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 --- 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 --- 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 --- 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 --- 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 --- 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 --- 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 --- 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 --- 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 .