Gun Control

The European Union on Thursday moved to tighten laws governing the trade and transport of guns to help keep illicit firearms out of the hands of criminal gangs amid concerns that the war in Ukraine could increase the spread of illegal weapons. The EU's executive branch, the European Commission, estimates that around 35 million illicit weapons are in hands of civilians across the 27-nation bloc. Around 630,000 firearms are listed as stolen in the EU's security and border database. The commission's crackdown would involve clearer, common procedures for the import, export and transit of firearms and ammunitions. An electronic licensing system would be set up for import and export applications to replace the slower paper-based systems most countries have. Stricter standards would be imposed on the manufacture of alarm and signal weapons, which fire things like blanks or tear gas. Such arms were converted by extremists and used in the bloody 2015 Paris attacks and the killing of staff at

Payment processor Visa Inc said it plans to start separately categorizing sales at gun shops. It's a major win for gun control advocates who say it will help better track suspicious surges of gun sales that could be a prelude to a mass shooting. But gun rights advocates have argued that step would unfairly segregate legal gun sales when most sales do not lead to mass shootings. Visa late Saturday said it would adopt the International Organization for Standardization's new merchant code for gun sales, which was announced on Friday. Until Friday, gun store sales were considered general merchandise. Visa's adoption is significant as the largest payment network, and will likely add pressure for Mastercard and American Express to adopt the code as well. Gun control advocates had gotten significant wins on this front in recent weeks. New York City officials and pension funds had pressured the ISO and banks to adopt this code. Two of the country's largest public pension funds, in Califor

New York has started to prohibit concealed carry of weapons in designated sensitive areas after the US Supreme Court struck down the state's century-old concealed carry weapons law in June

The White House explained that the federal government will cooperate with state and local law enforcement to address the most significant sources of violence in each area

Texas is poised to remove one of its last major gun restrictions after lawmakers approved allowing people to carry handguns without a license, and the background check and training that go with it

The legislation may face a tougher battle in the U.S. Senate, where Biden's fellow Democrats hold an even slimmer majority than in the House

Earlier, US President Donald Trump met at the White House with a bipartisan group of lawmakers and called for a series of gun control measures

Lawmakers in the Republican-led Congress have faced criticism for inaction in the face of US mass shootings

There was also a significant acceleration in the downward trend for firearm suicides and a non-significant acceleration in the downward trend in firearm homicides

The sit-in came less than two days after the Senate failed to pass four gun-control measures

California generally prohibits people from carrying handguns in public without a permit by a sherrif