Black powder handgun deaths remain an uncommon event

Copyright: © 2009 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.Although it was predicted that there would be an increase in the use of black powder guns due to their greater ease of procurement with less government control on sales, this does not seem to have been the general experience. To determine the rate of use of black powder handguns in shooting deaths in Berlin, Germany, review of the files of the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences, Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin was conducted over a 10-year period from 1997 to 2006. Out of total 85 gunshot deaths, there were only 3 where black powder handguns were used (3.5%). The cases involved 3 males aged 55, 62, and 63 years, respectively, all of whom had committed suicide with black powder percussion handguns, using 0.45, 0.56, and 0.36 caliber weapons. The source of the guns could not be determined. Wounds were characterized by excessive soot and propellant soiling and tattooing. The low number of fatalities involving black powder guns in a large forensic institution in Berlin, Germany, suggests that limiting access to such weapons would have little effect on total numbers of gunshot deaths. Simple loading mechanisms and reliability appear to be more important features influencing the choice of a handgun, rather than mere availability.Sven Hartwig, Michael Tsokos, and Roger W. Byar

Art and Feminism

Authoritative publication focusing on the role of theory in the evolution of feminist art. Phelan's essay surveying American and British feminist art produced between 1960-2000 traces the "shifting geographies of feminism" by situating diverse formal strategies used by feminist artists within the contexts of abstract expressionim, minimalism, conceptual art, performance art and photographic performance. Her analysis of the ideological forces within representational systems is informed by postructuralism and psychoanalytic theories of sexual difference. Issues of identity, race, sexuality, class, gender and age are considered in relation to the marginalization of women, the objectification of the female body, and essentialism. Includes documentation of numerous artworks and texts by artists and authors working in disciplines of feminist philosophy, psychoanalysis, art history, film theory and literary criticism. Biographical notes. Index of names. Bibliography. Circa 675 bibl. ref