Oh, Arizona. Now, in addition to an official state reptile (the Ridge-nosed rattlesnake) and official state neckwear (the bola tie), you can add an official state gun. As of Thursday, when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the measure into law, the Colt single-action army revolver became the official sidearm of the Grand Canyon State. Designating the gun — the same one slung by Wyatt Earp, Buffalo Bill Cody and Theodore Roosevelt — the official heater of Arizona... [Time (USA), via GunPolicy.org]

The only licensed firearms dealer active in Washington says he is closing his business temporarily, meaning D.C. residents will have no way to legally buy pistols under a landmark court decision that ended the city's handgun ban. The US Supreme Court struck down the city's 33-year-old handgun prohibition in 2008, ruling that the Constitution guarantees the right to own firearms. But because of a federal law governing the interstate sale of pistols, Washingtonians who... [Washington Post, via GunPolicy.org]

POLICE are trying to establish a motive after an Adelaide man allegedly killed three of his neighbours and left a teenage boy and policeman fighting for life after a shooting spree. A woman at the house in the suburb of Hectorville survived the bloodshed but her parents and husband were killed and her 14-year-old son was shot and seriously injured. An 11 year-old boy staying at the house survived injury after hiding in a bedroom. The woman - who has not been named -... [Sydney Morning Herald, via GunPolicy.org]

The Senate passed 40-10 a final version of a firearms bill that would allow Hoosier to carry guns into most government buildings and would leave cities and towns unable to regulate firearms. "This is not about the state trying to override local government," said the bill's author, Sen. Jim Tomes, R-Wadesville. "This is a case where local government has had an insidious progress of taking powers that was not delegated to them." If adopted by the House and signed into... [Indianapolis Star (Indiana), via GunPolicy.org]

Ahead of the NRA [National Rifle Association or US Gun Lobby] convention that kicks off today, the leader of the group predicts President Barack Obama will be defeated in 2012 – and the "big gun and hunting" states are going to deliver the fatal blow. "The truth is this election is going to be decided in all the big gun and hunting states," Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association's executive vice president and CEO, told POLITICO. LaPierre, speaking on the eve... [Politico (Washington DC), via GunPolicy.org]

A New York City third-grader and his father have been arrested after the boy sold a loaded 9mm pistol to a classmate for $3, police said on Friday. The unidentified boy and his father, Ignacio Galvin, 54, were arrested Thursday in Queens after the buyer's mother alerted school authorities when he came home from class and showed her the weapon, thinking it was a toy. Father-son criminal charges include three counts each of criminal possession of a gun. An additional... [Reuters, via GunPolicy.org]

Jammu and Kashmir Police today summoned 695 gun licence holders for questionings in connection with the fake licensing racket in the state. "The 695 licences should appear before investigation officer at Bakshi Nagar Police Station along with the gun licence and to record their statements," a notification issued by the sub-divisional police officer, Bakshi Nagar, said. It also said that they should deposit their guns in the police stations concerned within 15 days... [Press Trust of India, via GunPolicy.org]

House and Senate bills that would limit doctors' questions about guns in patients' homes made it through the Legislature, but only after undergoing surgery to remove the most offensive portions. It doesn't matter. Florida lawmakers should have let this idea die on the operating-room table. For a while, it looked as if the legislation would flatly prohibit doctors from asking patients whether they have guns in their homes and how they're stored. There was also the... [Northwest Florida Daily News, Editorial, via GunPolicy.org]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., is bringing back rifles and shotguns to about 500 US Walmart stores, mostly in rural areas, to broaden product assortment as part of an attempt to make its outlets one-stop shopping destinations. The move comes as the world's largest retailer attempts to reverse seven straight quarters of samestore sales declines at Walmart US. Walmart US already carries hunting weapons in more than 1,000 of its about 3,600 namesake locations. The company sells... [Montreal Gazette (Québec), via GunPolicy.org]

Here are three words you don't want to see in an e-mail from your kid's high school: lockdown, incident and firearm. And yet, these words have been appearing in various combinations with alarming frequency of late in messages from the Berkeley High School administration. As noted in a page one news story in Sunday's Chronicle, the school has been rocked by a series of gun-related incidents in recent months. While none of these most recent occurrences has resulted in... [San Francisco Chronicle, via GunPolicy.org]

