WASHINGTON — When salesmen for Glock Inc. pitch their .40-caliber handgun to police, they talk about its firepower. They talk about its precision. And they talk about its durability-daring cops to freeze the pistol or drop it in mud and watch it still shoot. Such qualities long have been overriding priorities for police buying guns. But that could be changing in the face of pressure from the Clinton administration. Some public officials who buy weapons for their... (GunPolicy.org)

America's powerful gun lobby, led by the actor Charlton Heston, is making the British scapegoats for the "surrender" by a leading small arms manufacturer to the Clinton administration over gun control. A groundbreaking deal last month between Smith and Wesson and the US government restricting the way the company makes and distributes some of the world's best-known handguns has rocked the firearms industry and led to angry accusations of a sell-out. In exchange for the... (GunPolicy.org)

SYRACUSE — Ray Herrick never fails to read the obituaries in the newspaper. He's not checking to see if anybody he knows died, and he's not looking for a good apartment. He's looking for guns. Herrick, supervisor of the Onondaga County Sheriff's Department pistol license unit, is tracking the whereabouts of handguns owned by people who have died. As many as 4,000 licenses in the county belong to people who would be at least 75 years old if they are alive. Many of... (GunPolicy.org)

School-age killers, unlike adults, may collaborate, as two teenage boys did at Columbine High School. When 16-year-old Evan Ramsey strode into the lobby of his high school in Bethel, Alaska, in 1997 and shot a popular basketball player in the stomach, there were already spectators gathered on the mezzanine above — students that he had told to be there to witness his "evil day." Some may not have known exactly what was to transpire, but at least two students at... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — With his gun bill stuck on Capitol Hill, President Clinton is taking to the road to encourage a burgeoning move in the states to deal with firearms safety questions that Congress has not. The president scheduled two trips this week to lend support for state gun legislation. He will be on hand Tuesday in Annapolis, Md., as Gov. Parris Glendening signs a newly passed bill requiring ballistics tests and internal safety locks for handguns. On Wednesday,... (GunPolicy.org)

[Continued from Part 1 of 2] Joseph Brooks Jr. was a policeman's son from Detroit and one of the few black students to win entrance to both a prestigious local preparatory school and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Friends in the fraternity house where Mr. Brooks lived recall no hint of anger or illness, only that Mr. Brooks was absurdly meticulous about his chores, and studied so compulsively that they nicknamed him "Books." But in his third year at M.I.T.,... (GunPolicy.org)

[Components of the 'Rampage Killers' series] - A Statistical Portrait: They Threaten, Seethe and Unhinge, Then Kill in Quantity (April 9, 2000) - How Youngest Killers Differ: Peer Support (April 9, 2000) Graphics - Interactive Map of Rampage Killers Across the Country - List of Rampage Killers Across the Country Video - Times Reporters on 'Good Morning America' Ask the Reporters - Learn more about the research and reporting behind this series Related... (GunPolicy.org)