At 9:40 a.m. on Monday, April 16, 2007, my wife's cousin, Lee Ellis, telephoned. Check the news, he advised. Something was happening at Virginia Tech, where our adult son, Jamie, taught. There were two dormitory murders and bloodshed in an engineering building. "Jamie has his own house," I said. "He teaches German, not engineering." I could not imagine that at an institution as big as Virginia Tech, our son could fall victim to such peril. I dismissed Lee's warning as... (GunPolicy.org)

San Francisco's ban on handguns, blocked by a legal challenge since voters approved it in November 2005, suffered a possibly fatal blow Wednesday when a state appeals court ruled that local governments have no authority under California law to prevent people from owning pistols. The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco agreed with a June 2006 ruling by Superior Court Judge James Warren, who said state laws regulating gun sales, permits and safety leave no... (GunPolicy.org)

The privacy commissioner has rejected complaints from firearms owners who claimed their privacy was violated by a searchable copy of the federal gun registry posted on the Citizen website. The Citizen last year obtained a copy of the gun registry from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police through an Access to Information request and made an online version of the database available to readers to accompany a series of reports on firearm licensing. The searchable index... (GunPolicy.org)

It doesn't take a genius to know you can't tote your .40-caliber Glock through the metal detector at Salt Lake City International Airport. It does take a book of statutes to decipher the no-guns-allowed sign at the airport door, though. It implies that you can't pack inside the terminal, but it lists a state law that says you can. "The average citizen has to be a lawyer or a mind-reader to figure out what that sign means," said Mike Stollenwerk, a Virginia-based... (GunPolicy.org)

A Nanticoke sporting goods dealer maintains his innocence on federal charges relating to overseas sales of firearms and accessories. D&R Sports Center on Fairchild Street, which Mark Komoroski co-owns with two family members, has been under investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since November 2006. The federal agency alleges D&R illegally sold and shipped restricted items — rifles and accessories such as optics — to countries including... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — A Wilkes-Barre area firearms shop owner and a Russian broker of military gear have been arrested as part of an illegal arms-export investigation, officials said yesterday. The Russian, Sergey Korznikov, and the American, Mark Komoroski of D&R Sports in Nanticoke, Luzerne County, are charged with conspiracy to smuggle goods overseas. The charges have not been publicly announced, but were confirmed by officials familiar with the case. They have been under... (GunPolicy.org)

The shadow home secretary, David Davis, today said government plans to ban deactivated guns by the end of the year would "do little more than paper over the cracks". His comments came after the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, speaking during a visit to Liverpool, said tough new laws would be brought in to target the supply of deactivated guns that were then reactivated and used in crime. "Tackling gun crime is key to making people feel safer and more secure in their... (GunPolicy.org)

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith met with the parents of murdered schoolboy Rhys Jones after announcing plans to toughen restrictions on deactivated firearms. The private meeting with Stephen and Melanie Jones took place during a visit to Merseyside, where the 11-year-old was shot dead last August in a crime which remains unsolved. The Conservatives said the planned crackdown on deactivated weapons would have only a tiny effect on gun crime. There are an estimated 120,000... (GunPolicy.org)

What a tragedy that it required the deaths of 32 people in Blacksburg, Va., to persuade the National Rifle Association and others of a similar mindset to endorse some reasonable restrictions on firearms ownership. But that's essentially what happened, and the results speak for themselves. The bill signed this week by President Bush is most notable simply for being a broadly supported form of gun control, a topic that's been left off the nation's agenda for nearly a... (GunPolicy.org)

OAKLAND — A 10-year-old boy taking piano lessons at a music school in North Oakland was shot in the abdomen by an stray bullet fired during a robbery across the street late Thursday afternoon. The boy was taken to Children's Hospital Oakland for surgery. He is in critical condition but is expected to survive. Katharine Wells, office manager at the Piedmont Piano Company at Pleasant Valley and Piedmont avenues, said she heard gunshots, which were fired during an... (GunPolicy.org)