Zaid Fawzy has come to a crowded Baghdad market with one purpose in mind — to get hold of a pistol before the January 30 election. "I want to buy a gun quickly to protect myself and my family before the election comes," said Fawzy, who works for Iraq's oil ministry. Fears of violence during and after the election have caused a boom in gun sales on the black market in Baghdad. Recent demand has added 150 US dollars to the price of pistols and raised the price of a... (GunPolicy.org)

CHENGDU — Police have confiscated 39 firearms and 579 bullets after cracking a gun-smuggling ring involving seven people. The items uncovered are the most varied and biggest in number of any bust in Chengdu, capital of Southwest China's Sichuan Province, since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, said Su Peiwei, head of the Chengdu Municipal Public Security Bureau. The probe started in the wake of a drug smuggling case in March, when police learnt... (GunPolicy.org)

SEATTLE — I'm not a big gun guy. I support the idea that people can own 'em, but I think the 2nd Amendment has been stretched to the point of absurdity. Case in point: carrying guns in Olympia. Right now, anyone with a concealed weapons permit can pack a pistol into the legislative building. That doesn't set well with lawmakers, who've been known to irritate people on occasion. As one legislator aptly put it: "We do things that piss people off every day."... (GunPolicy.org)

The man who supplied his brother with the gun that killed an 8-year-old girl last year in Northeast Washington was sentenced yesterday to a 20-year prison term, nearly as much time as his brother was given. D.C. Superior Court Judge Ann O'Regan Keary told Ricardo Hall, 24, that he had played a key role in the killing even though it was his younger brother who fired the gun that killed Chelsea Cromartie on May 3 as she watched television in her aunt's home. "You do... (GunPolicy.org)

MOSCOW — The Russian government decided to equip its mail carriers and their bosses with guns, the Interfax news agency reported. The guns, preferably revolvers, will be given to those who have to transport cash, the report said, without specifying how many weapons would be issued in all or when the program would begin. The decision must still be approved by the justice ministry, the report said. Without a viable bank checking system, prominent in the Western... (GunPolicy.org)

JERUSALEM — The new Palestinian leadership on Thursday forbade civilians to carry weapons, the latest in a series of steps meant to rein in militant groups and help quell lawlessness in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The measure was seen as another sign that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who has been in office less than two weeks, is determined to swiftly establish a climate in which long-dormant peace talks with Israel can be revived. Israeli Prime... (GunPolicy.org)

Birmingham's fight against guns was highlighted today when shock figures revealed the number of armed police had doubled in the last three years. Gun-carrying cops in the West Midlands were called into action more than 25 times a week last year. Only London had a higher figure. The force's battle against gun gangs and terrorist threats has brought about much of the increase — but youngsters playing with toy guns also caused the figures to rocket. In just one month... (GunPolicy.org)

MOSCOW — About 47 percent of rifled weapons, in search by law enforcement, are stolen from the Defense Ministry, Colonel Sergei Fedkin, deputy head of the criminal department of the Russian Interior Ministry, said in an interview with the Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozrenie newspaper, published Friday. "Almost every third weapon seized by law enforcement is stolen from military organizations, and first of all from the Defense Ministry. About 47 percent of all weapons... (GunPolicy.org)

Two years ago, when the Minnesota Legislature passed the conceal-and-carry handgun law, businesses and organizations hurried to protect themselves by putting up those blasted signs by their main entrances: "This business bans guns in these premises." A new study shows those signs have a negative emotional effect on whomever passes by — employees and customers alike. Stephen Morgan, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology at Concordia University-St. Paul, said... (GunPolicy.org)