State police are investigating an e-mail that threatens eight legislators the anonymous author perceives as wanting tighter gun laws. The missive is one of thousands of e-mails, letters, faxes and phone calls lawmakers have received on gun control but one of the few deemed threatening enough to pass on to police. "We will NOT tolerate the passage of these bills, we will NOT honor them, we will NOT obey them," the e-mail says. "You cowards and traitors want a war,... (GunPolicy.org)

Not all weapons are equipped with silencers, but Congress doesn't hear any gunfire unless the guns go off at a school. Almost forgotten now are last year's vows to enact tougher gun controls after a singularly awful rash of terrorism in schools, summer camps, office buildings, houses of worship and other places where people gathered. Everyday shootings, including of thousands of children each year, don't count for much on Capitol Hill. So though Congress has returned... (GunPolicy.org)

Pierre Lebrun once told a co-worker: "Guns don't kill people-people kill people." The irony of those words hung over a coroner's inquest yesterday as Transpo worker Dave Halloran described Lebrun as being adamantly opposed to government gun control. "We never agreed on the gun thing," said Halloran, who worked with Lebrun in the St. Laurent Blvd. bus garage for years. "But I will say this, I once told him if he ever was in a bad place (mentally), to remove his guns... (GunPolicy.org)

Gun show dealers turned away the Columbine High killers when they first tried to buy their murder weapons one Saturday in late 1998. So the next day, the 17-year-olds turned to friend Robyn Anderson, 18, to make the purchase. "It was too easy," Anderson said Wednesday. "I wish it would have been more difficult. I wouldn't have helped them buy the guns if I had faced a criminal background check." Today, Anderson is scheduled to tell, for the first time publicly, how... (GunPolicy.org)

CONCORD — Guns and reducing gun violence involving teens in this state were the focus of three legislative hearings yesterday. Three proposed laws that would make it a misdemeanor to negligently store firearms, prohibit the sale or transfer of handguns to those under age 21 and prohibit the sale of "Saturday night specials" brought out more than 70 people to testify before the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. Most were gun-rights and Second Amendment... (GunPolicy.org)

DENVER — The young woman who bought two shotguns and a rifle for the Columbine gunmen at a gun show told a legislative committee Thursday she supports a bill requiring background checks at such shows. Robyn Anderson, who was 18 at the time, told legislators she wished it had been harder to buy guns for Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who were 17. Ms. Anderson said she would not have purchased the guns if she had to give her name for a criminal background check. "When... (GunPolicy.org)

America has seen a steady drop in the crime rate in recent years as the economy has improved and employment has risen. But violence at schools, workplaces and even a day-care center has made crime, especially gun control, an important issue in this year's presidential contests. Where they stand The Democrats Al Gore favors stricter gun control measures, including federally mandated, state-run photo identification for all handgun buyers, a ban on cheap handguns and... (GunPolicy.org)

An Orange County organization that lobbies for anti-gun legislation has launched an advertising campaign featuring billboards-two of which will be placed in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. The billboards will feature a large military-style assault weapon plastered across its facade. The ads note that a majority of Orange County residents support a ban on assault weapons, but that nine out of 10 of the county's state legislators failed to support the same measure. "We... (GunPolicy.org)

Arms dealers in Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province are having a hard time making a living these days. The province is where the Khyber Pass links Pakistan to Afghanistan, and where many of the province's Pashtun people, also known as the Pathans, live in "tribal" areas, largely free from Pakistani laws. It is also home to a large unlicensed arms trade — which took off during the Afghan war, as US weapons for the mujahideen flooded into the region. But trade is... (GunPolicy.org)

BRASILIA — A debate in Brazil on controlling the guns that have made the country notorious for violence heated up on Thursday as two lawmakers hoping to cut alarming murder rates submitted clashing bills to Congress. The two bills are the culmination of more than a year of efforts sparked by a radical decision by the state government of Rio de Janeiro in May 1999 to ban trade in small firearms, a measure subsequently overturned by Brazil's Supreme Court. Deep... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — President Clinton is to propose a handgun licensing program as part of his State of the Union speech on Thursday, a White House official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the proposal was the so-called "surprise" feature of the speech, most of which has been publicized in advance. "Crime in America has dropped for the past seven years-the longest decline on record, thanks to a national consensus we helped forge on community... (GunPolicy.org)

WASHINGTON — Calling on Congress to pass more stringent gun laws, the nation's mayors displayed on Thursday a "wall of death," filled with the names of nearly 3,100 Americans fatally shot since the killings at Columbine High School. "Our hope is the tragic message of this wall will not be missed on Capitol Hill," Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb said, standing before a black, 10-foot board with victims' names recorded in white and the date of their deaths in red.... (GunPolicy.org)