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A recent shooting in a Houston area college has added to the long list of recent school shootings.

USA Today Article Link

It is tragic to see how some individuals are choosing to express their anger and frustration by inflicting harm on others. Rather than be a reactive community, we need to work to be more proactive and take preventative actions to secure the guns we personally own. We are all responsible for our own – proper storage of our guns could make it more difficult for children to obtain these weapons.

What do you think we can do to reduce gun violence in the United States?

Banning high capacity guns and licensing gun owners could help, but this would take time for our government to set these laws into place. Until then, let’s keep those guns locked up! Are you in the market for a new gun safe? We have some of the toughest gun safes on sale at SecurityBase.

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By Claudio Lavanga, NBC News

ROME — The Vatican is the only fully fortified state in the world, protected by 40-foot-high walls. The few porte, the arched access gates into Vatican City, are manned by Swiss Guards dressed in their colorful Renaissance uniforms and carrying swords.

Visitors are asked to sign in and are allowed only upon invitation. But for Vatican employees, usually a nod of recognition will do. The Vatican is the smallest state in the world, and pretty much everybody knows each other.

But things are quickly changing.

This month, the Vatican is introducing an electronic badge for some of its thousands of employees. Workers will be expected to swipe in and out when entering and exiting.

Some of the world’s media have linked the step-up in security directly to the “Vatileaks” scandal, the unprecedented security breach in which Paolo Gabriele, the pope’s former butler, photocopied and leaked confidential documents to the Italian media.

So is the Holy Father turning into Big Brother?

No, a Vatican employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told NBC News: “I haven’t received my card yet, but I have seen swiping machines being installed at Porta Sant’Anna,” the main gate for Vatican employees. “This is not a case of Big Brother, more like the Vatican coming in line with the modern world and issuing a badge like any other big company.”

The Vatican employs roughly 3,000 people and generates tens of millions of dollars in revenue, mainly from tourism and donations. If it were a company, it would be a midsize business with a healthy income and solid assets, despite having recorded a $19 million loss in 2011. But unlike most private companies, the Vatican has allowed some employees an unprecedented degree of flexibility in their working hours.

Robert Mickens, the Rome Correspondent for The Tablet newspaper and a former employee at Vatican Radio, says that this self-governance in some cases has been abused: ”When a journalist asked Pope John XXIII how many people work in the Vatican, he replied: ‘About half’.”

“The Vatican has tried hard to check that people stick to their working hours for years,” Mickens said. “At Vatican Radio they introduced electronic badges years ago because people would go for their coffee break and return hours later. So I think that this is more of a case of the Vatican trying to check that its employees do their job than to prevent them from leaking information.”

Whether the new system is aimed at preventing a new Vatileaks or merely keeping tabs on employee hours, the Vatican’s ancient walls are about to receive a modern twist.

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Original Article from the OC Register http://www.ocregister.com/news/gun-379702-year-guns.html

As of November, the FBI has run 981,798 background checks related to guns in California for 2012, already beating out totals for other years.

At Ade’s Gun Shop & Em & M Guns in Orange where business is booming, Emily Atkinson shows her favorite model pistol, a Springfield Armory XD compact. She owns the shop with her father.
JEBB HARRIS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

By CLAUDIA KOERNER / THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Californians are buying more guns than ever.

Those who keep the statistics don’t speculate on why the numbers are spiking, but to enthusiasts on the ground, it’s clear. Times are tough, and the future is uncertain, leaving people looking for an extra layer of security, said gun sellers and experts in the field. November’s election brought heightened fears of impending regulation, spurring some buyers to bite the bullet and make purchases they might otherwise have put off.

As of November, the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System had run 981,798 background checks related to guns in California, beating out totals for previous years before 2012 is even over. The numbers jumped about 8 percent from last year, part of a steady increase since 2008.

At the state Department of Justice, officials said they expect sales to easily outpace last year’s, part of several years of steady increases in their counts of dealers’ records of sale. That would put this year on track to surpass an all-time high set in 1993 – the year after the Los Angeles riots.

