Portland Insight Sep 9, 2010
Adams’ Gun Proposal Will Save Lives
Portland Mayor Sam Adams has taken a courageous stand against three tough opponents: gang members, gun traffickers, and the gun lobby. His recent proposals to curb illegal gun use are an essential move against those in Portland who deal in illegal weapons and recklessly put guns within easy reach of our children. The recent shootings in Portland sadly indicate that the city needs to better control the use of illegal weapons. Mayor Adams' proposed ordinances to reduce illegal guns would help address this grave situation. The mayor's proposed Child Access Prevention ordinance would prevent illegal access to firearms by children. The ordinance ...read the full article


Detroit Free Press Sep 8, 2010
2 Mumford Students Shot on 1st Day of School
Police on Tuesday shot and killed a man in connection with an investigation into a shooting at Mumford High School earlier in the day, the first day of classes for the school year. Two students were shot outside the building on the city's west side -- a 14-year-old girl was grazed on the face and a 16-year-old boy was shot in the buttocks, according to Detroit Public Schools officials. The students were listed in temporary serious condition at Sinai-Grace Hospital, said Sgt. Eren Stephens, a spokeswoman for the Detroit Police Department. Hours later, officers investigating the shooting went to an apartment in the ...read the full article


Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sep 8, 2010
ATF Orders Store to Stop Selling Guns: Shawano Shop Has Had Ongoing Appeal Since 2007
Federal regulators have ordered a Shawano gun dealer that repeatedly failed to keep accurate records and made suspected straw gun sales to stop selling firearms - three years after the store was first notified its license was being revoked. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives notified Shawano Gun & Loan it must stop selling guns on Sept. 18, according to a document filed this week by the U.S. attorney's office in Milwaukee. The ATF has allowed the store to keep selling guns for years as the revocation appeal crept forward. But this week the agency changed course. The change comes ...read the full article


El Paso Times Sep 8, 2010
40% of Guns Used in Mexico Crimes Originated in Texas
Forty percent of Mexico gun crimes traced by the ATF last year used guns originally sold in Texas, according to a report issued Tuesday by a coalition of U.S. mayors. The bipartisan advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns reported that 2,076 guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico were tracked to Texas by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives. Texas had the highest percentage of any state in the study. Another 36 percent of guns seized in Mexico were traced to sales in New Mexico, Arizona and California, according to the report by the coalition of 500 mayors. ...read the full article


Washington Post Sep 7, 2010
Editorial: The NRA Is Working to Gut the Latest Federal Gun Bill
ONLY ABOUT 10 percent of the nation's 100,000 licensed gun dealers are audited each year by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF cannot fine wayward dealers; its only tool at the moment involves revoking a miscreant's license. And that happens only about 100 times annually. But even this level of scrutiny rankles the National Rifle Association, which is pushing for legislation that threatens to gut the ATF's already limited ability to keep illegal guns off the streets. The bill, formally known as the ATF Reform and Firearms Modernization Act, is making headway in both houses of ...read the full article


ABC News Sep 7, 2010
Mexican Crime, American Guns
A shocking new report obtained by ABC News says that as many as three out of four guns used in crimes in Mexico can be traced to gun stores just across the border in the U.S. The numbers bolster complaints by Mexican officials that the country's unprecedented bloodshed - 28,000 people have died in drug-cartel violence since 2006 - is being fueled both by the U.S. appetite for drugs, and by American weapons. "We can say that there is enormous violence in Mexico and most of the killing is done with guns and most of the guns used in the ...read the full article


Huffington Post Sep 7, 2010
Gun Violence and Children: Have We No Shame or Respect for Child Life?
Recently, the United Nations expressed new concern about a crisis many Americans know little about: the use of child soldiers in global conflicts, especially in Somalia. Somalia, whose government collapsed in 1991, has been in a constant state of conflict and tension for years and still has no legally recognized government. The United States joins Somalia as the only two countries in the world not to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty recognizing the human rights of children that UNICEF points out is the most widely and rapidly ratified human rights treaty in history. ...read the full article


Slate Sep 3, 2010
Shoot First, Confirm Later: Why the NRA Suddenly Cares So Much About Supreme Court Nomination Battles.
This may finally be the year the NRA traded in its safety goggles for rose-colored glasses. Certainly the nation's most powerful lobby group is entitled to take aim at anyone it wants. But the fact that the National Rifle Association has begun picking targets based on fantasy rather than fact says something sad about both the NRA and the state of American politics. The NRA's recent foray into the judicial confirmation process reveals that, when the subject is guns in America, legal aspirations now trump legal reality. Start with the fact that the NRA hadn't waded into the Supreme Court judicial ...read the full article


Allentown Morning Call Sep 3, 2010
Man Accused of Gun-Dealing Wants Confession Tossed
A New York man who allegedly bought 15 guns in Pennsylvania and shipped them to the Dominican Republic said he was ill the day he was arrested and wants a judge to dismiss his confession. But federal prosecutors say Victor Peralta readily agreed to confess to his purchases after he was read his rights. Prosecutors also say that photos Peralta took on his cell phone, released with other court documents on Friday, show the guns and Peralta showing off thousands of dollars in cash. Some of the gun purchases, including handguns and AK-47s, were in Allentown, Tamaqua and Quakertown, prosecutors said. Peralta was charged ...read the full article


Associated Press Sep 1, 2010
Magistrate Recommends Dismissing States' Gun Suit
HELENA, Mont. -- A group of states seeking freedom from federal gun laws were dealt a blow Wednesday when a federal magistrate recommended dismissal of a lawsuit launched by gun rights advocates who argue Congress has overstepped its bounds with gun control. The magistrate sided with the U.S. Department of Justice, which says courts have already decided that Congress can set standards on such items as guns through its power to regulate interstate commerce. The recommendation now goes to the federal judge in Missoula hearing the case - and even gun rights advocates recognized it is likely he will side with ...read the full article