So-called "smart guns" — firearms that recognize their owners through fingerprints, radio emissions or skin conductivity — could be available to police by 2000, a gun manufacturing executive said Thursday. FBI statistics show more than 16% of police officers wounded or killed with a firearm are shot with their own gun or that of their partner. Smart guns could reduce that number, Colt Manufacturing Co. Chief Executive Officer Steven Sliwa said at a firearms... (GunPolicy.org)

CANBERRA — States could be stripped of gun buyback funding if they don't tighten their gun laws, the Federal Government warned yesterday. The National Firearms Agreement had been jeopardised by several states, including Victoria, by their refusal to comply with aspects of the agreement, said the Justice Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone. "Some states and territories have chosen not to comply with the agreement and have, therefore, jeopardised their access to... (GunPolicy.org)

DETROIT — Andrzej Olbrot was collecting final exams from his engineering students when the gunman stepped into the classroom and opened fire with a rifle. The professor fell wounded to the floor, only to be shot again by the man who took the time to reload. Olbrot, 52, died at a hospital shortly after Thursday night's attack at Wayne State University. The approximately 24 computer engineering graduate students in the Old Main Building classroom were not injured. A... (GunPolicy.org)

SAO PAULO — A bus driver confronted by two thieves toting a toy pistol shot them both to death, but also killed his own fare collector in the confusion, police said on Friday. The driver told police he mistook the plastic pistol for the real thing when the robbers got on his bus at dawn on Thursday. After a scuffle with the two men, he took a .38 calibre gun from under the seat and fired six shots. The two robbers died instantly and his colleague, reportedly also a... (GunPolicy.org)

SAN FRANCISCO — A gun owner advocacy group threatened legal action Friday against San Francisco and other U.S. cities if they proceed with plans to sue firearms manufacturers to recoup the costs of urban gun violence. The Second Amendment Foundation, a Bellevue, Wash.-based gun advocacy group, made the threat in a letter to San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. The group said it would file lawsuits against any cities that follow the lead of Chicago and New Orleans,... (GunPolicy.org)