National briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 9, 2000

Gunshot wounds drop 39% in five years

WASHINGTON -- The number of gunshot wounds from all types of crime fell almost 40 percent from 1993 through 1997, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

A report by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics expanded on the widely publicized decline in gun homicides during the mid 1990s. That trend has been attributed to a drop in crack cocaine wars, the focus on illegal guns by big city police, the aging of baby boomers past crime-prone years and longer prison sentences for violent criminals.

Citing data gathered from hospital emergency departments and death certificates by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the bureau said gunshot wounds from any type of crime fell 39 percent, from 64,100 to 39,400, during the five-year period.

GUN LOCKS RECALLED: After discovering that gun locks it gave away can be easily opened, the Knoxville, Tenn., Police Department is recalling some 300 of the devices it distributed.

But Project HomeSafe, which sent 400,000 of the cable locks to 650 law enforcement agencies across the country, isn't ready to issue a national recall.

"These are not high-security devices," said Project HomeSafe coordinator Bill Brassard Jr. "They are designed to prevent a mischievous child from operating a firearm that's been left out in a home."

Brassard said his group will study the problem but won't immediately alert other recipient agencies "because we really don't know what to tell them yet."

Power goes out for hours in downtown Chicago

CHICAGO -- A fire at an electrical substation knocked out power to downtown for several hours Sunday, tangling traffic, stranding shoppers and sports fans and raising new questions about the reliability of Commonwealth Edison.

Police on foot tried to direct pedestrians and motorists through a maze of darkened traffic signals. In some areas, motorists drove up on sidewalks to reach side streets in an effort to escape the mess.

The Chicago Transit Authority shut down its subway and elevated trains because there was no power for its signal system.

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