A shooting in a French classroom has united a coalition of government leaders, concerned parents and right-wing politicians in a call for tougher gun control, Reuters reported April 1. An 18-year-old boy in Lille, France took a small handgun to school and wound up shot in the head. Officials are unsure whether the boy was playing Russian roulette or was fooling around with the gun with a friend and unintentionally shot himself. The fatal shooting occurred in the back... (GunPolicy.org)

JONESBORO, Arkansas — At 100 yards, their seven handguns wouldn't be terribly effective. Too hard to hit their moving targets. But the two boys at the center of the Jonesboro schoolyard massacre, no strangers to firearms, had other options at hand, officials say. Evidence indicates most of the bullets that felled 15 classmates and teachers, killing five of them, were fired from two powerful rifles, stolen from the younger boy's grandfather the morning of the... (GunPolicy.org)

ST. JOHN'S, Newfoundland — Newfoundland authorized officers of the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary to carry sidearms Friday, ending its status as the only unarmed police force in Canada. Justice Minister Chris Decker made the announcement in the legislature. Previously, officers on the 313-member force kept their weapons in a locked compartment in their patrol vehicles unless they obtained special permission from a supervisor to carry a gun. The 127-year-old force... (GunPolicy.org)

Nearly two weeks have elapsed since the shooting of four schoolchildren and their teacher in Jonesboro, Ark. During that time, Arkansas' loose gun laws, which allow parents to put an AK-47 in their children's hands, have barely been challenged. In a similar tragedy in Dunblane, Scotland, in 1996, in which 16 schoolchildren were killed, it took the British government one week to pledge to set up a commission of inquiry into the incident and to consider stricter gun... (GunPolicy.org)