Gun Policy News, 30 January 2003
Gun Registry Fiasco Faces Probe
30 January 2003
Globe & Mail (Toronto)
Officials who were in charge of Canada's firearms registry will be called to appear before the parliamentary public accounts committee, the House of Commons was told Wednesday.
Committee chair John Williams, an Alliance MP, confirmed during Question Period that the committee would begin hearing from witnesses Feb. 24 to examine what went wrong with the federal gun registry.
"Parliament has the responsibility in investigating the federal firearms program," Mr. Williams... (GunPolicy.org)
Second Amendment Sisters Puts Women's College on Firing Line
30 January 2003
Los Angeles Times
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts — Flush with anticipation, four students from the nation's oldest women's college peered into the display case last week at Smith & Wesson's Sports Shooting Center and considered which handgun each would select for target practice.
The .22, said Christie Caywood, because it fits so nicely in her hand. April Sparks swiftly chose the .357 over the .38, then opted for the .22. Student government president Erica Stock suggested they could all... (GunPolicy.org)
Officer Could Lose Job Over Gun
30 January 2003
Fresno Bee (California)
A Fresno police officer could be fired after marrying a woman who served time in prison for attempted murder and then violated her parole in December by having access to his department gun.
Parole agents found city police officer Ray Holquinn's gun, pepper spray, baton and cartridges on the floor of his bedroom near the bed, where his bride had been sleeping.
Holquinn and his wife, Tanya Marie Holquinn, knew his gun had to be kept in a locked safe or locked gun... (GunPolicy.org)
Solid Gun Legislation Lost in Hyperbolic Feud
30 January 2003
Seattle Times, Editorial
Another year, another opportunity to close a nutty legal loophole that allows shoppers at gun shows to avoid background checks when guns are purchased from certain sellers.
But bet the better part of your wallet the legislation will languish again. Reasonable gun control is rarely about specific rationales for a law. It is about a refusal to give an inch in a heated debate.
Everyone ought to undergo background checks, and they should not be allowed to avoid that... (GunPolicy.org)
30 January 2003
Toronto Sun (Ontario)
As politicians return to work after a winter break, many issues affecting anglers and hunters remain on the table. The federal Liberals' billion-dollar long-gun registry likely will dominate, as pundits in the general media and opposition parties in Ottawa continue to take pot shots at it.
It will become an even easier target over the next month or so. Minister of Justice Martin Cauchon is slated to soon release his own spin on where the money went (heck, the... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Owners to Ask President to Reconsider Firearms Ban
30 January 2003
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Firearms dealers on Thursday said they would appeal to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to reconsider her decision to ban licensed civilian gun owners from carrying their weapons in public as part of her campaign to check crime and violence.
Demetrio Tuazon, president of the Association of Firearms and Ammunitions Dealers (AFAD), said while his group would support the President's decision, a study should first be made since it would involve the security of... (GunPolicy.org)
30 January 2003
Toledo Blade (Ohio), Editorial
Just when the Ohio General Assembly is confronted with more pressing problems, including a mammoth budget deficit, the concealed weapons issue has reared its ugly head in Columbus again.
Rep. Jim Aslanides, a Coshocton Republican, has reintroduced virtually the same concealed-carry bill that passed the House last session but died in the lame-duck Senate in December.
We hope that this misguided and dangerous measure meets the same fate, even if Gov. Bob Taft's veto pen... (GunPolicy.org)
Grant to Help Keep Guns Out of Youngsters' Hands
30 January 2003
Boston Herald
Kids packing pistols and the greedy grownups who arm them for profit will be the target of a $400,000 grant the Suffolk District Attorney's Office received yesterday.
The two-year "Project Sentry" award from the U.S. Department of Justice "sends a clear message to young people who think it's OK to shoot people and put entire neighborhoods in fear," District Attorney Daniel Conley said. "I plan to disabuse them of that notion right now."
The timing of the grant is... (GunPolicy.org)
British Police Criticized for Some Shootings
30 January 2003
Associated Press
LONDON — Police firearms units in several force areas are to trial Taser stun guns, officials said Thursday as a review of police shootings recommended some officers be equipped with nonlethal weapons.
In Britain, a country with strict gun-control laws, most police do not carry firearms, but each force has armed teams to deal with encounters involving offenders carrying weapons.
The Police Complaints Authority (PCA) — which surveyed 24 police shootings, 11 of them... (GunPolicy.org)
Manila's Arroyo Orders Wider Gun Ban to Curb Crime
30 January 2003
Reuters
MANILA — Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, seeking to curb violence in a country with hundreds of thousands of unlicensed gun owners, Thursday ordered a ban on civilians carrying firearms in public places.
