You don't need an assault weapon to defend your home and family against an intruder. Neither do you need one to go duck or deer hunting. What you need an assault weapon for is to commit murder and mayhem on a massive scale. Which means you don't need one at all. President Bush recognizes that, or at least he used to. "It makes no sense for assault weapons to be around our society," he said while campaigning for the presidency four years ago. That was then. Now the... (GunPolicy.org)

BESLAN — Mikhail, a soldier who participated in the terrible battle at Middle School No. 1, is matter-of-fact as he describes how Russian commandos killed a young hostage. "On the second floor, there was one fighter who was covering himself with a child," Mikhail, who gave only his first name, said Saturday. "The child had to be killed first, and then they killed the terrorist. It was the kind of situation where the guys who had to seize the building weren't thinking... (GunPolicy.org)

West Africa will launch a new drive to collect and destroy small arms next month and needs funding for the project, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) said on Saturday. Speaking at a meeting of European Union and West African foreign ministers in the Netherlands, ECOWAS executive secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas described small arms as Africa's "weapons of mass destruction" given the conflicts and deaths they cause. Chambas said ECOWAS, which agreed... (GunPolicy.org)