Too often, when adults try to figure out solutions to problems facing youths, they fail to go to the source: young people themselves, who often have the best ideas of what works for them. That's why such efforts as the Youth Initiatives Project, a Detroit-based group that's developing a youth-led campaign against gun violence, are so important. The program, run by the Neighborhood Service Organization, kicked off last week with a youth town hall meeting at the Detroit... (GunPolicy.org)

The smugness in his voice told me that he felt he was making a hysterically funny point. "So when are you going to apply for your concealed gun permit?" he said. "Everyone else is." And it's true. Since the state legislature, in its infinite wisdom, gave everyone the right to pack heat in public unless they're certifiably nuts, more than 12,500 have applied for permits. Think about that the next time you give someone the finger in traffic. "I'm sure you're real... (GunPolicy.org)

SACRAMENTO — Don't call it a "license." Call it a "permit." Better yet, a "safety certificate." With that semantical tweak, you just might get Gov. Gray Davis' signature on what's left of a bill to license handgun buyers. Probably get it, in fact. But it's still not a done deal. "I guess 'license' is a little more inflammatory than 'safety certificate,' " notes Sen. Jack Scott (D-Altadena), author of the bill. "I'm not interested in what we call it. I'm interested... (GunPolicy.org)

PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Monday the Justice Department would allocate more money to help arrest and prosecute armed criminals as part of a broad Bush administration crackdown on illegal firearms. In a speech to 1,500 law enforcement and community leaders in Philadelphia, Ashcroft said he hoped to make new money for firearms prosecution available through the Justice Department's "Weed and Seed" program, which aims to fight crime at... (GunPolicy.org)

City officials may ask the National Rifle Assn. to help fund a campaign to get guns off Oakland's streets. The city saw 25 straight years of killings numbering in the triple digits from 1973 to 1998. Although this year's final count-now at 59 — probably will fall below 100, City Manager Robert Bobb said the homicide rate remains so frustrating that he hopes the NRA could donate some of the $300,000 needed to publicize the city's Project: Exile program, which allows... (GunPolicy.org)

AUMSVILLE — The right to bear arms would become a requirement in this south Marion County city, if a former Aumsville city councilor and parks director gets his way. Tim Dunn, a ponytailed grandfather who has lived in Aumsville for more than five years, is proposing an ordinance that would require the head of every household to keep a firearm in the house and to use it for protection. Dunn points to the success of more than two dozen similar laws around the country... (GunPolicy.org)

The recent UN small arms conference was not the death knell of the Second Amendment. It was, however, another step on the road to a disarmed, UN-dominated world. Those who attended the UN's "Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects" needed go no further than the lobby of UN Headquarters to see a potent symbolic expression of that event's ultimate objective. On display in the lobby during the conference was a mammoth artifact... (GunPolicy.org)