File under: "Strong Gun Laws Work."

In today's Sacramento Bee:

Sacramento police have seized 56 guns and more than 800 rounds of ammunition from convicts and gang members over the past year through an ordinance that tracks ammunition sales, officials said Tuesday.

...

City police seized guns ranging from 50-year-old rifles to a high-powered shotgun labeled a "destructive device" by the federal government, police said. In the past year, 53 people have been charged with felonies related to the seizures, many of them in federal court.

Of the 74 people who purchased ammunition and were prohibited from having guns, 62 had felony convictions, 11 were second strikers and five were gang members, police said.

[City Council Member Kevin] McCarty said the ordinance was "drafted with the second amendment in mind" and that city officials "shouldn't be bullied" by the threat of litigation to repeal the law.

Similar legislation is being considered statewide. Democratic Assemblyman Kevin de León of Los Angeles sponsored the measure after Los Angeles police saw people circumventing a similar city ordinance by buying their ammunition in neighboring cities. The bill is being held up in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

A study in Los Angeles found that 3 percent of those who purchase ammunition are felons, a number that adds up to 10,000 rounds of ammo a month, said de León's chief of staff, Dan Reeves.

"We're very strict on firearms, but it seems anything goes with ammunition," Reeves said.

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Yes, improving the Brady background check system - here, to screen out the dangerously mentally ill during transactions at licensed gun dealers - is gun control.

And it's just common sense.

The signing of the bill - S. 2081 - is reported here. More on the substance of the bill from the Winston-Salem Journal reported last month:

... The plan is a response to the Virginia Tech shootings of April 2007. It requires the state to report to an FBI database the names of people who are found by the court system to be so mentally ill that they pose a threat to themselves or others. The database is used by gun sellers to determine if someone is ineligible to own a gun.

The bill, Senate Bill 2081 -- which the House passed unanimously yesterday, after similar action by the Senate last week -- now goes to Gov. Mike Easley for his signature.

"We clearly do not want guns being in the hands of dangerous people, whether they have a mental illness or not," said John Tote, a mental-health advocate in Raleigh.

With the bill, North Carolina joins many other states that have tightened rules for background checks in response to the shootings at Virginia Tech. The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, had been declared by a judge in late 2005 to be mentally ill and an imminent danger to himself. After a brief stay at a psychiatric hospital, Cho was ordered to receive psychological counseling, but no one monitored him.

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With over 1.6 million prohibited purchasers already rejected at the point of sale by Brady background checks, North Carolina's provision of additional records to the background check system can only help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

It seems that whenever a representative of the NRA is asked whether their organization still supports the virtual machine gun ban in America, they figure out a way to dodge the question.

Until today's report in the Mobile Press-Register:

... While Alabamians support gun ownership, they do think there should be some restrictions in certain cases. Sixty-seven percent of those surveyed said felons who have paid their debt to society should not have a right to own a gun while 77 percent said they favor prohibiting ownership of fully automatic weapons.

...

The NRA's [spokeswoman Rachel] Parsons signaled disagreement with respondents who believe that people should be barred from keeping machine guns and fully automatic weapons in their homes.

Anyone wanting to own such a weapon faces a lengthy and demanding review process, including several background checks, Parsons said, adding that legally owned fully automatic firearms result in little or no crime.

"The NRA stands firmly by the notion that law-abiding citizens are not the problem," she said.

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Aside from committing a Kinsley Gaffe about the NRA's position on the Federal machine gun ban - putting that organization at odds with almost 80% of Alabamians, not to mention the rest of America - Ms. Parsons also helped make the case for the law's effectiveness.

Almost certainly, a key reason why few machine guns are used in crime is because they have been heavily regulated since 1934, with new such weapons banned from manufacture since 1986.

As the news shows every week, just because someone hasn't broken a law doesn't mean they should get a gun - especially not a machine gun.

This story reports that an airport employee arrested for bringing a gun into the Miami International Airport doesn't have a concealed carry permit.

Except that doesn't matter in Florida, where even its lax permit system and its new guns-at-work law don't allow permit-holders to take guns into airports.

Hopefully Gov. Perdue is taking notes.

From WLPG ABC-10 (Miami):

An American Eagle operations employee was arrested Wednesday at Miami International Airport after he brought a gun into a secure area, police said.

According to Miami-Dade police, Andry Billu arrived for work shortly before 6 a.m. when he was stopped at an employee-screening checkpoint. Billu was carrying a 9 mm handgun in a sterile area where no firearms are allowed, Miami-Dade police Detective Robert Williams said.

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An editorial in yesterday's Edmond (Oklahoma) Sun, reminds gun owners that "It only takes an extra moment to ensure the safety of your weapons just as it only takes a moment to lose a precious life."

Read it here:

A Luther family will endure one of the greatest sorrows known to man today — they will bury their 12-year-old child.

John Luke White died last week after an accidental shooting at a friend’s home. Nothing will ever completely take away this family’s pain, nor the remorse of the best friend and his family.

But White’s family already is turning their sorrow into action. They have said they will ask the Legislature to consider a new gun lock law to help protect other innocent lives.

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The prevalence of unintentional shootings of children and teens is found - as in that of gun suicide - among the nation's weakest gun law states.

According to the latest figures from the CDC, the 15 worst states for unintentional shooting deaths of kids aged 0-19, by rate, are: Louisiana, South Dakota, Mississippi, Arkansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Alabama, Idaho, Tennessee, South Carolina, Montana, Kansas, Ohio, New Mexico, and Oregon.

Only one of these states - Kansas - has a Child Access Prevention law.

Among the best 15 best states? Eight have CAP laws: Virginia, New Jersey, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.