Most U.S. States Have Failing Scores When it Comes to Stopping Criminals and Other Dangerous People From Obtaining Guns

Two-thirds of all states score less than 20 points out of 100. Almost half of all states score 10 points or less out of 100. The state with the strongest gun laws is California with 79 points, followed by New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maryland.


Stories from 2007 on Violence in Philly


Ten are dead in weekend violence 04/23/2007

The slayings followed three forums Friday on how to stem the city's problem. The year's homicide count is 127.

At least 10 people died over the weekend as bullets cut through several Philadelphia neighborhoods - including Center City, where homicides are rare - and at a barbecue in West Philadelphia. At least nine others were wounded in shootings or stabbings.

 

City legislators meet on gun control 04/20/2007

Searching for ways to reduce the tide of gun violence in Philadelphia, a panel of state lawmakers heard testimony today from an array of civic leaders at City Hall.

 

Annette John-Hall | Silence is the enemy of justice 04/06/2007

'No Snitchin' ' is part of a wide moral breakdown.

In broad daylight, at least three people fire 40 shots in front of 20 witnesses, killing a mother trying to protect her children on a narrow little street in Southwest Philadelphia. And nobody sees a thing?

 

Shooting at city vigil blamed on teen gangs 04/12/2007

A war between teenage gangs injected terror and chaos into a West Philadelphia antiviolence vigil when an 18-year-old woman was shot in the back, police said.

 

Profiling the city's gun violence 04/10/2007

For three hours yesterday, police, hospital aides and others painted a grim portrait for a panel of state legislators.

More than 100 murders so far this year, more than 80 percent of them involving handguns. More than 400 shootings, an average of five a day. A 40 percent increase in homicides since 2002. Almost 85 percent of shooters and victims have criminal records. More than $100 million in hospital charges for assault-related medical care. Not enough jobs or social services, and way too many guns.

 

Woman shot, wounded at W. Phila. antiviolence rally 04/11/2007

A stop-the-violence rally near 61st and Market Streets in West Philadelphia last night was interrupted by gunfire.

 

Phila. gun task force issues warrants for 'straw' buys 04/10/2007

Some suspects are girlfriends buying for ex-cons, officials said. Others do it for drugs or cash.

The father of Twanita Johnson's baby needed a gun, but he couldn't buy one, because he's a convict. So Johnson, 21, who had no criminal record, went to a Bucks County gun shop and bought her baby's father a Smith & Wesson .40-caliber pistol, law-enforcement officials said.

 

Brother, husband arrested in death 03/28/2007

Police say city woman walked into gunfight.

It's the code of the street: Don't snitch. Dummy up. "It's not good for me to talk," said a man who declined to give his name as he cleaned up a car damaged by gunfire on the Kingsessing street where Jovonne Stelly, 28, was killed Sunday.

 

3 shootings kill mother, man, wound 2 girls 03/26/2007

An afternoon showdown in Southwest Phila. happened at the same time as two other shooting cases, one fatal.

A mother of four was fatally shot and three other people were wounded yesterday after an afternoon gun battle erupted on a street in Southwest Philadelphia.

 

Two men create a memorial to lives taken in city violence 03/24/2007

To Michael "MIC" Ta'bon and his friend Lionel Dunbar, the names are a measure of the social health of the city, and painting them on a wall in the Nicetown section of North Philadelphia is a way to make sure they are not forgotten.

 

West Philadelphia students speak out 03/09/2007

It was a typical morning at West Philadelphia High School - students, bundled up against the cold and walking to class, pouring off buses and rushing into the imposing century-old building.

 

New unrest, plans for W. Phila. High 03/10/2007

Again, a teacher was attacked. The school district says it will increase hallway patrols and break the school into smaller units.

Violence-plagued West Philadelphia High School will be broken up into smaller schools and more adults will patrol its hallways, officials announced after yet another teacher was assaulted there yesterday - the seventh in two weeks and at least the 18th this school year.

 

Girl hits principal at N. Phila. school 03/14/2007

Three teachers also were assaulted elsewhere as the focus shifted to a search for solutions.

In the latest acts of violence in the Philadelphia School District, an elementary school principal was knocked to the ground by a female student yesterday and three teachers were assaulted in the last two days.

 

As violence flares in schools, Street is a man of few words 03/15/2007

Mayor Street inspected the troops at the 12th Police District roll call for the cameras yesterday afternoon and announced a plan to flood the streets of violence-plagued Southwest Philadelphia with officers and social services.

 

S.W. Phila. gets show of force 03/15/2007

The city is deploying 80 more officers to the beleaguered 12th District. A public roll call underlined the commitment.

In an unusual display of police might, Mayor Street and Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson yesterday announced plans to deploy 80 additional police officers in the 12th Police District in Southwest Philadelphia.

 

At W. Phila. High, a call by students to settle down 03/21/2007

Decrying "an overall culture of disrespect," leaders called for a return to the basics of learning.

A small but earnest group of student leaders at West Philadelphia High School spoke out yesterday, calling for an end to "an overall culture of disrespect" at their embattled school.

 

Phils hear from group on violence prevention 03/26/2007

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It is not uncommon for teams to shut the clubhouse door and have early-morning meetings in spring training, but the Phillies are the only club in baseball to have had one of this kind.

 

James M. Reif Jr: Driven by life's endless possibilities.

Shooting victim James M. Reif Jr. impressed friends and former colleagues at the Broome County Sheriff's Department in Upstate New York as a guy who overcame a disability to become a successful businessman.

 

Investors' plans ruined by flood

They had hoped to restore a historic club.

Watson International Inc., named after the father and son who built IBM into a computer giant, had big plans for the company's former corporate country club-resort, on the edge of 600 acres of a nature preserve and a golf course in Upstate New York.

 

2004: Tempers, guns key to child deaths 03/16/2007

The first horror came in February. A 10-year-old child was shot in the head on his way to school, killed in the cross fire of battling drug gangs.