Locks

PANAMA CANAL, PANAMA -- The Panama Canal is one of those things you learned about in grade school, perhaps found mildly interesting, then filed away -- very far away -- in the back of your mind, along with historical tidbits like Seward's Folly (what was that again?) and the Spanish-American War (Remember the Maine?). But when you are sitting in a canal lock, marveling that your 780-foot-long cruise ship has just been lifted 28 feet in only eight minutes, you get a new perspective -- and admiration.

WASHINGTON -- After quietly negotiating with the Clinton administration, the manufacturers of most handguns in the United States plan to gather today at the White House to announce that they will provide child-safety locks with their firearms by the end of next year, a senior White House official and a representative of the gun-makers said yesterday.The announcement, which will ensure that about 80 percent of handguns made in the United States are sold with locks, is expected to produce the unlikely spectacle of President Clinton, who has sought throughout his presidency to restrict access to firearms, standing in the Rose Garden beside executives from more than a half-dozen gun-makers.

To Anne Arundel County police Officer Bill Wild, stories of senseless deaths were surfacing too often around the country -- children getting their hands on guns, children shooting others, children shooting themselves, children dying.Last month, when Wild heard another story about a 15-year-old boy fatally shooting himself while playing with a gun in Severn, he decided such an accident was never going to happen with an Anne Arundel officer's gun -- not if he could help it.Wild started a program to purchase and distribute locks for gun-storage boxes to all county police officers so they can secure their weapons when they're off duty.

BILL WILD, an Anne Arundel County police officer, was worried about children getting their hands on firearms before last month's massacre at Jonesboro, Ark.He started a program to distribute locks to fellow officers so that when they are off duty, they can secure their weapons and prevent children from using them.This program, if broadened beyond law enforcement officials, could help prevent another such tragedy.In Jonesboro, the two boys alleged to have shot and killed four students and a teacher came from families that owned guns.

A Black & Decker Corp. subsidiary is being accused in a California lawsuit of making fraudulent claims that its products were made in the United States. The lawsuit against Kwikset Corp., an Irvine, Calif.-based maker of locks and related hardware, was filed Friday in the Superior Court for the State of California in Orange County. Backed by the nonprofit group Made in the USA Foundation, the suit contends that 60 percent to 80 percent of the labor used in the production of Kwikset's locks is in Mexico.

All handguns sold in Maryland must come with a lock, and dealers must send ballistic "fingerprints" to the state police, under a sweeping new firearms safety law that takes effect tomorrow. The legislation, intended to prevent accidental shootings and help police solve crimes, is one of almost 300 bills that will become law. They include measures to step up inspections of nursing homes and increase scholarships for prospective teachers. The firearms law, pushed through the General Assembly by Gov. Parris N. Glendening last spring, imposes a series of requirements on the sale of handguns and sets minimum sentences for some gun offenses.

MIRAFLORES, Panama - Stacked skyscraper-high with clothes and computers from the Far East, the Hanjin Tokyo cargo ship squeezes through Panama Canal's Miraflores Locks as scores of tourists gasp at the scant two feet between the giant carrier and the viewing platform's edge. Ninety minutes later, the ship - so big that 4,000 trailer-truck-sized containers can fit on board - slides past the massive steel gates and steams up the world's most famous shortcut. Once, the canal many Panamanians call the "big ditch" was so vital to shipping routes that cargo carriers were built with the dimensions of the canal's three sets of locks in mind.

Police logMarriottsville: 1300 block of Cedarberry Court: Someone removed the locks from a construction trailer and stole a generator and compressor Dec. 11 or 12.

On November 11, 2002, JAMES. On view Friday from 11 to 12 noon at the Joseph G. Locks Funeral Home, 1302 N. Central Ave.

On November 28, 2002, JOHNNIE. On view Sunday from 1 to 7 P.M. at the Joseph G. Locks Funeral Home, 1302 N. Central Ave.