New York Times Oct 1, 2007
Gun Games in the Senate
It is a travesty that the Senate has failed to vote final approval of a law intended to close a gun-control loophole laid bare by last April's bloody massacre on the Virginia Tech campus. Despite a history of mental illness, a deranged student easily bought enough guns and ammunition to take 32 lives and then his own. He was previously deemed dangerous by a judge who ordered him to undergo health care. But this was outpatient treatment, not in-hospital, so his name was never placed on a federal watch list that might have barred him from buying guns. Three months ago, ...read the full article


Albany Times Union Sep 30, 2007
Tracking guns
The latest report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives confirms what many New Yorkers have long suspected -- namely, that most of the guns used to commit crimes downstate came from out-of-state. Using data compiled from guns seized in New York City last year, the ATF found that 85 percent of guns used in crimes flowed in from other states, with Virginia, Pennsylvania and Georgia at the top of the list. While the data only confirm what New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been saying for years, they are instructive, nonetheless. They also hold lessons for Albany. ...read the full article


Deseret News Sep 27, 2007
Gun issues hit close to S.L. home
The portrait in Ron and Norma Molen's basement study shows a teenager with a "lion's mane" of thick brown hair and a faraway, vulnerable look in his eyes. When art instructor Randall Lake showed the painting to the Molens 15 years ago, he told them, "You can have it if you'd like, but it's not finished." "That's OK," Norma responded with tears in her eyes. "Steven's life wasn't finished." Her youngest child, a gifted writer with a bright future, was shot to death in 1992 in a girlfriend's dorm room, a few months before he would have graduated from Indiana University. Five years earlier, ...read the full article


New York Post Sep 26, 2007
Rudy: Why I Like Guns
Rudy Giuliani yesterday cited 9/11 to justify his conversion from ardent gun-control advocate to supporter of citizens' rights to bear arms. "You have to look at all these issues in light of the different concerns that now exist - which is terrorism - the terrorists' war on us," the GOP presidential front-runner said in an interview with The Associated Press. Giuliani said his conversion was triggered in part by a court ruling striking down local firearm restrictions in Washington, D.C. "It is a very, very strong description of how important personal liberties are in this country and how we have ...read the full article


Wall Street Journal Sep 25, 2007
Senate Democrats Seek Deal to Speed Action on Gun Bill
WASHINGTON -- In a significant reversal, Senate Democrats are shopping an agreement that would expedite action on legislation to try to improve state-federal sharing of mental health data and weed out dangerous gun purchasers. The House approved a similar bill three months ago following on the killing of 32 people at Virginia Tech in April by a student with a history of mental health problems. Investigators found that the killer, a senior who later took his own life, had been able to buy two guns illegally because relevant Virginia court records hadn't been forwarded to a federal data center used for ...read the full article


New York Times Sep 24, 2007
An Opportunity for Mr. Schwarzenegger
California's Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has a laudable record of splitting with his party's orthodoxy to support pathbreaking state initiatives on global warming and stem cell research. Now Mr. Schwarzenegger has a chance to make Californians safer, and set a new national standard, by signing into law the Crime Gun Identification Act of 2007. The measure would make California the first state to require that all new semiautomatic weapons be equipped with technology known as microstamping, which imprints microscopic markings as a gun fires. That would allow police to quickly match bullet casings found at a crime scene to the weapon ...read the full article


New York Times Sep 23, 2007
Uxorious or Spurious?
The press piled into a hall near a pile of N.R.A. swag bags to watch Rudy stride into the ballroom. Would the tough guy kowtow to the powerful lobby he once lambasted as extremist? Would he pull a Romney and pretend to be an avid hunter of small varmints? Would he have an epiphany about the Second Amendment -- the way he did about the First when he blew a gasket over that painting of the Madonna daubed with elephant dung -- and reinterpret the Bill of Rights to suit his needs? The heat was on. Fred Thompson had already spoken to the ...read the full article


Wall Street Journal Sep 21, 2007
Democrats Stall on Gun-Records Bill
WASHINGTON -- After 32 people were shot to death at Virginia Tech in April, the new Democratic House moved quickly to close an administrative gap that allowed the killer to buy two guns despite a history of mental troubles. It was a rare political alliance between the National Rifle Association and its foes on the left, who together seized the moment to try to make federal background checks on gun purchasers more effective. But with students back on campus the Democratic-controlled Senate has yet to act, and the bill is in jeopardy. "I'm getting anxious," says Paul Helmke, president of the Brady ...read the full article


Miami Herald Sep 20, 2007
Police chiefs call for ban on assault weapons
The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report Wednesday calling for a ban on assault weapons, arguing it will make officers safer by reducing the ``firepower available to criminals.'' The report hits home this week in South Florida, where law enforcement officials are still reeling from the murder of one of their own. Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez, a former police officer and police director, gets angry when he talks about the fact that the gun used to kill Officer Jose Somohano was legal. ''There's absolutely no reason I can see having these weapons out on the street,'' he said. His voice ...read the full article


Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sep 20, 2007
Police chiefs blast gun loophole
The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a report Wednesday that calls for stronger gun laws and urges law enforcement agencies to better educate the public about gun violence and to form more partnerships with public health officials in preventing firearms-related deaths. The organization, which includes police executives from around the country, made 39 recommendations in the report, intended as a guide in countering a rise nationwide in gun violence over the past two years. The report also implores states to consider enacting legislation that would close the "gun show loophole," a term referring to transactions between private sellers, which allow ...read the full article