Gun Policy News, 3 January 2003
Gun Crime Soars as Thugs Seek 'Respect'
3 January 2003
Times (UK)
Gun-toting drug dealers and young criminals carrying firearms to earn respect on the streets and in clubs have fuelled a 37 per cent rise in gun crime over five years.
Figures to be issued next week by the Home Office are expected to show fresh increases last year. Police fear a descent into American-style violence and the use of guns as a fashion accessory among teenagers in inner cities.
The two teenage girls shot dead in the backstreets of Birmingham yesterday are... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Registry a Big Mess, But Still Valid
3 January 2003
Calgary Herald (Alberta), Opinion
Annie, get your gun. And quit whining about registering it. It's impossible to understand what all the to-do is about gun registration.
Yes, the federal Liberals messed up the establishment of the gun registry. But put aside for a minute the program's billion-dollar cost overrun and the bureaucratic tangles yet to be untangled. Those issues are separate; the core principle remains valid.
Why the inflammatory rhetoric from gun owners?
Nobody objects to registering and... (GunPolicy.org)
3 January 2003
Times (UK)
Britain is in the grip of a new arms race. In some parts of the country, police chiefs say that guns have become "fashion accessories" as criminal gangs arm themselves in a new form of mutually assured destruction. Yesterday's tragic shooting of four teenage girls in Birmingham shows that Britain can no longer pride itself on gun control policies invented for a different era. If more lives are not to be lost in senseless violence, the Government must get to grips with... (GunPolicy.org)
Expert Killed in Gun-Lab Accident
3 January 2003
Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)
WEST VALLEY CITY — A renowned forensic investigator died late Thursday after a rifle he was examining discharged, shooting him in the chest.
Scott R. Spjut, director of the police department's Forensic Services Unit, was looking for fingerprints on the semiautomatic weapon around 4 p.m. when it fired, said West Valley City Assistant Police Chief Craig Gibson. Police were still investigating how the gun went off.
The accident occurred in the crime lab in the basement... (GunPolicy.org)
Canadian Anthrax Scare Proves False
3 January 2003
Reuters
CALGARY, Alberta — Powder contained in letters addressed to Canada's controversial firearms registry tested negative for anthrax early on Friday after a scare that sent two postal workers to hospital for examinations, police said.
The employees discovered what police and fire officials initially determined as possible anthrax late on Thursday at a sorting outlet in west Edmonton, Alberta.
But subsequent testing proved the substance in two letters did not contain the... (GunPolicy.org)
3 January 2003
Toronto Star (Ontario)
Jim Turnbull got what he wanted- publicity- when police arrested him on Parliament Hill for carrying part of a handgun after he burned a copy of Bill C-68, the Firearms Act. Turnbull is a 70-year-old Albertan furious that he is being told to register his firearms. He says it violates his rights.
Tough.
Turnbull and gun-lovers like him are missing the point: Canada needs a federal gun registry. True, Ottawa has made a mess so far of the registry, which has cost $1... (GunPolicy.org)
Concern Over 'Quick-Fix' Gun Law
3 January 2003
Guardian (UK)
Opposition parties today warned against moves to impose a minimum five-year jail term for anyone caught illegally carrying a gun.
The Home Office confirmed today that provisions to toughen the gun laws could be added to the criminal justice and sentencing bill currently before parliament.
The suggestion was first floated by the home secretary, David Blunkett, last year, but was revived by the Times newspaper today in the wake of the double killings in Birmingham on... (GunPolicy.org)
Ontario Minister Calls for End of Federal Gun Registry Until Audit Complete
3 January 2003
Canadian Press
OTTAWA — Ontario's public security minister will ask other provinces to join his call for a halt to Ottawa's much-maligned gun registry until the auditor general can assess its value.
"The federal firearms program is a billion-dollar black hole," Bob Runciman told a news conference Friday.
"It's clear from the auditor general's report that the real costs of the program could end up significantly higher than the current public estimate of $1 billion."
Ottawa could... (GunPolicy.org)
3 January 2003
BBC News
People caught with illegal firearms could face at least five years in jail under government plans being considered in response to rising gun crime.
The reports came as police named the two teenage girls shot dead by gunman outside a New Year party in Birmingham.
Charlene Ellis, 18, and Latisha Shakespear, 17, both died at the scene early on Thursday.
Charlene's twin sister Sophie and Cheryl Shaw, 17, were injured in the shooting and are described as in a "stable"... (GunPolicy.org)
Sniper Tips Trigger Firearms Crackdown
3 January 2003
World Net Daily (USA)
Over the next few weeks, Montgomery County police will launch an intensive firearms crackdown using the 100,000 tips called in during the October sniper terror investigation, reports the Washington Times.
"Our goal is to reduce illegal firearm possessions and violent crimes," Capt. Nancy Demme, spokeswoman for the Montgomery County Police Department, told the Times.
A task force of county and state police officers, as well as federal agents of the Secret Service and... (GunPolicy.org)
New Regulations Wouldn't Help Few criminals Get Weapons at Gun Shows
3 January 2003
Roanoke Times (Virginia)
Regrettably, state Sen. Henry Marsh, D-Richmond, special-interest lobbyists and even the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police believe — perhaps as strongly as legitimate gun owners believe otherwise — that imposing additional burdensome and unconstitutional regulations on gun show promoters, dealers and ordinary citizens will reduce the number of criminals able to obtain firearms and thereby reduce the rate of gun violence and firearms misuse in our... (GunPolicy.org)
American Gun Culture is an Export Nobody Wants
3 January 2003
Scotsman (Edinburgh), Opinion
The immediate attraction of the film Gangs of New York, which the bus shelter poster tells me will arrive in British cinemas on 10 January, is the return of Daniel Day-Lewis to the silver screen. For fans of My Left Foot or Last of the Mohicans, that will be enough to pull them in.
But the film, set in mid-19th century New York, carries certain parallels with early 21st century Britain. Martin Scorsese's saga of gruesome violence involving immigrant gangs — "America... (GunPolicy.org)
Registration Protests Unmask Yank in Us
3 January 2003
Winnipeg Sun (Manitoba), Opinion
The only thing missing from this week's gun registration protest in Ottawa was someone reciting Charlton Heston's infamous anti-gun control cry, "Take my weapon? When you pry it from my cold, dead hands."
In fact, I was almost expecting the National Rifle Association mouthpiece to show up on Parliament Hill himself, clutching an old western-style rifle and lending a helping hand to his Canadian brothers-in-arms.
I love Canadian anti-gun registration protests because... (GunPolicy.org)
Showdown Over Guns Drags on in Courts
3 January 2003
Detroit Free Press
WASHINGTON — They worked for hours, calculating and figuring. And after weeks, they had a number: $400 million.
That was how much Detroit officials determined gun violence had cost the city over 10 years to send out the police, treat the uninsured, bury the dead and clean the blood from the streets.
"You think about the loss of life, the lives shattered," said then-Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer, now chairman of the DickinsonWrightlaw firm. "When you consider the... (GunPolicy.org)
3 January 2003
Telegraph (UK), Editorial
We are becoming almost inured to lurid reports telling of the use of guns by criminals on the streets, but some terrible events, like the shooting yesterday morning of four teenage girls in Aston, Birmingham, still have the power to shock.
Two of the girls died when a gunman fired indiscriminately into a hairdressing salon where a party was under way. Another two girls were treated in hospital for injuries after what experienced police officers said was the most... (GunPolicy.org)