HONOLULU — Kenji and Hiromasa Ozawa, a father and son vacationing on the island of Oahu, spent Christmas morning hiking up Diamond Head, a volcanic cone here with sweeping views of Waikiki Beach. Their next stop: The Royal Hawaiian Shooting Club — an indoor shooting range in an upscale shopping center just above Cartier and Hermès stores — where they fired off several dozen rounds between them. "We love shooting guns, I love shooting guns," said Kenji Ozawa,... (GunPolicy.org)

RIO JANEIRO – A total of 12 people were wounded, including one who sustained serious wounds, in a New Year's Eve shooting in the Copacabana district, one of the most famous neighborhoods in Rio de Janeiro, minutes before the arrival of the New Year, Agencia Brasil reported Wednesday. The shooting started when a man who had been arguing with a woman grabbed the firearm of a police officer who had responded to the incident. The suspect, identified as Adilson Rufino da... (GunPolicy.org)

MANILA: A gun enthusiast held hostage three members of his family and their maid for 10 hours before killing them and committing suicide in the eastern Philippines, police said Wednesday. Witnesses said Anthony Zepeda had argued with family members in their home in the town of Pili in Camarines Sur province on Tuesday, police said. The confrontation later culminated in Zepeda taking hostage his father, brother, sister-in-law and the maid, provincial police chief... (GunPolicy.org)

Two people were left injured after they were hit by bullets when members of the public fired gunshots into the air to celebrate the New Year in Windhoek on Tuesday night. This comes after City Police Chief, Abraham Kanime, warned Windhoek residents to refrain from firing gunshots into the air to celebrate the New Year. Kanime said in the earlier in the week people should not fire shots into the air as this could lead to unnecessary deaths. Namibian Police Force... (GunPolicy.org)

This is the first time that uniformed gardai have been given permission to carry guns full-time since the foundation of the force almost a century ago. The move has been sanctioned after a review of the operation of the five regional support units (RSUs) since their introduction in 2008. Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan has ordered that all the regional response units will be permanently armed after a rise in the number of incidents requiring garda firepower. The... (GunPolicy.org)