title: John Prine

text: His subsequent albums from the 1970s include "Sweet Revenge" (1973), containing such fan favorites as "Dear Abby", "Grandpa Was a Carpenter", and "Christmas in Prison", and "Common Sense" (1975), with "Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard". The latter album was Prine's first to chart on the U.S.


title: John Prine

text: Top 100 by "Billboard" and reflected his growing commercial success. It was produced by Steve Cropper. "Bruised Orange" from 1978 is a Steve Goodman–produced album that gave listeners songs such as "That's The Way That The World Goes 'Round", "Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone", "Fish and Whistle", and the title track.


title: John Prine

text: In 1974, singer David Allan Coe achieved considerable success on the country charts with "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", co-written by Prine and Goodman. The song good-naturedly spoofs stereotypical country music lyrics to create what it self-describes as "the perfect country and western song". Prine refused to take a songwriter's credit (stating he was too drunk when the song was written to remember what he had contributed) and Goodman received sole credit. Goodman bought Prine a jukebox as a gift from his publishing royalties.


title: John Prine

text: The 1979 album "Pink Cadillac" features two songs produced by Sun Records founder Sam Phillips, who by this time rarely did any studio work. The song "Saigon" is about a Vietnam veteran traumatized by the war ("The static in my attic's gettin' ready to blow"). During the recording, one of the guitar amplifiers blew up (which is evident on the album). The other song Phillips produced is "How Lucky", about Prine's hometown.


title: John Prine

text: In 1981, rejecting the established model of the recording industry, which Prine felt exploited singers and songwriters, he co-founded the independent record label Oh Boy Records in Nashville, Tennessee. His fans, supporting the project, sent him enough money to cover the costs, in advance, of his next album. Prine continued writing and recording albums throughout the 1980s. His songs continued to be covered by other artists; the country supergroup The Highwaymen recorded "The 20th Century Is Almost Over", which had been written by Prine and Goodman. Steve Goodman died of leukemia in 1984 and Prine contributed four tracks to "A Tribute to Steve Goodman", including a cover version of Goodman's "My Old Man".


title: John Prine

text: In 1991, Prine released the Grammy Award-winning "The Missing Years", his first collaboration with producer and Heartbreakers bassist Howie Epstein. The title song records Prine's humorous take on what Jesus did in the unrecorded years between his childhood and ministry. In 1995, "Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings" was released, another collaboration with Epstein. On this album is the long track "Lake Marie", a partly spoken word song interweaving tales over decades centered on themes of "goodbye". Bob Dylan later cited it as perhaps his favorite Prine song. Prine followed it up in 1999 with "In Spite of Ourselves", which was unusual for him in that it contained only one original song (the title track); the rest were covers of classic country songs. All of the tracks are duets with well-known female country vocalists, including Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Dolores Keane, Trisha Yearwood, and Iris DeMent.


title: John Prine

text: In 2001, Prine appeared in a supporting role in the Billy Bob Thornton movie "Daddy & Them." "In Spite of Ourselves" is played during the end credits.


title: John Prine

text: Prine recorded a version of Stephen Foster's "My Old Kentucky Home" in 2004 for the compilation album "Beautiful Dreamer", which won the Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2004.


title: John Prine

text: In 2005, Prine released his first all-new offering since "Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings", the album "Fair & Square", which tended toward a more laid-back, acoustic approach. The album contains songs such as "Safety Joe", about a man who has never taken any risks in his life, and also "Some Humans Ain't Human", Prine's protest piece on the album, which talks about the ugly side of human nature and includes a quick shot at President George W. Bush. "Fair & Square" won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. The album contains original songs plus two covers: A.P. Carter's "Bear Creek Blues" and Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons".


title: John Prine

text: On June 22, 2010, Oh Boy Records released a tribute album titled "." The album features members of the modern folk revival including My Morning Jacket, The Avett Brothers, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, Lambchop, Josh Ritter, Drive-By Truckers, Nickel Creek's Sara Watkins, Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg, Justin Townes Earle, Those Darlins, and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon.


