NEW YORK — With the national assault weapons ban set to expire in less than two weeks, nobody expected the gun lobby to ignore the Republican National Convention. And it didn't. Its leading organization, the National Rifle Association, has sponsored several receptions this week. Wednesday night it co-sponsored a bash for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, who could either help or hinder efforts to extend the ban. The bash featured Isaac Hayes and Kid Rock and lasted... (GunPolicy.org)

PRETORIA — Although South Africans sometimes make use of deadly force too easily, one cannot always blame them. "There is wide public fear for crime and people sometimes take the law into their own hands. But paranoia about crime often influences people's perceptions of when their lives are in danger," said Anton du Plessis, head of the Institute for Security Studies' criminal law programme. Eric Gugger, 47, was shot dead during a shootout with police in Pierre... (GunPolicy.org)

The Ministry of Interior has established a new office to deal with the issuance of new conditions for possessing of weapons by civilians. The office will follow a new mechanism of licensing people to possess weapons quite different from that issued by the Coalition forces. Once the new licences are issued, the old ones will become invalid. Al-Mashriq is published daily by Al-Mashriq Institution for Media and Cultural... (GunPolicy.org)

This particular gun story took place, ironically enough, at the 1997 convention of the American Public Health Association in Indianapolis. There, among a group of white-collar professionals and academics, a seemingly minor incident quickly led to mayhem. While eating dinner at the Planet Hollywood restaurant, a patron bent to pick something up from the floor. A small pistol fell from his pocket, hit the floor, and went off. The bullet struck and injured two convention... (GunPolicy.org)