Home Secretary David Blunkett has announced a crackdown on illegal gun holders as well as tougher laws on airguns. Here he explains why and applauds the Chronicle's campaign to take airguns out of the hands of thugs. The dreadful shootings in Birmingham last week when two teenage girls lost their lives in a hail of bullets have shocked the whole country. Shocked because this sort of gun battle and the death, injury and heartbreak it causes is, thankfully, still... (GunPolicy.org)

ACT Police Minister Bill Wood says he will consult sporting shooters and security firms before tightening controls on the sale of hand guns. Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison has accused the states and territories of being too slow in matching Commonwealth regulations, restricting the types of firearms imported and licenced for use. Mr Wood says the ACT will fall into line but believes existing regulations are already effective in minimising gun crime. "The ACT... (GunPolicy.org)

Britain's soaring gun crime will be the focus of a meeting of ministers, police, customs officials and lawyers on Friday hosted by Home Secretary David Blunkett. The high-profile gathering at the Home Office comes a day after the government revealed that crimes involving firearms rose by 35 percent last year. "We are determined to ensure that we are doing everything possible to stop gun violence, and Friday's meeting is an important part of that," Blunkett said in a... (GunPolicy.org)

Crimes involving firearms increased by 35 per cent last year to record levels, with nearly 30 incidents every day, according to new Home Office figures for recorded crime. In nearly a quarter of the total of 9,974 offences, a rise from 7,362 in the previous year, guns were fired. Gun killings rose sharply. The figures were condemned as "truly terrible" by Oliver Letwin, Conservative home affairs spokesman. Gun crime has more than doubled since Labour came to power in... (GunPolicy.org)

Germany has a serious problem with gun crime, writes John Hooper in Berlin. It surfaced in dramatic fashion last April when a 19-year-old expelled schoolboy in the quiet town of Erfurt in eastern Germany, killed 16 people with a pistol and a pump-action shotgun, before taking his own life. But his weapons were legally held and the real problem is the vast number of illegal firearms. Christian Pfeiffer, interior minister of Lower Saxony, last year put the total at... (GunPolicy.org)

In 1994, a detective with the Flying Squad was wounded after one of two armed robbers he was pursuing fired a reactivated Czech-made Skorpion machine gun at him. It is thought to be the first time that a reactivated weapon had been used in London. The fact that it was manufactured in Eastern Europe is also significant. Senior law enforcement officers had already warned the countries of the former Soviet bloc were a veritable arms bazaar, with millions of ex-military... (GunPolicy.org)

Last week hundreds and perhaps thousands of Canadians — farmers, ranchers, hunters and people of assorted other occupations — became criminals. Their crime is one of omission, not commission. They failed to register their firearms, or announce their intention to do so, by Dec. 31, 2002. Now they are "paper criminals," as firearms registry opponent Jim Turnbull, of Jarvie, Alta., termed the collective group during a New Year's Day protest. There are other words to... (GunPolicy.org)

LONDON — The British government said Friday it will review its witness protection program and allow gun owners to give up illegal weapons without fear of retribution, as it battles a four-year increase in gun crime. Officials meeting at a gun crime summit called for new anti-gun legislation to be presented at a follow-up meeting in March. Britain already has some of the toughest gun laws in the world, including a ban on all handguns. "Coupled with the extensive... (GunPolicy.org)

Police chiefs, community leaders and politicians have been meeting in London to discuss ways of combating gun crime in the UK. The summit was held after latest figures showed there were more than 9,000 gun-related offences in the UK last year. And it came only days after two teenage girls died after being caught in the crossfire of a gang shootout in Birmingham. After the summit, the Home Office announced a new initiative to encourage people with illegally held... (GunPolicy.org)

There is to be an amnesty on illegally held firearms, Ministers have announced following a 'guns summit' in London. The Home Secretary, David Blunkett, announced that the Government has backed proposals from the police to hold a gun amnesty where people can hand in illegally held firearms without the fear of prosecution. Mr Blunkett commented, 'A number of significant decisions have been made which will build on the work already being done by the Government and other... (GunPolicy.org)

What's all the hype about the Second Amendment? We've heard it all before. "It protects our freedom." "It is the amendment that guarantees all our other freedoms." "It protects us from a tyrannical government." On and on and on. We've heard, as well, about the philosophical debate on how one is to define "the militia," and whether our forebears meant a collective or an individual right to bear arms. But that debate is really beside the point. That debate does not... (GunPolicy.org)

While spending $152,000 on outside firms to try to rein in overspending and a management fiasco at the Canadian Firearms Centre, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has not met with a government-appointed advisory group on the gun registry program since taking over the department a year ago. The chairman of the minister's User Group on Firearms, established when the Firearms Act was introduced in 1995, said yesterday Mr. Cauchon failed to meet with the experts on the board... (GunPolicy.org)