title: John Prine

text: In 2016, Prine was named winner of the PEN/Song Lyrics Award, given to two songwriters every other year by the PEN New England chapter. The 2016 award was shared with Tom Waits and his songwriting collaborator wife Kathleen Brennan. Judges for the award included Peter Wolf, Rosanne Cash, Paul Simon, Elvis Costello, and Bono, as well as literary judges Salman Rushdie, Natasha Tretheway, and Paul Muldoon. In 2016, Prine released "For Better, or Worse", a follow-up to "In Spite of Ourselves" from 1999. The album features country music covers spotlighting some of the most prominent female voices in the genre, including; Alison Krauss, Kacey Musgraves, and Lee Ann Womack, as well as Iris DeMent, the only guest artist to appear on both compilation albums.


title: John Prine

text: On March 15, 2017, the American Currents exhibit opened at the Country Music Hall of Fame. The exhibit featured a pair of cowboy boots and jacket that Prine often wore on stage, his personal guitar, and the original handwritten lyric to his hit, "Angel From Montgomery". The American Currents Class of 2016 showcased artists who made a significant impact on country music in 2016, including, Prine. Prine won his second Artist of the Year award at the 2017 Americana Music Honors & Awards after previously winning in 2005.


title: John Prine

text: On February 8, 2018, Prine announced his first new album of original material in 13 years, titled "The Tree of Forgiveness", would be released on April 13. Produced by Dave Cobb, the album was released on Prine's own Oh Boy Records and features guest artists Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Dan Auerbach, and Brandi Carlile. Alongside the announcement, Prine released the track "Summer's End". The album became Prine's highest-charting album on the "Billboard" 200.


title: John Prine

text: In 2019, he recorded several tracks including "Please Let Me Go 'Round Again"—a song which warmly confronts the end of life—with longtime friend and compatriot Swamp Dogg in his final recording session.


title: John Prine

text: The last song Prine recorded before he died was "I Remember Everything", released on June 12, 2020, alongside a music video. It was released following the two-hour special tribute show, "A Tribute Celebrating John Prine" aired on June 11, 2020, which featured Sturgill Simpson, Vince Gill, Jason Isbell, Kacey Musgraves, Bonnie Raitt, Rita Wilson, Eric Church, Brandi Carlile and many other country artists and friends. On the first night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Prine singing "I Remember Everything" was the soundtrack to the COVID-19 memorial video.


title: John Prine

text: Prine was married three times. His first marriage was to high-school sweetheart Ann Carole in 1966. The marriage lasted until the late 1970s. Prine was married to bassist Rachel Peer from 1984 to 1988. Prine met Fiona Whelan, who later became his manager, in 1988. She moved from Ireland to Nashville in 1993, and they were married in 1996. Prine and Whelan had two sons together, Jack and Tommy, and Prine adopted Whelan's son, Jody, from a previous relationship. Prine had a home, and spent part of the year, in Kinvara, Galway, Ireland.


title: John Prine

text: In early 1998, Prine was diagnosed with squamous-cell cancer on the right side of his neck. He had major surgery to remove a substantial amount of diseased tissue, followed by six weeks of radiation therapy. The surgery removed a piece of his neck and severed a few nerves in his tongue, while the radiation damaged some salivary glands. A year of recuperation and speech therapy were necessary before he could perform again. The operation altered his vocals and added a gravelly tone to his voice.


title: John Prine

text: In 2013, Prine underwent surgery to remove cancer in his left lung. After the surgery, a physical therapist put him through an unusual workout to build stamina: Prine was required to run up and down his house stairs, grab his guitar while still out of breath, and sing two songs. Six months later, he was touring again.


title: John Prine

text: On March 19, 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, Prine's wife Fiona revealed that she had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and had been quarantined in their home apart from him. He was hospitalized on March 26 after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. On March 30, Fiona tweeted that she had recovered and that John was in stable condition but not improving. Prine died on April 7, 2020, of complications caused by COVID-19 at the age of 73.


