Movement Roundup

FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia ― Proudly brandishing a target she had riddled with bullets, 62-year-old Sharon Schaefer could not hide her delight at joining America's growing number of gun-toting women. "It was fun!" she exclaimed breathlessly, much to the approval of her instructor Teresa Ovalle. "You did a good job, Sharon," said the former Marine, who had just given the senior citizen a crash course in pistols at the Fredericksburg Range, some 80 kilometers southwest... [Korea Herald / Agence France Presse, via GunPolicy.org]

BRASILIA - The U.S., currently discussing restrictions on the sale of firearms, purchased 7.9 million guns from Brazil in the past 40 years, and 59% of those were exported during the Lula administration (2003-2010). That is the result of a new study by the Army Command to which Folha had access through the Access to Information Act, with a detailed record of the sellers and buyers of 9.9 million revolvers, pistols, rifles and shotguns, among other weapons, exported... [Folha de Sao Paulo, via GunPolicy.org]

This Sunday marks the 17th anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, where 35 people were killed and 18 wounded by a lone gunman brandishing high-powered longarms. In response to the killings, Australia's gun laws were significantly tightened. The prime minister at the time, John Howard, was able to gain bipartisan support from all state governments for a 10-point plan to regulate firearms - known as the 1996 Nationwide Agreement on Firearms. This agreement... [Sydney Morning Herald, Opinion, via GunPolicy.org]

HAGERSTOWN, Maryland. — A gun owners' rights group has threatened to sue 35 Maryland counties or municipalities unless they repeal regulations that the group says violate state gun laws. The Second Amendment Foundation of Bellevue, Wash., said Thursday that Maryland is the third state targeted in its campaign to eliminate more-restrictive local laws in states where local governments have little or no authority to regulate firearms. The group has run similar projects... [Washington Post, via GunPolicy.org]

NEW YORK — General Electric's finance arm is cutting ties with gun dealers, halting financing offers at about 75 gun shops across the U.S. in the wake of the Newtown, Conn., massacre that took the lives of 20 schoolchildren and six teachers and administrators. The December school shooting ignited a national debate about gun laws and drove some companies to distance themselves from the gun industry. Private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management announced a few days... [Associated Press / NPR, via GunPolicy.org]

After League City, Texas, became the first city in the state to pass a resolution effectively nullifying federal gun regulations in February, Councilwoman Heidi Thiess, who speared the motion, shared a quote. "Gen. Isoroku Yamamoto, who was the commander of Japan's WWII Combined Fleet, was asked why he never bothered to invade the U.S. after Pearl Harbor," she remarked. "And you know what he said? 'You can't invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind... [Atlantic (USA), via GunPolicy.org]

General Electric Co discovered it was financing a small number of firearm purchases in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shootings - despite deciding five years ago to avoid the practice - and moved to stop future loans, the company said on Wednesday. Many of the conglomerate's employees live in or near Newtown, about 25 miles from GE's Fairfield, Connecticut, headquarters. Peter Lanza, the father of the Newtown gunman, is a GE executive. The company's GE... [Reuters, via GunPolicy.org]

Surprisingly, the UK is 11% less violent than a decade ago but the lack of peace still has an economic impact of £124 billion which comprises both direct and indirect costs and lost productivity annually. In 2012 this was the equivalent of £4,700 per household an astonishing 7.7% of the UK's annual GDP. These figures were released today by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) in the first-ever UK Peace Index (UKPI), which reveals London was beaten to the... [Kensington and Chelsea Today (UK), via GunPolicy.org]

With his crisp blue suit and wire-framed spectacles, Garen Wintemute hardly looked frightening as he stepped to the podium last month to address a conference on paediatric emergency medicine in San Francisco, California. But his presence there made the organizers nervous. Wintemute, an emergency-department doctor, is better known as the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California (UC), Davis. As such, he has published dozens of... [Nature, via GunPolicy.org]

WASHINGTON - Just days after U.S. senators defeated a bid to expand background checks on potential gun buyers, Americans are asking how the Boston Marathon bombing suspects acquired a cache of firearms alongside their explosives. Among the weapons officials have said were in the possession of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were not only several bombs, but handguns, an M-4 carbine rifle and more than 250 rounds of ammunition. Much of that arsenal was on fiery display... [Leader Post (Canada), via GunPolicy.org]