SACRAMENTO, Calif. California’s one-of-a-kind program to seize guns from felons, the mentally unstable and others prohibited from owning them is close to receiving more money after an Assembly vote Thursday.

A bill from state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, was approved on a vote of 57-10, with all the opposition votes coming from Republican lawmakers. It authorizes $24 million over three years for the Armed and Prohibited Persons program to hire more agents to seize weapons.

The vote comes a day after the U.S. Senate rejected a gun control package, including a proposal to expand background checks.

The state program checks databases to identify people who bought guns legally but are no longer permitted to own them because of a felony conviction, a violent misdemeanor, a determination that they are mentally unstable or a domestic violence restraining order.

http://www.mydesert.com/viewart/20130418/NEWS10/304180014/California-Assembly-OKs-money-gun-seizure-program

March 1st was just another day when I put my 10 year old, fourth grade son John on the bus and sent him off to school. Or so I thought. On the contrary, today was the day that my life as a gun owner was about to change, dramatically and rapidly.

Sometime during the day, my son allegedly spoke with a few of his classmates. The boys (excluding my son) were involved in a school yard pushing incident the day before. Two or three of these boys (including my son) were talking about going to the house of the boys that did the pushing. These boys were to take with them a water, paint and bb gun. Word of this got to the principal. She immediately interrogated the children. I received a call from the principal advising me of this just as my son got off the bus. She also advised me that my son was to be suspended for two days because of his words. She decided that this talk amongst students warranted filing a police report. If this wasn't bad enough, the police were sent to my residence and I was advised that my guns may be taken from me. This can't be happening, I thought. But it was.

The following Monday I received a call from Pistol Licensing that they would be at my residence in the morning to take my guns and suspend my license. I attempted to explain that this must be a mistake, no wrong doing occurred on my part. My son has no access to any of my guns. The officer that came to my residence saw that all my guns were secured.Pistol Licensing was not interested in my side of the story. They were only interested in what happened with my ten year old son in school.

When will my license be restored? What is involved? What is the cost? These are all questions that I had. Some still remain unanswered. The few answers I have are not at all comforting. According to the police, I can expect to have my license restored when my son is an adult and moves out of my residence. If I don't want to wait that long I can file an Article 78 and request that my license be reinstated. The cost, so far, about $6,500 monetarily. Emotionally, the cost is far, far higher. That can't be calculated. All my handguns are gone, my license is suspended and my long arms are out of the house waiting to be sold at a local store.

http://www.longislandfirearms.com/forum/topic/67755-just-the-mention-of-a-gun-in-school/

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On Monday, April 8, less than three miles from the home of the National Rifle Association, a yellow school bus riddled with more than 6,000 rounds will go on display.

The piece is part of a larger art installation called "The Newtown Project: Art Targets Guns," opening this weekend at the First Congregational United Church of Christ in Northwest D.C. "The Incident," as the school bus piece is called, will then move to George Mason University's main campus in Fairfax, Va., less than three miles from NRA headquarters. Rounds were shot at the school bus from assault rifles, shot-guns and semi-automatic weapons.

The display comes some four months after a mass shooting in Newtown, Conn. that killed 20 children and seven adults, plus the shooter. Sid Fowler, the pastor at First Congregational United Church of Christ, says the community spent many hours discussing whether to exhibit the bus outside the church where children could see it. Eventually, the church decided to show it in an alley nearby instead.

"We had mixed feelings because we knew the power of it... not everyone was of the same mind and some didn't want us to show it at all. We don't want to be exploitative," he said. But reading the account of a six-year-old boy who died after being hit by 11 bullets in Newtown changed Fowler's mind.

http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/washington-whispers/2013/04/05/art-exhibit-of-school-bus-riddled-with-bullets-going-on-display-near-nra-headquarters

Early lopsided votes on various amendments suggested Democrats in the majority of the New Hampshire House would muscle through a bill to repeal the state's "stand your ground" law, which Republicans enacted last session. Boy, was the conventional wisdom off target on this one.

After a heated two-hour debate Wednesday, the bill narrowly passed: 189 to 184.

The bill now goes to the state Senate. Regardless of the outcome, critics promised it would be a 2014 campaign issue.

http://londonderry.patch.com/articles/stand-your-ground-on-shaky-ground-1b5f1476

WASHINGTON — It was, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada ebulliently proclaimed, a “happy day for me” as he stood with Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association, in 2010 at a new shooting range in Las Vegas made possible by federal money secured by Mr. Reid. “People who criticize this probably would criticize baseball,” Mr. Reid said before firing off a few rounds.

These days, Mr. Reid, the Senate majority leader, is far more likely to meet with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, an outspoken advocate of stricter gun control, than with Mr. LaPierre as he prepares to bring the most expansive package of gun safety legislation in a decade to the Senate floor over the next few weeks.

Mr. Reid’s evolution from a proponent of gun rights to the shepherd of legislation that would expand background checks, among other gun control measures, emerges from a complex web of political calculations that have come to define his leadership style over the last decade.

How tenacious Mr. Reid is willing to be — and whether he will extract votes one by one as he has for other big pieces of legislation — may well determine the fate of the measures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/01/us/politics/harry-reid-draws-on-political-calculus-as-he-leads-senate.html?hp