title: John Prine

text: In accordance with Prine's wishes as expressed in his song "Paradise", half of his ashes were spread in Kentucky's Green River. The other half were buried next to his parents in Chicago.


title: John Prine

text: Prine is widely regarded as one of the most influential songwriters of his generation. He has been referred to as "the Mark Twain of songwriting".


title: John Prine

text: Johnny Cash, in his autobiography "", wrote, "I don't listen to music much at the farm, unless I'm going into songwriting mode and looking for inspiration. Then I'll put on something by the writers I've admired and used for years—Rodney Crowell, John Prine, Guy Clark, and the late Steve Goodman are my Big Four ..."


title: John Prine

text: Roger Waters, when asked by "Word Magazine" in 2008 if he heard Pink Floyd's influence in newer British bands such as Radiohead, replied, "I don't really listen to Radiohead. I listened to the albums and they just didn't move me in the way, say, John Prine does. His is just extraordinarily eloquent music—and he lives on that plane with Neil [Young] and [John] Lennon." He later named Prine as among the five most important songwriters.


title: John Prine

text: Prine's influence is seen in the work of younger artists, whom he often mentored, including Jason Isbell, Amanda Shires, Brandi Carlile, Sturgill Simpson, Kacey Musgraves, Margo Price, Tyler Childers, and Robin Pecknold.


title: John Prine

text: The week after his death, Prine hit number one on "Billboard"s Rock Songwriters Chart because his singles ("In Spite Of Ourselves", "Angel from Montgomery", "Hello In There", "When I Get To Heaven", and "That's the Way the World Goes Round") all charted in the top 25 of the Hot Rock Song Chart. On the "Billboard" 200, his 1971 debut album re-entered the chart at 55, and his last album, 2018's "Tree of Forgiveness", re-entered at 109.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine, also known as hyoscine, or Devil's Breath, is a natural or synthetically produced tropane alkaloid and anticholinergic drug that is formally used as a medication for treating motion sickness and postoperative nausea and vomiting. It is also sometimes used before surgery to decrease saliva. When used by injection, effects begin after about 20 minutes and last for up to 8 hours. It may also be used orally and as a transdermal patch since it has been long known to have transdermal bioavailability Scopolamine is in the antimuscarinic family of drugs and works by blocking some of the effects of acetylcholine within the nervous system.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine was first written about in 1881 and started to be used for anesthesia around 1900. Scopolamine is also the main active component produced by certain plants of the nightshade family, which historically have been used as psychoactive drugs (known as "deliriants") due to their antimuscarinic-induced hallucinogenic effects in higher doses. In these contexts, its mind-altering effects have been utilized for recreational, criminal and occult purposes. The name "scopolamine" is derived from one type of nightshade known as "Scopolia", while the name "hyoscine" is derived from another type known as "Hyoscyamus niger". It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine has a number of formal uses in modern medicine where it is used in its isolated form and in low doses to treat:


title: Scopolamine

text: It is sometimes used as a premedication, (especially to reduce respiratory tract secretions) in surgery, most commonly by injection. Common side effects include sleepiness, blurred vision, dilated pupils, and dry mouth. It is not recommended in people with angle-closure glaucoma or bowel obstruction. Whether its use during pregnancy is safe remains unclear, and use during breastfeeding is still cautioned by health professionals and manufacturers of the drug.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine enters breast milk by secretion. Although no human studies exist to document the safety of scopolamine while nursing, the manufacturer recommends that caution be taken if scopolamine is administered to a breastfeeding woman.


title: Scopolamine

text: The likelihood of experiencing adverse effects from scopolamine is increased in the elderly, relative to younger people. This phenomenon is especially true for older people who are also on several other medications. Scopolamine use should be avoided in this age group because of these potent anticholinergic adverse effects, which have also been linked to an increased risk for dementia.


