The city of Boston yesterday dropped its sweeping lawsuit against 31 gun manufacturers, determining the city could not afford to pursue its pioneering legal fight in an era of shrinking budgets. The decision ends the nation's most aggressive attempt to hold the gun industry responsible for the damage caused by firearms. The suit, filed in 1999, withstood numerous legal challenges while nine similar municipal cases filed around the country were dismissed by judges.... (GunPolicy.org)

The huge profit margins from the sale of firearms in the Karamoja region have been identified as some of the major factors for the increased arms trafficking in north-eastern Uganda. Darlington Lorika, the co-odinator of Action for Development of local communities, said deployment of security operatives in the area for long periods without adequate payment also contributed to insecurity in the region. He said since land in Karamoja did not favour agriculture and the... (GunPolicy.org)

The massacre in Nanterre has reignited the debate over French gun laws at a time when rising crime is dominating the presidential election campaign. It has prompted calls for a reinforcement of legislation that allows about two million French people to own and use arms. Most are hunters, but about 150,000, including Richard Durn, have licences to use combat weapons. He bought the two Austrian-made Glock pistols in 1997. According to police sources, he had obtained his... (GunPolicy.org)

Richard Durn may never have to face a trial, or even a public court appearance, despite the murder of eight councillors in Nanterre. Under French law he can be declared to be suffering from diminished responsibility and kept in hospital after a legal process behind closed doors. The inquiry will be placed under the responsibility of a magistrate who is required to obtain psychiatric reports. If the psychiatrists find that the suspect was insane at the time of the... (GunPolicy.org)

On Thursday, local parliamentarians in Zug held a minute's silence in memory of the victims, who were shot dead on Wednesday by a lone gunman as a council meeting in the French town of Nanterre was drawing to a close. The attacker later committed suicide while being held in custody by French police. We know only too well what this attack means for those who have been left behind by the massacre, said Christoph Staub, the elected speaker of Zug's cantonal... (GunPolicy.org)

PARIS — France's gun laws came under scrutiny on Thursday after it emerged they may not have been correctly applied to the gunman who shot dead eight local councillors in one of France's worst massacres of recent times. Anxious to deflect blame ahead of next month's presidential election, the Socialist-led government insisted any loopholes would be closed by a law passed after the September 11 U.S. attacks, which gave authorities greater scope for control. It will... (GunPolicy.org)

PARIS — Richard Durn, a former school monitor who gunned down eight people in a Paris suburb council chamber, saw himself as a loser and often talked about killing himself. Police said Durn, 33, leapt to his death from a window while in custody in the heart of Paris on Thursday, only 33 hours after turning a local council meeting into a bloodbath. Unemployed, friendless and still living with his mother, Durn had already tried twice to commit suicide. More recently,... (GunPolicy.org)

LONDON — Thousands of worried Britons are sharing their beds with a gun and nearly half of them would kill with it. Guns feature alongside baseball bats and hammers among the arsenal kept by almost one in 10 worried householders, security firm Micromark said, citing a phone survey of 1000 people. Eight per cent of those sleeping next to a weapon had a gun, equating to about 100,000 homes in a population of 59 million. Nearly half said they were prepared to kill to... (GunPolicy.org)

BOSTON — Boston's decision to drop its lawsuit against gun manufacturers and sellers reveals how other U.S. cities will have to spend millions on litigation and battle unfavorable court rulings to wage a landmark campaign that began four years ago. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, Boston's Public Health Commission said in a statement late Wednesday it could no longer afford to pursue its lawsuit against 31 gun makers, including industry leaders Sturm... (GunPolicy.org)

Aboriginal police liaison officers who have been stripped of their guns fear they could become targets for tribal payback attacks. The liaison officers told the WA Industrial Relations Commission yesterday that the ban prevented them from intervening in violent community disputes. This made them highly visible, but defenceless, targets for payback attacks. One officer said the ban was degrading. It made it seem that a white officer's life was more important than that... (GunPolicy.org)

All French gunshops require a licence before they are allowed to sell weapons. Before a licence is granted: - Police carry out an initial investigation - The applicant is checked for a criminal record - Prospective owners must pass a technical test Once a certificate is issued, guns must be kept in a safe and only used for the purpose stated on the licence Licence categories: There are several, including: - Category five which permits a small calibre weapon, such... (GunPolicy.org)

Anxiety at violent crime boiled over in France yesterday after a gunman went on the rampage in a suburban Paris council chamber, killing eight members and wounding 19 people. The killing spree at Nanterre, on the city's western outskirts, stunned a country in the midst of a presidential campaign dominated by concern over soaring violence and a breakdown in law and order. Police were questioning Richard Durn, 33, an unemployed university graduate with a history of... (GunPolicy.org)

Richard Durn has many aspects of the classic profile of a mass murderer with a real or imagined grudge against the world. He joins a long list of mass killers including Jean-Pierre Roux Durrafort, who shot dead four people in Tours last year, Mark Barton, a day trader in Atlanta who killed his family and then nine others at his office in 1999, James Huberty who killed 21 people in a McDonald's restaurant in San Diego in 1984, and Charles Whitman who shot dead 16 people... (GunPolicy.org)

Papua New Guineans are about to exercise their Constitutional right to elect new representatives to the National Parliament in a general election critical to the future and prosperity of this country. With 43 registered political parties vying for the mandate to govern the nation, voters will be facing an unenviable task of trying to decide which way to cast their vote. The Post-Courier will do its utmost to provide an accurate, fair and balanced coverage of the... (GunPolicy.org)

More than 3000 women and children from the Southern Highlands petitioned Prime Minister Sir Mekere Morauta for normal life to return to the province. The combined petition from different women groups in the province called on Sir Mekere to reinstate a sense of security, government services and stability in the provincial government. Moresby South MP Lady Carol Kidu presented the petition to the Parliament on its second last day of this parliament term yesterday. The... (GunPolicy.org)