Gun Violence

WHEN IT comes to cracking down on gun violence, New York has become America's model city. Word is out that police and prosecutors in the Big Apple don't mess around when they catch people who carry or use illegal weapons. It is unlawful to carry a gun without a New York license, even if the owner has a permit from another municipality. Hunters avoid driving through the city, fearing they could get nabbed. And punishment is swift and harsh. In 2007, New York passed a 3 1/2-year mandatory-minimum sentence for illegal gun possession.

WASHINGTON - Congress' most serious gun-control effort in years cleared its first hurdle Thursday as the Senate pushed past conservatives' attempted blockade under the tearful gaze of families of victims of December's Connecticut school shootings. The bipartisan 68-31 vote rebuffed an effort to keep debate from starting, giving an early victory to President Obama and his gun-control allies. Four months after 20 first graders and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown were killed, relatives watching the vote from a gallery overlooking the Senate floor dabbed at tears and clasped hands, some seeming to pray.

CHICAGO - Michelle Obama, with tears in her eyes and her voice cracking, spoke out for the first time here Wednesday about the gun violence afflicting young people in cities across the nation. She took a rare step for any first lady into the legislative fight of the hour, saying her husband, President Obama, is "fighting as hard as he can, and engaging as many people as he can, to pass commonsense reforms to protect our children from gun violence. " "These reforms deserve a vote in Congress," she said, drawing loud applause from hundreds of Chicago's business executives and civic leaders who were gathered at a luncheon to raise money for a new antiviolence initiative.

TRENTON - Gov. Christie should tighten some gun laws but doesn't need to enact major initiatives such as expanded background checks, a ban on Internet gun sales, or new limits on high-capacity magazines, according to a report Tuesday from a task force he commissioned. The report, released nearly a month after Christie's deadline and on a day a breakthrough emerged in Congress on federal legislation to curb gun violence, is expected to form the basis of antiviolence policy proposals that the Republican governor will release next week.

WASHINGTON - Congress' most serious gun-control effort in years cleared its first hurdle Thursday as the Senate pushed past conservatives' attempted blockade under the teary gaze of families of victims of December's Connecticut school shootings. The bipartisan 68-31 vote rebuffed an effort to keep debate from even starting, giving an early victory - and perhaps political momentum - to President Obama and his gun-control allies. Even so, few supporters of the legislation are confident of victory.

AN IMPORTANT victory in the efforts to curb gun violence - as well as efforts to bring a little sanity to Congress - could be in the offing Thursday. The Senate will take a procedural vote on gun-control measures, including one bipartisan effort crafted by Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to require background checks on all commercial-firearm sales, including those at gun shows and on the Internet. The lack of such checks has created a big loophole for countless guns to be bought and sold to anyone - including criminals and people with mental illness.

  AMERICA is rightly on edge. When a man with the power to make life-or-death decisions affecting thousands of U.S. citizens recklessly shows contempt for decency and international norms of behavior, it is no wonder the American people would be both angry and fearful. When his threats are so clearly contrary to the interests of those he represents and even those who might otherwise support him, it is natural to wonder whether he has somehow become unhinged. But we should react calmly.

  A South Jersey tea-party organization is running a slate of candidates in the June 4 primary to challenge the Burlington County Republican Committee's picks for county and state offices. The West Jersey Tea Party, established in 2010, is endorsing candidates to seek the Republican nod to run for Burlington County sheriff, the one seat up for grabs on the county Board of Chosen Freeholders, and four state Assembly seats. The Democrats have no primary contests for these positions.

SHORTLY after noon Sunday, about 70 volunteers stood together in LOVE Park - hands raised, representing surrender, holding it for exactly 26 seconds. The park grew silent. Pedestrians stopped mid-stroll to watch, while a few volunteers dropped to the ground and partners outlined their prone, motionless bodies in chalk. This was a "flash mob" organized by a group called Artists Against Gun Violence, a movement under the ART=Ammo project. The project was started by Broadway dancer and choreographer Lorin Latarro, 35, in response to the December massacre in Newtown, Conn., and its 26 victims.

On a day when Connecticut and Maryland legislators ushered in historic new gun laws, a bipartisan lineup of Pennsylvania legislators and law enforcement officials put forth a bill that would slap an added mandatory two-year prison term on anyone caught with an illegal firearm - but only in Philadelphia. "This is not about gun control," Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams said Thursday, flanked by politicians and officials from the city and suburbs. "People who carry guns illegally are the people who are shooting people, murdering people, pistol-whipping people, threatening witnesses.