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MOSCOW, April 27 (UPI) -- Russian citizens should not be allowed to freely own guns for purposes of self-defense, says President Vladimir Putin. His comments were made after a gunman with a rifle killed six people in southwest Russia Monday, RIA Novosti reported Saturday. "I do not support the idea of free arms distribution in Russia," Putin told a Russian television station. "It is dangerous to artificially stimulate this process." snip

The number of individuals who have attempted to purchase a firearm, who have also been convicted of a crime, represents just 0.35% of all background checks completed by the FBI. According to data on the FBI’s website, since November of 1998, just 590,078 individuals who have been “convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year or a misdemeanor punishable by more than two years” have attempted to purchase firearms using the background check system. There have been 167,488,942 background checks completed over the same time period. … Data from the FBI suggest that criminals overwhelmingly do not buy...

tape: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/play_full.php?play=487 Transcript: Prologue. Ira Glass Harper High School, South Side of Chicago. First day of school this year, first thing in the morning, everybody gathers in the gym for a beginning of the year assembly. The school's principle, Leonetta Sanders, is at the mic. Principal Sanders I need us to begin to quiet down. Ira Glass Sitting all together in a group are the freshman, looking the way that freshman do on the first day of school, like they barely know who they are. Principal Sanders The class of 2016. Where you at? The class of 2016, where you...

WORLD MURDER STATISTICS "After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it." William S. Burroughs. From the World Health Organization: The latest Murder Statistics for the world: Murders per 100,000 citizens Honduras 91.6 El Salvador 69.2 Cote d'lvoire 56.9 Jamaica 52.2 Venezuela 45.1 Belize 41.4 US Virgin Islands 39.2 Guatemala 38.5 Saint Kits and Nevis 38.2 Zambia 38.0 Uganda 36.3 Malawi 36.0 Lesotho 35.2 Trinidad and Tobago 35.2 Colombia 33.4 South Africa 31.8 Congo 30.8 Central African Republic 29.3 Bahamas 27.4 Puerto Rico 26.2 Saint Lucia 25.2 Dominican Republic 25.0...

President Obama has called for stricter federal gun laws to combat recent shooting rampages, but a review of recent state laws by The Washington Times shows no discernible correlation between stricter rules and lower gun-crime rates in the states. States that ranked high in terms of making records available to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System also tended to have tighter gun laws — but their gun-crime rates ranged widely. The same was true for states that ranked poorly on disclosure and were deemed to have much less stringent gun-possession laws. For example, New York, even before it approved...

Four people reportedly shot along Martin Luther King, Jr. parade route in New Orleans (CBS/AP) NEW ORLEANS - At least four people were shot Monday in New Orleans along the route of the city's Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial March. CBS affiliate WWLTV reports that, according to neighbors, gunshots rang out less than an hour after the parade passed through the neighborhood. New Orleans police responded to the gunfire at about 1 p.m. in the Central City neighborhood, near the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and LaSalle Street. Police Superintendent Ronal Serpas was among those who responded to...

In December of 2012, David Gregory: deliberately violated D.C. gun law for financial and political gain. In September of 2011, Adam Meckler: inadvertently violated D.C. Gun law. David Gregory possessed a 30 round magazine, categorically prohibited under D.C. Law. Adam Meckler possessed a few 9mm cartridges, without the proper D.C. permit. David Gregory has not been charged, arrested, or taken to jail. Adam Meckler was arrested, handcuffed, taken to jail, eventually was released and plead a plea bargain that included a fine, probation, and being registered on the D.C. gun offender list. David Gregory has been lauded by his...

This is the shocking moment two masked thugs brutally attacked a 62-year-old man with a gun moments after he arrived home. The footage shows how the man, who had just driven up to his house and parked his Range Rover, was punched to the floor before being repeatedly hit with the weapon.

Since NBC sportscaster Bob Costas gave us an anti-gun lecture two weeks ago during Sunday Night Football, we've heard a lot from progressives like Juan Williams, Bob Beckel and anti-gun advocacy groups about how countries in Europe with strict gun control laws don't have problems with gun crime. We've also heard the reason the United States has a "gun crime problem" is because we allow citizens to own handguns however, the numbers on violent crime committed using a gun tell a different story. New data out from the UK, where guns are banned, shows gun crime has soared by 35...

“We live in a society saturated with guns and need better ways of preventing harm from them,” says a doctor who believes the federal government must take a “public health” approach to gun ownership in the United States. (1) Dr. Garen Wintemute, director of the University of California’s Violence Prevention Research Program likens the dangers inherent in owning a gun to those involved in driving a car. “Highway safety measures, product changes and driving laws…slashed deaths from car crashes decades ago…” says the doctor. And just as it “…wasn’t enough…to curb [highway] deaths by trying to make people better drivers…it...

