A majority of the Supreme Court appeared ready on Tuesday to embrace, for the first time in the country’s history, an interpretation of the Second Amendment that protects the right to own a gun for personal use. The more difficuct question in the case challenging the District of Columbia’s handgun ban is what kind of restrictions the government could constitutionally place on the right in the name of public safety. Submitted by CE
UK: Gunmen spray bullets into pub
British police are hunting two gunmen who pumped shots into a busy pub in the north-west of England, injuring two people, Greater Manchester police said. The armed men ran past the Manchester pub on Friday night and fired inside, hitting a 50-year-old woman in the ankle and a 26-year-old man in the thigh.
Comment: Must be all those fake guns they're always having amnesties for.
Coals to Newcastle
In a reversal of the process that was the impetus to its colonization more than 200 years ago, Australia is sending criminals back to Britain. Australian officials refused comment Friday on the howls of protest in British newspapers over the deportation earlier this week of English-born serial child abuser Raymond Horne.
SA: Editorial's unconscious irony
Last Easter, one person died as the result of a road accident in SA. But that is no cause to be smug or complacent. Across Australia 26 people died on the roads. In 2006 the figure was 21; in 2005, 26; in 2004, 15; in 2003, 28; in 2002, 25 and in 2001, 23. If 26 people in Australia died in four days because they contracted cholera, were the victims of firearms accidents or drowned in domestic swimming pools, there would be a national outcry. But 26 is about the road toll people are prepared to accept at Easter.
UK: 'Gross incompetence' in firearms registry unit
Serious failings in the handling of weapons given to North Wales Police by the public for safe disposal have been highlighted in an internal report. It said it was impossible to determine how many weapons had been destroyed and that there is no national policy on how the police should handle such weapons.
Latest in U.S. 'right to bear arms case'
US: Supreme court edges toward individual right in 2nd Amendment case
A majority of the nine-member high court seemed to support the view that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protected an individual right to keep and bear arms, rather than a right tied to service in a state militia.
US: John Lott on Washington court case
If courts made their decisions based on public opinion, the case that the U.S. Supreme Court will hear today on the District of Columbia’s handgun ban would seem to be easy to decide. The polls and the sheer number of those filing amicus briefs support an individual right to owning guns. Yet, the Justice Department’s brief, while technically also supporting an individual right, has made this debate much more complicated and, for the first time in American history, even compelled a vice president to file his own brief. Submitted by DG.
UK: Shooting under fire preparing for 2012 Olympics
Shooting was handed another problem to deal with yesterday when it was identified as the Olympic sport causing greatest concern in the build up to London 2012. The sport that already has to deal with firearms laws, which dictate that pistol shooters have to train abroad, and the ongoing wrangle over the 2012 venue, will now have to convince UK Sport, the biggest distributor of lottery funding to elite sport, that it can shape up to win medals in London.
The United Nations stifles a free
press
Reporters
covering the United Nations complain
that the organization, whose
Universal Declaration of Human
Rights calls for freedom of the
press, has been trying to stifle
reporters covering the U.N. itself.
Comment: The UN stifles freedom?
Now, there's a surprise.
The underground gun industry booms in the Philippines
Normally the sound of gunfire evokes a feeling of dread. However, in the town of Danao, in the island of Cebu (the Philippines), it signals money. Hidden from plain view, backyard workshops churn out gun replicas that range from crude revolvers to sophisticated automatic sub-machine guns.
UK: Another amnesty over fake firearms
Officers have urged members of the public to hand fake weapons in as part of a Dorset Police surrender scheme, running from now until April 1. They hope the scheme will reduce the number of such incidents attended by firearms officers and will also cut fear on the streets. Under the scheme, those handing in fake weapons will not have to leave their details. Comment: Doesn't take much to incite 'fear on the (mean) streets' of Dorset.
SA: Dope burgled, then busted
A Clearview man faces drugs charges after calling police to report his cannabis plants were being stolen. The man told police that up to six intruders smashed the front window on his Hampstead Rd house and gained entry about 3.30am. They then began stealing portions of the plants growing inside the house. Police called to the scene were unable to find the men involved. They then returned with a drug warrant and found six cannabis plants growing hydroponically in two rooms of the house.
Average armed robber's take is $1232
The average amount stolen in an armed robbery is more than $1200 - but for those toting firearms it is nearly three times higher, according to new figures. The Australian Institute of Criminology’s (AIC) latest armed robbery figures, compiled from data in each state and territory over 2005, show that knives were the most common weapon used during the serious offences. The report revealed that while nearly a quarter of armed robberies did not result in anything being stolen; the average value of goods taken per incident was $1232.
RELATED: AIC Report: rrp84 - Armed robbery in Australia 2005
US court examines 'right to bear arms'
The US Supreme Court will take up the thorny issue of the right to bear arms, an emotional subject that has long divided the American public. The court's decision - on whether the right to keep and bear arms is a fundamentally an individual or collective right - is expected to have a far reaching impact on US gun control laws, experts say.
QLD: Coroner to release findings on police shooting inquests
The Queensland state coroner will today hand down the findings of a series of inquests into psychiatric patients shot dead by police officers. Thomas Dion Waite, 30, Mieng Huynh, 40, James Henry Jacobs, 29, and James Michael Gear, 23, were all killed following separate violent incidents in south-east Queensland between October 2003 and February 2006.
QLD: Taser used in robberies
Bandits used a Taser and a gun to hold up two shops in separate robberies in Queensland overnight. Two men entered a hotel at Scarness, Hervey Bay in the state's south-east, about 10.30pm (AEST) yesterday and threatened a male employee, police said. The offenders, one of whom was armed with a Taser, then bound the victim's hands and ankles before stealing cash and fleeing.
US: Gun ban gets its day in court
Despite mountains of scholarly research, enough books to fill a library shelf and decades of political battles about gun control, the Supreme Court will have an opportunity this week that is almost unique for a modern court when it examines whether the District's handgun ban violates the Second Amendment. The nine justices, none of whom has ever ruled directly on the amendment's meaning, will consider a part of the Bill of Rights that has existed without a definitive interpretation for more than 200 years.
Wreck of HMAS Sydney found
The wreckage of HMAS Sydney, sunk off the West Australian coast during World War II, has been found, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced today. The Sydney's entire crew of 645 went down with the ship in the Indian Ocean and its location has been a mystery for 66 years. The wreckage of a German ship - the merchant raider Kormoran - believed to have sunk the Australian warship was found at the weekend in waters about 800km north of Perth.
RELATED: Rudd confirms HMAS Sydney find
UK: Gun injuries soar as police 'experts' blast themselves
The number of armed police officers accidentally shooting themselves – and other colleagues – has soared in the past five years. Recent incidents include a diplomatic protection officer shooting himself in the leg, and a sharpshooter who blew the top off his thumb. The details are revealed under the Freedom of Information Act.
ACT: Protesters vow to stay at roo cull site
Pat O'Brien from the Wildlife Protection Association says the activists will continue their fight until the ACT Government issues export permits, so the animals can be relocated. "People are angry and they're determined to stop it," she said. "If they do start to kill the kangaroos I know that people will be over the fence and they'll be in there standing in front of the dart guns, that will happen."
US: Gun bill revised after pressure from NRA
Under pressure from the National Rifle Association, State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha has rewritten his gun control proposal for the second time. In the version he brought to lawmakers Wednesday, Ashford no longer calls for a new commission to identify "inherently dangerous'' guns that ought to be banned in Nebraska. Instead, Legislative Bill 958 proposes that the Nebraska Crime Commission study gun violence and illegal firearms trafficking in Nebraska. 810