With Heller Pending, DC Homicides Rise: Gun violence rose sharply in the
District in 2007, with the number of homicides jumping 7 percent after
several years of decline. The city had recorded 181 killings as of late
yesterday, an increase that police officials attributed in part to
escalating violence in the drug trade and fighting among neighborhood
gangs. Nonfatal shootings and other gun crimes were also up, preliminary
police data show.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123102329.html?hpid=moreheadlines
This Will Solve the Problem...: District police collected 349 firearms
Saturday in a daylong buyback event meant to curb gun violence in the
city. The program netted 70 more weapons than the buyback held on Dec.
15, bringing this month's haul to 628 guns at a cost of $33,100...The
guns collected that day included some semiautomatic rifles like the
AR-15 and AK-22 - guns similar to the M-16 and AK-47, respectively - as
well as a Tech-9 and AR-14, according to an e-mail from Assistant Chief
of Police Diane C. Groomes to district residents.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1130687~Gun_buyback_nets_349_weapons.html
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Meanwhile, In Baltimore...: Homicides increased in Baltimore and in many
other parts of the state during 2007. Appropriately, Baltimore officials
have made getting illegal guns off the streets a priority, and the city
Police Department's Gun Task Force has been recovering guns from
criminals and investigating people suspected of supplying guns to
criminals. But these new efforts to hold gun traffickers accountable for
supplying criminals with guns are being hampered by legal loopholes.
These loopholes could be fixed easily with little cost to law-abiding
gun owners...
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.guns30dec30,0,3296526.story
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Brits Ponder Heller, 2008 US Election: Gun control is expected to become
a hot topic for the US presidential election as the Supreme Court
prepares to rule on a controversial handgun ban in the nation's
capital....The Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights has always been
open to interpretation - partly because of its peculiar and hence
controversial punctuation..."It's the culture of individual self-defence
as a protection against crime versus the culture of collective defence
brought to you by government police departments."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7153975.stm
USA Today Second Amendment Poll: Does the Second Amendment give
individuals the right to bear arms?
http://www.usatoday.com/news/quickquestion/2007/november/popup5895.htm
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New Hampshire Gun Shop Traditional Campaign Stop: Peter Goyette has
hosted so many would-be presidents during the 42 years he's owned a gun
and tackle store in Hudson that sometimes he has trouble keeping their
names straight...At Pete's Gun & Tackle, Republican candidates like
Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo, who recently
withdrew from the race, have tried to win over Goyette's predominately
right-wing clientele. "Most of my customers are gun-owners, so they're
interested in candidates who will protect the Second Amendment," said
Goyette, a state representative.
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071231/NEWS01/683917098/-1/news
Hunting For Votes: For once, an editorial from the San Francisco
Chronicle is not too far off target.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/12/31/EDFAU5GH0.DTL
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Remembering The Real John McCain: ...But perhaps most amazing has been
McCain's willingness to take stands even many Democrats are afraid of.
He voted against Bush's tax cut, the centerpiece of the new president's
agenda. Along with John Kerry, he sponsored legislation to raise
automobile emissions standards, and he paired with Joe Lieberman to try
to force Bush to reduce greenhouse gases in compliance with the Kyoto
accord. Also with Lieberman, McCain has proposed forcing people who buy
firearms at gun shows to undergo background checks-closing the "gun-show
loophole" - even as most Democrats shy away from any form of gun control...
http://www.townhall.com/blog/g/43aba933-6972-4a36-a25f-a2973e69e4ee
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Activist Plays Race Card In Another Texas Shooting: Activist Quannell X
and dozens of supporters converged Sunday on a Porter neighborhood where
on Nov. 29 Gary Southworth, a white property owner, shot and killed
Rodney Shamlin, a black man...Quannell X called the new "Castle
Doctrine" a "license to kill" and said far more black men had been
killed in that situation than white men. "This is not a Joe Horn
situation - he was not breaking into someone's home, he was not even
breaking into a car," Quannell said. "It was not 2 a.m. in the morning,
not 3 a.m. in the morning, it was not pitch black." "If the roles were
reversed and you had black homeowners killing white men like that, I
guarantee they'd send a clear message - law enforcement, that is."
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1574&dept_id=532215&newsid=19156982&PAG=461&rfi=9
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Two Controversial Shootings Await Hearings In New York County:
..Guerriero, 42, fatally shot David Shachnow, 32, outside Guerriero's
home Oct. 22. Shachnow, who lived about two miles away in Southeast, was
apparently trying to get into the house where Guerriero lived with his
girlfriend and their five children. Guerriero said he fired in
self-defense but was charged with manslaughter and criminal use of a
firearm. State police said they arrested him because he shot Shachnow
outside his home...On June 20, in a nonlethal case involving another
claim of self-defense, process server Dennis Illuminate shot Douglas
Greenwich outside his Putnam Valley home while serving him divorce papers.
http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071231/NEWS04/712310333/1018/NEWS02
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Do As I Say, Not As I Do: Richmond police have found the vehicle that
was carjacked at gunpoint from state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata
in North Oakland, authorities said Sunday...Perata, who legally carried
a concealed weapon for years because of threats against his life, said
there was no firearm in his car when he was carjacked. (Perata is one of
the leading firearm prohibitionists in the California legislature.)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/31/BAOSU71JB.DTL
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India Musician Wants To Ban Toy Guns: ''We want a ban because of
incidents like Gurgaon school shootout. Think of the Gurgaon incident,
how did that child of class 8 get to use a gun, only because he was used
to a gun, a toy gun. Violence is so much part of their vocabulary. Even
on birthdays, toy weapons are gifted to children. When a child writes
with a wooden pencil he aspires a fountain pen, likewise if he's suing a
toy gun today, tomorrow he'll want a real gun. Video games is not a
game, it's full of violence,'' said Kishore.
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080037408&ch=1/1/2008%2012:51:00%20PM
British Government Disagrees:
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dylan_evans/2007/12/boys_and_their_toys.html
--
Stephen P. Wenger, KE7QBY
Firearm safety - It's a matter
for education, not legislation.
http://www.spw-duf.info