An article at The Scientific American suggests that socialism may be the answer to the high homicide rate in America. John Horgan writes: Naturally, some researchers have reported data that fail to support the income-inequality theory of homicide. But I find it persuasive, especially because it points toward an attractive solution to high homicide rates: a more equitable economic system, perhaps with higher taxes for the wealthy and more generous welfare programs for the poor. In short, socialism. I hope that opponents of gun control will consider this modest, alternative proposal for reducing lethal shootings. It's not that some people...

AT least three people have been killed in a shooting at a Finnish shopping mall. Reports by state broadcaster YLE, citing police sources, said four people were dead. Independent MTV3 television put the figure at three dead. Around six shots were discharged from about 08:20 GMT in the Sello shopping centre in Espoo, west of the capital Helsinki. One or more people were shot at the Prisma grocery store. At least one employee was seen lying on the floor on the upper level of the centre. A man, described as being in his late teens and dressed in black, was...

Refugees from Somalia probably are the least welcome foreign "visitors" to Scandinavia. Personally, I don't consider acts of violence like this as a solution to the various problems connected to mass non-European immigration to Europe, but without a doubt there will be more attacks resembling this one if European politicians don't change their minds concerning policies in the area of (non-European) immigration issues. The article: "A 16 year-old asylum seeker from Somalia, was shot and critically injured while sleeping in his bed at reception centre outside Oslo. He was hit in the stomach by a rifle round fired through the...

ANTI-GUN campaigners have warned the Government not to relax firearms legislation in the run-up to the London Olympics, saying: "A child's life is not worth a medal." UK and Scottish ministers have agreed that from August, sportsmen and women will be given special permission to use their weapons at Ministry of Defence ranges in Britain. At present, competitors have to train abroad. It is a major breakthrough for British Shooting, the sport's governing body, which has campaigned for years to exempt its members from the strict laws introduced after gun collector Thomas Hamilton massacred 16 children and a teacher at...

While out for a round of golf on Monday a middle-aged couple had their game disrupted by a teenage boy bearing a grudge and a gun. The strange encounter took place at Ringenäs golf course near Halmstad in western Sweden, Aftonbladet reports. At around 5.30pm the golfers came upon a boy dressed in camouflage combat fatigues and a helmet. Before they had time to react, the boy took aim at the pair and screamed "bloody capitalists" before firing a shot into the air above their heads. "My wife ducked behind her bag. It was very unpleasant. We were scared," the...

Don't get deafened by the noise - do something By Christie Blatchford Toronto Globe and Mail Wednesday, July 25, 2007 – Page A16 In the CTV News footage taken from the Saturday night - early Sunday morning, actually - that Ephraim Brown was killed, there is one particularly significant bit. In several frames, six or seven tiny children, who look to be between 4 and 8, are walking down a darkened street. There are enough of them that they take up almost the entire road. They hold hands, and are being led to the safety of a city bus...

Turning murder into politics By Christina Blizzard Toronto Sun Friday May 25, 2007 There's nothing like an election year to force a politician to find religion. Especially when it comes to gun crime. Late yesterday afternoon, Premier Dalton McGuinty fired around an "open letter to federal leaders," calling for action on gun crime. He piously told Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Liberal leader Stephane Dion, Jack Layton of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe that he's disappointed new, tougher legislation aimed at curbing gun violence hasn't yet become law. This in response to Wednesday's shooting of Jordan Manners,...

Grasping at guns National Post Mon 16 Oct 2006 Page: A13 Section: Issues & Ideas Byline: Lorne Gunter Almost a week after last month's tragic shooting at Montreal's Dawson College, the National Post ran a guest column by the mother of a Dawson student. Beverly Akerman suggested a "simple" response to the crime: "no more guns. Because no one can accurately predict who among us will become unhinged enough to commit bloody slaughter, I believe guns shouldn't be available to the public." We dubbed this a "mother's radical solution for gun crime." But suggesting a ban on guns is...

How all those crime guns got onto streets By MARK BONOKOSKI Toronto Sun January 25, 2006 Having invoked the fear factor that half the guns used to bathe Toronto in blood last year were stolen from law-abiding collectors and shooters, Prime Minister Paul Martin went to the polls Monday vowing to ban all handguns in Canada -- if constitutionally viable, that is, a caveat he later had to add when he misfired on the facts. Toronto Mayor David Miller sang the same statistical tune, despite contrary evidence in a report tabled last month by his own police service --...

Commit the crime, do the time Lorne Gunter National Post Page: A12 Section: Editorials Monday, January 09, 2006 Last week, federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler contradicted his party leader, Paul Martin, on an important part of the Liberal anti-crime platform -- mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes. On Thursday, Mr. Cotler told The Toronto Star he would not be "pressured" into introducing mandatory sentences. When he was a law professor, he explained, he once thought minimum sentences should work to deter crime. But after studying the literature, he became convinced they "are neither a deterrent nor are they effective."...