A police spokesman said Arroyo's edict was intended to tighten implementation of a decades-old law which is fraught with exemptions that allow influential people, including politicians and movie stars, to carry guns wherever they go.
Shootings during... (GunPolicy.org)
Ashcroft Says Bush Gun Program Cuts Crime
30 January 2003
Reuters
PHILADELPHIA — U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday credited the Bush administration's program for cracking down on gun violence with helping to lower murder and violent-crime rates in communities across the country.
Speaking to 1,300 federal, state and local law enforcement officials at a Justice Department conference in Philadelphia, Ashcroft said the program called Project Safe Neighborhoods spawned a 32 percent jump in federal gun prosecutions last... (GunPolicy.org)
Policeman's Child Dies After Shooting Self in Head
30 January 2003
Houston Chronicle (Texas)
The 7-year-old daughter of a Houston police officer used a revolver found in a bedroom of her family's Deer Park home and fatally shot herself while she and three siblings were in the care of their 13-year-old sister.
Dovie Caroline Hill, whose seventh birthday was Friday, shot herself on the left side of her head while she was in the master bedroom of the family's single-story brick home in the 100 block of W. 4th St., Deer Park police Lt. Omar G. Akmal said. The... (GunPolicy.org)
Agency Plans to Ease Pilots Into Gun-Training Program
30 January 2003
Washington Post
The federal government's plan to allow commercial airline pilots to carry guns will begin cautiously, with just 50 pilots in the initial program, the Transportation Security Administration said yesterday.
The TSA, which was directed by Congress last year to develop a training program by Feb. 25 for pilots to carry guns, has yet to finalize decisions about other details of the program, such as the exact date training will begin, how guns will be transported to airplanes... (GunPolicy.org)
Police Firearms Teams 'Need Tighter Controls'
30 January 2003
Telegraph (UK)
The Police Complaints Authority has condemned an inappropriate culture in some firearms units, and highlighted the use of "grossly offensive" nicknames.
The report highlighted the case of an armed officer who went drinking the night before an early-morning raid. It also revealed that nearly half the people shot by armed police in recent years were trying to commit "suicide by cop" and actually wanted to be fired upon.
Although procedures were "generally sound" and the... (GunPolicy.org)
Police Use of Guns Scrutinised
30 January 2003
BBC News
The Police Complaints Authority is publishing the findings of an investigation into officers' use of firearms.
It will make a number of recommendations on the way police respond to similar incidents in the future.
The investigation, to be published on Thursday, concentrates on 24 incidents involving guns over three years.
The catalyst for the survey was the controversial shooting in 1998 of James Ashley by officers from Sussex Police.
Mr Ashley — who was from... (GunPolicy.org)
Citing Danger to Planes, Group Seeks Ban on a Sniper Rifle
30 January 2003
New York Times
WASHINGTON — A gun-control group has begun a new campaign against large sniper rifles, asserting that the rifles together with armor-piercing ammunition that bursts into flames on impact pose a serious threat to airliners at airports.
The guns, .50-caliber rifles, sell for thousands of dollars and are primarily purchased by military and law enforcement personnel, but hundreds are bought by civilians every year. Some manufacturers' marketing material emphasizes that... (GunPolicy.org)
Gun Cases Up Under Ashcroft; Other Filings Drop
30 January 2003
Newsday (New York)
WASHINGTON — Federal gun prosecutions have jumped 45 percent under Attorney General John Ashcroft, but criminal filings in environment, civil rights, government regulation and organized crime cases have dropped, an analysis of federal records shows.
Not surprisingly, the sharpest increase in any federal prosecutions since Ashcroft took over the Justice Department came in terrorism and internal security cases, a 15-fold jump to 1,208, nearly all of it coming after the... (GunPolicy.org)
Guns & Crime in Britain: D. Hemenway Reviews J.L. Malcolm's Book
30 January 2003
Psychology Today, Book review
Guns and Violence: The English Experience
(Harvard University Press, 2002)
Joyce Lee Malcolm
Summary: Do more guns make for less violent crime? The debate over our right to bear arms rages on: Do guns predict or prevent violence? While evidence seems to point to the former, author Joyce Lee Malcolm makes the case for firearms' historic role in helping to decrease violent crime.
The debate over our right to bear arms rages on: Do guns predict or prevent violence?... (GunPolicy.org)