THE NEW YORK TIMES: When President Obama took office, gun rights advocates sounded the alarm, warning that he intended to strip them of their arms and ammunition.
And yet the opposite is happening. Mr. Obama has been largely silent on the issue while states are engaged in a new and largely successful push for expanded gun rights, even passing measures that have been rejected in the past.
In Virginia, the General Assembly approved a bill last week that allows people to carry concealed weapons in bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, and the House of Delegates voted to repeal a 17-year-old ban on buying more than one handgun a month. The actions came less than three years after the shootings at Virginia Tech that claimed 33 lives and prompted a major national push for increased gun control.
Arizona and Wyoming lawmakers are considering nearly a half dozen pro-gun measures, including one that would allow residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. And lawmakers in Montana and Tennessee passed measures last year — the first of their kind — to exempt their states from federal regulation of firearms and ammunition that are made, sold and used in state. Similar bills have been proposed in at least three other states.
In the meantime, gun control advocates say, Mr. Obama has failed to deliver on campaign promises to close a loophole that allows unlicensed dealers at gun shows to sell firearms without background checks; to revive the assault weapons ban; and to push states to release data about guns used in crimes.
He also signed bills last year allowing guns to be carried in national parks and in luggage on Amtrak trains. >>> Ian Urbina | Tuesday, February 23, 2010
CHICAGO TRIBUNE: Littleton, Colo. - A teacher tackled a man armed with a high-powered rifle after two teenage students were shot at a suburban Denver middle school Tuesday.
The students, one male and one female, were wounded about 3:30 p.m. outside Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Jefferson County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Jacki Kelley said.
Both victims were expected to survive.
Student Steven Seagraves said he was about 10 feet away when an adult approached students and asked them: "Do you guys go to this school?"
When the students said they did, he shot them, Seagraves said. >>> Associated Press | Wednesday, February 24, 2010
