MONTREAL — With the 20th anniversary of the Montreal Polytechnique Massacre just weeks away, gun-control advocates and the victims' families are urging opposition members of Parliament to vote against a private member's bill that would abolish Canada's long-gun registry. If the bill is eventually passed by the House of Commons, it would eliminate the need to register the type of semi-automatic rifle that Marc Lepine used in 1989 when he killed 14 women at Ecole... (GunPolicy.org)

According to my own informal survey of rural opposition MPs, it looks like Candice Hoeppner's bill to abolish the long gun registry is well on its way to becoming law. The vote on second reading is scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 4. And because C-391 is a private member's bill, it'll be a free vote. That means MPs are freed from the usual requirement of voting along party lines. Despite holding almost all of northern and rural Quebec, a spokesman for the Bloc Quebecois... (GunPolicy.org)

The Conservatives, who are running aggressive radio ads in 17 opposition rural swing ridings to pressure MPs to vote for this week's vote on the repeal of the long-gun registry, are using the divisive issue to try to win the ridings in the next election and in an effort to win a majority. "Conservatives are very successful in building up small constituencies to add to their base and this is a way of doing it, you find a wedge issue that some feel very, very strongly... (GunPolicy.org)

OTTAWA — Gun-control advocates say they are horrified and fearful that Canada's long-gun firearms registry is on the verge this week of being scrapped because the Conservatives may have enough support from the opposition to kill it. Wendy Cukier, president of the Coalition for Gun Control, says her organization has been monitoring the progress of a Conservative private member's bill to abolish the registry and is now bracing for it to clear an important vote in the... (GunPolicy.org)

A group of soldiers were allegedly arrested recently, for reportedly stealing weapons from an army barracks in Harare. The Zimbabwe Times said 13 soldiers are accused of stealing 20 AK47 rifles and three shotguns from the armoury at Pomona Barracks. The Zimbabwe Times named the detained soldiers as: Sungiso Musa, Darlington Kanyingwe, Nyaruwata Lawyers, Charles Muzondo, Dzingai T Chibutwaka, Stanley Mvindwa, Chamunorwa Chinyere, Maxwell Samudzi, Cosmore Mangenda,... (GunPolicy.org)

Few issues are more personal to soldiers than the question of whether they can trust their rifles. And few rifles in history have generated more controversy over their reliability than the American M-16 assault rifle and its carbine version, the M-4. In recent weeks, a fresh round of complaints about weapon malfunctions in Afghanistan, mentioned in an Army historian's report that documented small-arms jamming during the fierce battle in Wanat last year, has rekindled... (GunPolicy.org)

BANGKOK — About half of Thailand's national lawmakers are taking advantage of a new government plan allowing them to purchase guns at a discount and receive a license to carry them anywhere, an official said Monday. Election campaigns in Thailand's rural areas are sometimes violent, and most campaigns are marked by several deaths, usually of vote canvassers who buy votes for their candidates. The new program was arranged at the request of lawmakers, said Pranee... (GunPolicy.org)

NEW DELHI — Even as the crucial global arms trade and transfers (ATT) treaty, which seeks to regulate the $55 billion arms trade and promote democracy, found overwhelming support from 153 member countries at the UN on Friday, India was among the 19 who abstained from the meet. These 153 countries — including top arms suppliers like US, Britain, Germany and France — supported a UN disarmament committee resolution which will lead into negotiations for the treaty... (GunPolicy.org)