title: Scopolamine

text: Physostigmine, a cholinergic drug that readily crosses the blood–brain barrier, has been used as an antidote to treat the central nervous system depression symptoms of a scopolamine overdose. Other than this supportive treatment, gastric lavage and induced emesis (vomiting) are usually recommended as treatments for oral overdoses. The symptoms of overdose include:


title: Scopolamine

text: Due to interactions with metabolism of other drugs, scopolamine can cause significant unwanted side effects or unpredictable synergies when taken with other medications or compounds. Specific attention should be paid to other medications in the same pharmacologic class as scopolamine, also known as anticholinergics. These additional compounds could also potentially interact with the metabolism of scopolamine: receptor-binding analgesic/pain medication such as gabapentinoids or opioids, ethanol, cannabinoids, zolpidem, thiazide diuretics, nicotine, benzodiazepines, buprenorphine, and especially anticholinergic drugs such as tiotropium, diphenhydramine, dimenhydrinate, etc. Nicotine in particular likely has a counteracting effect on the effects of scopolamine due to its opposing effect on the cholinergic system.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine can be taken by mouth, subcutaneously, in the eye, and intravenously, as well as via a transdermal patch.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine undergoes first-pass metabolism and about 2.6% is excreted unchanged in urine. Grapefruit juice decreases metabolism of scopolamine, consequently increasing plasma concentration.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine is a nonspecific muscarinic antagonist at all four muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (M1, M2, M3, and M4).,


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine is among the secondary metabolites of plants from Solanaceae (nightshade) family of plants, such as henbane ("Hyoscyamus niger"), jimson weed ("Datura"), angel's trumpets ("Brugmansia"), deadly nightshade ("Belladonna"), mandrake ("Mandragora officinarum"), and corkwood ("Duboisia").


title: Scopolamine

text: The biosynthesis of scopolamine begins with the decarboxylation of L-ornithine to putrescine by ornithine decarboxylase. Putrescine is methylated to N-methylputrescine by putrescine N-methyltransferase.


title: Scopolamine

text: A putrescine oxidase that specifically recognizes methylated putrescine catalyzes the deamination of this compound to 4-methylaminobutanal, which then undergoes a spontaneous ring formation to N-methyl-pyrrolium cation. In the next step, the pyrrolium cation condenses with acetoacetic acid yielding hygrine. No enzymatic activity could be demonstrated to catalyze this reaction. Hygrine further rearranges to tropinone.


title: Scopolamine

text: Subsequently, tropinone reductase I converts tropinone to tropine, which condenses with phenylalanine-derived phenyllactate to littorine. A cytochrome P450 classified as Cyp80F1 oxidizes and rearranges littorine to hyoscyamine aldehyde. In the final step, hyoscyamine undergoes epoxidation catalyzed by 6beta-hydroxyhyoscyamine epoxidase yielding scopolamine.


title: Scopolamine

text: Plants naturally containing scopolamine such as "Atropa belladonna" (deadly nightshade), "Brugmansia" (angels trumpet), "Datura" (Jimson weed), "Hyoscyamus niger", "Mandragora officinarum", "Scopolia carniolica", "Latua" and "Duboisia myoporoides" have been known about and used for various purposes in both the New and Old Worlds since ancient times. Being one of the earlier alkaloids isolated from plant sources, scopolamine has been in use in its purified forms (such as various salts, including hydrochloride, hydrobromide, hydroiodide, and sulfate) since its official isolation by the German scientist Albert Ladenburg in 1880, and as various preparations from its plant-based form since antiquity and perhaps prehistoric times. Following the description of the structure and activity of scopolamine by Ladenburg, the search for synthetic analogues, and methods for total synthesis, of scopolamine and atropine in the 1930s and 1940s resulted in the discovery of diphenhydramine, an early antihistamine and the prototype of its chemical subclass of these drugs, and pethidine, the first fully synthetic opioid analgesic, known as Dolantin and Demerol amongst many other trade names.


