
Several US states are considering allowing school teachers to carry weapons, and educators, determined not to allow a repeat of the Newtown massacre, are flocking to training sessions.
Gun control advocates are trying to outlaw military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, while Los Angeles yesterday held a no-questions-asked gun buyback.
But gun enthusiasts, backed by the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), are taking a different approach.
The... (GunPolicy.org)
Israeli Gun Laws Much Stricter Than US Pro-Gun Advocates Suggest
28 December 2012
Washington Post
The United States stands truly alone in the developed world for its lax gun laws, which have contributed to Americans owning guns at a far higher rate than anyone else. The National Rifle Association, in its pushback against calls for gun restrictions after the Sandy Hook Elementary mass shooting, has portrayed things somewhat differently. NRA chief Wayne LaPierre has drawn comparisons to Israel, saying that the U.S. should follow Israel's example of loose gun laws and... (GunPolicy.org)
Taking the Opportunity to End Gun Violence In America
26 December 2012
Joyce Foundation
After the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007 and the tragic 2011 Tucson shootings that wounded Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others, I hoped philanthropy would join forces with other Americans to finally take meaningful action to protect Americans from gun violence.
Both times we failed to make change happen.
This time is different. And we must demand a different outcome.
The murders in Newtown awoke our nation to the urgency of acting now to put in place... (GunPolicy.org)
We Know Several Ways to Reduce, Prevent Gun Violence - Wintemute
26 December 2012
New England Journal of Medicine
We are learning how to watch the news through tears. All those children, and the adults protecting them. With an assault rifle. Up close. The survivors, eyes averted, are led to safety in daisy chains. Ambulances rush to the scene, but nearly all return empty. Loved ones go home empty, too.
We pore over the details, searching for the clues that will bring order to chaos and help us predict and prevent the next one. But these catastrophes are all different. We have... (GunPolicy.org)
