A gun control lobby group believes an investigation needs to be held into how a gunman who killed two people and himself became a licensed gun holder. Benjamin Howard McConnell entered the Shamrock Hotel in Maryborough with a sawn-off 0.22 semi-automatic rifle and a 0.22 target pistol and shot Rachel Anne Merlow and Perri Lee Straton. It is believed McConnell was a licensed gun owner and a member of the Wide Bay Pistol Club. Coalition for Gun Control spokeswoman... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — It began with the image of preschoolers fleeing a gunman at the Jewish Community Center in the San Fernando Valley last summer. And it has evolved into the Million Mom March, a campaign by mothers from New Jersey to Hawaii to stage the largest rally in U.S. history in support of stronger gun laws. In the process, they hope to do what President Clinton, public opinion polls and a spate of high-profile shootings have failed to do: spur new action on... (GunPolicy.org)

The National Rifle Association and gun dealers are foolishly trying to punish Smith & Wesson, the nation's largest gunmaker, for striking a deal with the Clinton administration to embrace new safety restrictions in exchange for ending threatened lawsuits against the company. They are angry because Smith & Wesson, by breaking ranks, has demolished the claim of gun-control opponents that built-in trigger locks, better policing of gun dealers and other safety measures... (GunPolicy.org)

National Review — To a New York Times reporter, one official from the Massachusetts attorney general's office said the new rules that went into effect in Massachusetts on Monday "mark the sharpest blow yet to the gun industry." How pernicious are these rules? Do you see states lining up to follow suit? John Lott: It's sad that they phrase it in that way, as a "blow to the gun industry." The bottom line should be not whether we strike a blow against the gun industry,... (GunPolicy.org)

Ivy Skowronski was tired of living in fear, and decided to do something about it. The time was last year, the place South Australia, and what had Skowronski furiously indignant were the shortcomings of the law. A number of citizens, most of them elderly, had experienced hours of terror in their own homes after burglars entered, tied and beat them; though the perps were caught and convicted, the sentences, as Skowronski and scores of others saw it, seemed woefully... (GunPolicy.org)

Foday Sankoh was in an angry mood. The Chairman — as he likes to be called — wanted to visit Makeni, one of the towns in that part of Sierra Leone still controlled by the rebel fighters of his Revolutionary United Front. But he could not get a helicopter. The UN would not provide one, and I certainly could not. He declined an offer of a lift in my car. There are far too many potentially-hostile roadblocks on the route out from Freetown, the Sierra Leone... (GunPolicy.org)

BOSTON — The Massachusetts attorney general is to announce on Monday that he will begin carrying out the strictest and most comprehensive handgun safety laws in the nation, banning all gun makers and dealers doing business in the state from selling handguns that do not have tamper-proof serial numbers, trigger locks and safety devices enabling a user to know whether the gun is loaded. The regulations, issued under Massachusetts's consumer protection laws, will also... (GunPolicy.org)

After gun violence hit close to home, two San Fernando Valley mothers found themselves helping to organize a march in Washington to lobby for stronger weapons laws. In the second of two stories on motherhood and activism, these women, whose children were shot last summer at the North Valley Jewish Community Center, explain why they are involved in the Million Mom March, a grass-roots effort that borrows many tactics from Mothers Against Drunk Driving and hopes to match... (GunPolicy.org)

NORFOLK, Virginia — A passenger found a loaded gun in the bathroom sink on a Delta Express flight Monday, forcing the plane to be diverted to Norfolk, authorities said. The gun was found about 10 minutes after Flight 2395 left Islip, N.Y., for Orlando, Fla. The plane landed in Norfolk less than an hour later, said Wayne Shank, deputy executive director of the Norfolk airport. About 50 passengers were on the Boeing 737. They were taken to the airport fire station and... (GunPolicy.org)

CHICAGO — The American Academy of Pediatrics on Monday renewed a call for a ban on handguns and semi-automatic weapons, citing what it said was an epidemic of firearms deaths and injuries among children. Acting against the backdrop of the recent wave of gun violence in schools, the 55,000-member group also said health care professionals should intervene with parents to warn them about the danger of guns in and out of the home, and to ask parents whether their... (GunPolicy.org)

DENVER — President Clinton will visit Colorado this month to push a proposed gun control measure. His chief of staff tells C-B-S's "Face the Nation" the president will be in Colorado April 12th to support a ballot initiative that would require criminal background checks for all gun sales at gun shows in the state. Current law doesn't require unlicensed dealers to conduct background checks on prospective buyers. Clinton's visit will be eight days before the... (GunPolicy.org)

BOSTON — Declaring victory in a court battle that went all the way to the state's highest court, Massachusetts is set to regulate handguns like any other consumer product. Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly was expected to announce today that regulations would go into effect immediately. He would become the first attorney general in the nation to apply strict consumer protection laws to the gun industry. Enforcement of the new regulations would effectively ban cheap... (GunPolicy.org)