The family of Vincent "Lalin" Fernando, who was allegedly killed by his mentally ill daughter with a pistol she had stolen from a gun club, has called for the independent vetting of unlicensed shooters. Their call has received unexpected support from the Sydney Pistol Club, the club Ms Fernando joined and from which she stole the gun. Its president, Jan Ryan, said she would welcome a return to the old legislation when unlicensed shooters were thoroughly checked by the... (GunPolicy.org)

A man whose son was among the students killed at Columbine High School stepped up to the microphone at City Hall on Monday wearing the boy's sneakers. A pastor recalled a former congregant who was one of the people shot this month outside a supermarket in Tucson. And a woman told the story of her son, who died in 2007 in East Harlem. The speakers were part of a procession of relatives and friends of victims of shootings whom Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg used at a City... (GunPolicy.org)

According to the Sacramento Sheriff's Department, 446 people are packing legally in Sacramento County, more than ever before. That number is going up at a rapid pace. In 2008, former Sheriff John McGinness issued 12 permits for people to carry concealed weapons and denied 10. In 2009 he issued 67 "CCWs" and denied 36. In 2010, as his handpicked successor, Scott Jones, was running for sheriff, McGinness issued 175 permits and denied just 21. Currently there are some... (GunPolicy.org)

Gun control policies should focus on restricting access to firearms for dangerous individuals or repeat offenders rather than making guns illegal, a prominent gun policy scholar told a group of public health students on Tuesday. Daniel W. Webster, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, touched on Baltimore police tactics and the Jan. 8 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., where six people were killed and 13 wounded, including U.S. Rep.... (GunPolicy.org)

More than 62,000 firearms have disappeared from the inventories of licensed U.S. gun dealers in the past three years, according to a study to be released Tuesday by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The study says that the dealers did not have records of legal sales for the guns - an average of about 56 missing firearms per day. "It is unacceptable that weak federal gun laws and irresponsible gun dealers allow tens of thousands of firearms to leave gun shops... (GunPolicy.org)

British and American authorities held crisis talks, it emerged today, after dozens of handguns were smuggled into the UK on passenger flights from the US. Serious flaws in trans-atlantic aviation security were exposed by the arrest of private security consultant Steven Greenoe, who is accused of trafficking more than 80 guns in his hold luggage. The 37-year-old American was stopped by security staff on at least one occasion when screening detected "multiple firearms"... (GunPolicy.org)

A former Marine faces trial in the United States accused of smuggling more than 60 handguns into Britain in his luggage. Steven Greenoe, 37, is alleged to have imported at least 66 weapons into the country from his home in North Carolina. Police fear many of the guns, which included Glock and Ruger 9mm pistols, were sold to criminal gangs in north-west England. One drive-by shooting in Wythenshawe, Manchester, last October, in which a man was hit in the leg,... (GunPolicy.org)

The Tucson shootings inspired an informal public debate over gun control laws, as such incidents typically do, with one side decrying the availability of guns to people who appear to be deranged and the other arguing that one sick man's violent rampage shouldn't have any bearing on the public's right to keep and bear arms. On Tuesday, the nonprofit gun-rights group Georgia Gun Owners took the debate one step further, calling for an end to Georgia's ban on firearms in... (GunPolicy.org)

In a case aimed at stemming the flow of U.S. weapons to the Mexican drug war, federal authorities indicted 20 men Tuesday on charges of buying an estimated 700 weapons in Arizona and conspiring to transfer them across the border, chiefly to the Sinaloa drug cartel. The arrests, carried out by at least 100 federal agents, began early Tuesday, the latest crackdown targeting an international trafficking network that authorities say has seen as many as 60,000 weapons... (GunPolicy.org)

A White House senior adviser said Tuesday night that President Obama is "going to address [gun control]." In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, David Plouffe responded to criticism that the president did not mention gun control in his State of the Union address. Some Democrats on Capitol Hill and gun-control advocates have called for new legislation in the wake of the deadly shooting that killed six and injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) earlier this... (GunPolicy.org)

Gun control policies should focus on restricting access to firearms for dangerous individuals or repeat offenders rather than making guns illegal, a prominent gun policy scholar told a group of public health students on Tuesday. Daniel W. Webster, co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, touched on Baltimore police tactics and the Jan. 8 mass shooting in Tucson, Ariz., where six people were killed and 13 wounded, including U.S. Rep.... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Three federal gun-control bills introduced Tuesday would help prevent such violence as the Tucson attack that left six dead and 14 injured, according to the New Jersey Democratic senators sponsoring the package. One bill, called the "Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act," would prohibit the manufacture and sale of firearm magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Such a ban existed until 2004, when it was not renewed by Congress. Two other... (GunPolicy.org)

The Federal Government has disbanded the National Task Force on illegal importation of goods, small arms, ammunition and light weapons. The directive was contained in a statement signed by the Legal Director, Federal Ministry of Finance, Bukhari Bello, on behalf of the Finance Minister, Mr Olusegun Aganga. The directives followed the Ministry's discovery that there is no law backing the task force. The task force, according to the statement, has no fixed address and... (GunPolicy.org)