Guns | featured news

A 3-year-old boy in Greenville, South Carolina was shot in the head and killed on Friday after he started playing with a pink handgun because he thought it was a toy. Police responding to the shooting at Haywood Plantation Apartments said that Tmorej Smith was found with a gunshot wound to the head, according to The Associated Press.

As President Obama continues to push for new gun control measures, new FBI data shows that January was the second-highest month on record for gun background checks.

The senator leading the charge to revive a assault weapons ban conceded on Sunday, just days before hearings on gun control open, that winning Senate passage will be tough but said she has been assured she will have the chance to bring it up for a vote.

Thousands of demonstrators rallied Saturday in Washington to demand tougher gun control laws, many describing themselves as first-time capital marchers who've had enough of gun violence.

Best-selling author Stephen King has just released a passionate call for greater gun control, titled "Guns." In a coup for Amazon, the essay is available only through its Kindle Store for 99 cents.

The police released few details, aside from saying the school was Wave Preparatory Elementary in Far Rockaway and the weapon was a .22-caliber handgun.

The White House says a National Rifle Association video referencing President Barack Obama's daughters is "repugnant and cowardly." Obama spokesman Jay Carney says most Americans agree that a president's children should not be used as "pawns in a political fight." Carney was referring to an online video from the pro-gun lobby. The video calls Obama an "elitist hypocrite" for having armed Secret Service agents protect his daughters at school while not committing to installing armed guards in all schools.

The number of guns collected is small, and criminals usually steer clear, officials say.

A database of mentally ill people for gun background checks is confusing and costly, and many states don't take part... Swept along by the tide of outrage and sorrow after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, Congress passed a law to try to prevent future tragedies by keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence wants the push to reduce gun violence to be broader than a possible ban of assault weapons.