ANY EXCUSE TO GET YOU

On an April afternoon seven years ago, Joseph Landers walked out of the M&M Food Shoppe on High Street with a sub sandwich in one hand, a pizza in another, and a stainless steel handgun holstered on his shoulder underneath his coat. To Landers, a then 49-year-old retired machinist, it was just a normal day in which he planned have lunch with his father at home. The gun was something he carried regularly for protection. But the trip to pick up lunch turned out to be his last as a licensed gun holder in Massachusetts Landers' coat was not entirely zipped up that day, and when the wind blew it open, a Dedham Police officer across the street zoomed in and noticed the gun. Upon request by the officer, Landers produced a valid five-year license issued in 1995 to carry the gun. But the problem was, state law required that he keep the weapon concealed.

While the officer let Landers go without an arrest, the Adams Street resident soon after received notice from Dedham Police Chief Dennis Teehan that his Class A license to carry firearms had been revoked due to the incident. Landers, a Vietnam veteran with no criminal record, said he was crushed by the letter, which he saw as an attack on his credibility. After serving as a Navy engineer on a submarine from 1966-1971, he'd always been interested in collecting historical war artifacts such as guns, uniforms and other items. Landers said he never planned to use his gun and he was not risking public safety by carrying the weapon on his person.

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TAKING GUNS OFF THE BAD GUYS TOO TIRING FOR THE RCMP

They only take them off the good guys

Workers at an Edmonton-area women's shelter had notified RCMP that Josif Fekete owned guns about a year before he killed his wife and young son in a double murder-suicide, a fatality inquiry was told yesterday. Blagica Fekete and her toddler son, Alex, had been staying at Red Deer's women's shelter in October 2002 when Josif stormed into the building, forcing them to flee.

Workers at the Red Deer facility became so worried for the mother and son they sent them to a women's shelter in Sherwood Park, just east of Edmonton, on a bus in the middle of the night.

Staff at the Strathcona Shelter Society sent RCMP a "fact form" to advise them of Blagica's history of physical, sexual and emotional abuse and the fact that Josif owned three guns. Despite that and Blagica's own warnings that Josif had guns, Insp. Peter Calvert testified yesterday that police had "no idea of their existence" before the murder-suicide. He said trying to find the guns would have been time-consuming and complex, noting that it takes four or five hours of work and certain evidence to obtain a search warrant.

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Plenty of illegal guns in Australia: "When the Victoria Police special operations group raided the Hastings clubhouse of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, they found an arsenal of illegal weapons, including a sawn-off shotgun, two .45-calibre automatic handguns and multiple rounds of unsecured ammunition. Present in the clubhouse in the 5.30am raid were then club president Brendan Wayne Petersen and his girlfriend. What ensured that Petersen and other club members had seriously shot themselves in the foot was a series of incriminating photographs of them brandishing weapons, including a heavily armed group pictured for the Outlaws Christmas card mail-out. One showed Petersen and colleague Shane Jolly pointing automatic handguns at each other's heads.... Mr Vandersteen said all of the firearms, including the two loaded .45-calibre handguns that were found under Petersen's bed, were unregistered."