Free Republic

The United States has an obligation to help work toward stemming the flow of illegal guns into this country, Prime Minister Paul Martin said Monday. Speaking with reporters in Ottawa, Mr. Martin said the gun issue will be among those on the agenda — alongside softwood lumber and passport requirements — when he meets with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Ms. Rice is in Ottawa on Monday and Tuesday for meetings with Canadian officials. It is her first official visit to this country. A visit in April was cancelled, reportedly because of Canada's decision not to participate in the...

The Sunday Times October 23, 2005 Alive: In a fix? Fight dirty Krav maga is self-defence without the frills, it’s easy to learn and can make anybody feel more confident in a crisis, writes Claire Prentice ‘Your mum is being attacked,” screams a voice. “Look, over there.” A slim woman in a business suit and stiletto heels throws her arm out as she tries to get past a man blocking her path. “He’s pulled a knife on her.” The man towers over her, but, her face twisted in anger, she knees him in the groin and strikes his face. Had...

Rioting erupts on Birmingham streets One man killed, many hurt as racial tensions overflow Press Association Sunday October 23, 2005 The Observer One man was killed and a police officer was injured in clashes in the Lozells area of Birmingham last night. The riot, between Asian and black youths, broke out after a public meeting was held about an alleged sex attack on a teenage girl. Tensions have been high in the area since the alleged attack took place several days ago. It is claimed the girl - an illegal immigrant - had been kidnapped and raped by three men....

Monday, 17 October 2005, 14:29 GMT 15:29 UK Anger at Dunblane gun list delay Relatives of those killed in the 1996 Dunblane massacre have expressed anger that a firearms database promised in 1997 has still not been set up. Parliament agreed to the measure after Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School. Mick North, whose five-year-old daughter Sophie was killed, said: "I... find it very surprising this hasn't been up and running for years." The Home Office said "technical issues" had delayed the roll-out of the system. Following a public inquiry into the killings, the...

Winnipeg becomes homicide capital By JULIUS STRAUSS Monday, October 17, 2005 Posted at 5:57 AM EDT From Monday's Globe and Mail Winnipeg — By all accounts, Philippe Haiart was a lovable young man. Friends described the 6-foot-3, 220-pound 17-year-old as easygoing and the life and soul of a party. In his spare time he liked to eat, sleep and watch hockey. On his shoulder he carried a tattoo spelling out the initials of a friend who died suddenly of a heart disorder. A week ago today Mr. Haiart was walking though an empty parking lot 15 minutes from his home...

'Youths shot at our house with airgun’ By Louisa Barnett A mother this week branded Borehamwood a lawless town' after youths terrified her family by firing an airgun at their front door. Susan Good, 43, of Grantham Green, was sitting in her front room watching television with her 14-year-old daughter, Danielle, on the evening of September 29, when they heard a loud bang at her door. One of her daughter's friends, a 16-year-old who does not wish to be named, was standing outside when the airgun pellet shot past him and into the door. "I didn't know what was going...

Brazil is preparing to hold a referendum on October 23, 2005, that is seeking to ban all gun and ammunition sales to private individuals. "Whatever the referendum result is, the mortal blow to our business has already been delivered by the 2003 gun controls law," commented Antonio Alves, the president of the National Gun Owners and Vendors Association. Alves states that the number of firearms shops fell over 80 percent to about 250 in Latin America's largest country from some 1,500 after a strict strict new law was enacted in December 2003. That legislation calls for psychological exams, shooting and...

LONDON (Reuters) - Sales of air guns are to be restricted to registered dealers under regulations announced by the Home Office Thursday. Dealers will have to pay 150 pounds and prove to police they are fit to sell the weapons. The rule changes, part of an amendment to the Violent Crime Reduction Bill, also outlaws selling airguns by mail order or over the Internet as all sales must be face-to-face. Dealers selling airguns without registration will face up to five years in jail or an unlimited fine or both. The clampdown comes after the death of a two-year-old Scottish boy...

A CHINESE man shot and injured 16 young schoolchildren as they were doing their morning exercises, Xinhua news agency said today. It was the latest in a wave of school attacks to shock the country in recent years. The middle-aged man opened fire with several home-made guns at the children at the Niutoushan Primary School in impoverished eastern Anhui province yesterday morning, Xinhua said. Seven of the 16 wounded were in serious condition in hospital in the neighbouring province of Zhejiang. One man working near the school tried to stop the shooting but was knocked down by the gunman as...

More proof that Ottawa's gun registry is useless Lorne Gunter National Post Tuesday, October 11, 2005 There were 622 homicides in Canada last year, a sharp rise of 12% from 2003, according to Statistics Canada. Yet as tragic as each of those murders was, 622 is still, thankfully, a small number. There are several U.S. cities with as many murders each year as all of Canada, or nearly so. Chicago and Los Angeles record around 600 annually; so does New York (down from about 2,200 as recently as 1990). Canada has probably reached the theoretical floor for murders. Expect...

