BERLIN - Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Germany will strengthen the control of arms exports, as he said in a interview with German Stern Magazine on Wednesday. "It's a shame that Germany is amongst the world's largest arms exporters," said Gabriel, "In particular, small arms simply become weapons of the civil war. So something has to change. Therefore, I'm supportive of a restrictive policy regarding arms exports." While he understands the argument that stricter... (GunPolicy.org)

GEORGETOWN - The Task Force on Narcotic Drugs and Illegal Firearms has recorded a total of 111 firearms seizures for 2012 compared to the 125 in the previous year. This is according to the National Drug Report that was launched yesterday by Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee. These include: 28 pistols, 39 revolvers, 31 shotguns, and 13 rifles; 31.5 percent of the weapons seized originated in the United States of America while a similar number originated in... (GunPolicy.org)

DHAKA, Bangladesh — The head of the main Bangladeshi Islamist opposition party was among 14 people sentenced to death on Thursday on charges of smuggling weapons to a rebel group in neighboring India. Security officials had seized more than 4,000 firearms and 1 million bullets and other military equipment in April 2004 when they were being unloaded from fishing boats. According to case documents, the weapons and ammunition were destined for a former Indian insurgency... (GunPolicy.org)

A federal judge has upheld Connecticut's ban on many semi-automatic weapons as constitutional, a win for gun-control advocates who pushed for tighter firearm restrictions following the 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Conn. U.S. District Judge Alfred V. Covello in Hartford ruled that Connecticut's 2013 prohibition, which expanded the definition of "assault weapon" under a 1993 law, does not violate the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The law currently... (GunPolicy.org)

Nobody is going to call John Christian Parks a master criminal. Not him, certainly. Not his attorneys. Not the federal prosecutors who, having won a conviction against the eight-time felon following a jury trial, asked that he spend a decade in prison for gun crimes. Last spring, U.S. Forest Service police caught Parks and a gaggle of others smoking meth and shooting semi-automatic assault rifles in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. Searching the 38-year-old... (GunPolicy.org)

Myanmar's police on duty in conflict-prone border areas across the country have asked to be equipped with modern weaponry, citing a number of attacks on police in Maungdaw, Rakhine State. Since 2001, police say, they have been attacked at least seven times by Muslims in Maungdaw. A police sergeant was killed on July 11, 2001 in an attack in Thugyi Village, Maungdaw Township. The same year on November 23, an attack on Laungdon Police Station in northern Maungdaw killed... (GunPolicy.org)