PHOENIX - Gov. Jan Brewer is defending Arizona laws that allow the sale of firearms at gun shows without a background check and forbid cities from imposing such requirements. "We believe our laws are fair and just in the state of Arizona," the governor said Monday. Her comments come on the heels of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg releasing videos Monday taken by undercover agents at a Phoenix gun show just 15 days after the Tucson shootings. There, Arizona... (GunPolicy.org)

NEW YORK — Undercover investigators have exposed how easy it is in the United States to buy high-powered weapons — even when the buyer admits to being unable to pass a background check. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday he sent the investigators to the Crossroads of the West gun show in Phoenix, Arizona, two weeks after the Jan. 8 shootings in nearby Tucson, to highlight that the general rule remains "no questions asked" if the buyer has a simple ID... (GunPolicy.org)

A large percentage of the victims and perpetrators of gun violence in the region are young men, Foreign Affairs Minister Surujrattan Rambachan said yesterday. Rambachan was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Second Regional Workshop on Negotiations for the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain. "Research has established that in the main, the victims and perpetrators of gun violence in the region are young men of low socio-economic... (GunPolicy.org)

An undercover sting at a Phoenix gun show found dealers sold weapons like the one used in the Tucson shooting rampage to questionable buyers without conducting background checks, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Monday. Investigators working for New York City, prompted by the Tucson shooting that killed six people and injured 13, bought 9mm handguns at the Crossroads of the West Gun Show in Phoenix and secretly videotaped the transactions, Bloomberg said. The... (GunPolicy.org)

PHOENIX - A U.S. senator is examining a claim that two guns sold in purchases sanctioned by federal firearms agents were later used in a December shootout that left a Border Patrol agent dead near the Arizona-Mexico border. Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa said in a letter provided Monday to The Associated Press he had received information that appears to partially corroborate the claim received by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee about the... (GunPolicy.org)

The Senate passed unanimously a bill Monday that would require non-Utahns to obtain a concealed weapon permit from their home state before being issued a Utah permit. The bill, SB36 authored by Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, aims at working with 33 other states that have reciprocity agreements with Utah — allowing states to maintain more control over their concealed weapons permit records. Valentine also said the bill wouldn't change the rules for states that don't... (GunPolicy.org)

President Obama has been under increasing pressure to say something — anything — about whether he intends to push for stricter gun control measures in the wake of the Jan. 8 massacre in Tucson. On Monday, gun control advocates intensified their push for a presidential weigh-in, after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that his investigators bought semi-automatic weapons at an Arizona gun show without undergoing criminal background checks. When asked... (GunPolicy.org)

Ten short days after Jared Lee Loughner went on his rampage in Tucson, Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hamilton of Fresno struck down a law that sought to provide Californians with protection against criminals intent on buying handgun ammunition. Hamilton's timing was appalling. His reasoning was muddled. The law sought to require that people buying handgun ammunition provide identification and a thumbprint, starting Tuesday. That information would be compared against a... (GunPolicy.org)

Undercover investigators have exposed the ease with which high-powered guns can be bought in the US, purchasing the same type of pistol used in the Tucson massacre just two weeks later in a neighbouring city – with no questions asked. New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, sent a team of undercover agents to the Crossroads of the West gun show in Phoenix, Arizona, just 120 miles away from the scene of the Tucson shooting. There, on 23 January, they bought a Glock 9mm... (GunPolicy.org)

About three weeks before the deadly shootings in Tucson renewed a national debate about gun control, the White House budget office proposed steep cuts for the agency charged with enforcing federal gun laws. When officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives saw the proposal, they concluded it would effectively eliminate a major initiative in the fight against firearms trafficking on the Mexican border, according to people familiar with the... (GunPolicy.org)

PHOENIX — Weeks after a shooting left six dead and 13 injured in Tucson, New York City sent undercover investigators to an Arizona gun show and found instances in which private sellers sold semiautomatic pistols even after buyers said they probably could not pass background checks, city officials said. The investigation, part of an effort by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's administration to crack down on illegal gun sales nationwide, took place Jan. 23 at the... (GunPolicy.org)

MUTSAMUDU - Hundreds of weapons used in a revolt on Anjouan, one of three islands in the Comoros archipelago, remain unaccounted for, causing the government to change its strategy for disarmament, demobilization and reintegration. Some of the more than 300 small arms - from pistols to assault rifles - issued by the state to Anjouan's Forces De Gendarmerie d'Anjouan (FGA), part of the national army, were turned against the Comorian national government by Mohamed Bacar... (GunPolicy.org)

On 23 January, the Sunday Times in the UK reported that in the dying days of 2010 the Zimbabwe government clandestinely transferred arms to incument President Laurent Gbagbo's administration in the Ivory Coast. The arms consignment allegedly comprised small arms, mortars and ammunition, which was mainly of Chinese origin. The transfer was facilitated by the state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries (ZDI), and was supposedly dispatched with the blessing of Zimbabwean... (GunPolicy.org)