Known drug abusers have been prohibited from legally purchasing guns since the late 1960s. Yet Jared Lee Loughner, the man accused of gunning down 19 people, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), was able to buy two weapons despite failing an Army drug screening process. The Post's James V. Grimaldi reports that a Clinton-era policy may have been responsible for the lapse. In 1998, under then-Attorney General Janet Reno, the Justice Department directed federal... (GunPolicy.org)

President Obama is under renewed pressure from his base to demonstrate that he is, indeed, a principled man of unwavering conviction rather than a pliant political reed willingly bent and bowed by ever-shifting winds. This time the issue is gun control. Pre-presidency, Obama had been a strong supporter of gun-control initiatives. Since then, however, he has remained curiously quiet on the issue in general and following the Tucson shooting in particular. The question... (GunPolicy.org)

A mentally ill woman allegedly killed her father with a gun she stole from a pistol club she had been allowed to join despite her illness. The tragic case of Shamin Fernando, who allegedly shot her father Vincent "Lalin" Fernando, 70, in her Glebe home in August, highlights questions about the checks on those using firearms in NSW. It has also sparked a battle between the Sydney Pistol Club and police trying to suspend its licence - yet another in a series of... (GunPolicy.org)

If certain members of the Utah Legislature get their way, your children will have to spend more time worrying about their fellow students packing heat and less time worrying about the business of learning. In fact, the only one standing up for your kids and higher education and learning is University of Utah President Michael Young. Even in the wake of the Arizona slaughter, Rep. Carl Wimmer and others have sought to liberalize Utah's gun policy, all the while... (GunPolicy.org)

Tension was high in Congress in the months before the Civil War when an observer wryly noted that the only members not carrying a pistol were carrying two pistols. Perhaps high tension explains why Montana State Sen. Verdell Jackson, R- Kalispell, has introduced legislation to allow Montana lawmakers to carry concealed weapons on the floors of the state House and Senate. Especially because now is an angry time, is any useful purpose served by our lawmakers packing... (GunPolicy.org)