Word: firearm
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Worse than War. Bakal offers some unnerving statistics to back his thesis that firearms have become a national menace. Firearm fatalities amount to 17,000 each year-5,000 murders and 12,000 accidents and suicides. Since 1900, guns have brought death to approximately 750,000 people in the U.S., considerably more than the 530,000 Americans killed in all U.S. wars. Many of the criminal killings would have occurred anyway-a person bent on murder could always use another weapon-but the easy availability of guns undoubtedly swelled the total...
...Sullivan Law allows possession of dirks, daggers, razors or stilettos. But the law, which has no visible effects on criminals, requires hard-to-get police permits for pistols, even when they are kept at home. Flatly forbidden is the mere possession of any billy, blackjack, bludgeon, bomb, bombshell, firearm silencer, machine gun, metal knuckles, sandbag, sandclub or "slungshot" (slingshot). The arsenal is so well-stocked that choice is inevitably confusing. Arlene Del Fava, along with many another New Yorker, has decided that from now on there is only one side arm that will keep her safe from both cops...
...last December. In the future, announced Justice Minister Johannes Vorster, death can be the punishment for cases of proven "sabotage." And what is sabotage? It can be a strike by workers in the fuel, food, power or sanitary fields; the painting of political slogans on walls; possession of a firearm or explosives without a license; simple trespass; a speech. Apart from sabotage, the law will give Vorster power to prohibit anyone from "performing any act" whatever, ban gatherings of any type at his own discretion, place any person under perpetual house arrest, and prohibit newspapers from reporting their protests. Gone...
Another cause of minor friction was the happy Italian custom of shooting birds out of the sky with the nearest available firearm. Horrified German matrons pleaded for peace in the name of European unity, and most Italians reluctantly agreed. German mothers, who call the Italians "macaronis," would be happy to see the Roman romantics go. Not so their fun-loving daughters, who are even willing to pay for the drinks of their newfound cha-cha-cha partners. "It's worth it," said one Teutonic lovely: "You don't find Germans who can catch that rhythm...
Mixed Bag. In Taree, Australia, bitten in the arm by a snake, Charles Peters plugged his arm with a rifle to make it bleed, was fined for carrying a firearm on Sunday...