PITTSBURGH - At first glance, life seems good for the National Rifle Association [NRA or US Gun Lobby] and its members. While many conservatives bewailed the era of Democratic rule that began in January 2009, Obama actually signed several pieces of NRA-supported legislation, including bills allowing Americans to bring guns onto Amtrak trains and carry them in national parks. Now a largely pro–Second Amendment Democratic House majority has been replaced by a largely... [National Review (USA), via GunPolicy.org]

PITTSBURGH — John Bolton suggested Friday that Barack Obama is laying the foundation to push an ambitious gun control agenda if he wins a second term. Trying to make his background relevant to an audience of gun activists, the former ambassador to the United Nations and dark horse presidential candidate accused the administration of using its own failures in the war against Mexican drug cartels as a pretext for more gun control. "We can understand that, as he likes... [Politico (Washington DC), via GunPolicy.org]

BISMARCK, North Dakota - Employees at North Dakota's state mental hospital in Jamestown won't be allowed to keep guns in their vehicles while they're at work. Last month, lawmakers passed a bill that says workers can keep firearms locked in their vehicles on company property even if their employers don't like it. The bill allowed employees at the Jamestown state hospital to bring firearms to work as long as the guns were kept in their vehicles. But on Friday the... [Associated Press, via GunPolicy.org]

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Senate on Thursday, by a succession of mostly party-line votes, approved a trio of bills that supporters say will ensure citizens' constitutionally-protected gun rights. One measure restricts doctors from asking patients about gun ownership, and another prohibits local governments from passing stricter gun laws than the state. Those two already have been approved by the House and await Republican Gov. Rick Scott's signature. The third, which... [Associated Press, via GunPolicy.org]

PITTSBURGH - As you read this, about 75,000 members and friends of the National Rifle Association [NRA or US Gun Lobby] are streaming into Pittsburgh for the opening of the NRA's 140th annual meeting this weekend. Few Americans know all that much about the NRA's history, and if asked to describe the association, they probably would repeat the media description of it as "America's gun lobby." In fact, the NRA is the largest and arguably the most influential advocacy... [Washington Times, via GunPolicy.org]

WASHINGTON - More than 200 people suspected of ties to terrorism bought guns in the U.S. last year legally, FBI figures show. The 247 people who were allowed to buy weapons did so after going through required background checks as required by federal law. It is not illegal for people listed on the government's terror watch list to buy weapons. For years, that has bothered Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who is trying again to change the law to keep weapons out of the... [Associated Press, via GunPolicy.org]

Fifteen years ago today, the largest gun massacre by a civilian - anywhere in the world - occurred in Tasmania. The weapons used by the Port Arthur murderer were designed for killing large numbers of people, and they delivered: 35 people lay dead and 18 wounded. As a result of the tragedy, those weapons were banned from civilian ownership and more than 640,000 were bought back and destroyed. The rules applying to firearms in general were tightened, making it harder to... [Sydney Morning Herald, Opinion, via GunPolicy.org]

PITTSBURGH — A discussion of the January shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabriel Giffords is not on the agenda of the NRA's [National Rifle Association] annual meeting, though some members attending expect opposing groups and others to try to make it one. "The people in here don't pose a threat to society," said Gara Gifford, 60. She's not an NRA member, though her husband Gary, 61, is. "That guy who got Gabrielle Giffords was just off his rocker." On Friday, Giffords is... [Associated Press, via GunPolicy.org]

KATHMANDU - An administrative court freed Nepal's former Crown Prince Paras Wednesday over his firing a gun during an argument with a guest at a resort, but only after warning the ex-royal not to repeat such incidents in future, an official said. Thirty-nine year old Paras, infamous for his nightclub brawls and drink-driving allegations while heir to the throne, had been bail since December last year after being detained for two days in the southern district of... [Reuters, via GunPolicy.org]

OTTAWA — A man who advises the Conservative government on firearms policies has compared the Ontario Provincial Police to a fascist paramilitary group and the Nazi SS. Dr. Mike Ackermann, a physician in Nova Scotia, was appointed in 2006 to a firearms advisory committee, reporting to then-public safety minister Stockwell Day. He is still a member of the group. Ackermann wrote a note in a Canadian Firearms Digest mailing list earlier this month discussing a police... [Canadian Press, via GunPolicy.org]