Gun Policy News, 19 January 2000
Gun Enthusiasts Flock to Vegas
19 January 2000
Denver Rocky Mountain News (Colorado)
LAS VEGAS — A gun industry under attack has gathered here this week for its largest trade show.
Amid discussions of lightweight rifles, lead-free bullets and the latest in laser technology looms a sense of resentment toward politicians and the media for perceived attacks on gun makers, sellers and owners.
"Last year, we saw the most unprecedented assault on gun rights in history," said Michael Mitchell, a lobbyist for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun... (GunPolicy.org)
Swiss Gun Maker SIG Plans to Sell Handgun Unit, Leaving US Market
19 January 2000
Wall Street Journal
LAS VEGAS — Another well-known firearms manufacturer said it hopes to leave the U.S. handgun market.
Switzerland's SIG Swiss Industrial Co. Holding Ltd. Said at the industry's annual trade show here that as part of a larger restructuring, it will seek to sell its firearms businesses in Europe and the U.S.
Asked if the costs and risks related to pending municipal litigation against the gun industry in the U.S. played a role in the decision to exit from the American... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Talks Stall as Industry Shuns Clinton
19 January 2000
Los Angeles Times
LAS VEGAS — Talks aimed at settling the wave of anti-gun lawsuits by major cities have hit a snag because handgun manufacturers are refusing to admit Clinton administration officials to the negotiations.
The White House announcement last month that it would throw its weight behind the cities and join them at the bargaining table had been widely seen as boosting chances for a settlement. Cities and counties involved in the litigation had welcomed the increase in their... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Industry Not Cowed by Suits
19 January 2000
Detroit Free Press
LAS VEGAS — The weight of 19 lawsuits brought by 29 cities and counties has not demoralized a gun industry that offered tough talk this week against the movement to make it pay for gun violence.
Rather than give in to the pressure, gunmakers and dealers-making up most of the 30,000 people who flooded the Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas for one of the industry's largest trade shows-are digging in for a fight.
Among the hot topics at the 22nd annual... (GunPolicy.org)
White House to Continue Gun Suit Talks Despite Setback
19 January 2000
Dow Jones Newswires
WASHINGTON — The Clinton Administration, snubbed by a select group of gun manufacturers that refuse to meet with federal officials to help settle the increasingly dark legal cloud looming over the industry, has pledged to move ahead with talks despite a major setback for negotiations this week.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development, collaborating with the White House, has threatened to join the 23 cities across the country that have launched a highly public... (GunPolicy.org)
19 January 2000
Denver Post (Colorado), Editorial
President Bill Clinton's embrace — albeit belated — of Project Exile and other efforts to crack down on guntoting crooks is welcome.
Project Exile was conceived a few years ago by the National Rifle Association, which long has argued that America doesn't need more gun-control laws but better enforcement of existing statutes.
Federal and state laws already ban convicted criminals from buying or possessing guns, but too often felons still get their hands on... (GunPolicy.org)
19 January 2000
San Jose Mercury News (California) / Los Angeles Daily News
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County will give the L.A. Fairplex up to $2.7 million in the next six years to cover revenue shortfalls resulting from the supervisors' recent decision to ban gun shows on county property, an action that has angered taxpayer groups and others.
"What it suggests to me is that the ordinance was pursued for blatantly political reasons without regard for the financial consequences to the county," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: San Jose Mercury News (California) / Los Angeles Daily News
Guns: The Issue That Won't Go Away
19 January 2000
Chicago Tribune, Editorial
Even President Clinton's harshest critics have to concede one thing: He's a masterful politician. What basketball coach Tex Winter is to the triangle offense, Clinton is to triangulation politics.
Now he has the National Rifle Association and Handgun Control Inc. on the same page.
This wasn't a particularly crafty maneuver. Clinton simply listened to the gun lobby's persistent complaints that his administration has pushed for new gun laws while failing to enforce the... (GunPolicy.org)
Taft, Police Press for Gun-Lockup Bill
19 January 2000
Cincinnati Post (Ohio)
COLUMBUS — Ohio Gov. Bob Taft is gaining allies in his fight to pass a bill to lessen gun deaths and accidents among children by requiring gun owners to safely secure their firearms.
The Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police, the Public Children Services Association of Ohio and the Catholic Conference of Ohio expressed support for the contentious bill Tuesday before a House committee.
"We believe individuals have a right to keep guns in the home … but one of the... (GunPolicy.org)
Robbery Up 19pc in First Crime Rise for Six Years
19 January 2000
Telegraph (UK)
Crime increased last year in England and Wales for the first time in six years, with robbery rising by 19 per cent, according to figures released yesterday by the Home Office.
Offences increased by 2.2 per cent in the year from October 1998 to September 1999. There were 114,000 more offences, taking the total to just over 5.2 million. Fraud and forgery, sexual offences, thefts from the person and violence against the person all rose. Most of the robbery offences were... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Producers, Under Assault, Turn to Politics
19 January 2000
New York Times
LAS VEGAS — Feeling pressure from a succession of lawsuits against gun makers, the trade organization that represents them is collecting millions of dollars from its members for legal defense and this week announced plans to support candidates and to lobby at all levels of government to fight greater gun restrictions.
Until recently, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, representing companies that make all manner of outdoor products as well as firearms, had... (GunPolicy.org)
Teen Dead After Gun Discharges in Car at High School Parking Lot
19 January 2000
Associated Press
NEW PORT RICHEY, Florida — A handgun discharged inside a car filled with teenage boys Wednesday, killing the 16-year-old driver, authorities said.
Pasco County Sheriff's Office investigators said Ted Niziol, a sophomore at Ridgewood High School, was shot in the back as the car pulled out of the school parking lot. Officials said the shooting appeared to have been accidental.
Nizio died about an hour later at a hospital.
Four students riding in the car Nizio was... (GunPolicy.org)
Psychologist Said Kinkel Shouldn't Have a Gun
19 January 2000
Associated Press
PORTLAND — A psychologist who treated teenage killer Kip Kinkel before Kinkel's 1998 high school rampage said at the time that his patient should never have a gun.
Yet his father, Bill Kinkel, bought him a 9 mm Glock pistol-one of many weapons the youth was to amass before he shot his parents to death and then killed two Thurston High School classmates and wounded 25 others in May 1998.
Kinkel, now 17, was sentenced in November to 112 years in prison.
The... (GunPolicy.org)
Parent Protests Gun Safety Class
19 January 2000
Associated Press
COOS BAY, Oregon — Lynette Rich, whose daughter died in an accidental shooting, argues that not even pellet guns used in outdoor recreation courses should be allowed in school-especially the school where her son is a student.
Rich got into a dispute with Sunset Middle School, where her son is a sixth-grader, over an outdoor recreation course where students learn about firearms.
"In today's world, guns do not belong in school-period," she said. "I don't care what the... (GunPolicy.org)