The Irish singing star Enya is recovering after a narrow escape from an intruder at her supposedly secure castle near Dublin. The entertainer locked herself in a panic room and activated a panic button after discovering that a man had made his way through the castle's defenses. The intruder, who tied up a maid during the two hour incident, made his escape before police arrived.

Most murder guns in Canada are never registered with the Canadian Firearms Centre, according to a new Statistics Canada report. The new Juristat study - a version of which reported over the summer that Canada's murder rate jumped 12% in 2004 after a three-decade slide - says that registration information on murder guns was "unknown" to police in more than half of homicides reported between 1997 and 2004 where the gun was recovered. Gun registry opponents say that proves the registry - two years and more than a billion tax dollars later - is a failure. "First, 65% of firearms...

Gun foes warn Florida tourists about new law By CURT ANDERSON Tuesday, October 4, 2005 Posted at 8:30 AM EDT Associated Press Miami — Clark Ramm sees shades of the Wild West in Florida's new law giving greater legal protections to people who shoot or use other deadly force when threatened or attacked. "It seems like everybody ought to be packing a piece," said Mr. Ramm, a visitor from Ukiah, Calif., who found out about the law Monday from a gun-control group handing out leaflets at Miami International Airport. "I don't know if that's the right thing to do." The...

Boy, 10, held for firing a toy weapon Sep 29 2005 By Stephanie Turner A YOUNG boy was arrested and put in a police cell for six hours after brandishing a £5 plastic toy gun in the playground of his Smallfield school. Elaine Hampson, headteacher at Burstow School, in Wheelers Lane, contacted the police after the youngster fired the imitation weapon during a break. He was later arrested because the pellet had hit another pupil. Owen Smith has now been temporarily excluded from the school and a letter has been sent to all parents explaining the situation. The boy's father,...

TORONTO — Canada’s justice minister says the country’s gun laws are among the toughest on the books, and he dismissed calls for new minimum sentences as ‘‘a quick-fix solution’’ to a spate of gunplay in Toronto. Irwin Cotler made the remarks Wednesday before hosting a one-day forum on urban violence at the University of Toronto, to which 120 city and government leaders were invited. The meeting was called to address Toronto’s escalating gun violence, which has claimed 41 lives this year. ‘‘We have a very tough regime already in place. That’s why we have to look to other initiatives that...

A UNITED Nations report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in America. England and Wales recorded the second highest number of violent assaults while Northern Ireland recorded the fewest. The study, based on telephone interviews with victims of crime in 21 countries, found that more than 2,000 Scots were attacked every week, almost ten times the official police figures. They include non-sexual crimes of violence and serious assaults. Violent crime has doubled in Scotland over the past 20 years and levels, per head of population,...

By ALEXANDER PANETTA Thursday, September 15, 2005 Updated at 6:35 PM EDT Globe and Mail Update Canadians shouldn't blame their southern neighbour for the spike in gun-related violence in Toronto, says the U.S. ambassador in Ottawa. Any urge to point the finger at the U.S. for weapons smuggled across the border is simply misguided, the diplomat said Thursday. “I don't think it's fair,” he said. Canadians seeking a scapegoat should look in the mirror, he suggested. “The majority of guns coming from the United States are purchased by Canadian citizens,” mR. Wilkins said. “(This is) in violation of our state...

Gun smuggling is 'easy' By CORINNE ABRAMS Sun Online AS Britain struggled to understand yet another brutal gun murder in the wake of the Harvey Nichols horror, a former armed response officer told us of the ease at which guns were being smuggled into the country. Roger Gray, who worked with SO19, the armed response unit of the Metropolitan Police, revealed guns were coming in to the country through sea ports, in luggage and lorries. The smuggling of the weapons, some of which he said were manufactured in India and China, others sold in Eastern Europe, was made easier due...

For the first time in 13 years Brazil has seen a fall in the number of deaths caused by firearms. Last year 36,000 people were killed by guns - a drop of 8% from 2003, according to the health ministry. The government says the change is due to innovative disarmament measures, including a gun buy-back scheme. The figures were released on Friday, seven weeks before a national referendum on whether to ban outright the sale of guns. There are more gun deaths in Brazil than in any other country, and since the early 1990s the annual number of fatalities has...

8 September 2005 PLAN FOR AIRGUN REGISTER A NEW register for those who buy and sell airguns is being considered by the Cabinet. After intense lobbying by the Executive, the Government at Westminster have agreed for new regulations on the weapons but are refusing to impose an outright ban. The moves follow a public outcry after the death of toddler Andrew Morton. He died in March after he was shot in the head by an air rifle pellet fired by junkie Mark Bonini in Easterhouse, Glasgow. The killer was jailed for life last month and ordered to spend at least...