WASHINGTON — Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, who lost her husband and almost lost her son to gun violence, blamed both major political parties for failing to renew the assault weapons ban, the legislation that propelled her to Congress. "It's because of pure politics, and I'm disappointed in both sides," she said outside Congress as the ban was expiring Monday. McCarthy, a Long Island nurse, became a national symbol for gun control advocates after her husband was slain and... (GunPolicy.org)

It is hard to appreciate at a time of war in Iraq, genocide in Sudan, terrorism in Russia and other places, and the endless cycle of violence in Israel, but there is actually less warfare in the developing world now than at the end of the 20th century. Two forthcoming reports from groups that track such things, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute and Project Ploughshares in Canada, indicate a steady decline over the past 10 years in the number of wars... (GunPolicy.org)

Perhaps you remember Evan Foster. The 7-year-old was murdered in an Inglewood park in December 1997, just after he picked up his soccer trophy. Three of the 75 rounds fired from a gang member's assault rifle drilled into his head. The federal assault weapons ban was already in effect, and if you asked the National Rifle Assn. and its acolytes in Congress about Evan's murder, they would eagerly tell you that this law, which lawmakers have shamefully let expire today,... (GunPolicy.org)

Anyone wondering why the federal assault-weapons ban — a law that regularly draws support from more than two-thirds of Americans in polls — will expire today should look at former President Bill Clinton's best-selling autobiography. In a grudging tribute to the enduring power of the National Rifle Association, Clinton acknowledges that when he was pushing for the ban's enactment in 1994, he was warned by Democratic House leaders that forcing Democrats to vote for... (GunPolicy.org)