With Venezuela's homicides climbing to dramatic rates, rising by a third in 2011, it seems more urgent than ever to reduce the huge number of firearms circulating among civilians. According to Venezuela's main police agency, known by its acronym the CICPC, there were 18,850 murders in 2011, a 30 percent increase from the previous year. Another count by watchdog group the Venezuelan Violence Observatory (OVV), which says it bases its numbers on police reports,... (GunPolicy.org)

For years, detectives trying to distinguish gun-carrying New Yorkers from others have had to rely on observations, street smarts and luck. A man with a gun on his hip might grab the front of his sport coat to keep it from flapping open and revealing the pistol. Someone getting out of a cab might hold tight to his side, to keep a weapon secure. But science is now promising to assist such human efforts. In a speech on Tuesday morning to the New York City Police... (GunPolicy.org)

[Translated summary: The director of Venezuela National Police explained that the rate of destruction in 2011 is of 464 weapons per 100,000 people. An important result compared to 90 weapons per 100,000 people in Brazil.] El director de la PNB explicó que esa cifra nos da una tasa de destrucción de 464 armas por cada 100.000 habitantes, sólo en el 2011 / Resaltó que este que este dato demuestra que en Venezuela "estamos demostrando con hechos que hay una voluntad... (GunPolicy.org)

Nine shootings. Eight days. No witnesses. But NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell says his government has no plans to tighten gun laws in response to the wave of shootings in Sydney's southwest. In the latest incident, four shots were fired into a house in Wetherill Park in the early hours of Tuesday as a woman and two children slept in their beds. The attack came seven months after the woman allegedly stabbed her de facto partner to death in the same home. Mr O'Farrell told... (GunPolicy.org)