WASHINGTON — In a stark and emotional speech to gun makers, Mayor Rendell yesterday challenged the industry to help limit the sale of guns to curb "the carnage" that he said was killing America's cities. His voice grew low and husky as he itemized the toll of gun violence in Philadelphia and spoke of "16-year-olds who take an assault weapon with a clip and pump 25 bullets into the very image of themselves." Rendell's speech — jammed with information about the... (GunPolicy.org)

The California Assembly soon will have another chance to prove that it would rather save lives than nurse petty grudges. The deciding issue is assault guns — specifically a bill by Assemblyman Don Perata (D-Alameda) that laudably bans such weapons on a generic basis, rather than model by model as in the weak law that was partly struck down by the courts. In what was to be the final vote on the measure last week, the bill went down by a single vote when two Southern... (GunPolicy.org)