SAN FRANCISCO — Last year, Lateefah Simon went to nine funerals, all for friends and acquaintances killed by handguns. As the executive director of a women's outreach center here, "I've had so many phone calls so many times in the middle of the night from someone saying 'My child's father is dead' that I lost track," she said. So it's not surprising that Simon is a strong supporter of the proposal to ban handguns that voters here will consider this year. "To me,... (GunPolicy.org)

Along with abortion and a few other issues, guns galvanize public passion to an unusual degree. Outside the armed camps of gun-control advocates and gun-rights groups, a largely sensible center supports the right to keep and bear arms within reason. The constant question is just what right reason requires. This newspaper supports gun rights within limits, such as Virginia's one-gun-a-month restriction, which has helped reduce "straw purchases" and gun-running along the... (GunPolicy.org)

Youngsters are being urged to hand in their imitation guns to police or face being arrested by armed officers. Officers are increasingly concerned about a surge in popularity of replica firearms among schoolchildren. They have set up a month-long weapons "hand-in" to draw attention to changes in the law which make it an arrestable offence to carry fake guns in public. "We want to get as many of these off the streets as we can in February," a South Yorkshire Police... (GunPolicy.org)

Nottingham's image as the gun crime capital of the UK is keeping visitors away — according to a council report. Nottinghamshire councillors were told the whole county has endured a difficult year, due to negative images of the city in the media. It says tourists do not differentiate between attractions like Sherwood Forest and binge drinking in the city. Experience Nottinghamshire, the county's tourism body, disputes the report's findings. Vibrant place In... (GunPolicy.org)

Barely a year after singing the praises of a law requiring gun makers to submit ballistics data on every handgun sold in Maryland, state police have declared it a dud and want it repealed. At first glance their reasoning appears sound: Since the law took effect in 2000, the information gathered has not significantly aided a single criminal investigation. The cost so far, much of it for setting up the system: $2.6 million over the four years. That's not a lot of bang for... (GunPolicy.org)

Two teenagers who made a documentary on gun violence in a Brooklyn housing project have won a special award at the Sundance Film Festival. The festival in Park City, Utah created a special recognition award for "Bullets in the Hood: A Bed-Stuy Story," a 22-minute film by Terrence Fisher, 19, and Daniel Howard, 18. The award was bestowed Saturday. Fisher and Howard, sponsored by the nonprofit media company Downtown Community Television Center, set out to show the... (GunPolicy.org)

PRETORIA — More than 15 years ago, Nic van Zyl started developing an "Intelligent Firearm" that would operate only if it identified its user as legitimate. Now, science and technology has caught up with his dream, and he hopes to see it become a reality by the end of the year, incorporating biometrics and cameras into the finished version. The idea to create a smart gun to combat firearm misuse was inspired by the high crime rates in van Zyl's home country, South... (GunPolicy.org)

Efforts to fight domestic violence are being hampered because magistrates do not use the powers available to them to seize weapons from perpetrators, according to research conducted in Western Cape. If the police and magistrates used powers available to them to seize weapons it would go a long way to protect women, said Dee Smythe of the Gender, Health and Justice Research Unit at the University of Cape Town, in the latest SA Crime Quarterly. One in five intimate... (GunPolicy.org)

The struggle over ownership of guns in the United States has taken a dramatic turn. In the midst of the winter holidays, when you could bet that everyone's mind was elsewhere, the Department of Justice decided to revise the Second Amendment. This latest example of politically motivated historical revisionism completes the task begun by John Ashcroft in 2001 in his infamous letter to the National Rifle Association, which cast aside a hundred years of Justice Department... (GunPolicy.org)

MOSCOW — Under a government directive signed recently by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, the country's postal workers will be given the right to carry and use firearms. The government believes that this will ensure security for money that is to be delivered to people entitled to cash payments under the recent welfare overhaul, writes Novye Izvestia. According to official data, Russia has over 40,000 post offices, which means at least 100,000 postal workers... (GunPolicy.org)