It’s not uncommon for current events to affect sales.

This year, dealers reported more customers after the election and numbers grew in the shopping frenzy of Black Friday. Nationally, the FBI’s background check system received its highest number of transactions since the system went into place in 1998, said Steve Fischer of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services.

“Generally, Black Friday has been one of our busiest days,” he said.

This year, however, the system broke records, with 154,873 calls on Nov. 23, up about 20 percent from Black Friday last year. With the high volume of calls, officials shut down call centers briefly to allow the system to catch up, Fischer said.

Among California gun buyers, the spike was even more pronounced.

Michelle Gregory of the state’s Department of Justice reported a 59 percent increase in submitted dealer’s records of sale on Black Friday from last year. A dealer’s record of sale is filed with the state for each transaction, which may include one handgun as well as multiple long guns. Buyers must generally wait 30 days before buying another handgun.

Overall, November records showed a 49 percent increase from last year, Gregory said.

Reasons for increase

For those watching trends in gun ownership and regulation, the numbers shift with social movements.

“I think it’s a direct outgrowth of the strategies employed in the recent election,” said John Eastman, a professor and former dean of the Chapman University School of Law who in 2010 sought the Republican nomination for state attorney general.

Eastman pointed to the discord brought by groups like Occupy Wall Street, which in some cases clashed with police. The breakdown in public order inspired more people to think about self-defense, he said.

Across all levels of government, officials have made moves to regulate gun ownership, he added. While the most restrictive regulations would likely be overturned by courts under the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms, Eastman said a risk of control was enough to encourage prospective gun owners to buy while they can.

Outside of political strife, economic uncertainty has also inspired people to look for more protection, he said. Violent crimes have steadily declined in recent years, according to FBI statistics, but Eastman said concerns remain that those in desperate financial straits could be a threat to safety. With talk among politicians about cutting social benefits, financial hardships could become worse for many, creating an even more volatile situation, he said. Concerns are also high about preparedness in case of disasters, such as Hurricane Sandy.

“It’s like a perfect storm,” he said.

Supporters of gun control laws also expected the recent spikes in gun ownership. Charlie Blek, president of the Orange County chapter of advocacy group the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the recent shift of convicted felons from state prison to local jails under realignment might have had an impact on gun sales. The election definitely had an effect.

“The National Rifle Association has done a wonderful job of demonizing President Obama,” he said.

In fact, Blek said, Obama’s gun policies have either been nonexistent or a step backward in the eyes of safety advocates. Closer to home, California has done an excellent job screening gun owners, he said. The safeguards aren’t trying to keep qualified buyers from purchasing guns, he added.

“As long as they understand and appreciate the risk, they certainly have the right.”

All walks of life

At Ade’s Gun Shop, Emily Atkinson and father Mike Hein, who run the business as Em & M Guns, typically see more customers in the winter, with Christmas shopping and hunting season.

“We’ve been seeing bigger crowds than normal probably for three months,” said Atkinson, whose daughter also works in the shop.

At the cozy Orange location, they see customers from all walks of life: families, teachers, small-business owners and elderly women as well as serious hobbyists. Their customers are most likely to take their guns to a shooting range for target practice, or perhaps keep them on hand for self-defense, Atkinson said.

With the re-election of Obama, she sees the passage of stricter gun laws as only a matter of time.

“There is a big scare that guns are going to begin to get scarce,” she said.

Sales have been up since the 2008 election, said Steve Converse, who has worked at the business for about four years.

“That’s when we saw a lot of people buy their first guns,” Steve Converse said. “Now they’re coming back to expand their collection.”

At Straightline Tactical in Anaheim, owner Don Zappone said he’s seeing more first-time buyers.

With the bad economy, election and more awareness of disasters, he said there’s a climate of uncertainty. People who might not have thought much about gun ownership before are starting to seriously consider it, he said.

“A lot of people are just recently learning about what the Constitution says and the rights that we have and starting to exercise them now.”

Contact the writer: 949-454-7309 or ckoerner@ocregister.com