A law requiring gun buyers in Los Angeles to first be fingerprinted advanced Monday even as the measure was targeted by gun merchants and the National Rifle Assn. The City Council's Public Safety Committee recommended that the ordinance be drafted and sent to the full council for adoption. Councilman Mike Feuer said his proposal would help police and prosecutors track down and jail felons who try to buy guns, although they are barred from owning firearms. Feuer also... (GunPolicy.org)

When Handgun Control first announced its opposition to the nomination of John Ashcroft as attorney general, we found one of the most disturbing elements of his record to be his support of the "insurrectionist" view of the Second Amendment, based on a misreading of John Madison's writings in No. 46 of the Federalist Papers. We said that this view, championed by, among others, Timothy McVeigh, holds that the Constitution allows individuals to take up arms against the... (GunPolicy.org)

The City Council rejected a proposal to allow only federally licensed dealers to sell guns at the Tucson Convention Center yesterday. Instead, the council voted 5-2 to continue to look for ways to do background checks for private sales at the TCC shows, held three times a year. The council hopes to reconsider the issue in two weeks, after city workers have time to study what other states and cities are doing about background checks for private sales made at gun shows... (GunPolicy.org)

Some members of the Los Angeles City Council are prepared to vote for a measure that would require gun buyers to provide fingerprints before they could purchase a firearm. Monday morning, a City Council panel approved the proposal, which now goes to the entire 15-member council for consideration. Councilman Mike Feuer is the measure's author and says that it would be an effective tool for local prosecutors to use when building cases against people who try to illegally... (GunPolicy.org)

Ithaca Gun Company, LLC took the occasion of the annual Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show in New Orleans to unveil its plans for a series of shotguns tailored to the female frame. The Ithaca Model 37 Women's Endowment Shotguns, as the new line of products will be known, are supposed to provide a better fit — length of trigger pull and so on — than other shotguns marketed as women's or youth models. To encourage sales of the new guns, Ithaca will mark each... (GunPolicy.org)

CAPE TOWN — A South African government decision to bar its top anti-graft unit from a parliamentary inquiry into a multibillion-dollar arms deal shows it is unable to manage crises, analysts said on Tuesday. The decision to exclude the Special Investigation Unit under Judge Willem Heath from the probe into the 43-billion-rand ($5.47 billion) international deal has sparked opposition fury and put the government on a collision course with parliament. "President Thabo... (GunPolicy.org)