A legal challenge by shooting enthusiasts to the Garda refusal to grant them licences for restricted firearms has been settled. The shooting enthusiasts had claimed their applications for restricted guns were being refused on a blanket basis by gardaí without adequate reasons. The Garda authorities have denied claims of a fixed policy of refusing licences. This morning at the High Court, when the matter was briefly mentioned before the court, Mr Justice John Hedigan... (GunPolicy.org)

WELLAND, Ont. — Canada's laws on the storage and handling of guns and ammunition are so complicated that a veteran judge needed to adjourn court to allow two experienced lawyers more time for legal arguments and a search of case law to help parse and dissect them. It was a dud of an ending after two scheduled days of trial in the case of Ian Thomson, a 54-year-old Port Colborne man who fired three shots from a legally owned gun to scare off three masked men who were... (GunPolicy.org)

As a member of the M-19 guerrilla group in the 1980s, Gustavo Petro, who was known as Comandante Aureliano, served 18 months in prison for illegally carrying a firearm. Now mayor of the Colombian capital, Bogotá, Petro is leading an experiment in banning guns from the streets of this city of eight million people, where firearms are part of the backdrop to everyday life. Bodyguards on high-speed motorbikes whizz through traffic wielding machine guns, security guards at... (GunPolicy.org)

According to Mexico's Defense Department, criminal organizations are equipping themselves with firearms that are between 20 and 30 years old. The government says this casts doubt on the claim that the gangs are better armed than the security forces. The Mexican Army seized over 130,000 firearms since 2006, the majority of which were fabricated in the 1980s and 1990s, Excelsior reports. These include makeshift weapons that were modified or repaired using old parts from... (GunPolicy.org)