title: Scopolamine

text: In 1899, a Dr. Schneiderlin recommended the use of scopolamine and morphine for surgical anaesthesia, and it started to be used sporadically for that purpose. The use of this combination in obstetric anesthesiology (childbirth) was first proposed by Richard von Steinbuchel in 1902 and was picked up and further developed by Carl Gauss in Freiburg, Germany, starting in 1903. The method, which was based on a drug synergy between both scopolamine and morphine came to be known as "Dämmerschlaf" ("twilight sleep") or the "Freiburg method". It spread rather slowly, and different clinics experimented with different dosages and ingredients; in 1915, the "Canadian Medical Association Journal" reported, "the method [was] really still in a state of development". It remained widely used in the US until the 1960s, when growing chemophobia and a desire for more natural childbirth led to its abandonment.


title: Scopolamine

text: Hyoscine hydrobromide is the international nonproprietary name, and scopolamine hydrobromide is the United States Adopted Name. Other names include "levo"-duboisine, devil's breath, and "burundanga".


title: Scopolamine

text: A bush medicine developed by Aboriginal peoples of the eastern states of Australia from the soft corkwood tree ("Duboisia myoporoides") was used by the Allies in World War II to stop soldiers from getting seasick when they sailed across the English Channel on their way to France during the Invasion of Normandy. Later, the same substance was found to be usable in the production of scopolamine and hyoscyamine, which are used in eye surgery, and a multimillion dollar industry was built in Queensland based on this substance.


title: Scopolamine

text: While it has been occasionally used recreationally for its hallucinogenic properties, the experiences are often unpleasant, mentally and physically. It is also physically dangerous and officially classified as a deliriant drug, so repeated recreational use is rare. In June 2008, more than 20 people were hospitalized with psychosis in Norway after ingesting counterfeit rohypnol tablets containing scopolamine. In January 2018, 9 individuals were hospitalized in Perth, Western Australia, after reportedly ingesting scopolamine. However, the alkaloid scopolamine, when taken recreationally for its psychoactive effect is usually taken in the form of preparations from plants of the genera "Datura" or "Brugmansia", often by adolescents or young adults in order to achieve hallucinations and an altered state of consciousness induced by muscarinic antagonism. In circumstances such as these, the intoxication is usually built on a synergistic, but even more toxic mixture of the additional alkaloids in the plants which includes atropine and hyoscyamine.


title: Scopolamine

text: Historically, the various plants that produce scopolamine have been used psychoactively for spiritual and magical purposes, particularly by witches in western culture and indigenous groups throughout the Americas such as Native American tribes like the Chumash. When entheogenic preparations of these plants were used, scopolamine was considered to be the main psychoactive compound and was largely responsible for the hallucinogenic effects, particularly when the preparation was made into a topical ointment (most notably flying ointment). Scopolamine is reported to be the only active alkaloid within these plants that can effectively be absorbed through the skin to cause effects. Different recipes for these ointments were explored in European witchcraft at least as far back as the Early Modern period and included multiple ingredients to help with the transdermal absorption of scopolamine (such as animal fat), as well as other possible ingredients to counteract its noxious and dysphoric effects.


title: Scopolamine

text: In Christianity, although not explicitly designated for ritualistic or spiritual use; in the Bible there are multiple mentions of Mandrake which is a psychoactive and hallucinogenic plant root that contains scopolamine. It was associated with fertility power and (sexual) desire where it was yearned for by Rachel, who apparently was "barren" (infertile) but trying to conceive.


title: Scopolamine

text: The effects of scopolamine were studied for use as a truth serum in interrogations in the early 20th century, but because of the side effects, investigations were dropped. In 2009, the Czechoslovak state security secret police were proven to have used scopolamine at least three times to obtain confessions from alleged antistate dissidents.


title: Scopolamine

text: Between 1998 and 2004, 13% of emergency-room admissions for "poisoning with criminal intentions" in a clinic of Bogotá, Colombia, have been attributed to scopolamine, and 44% to benzodiazepines. Most commonly, the person has been poisoned by a robber who gave the victim a scopolamine-laced beverage, in the hope that the victim would become unconscious or unable to effectively resist the robbery.


title: Scopolamine

text: Beside robberies, it is also allegedly involved in express kidnappings and sexual assault. The Hospital Clínic in Barcelona introduced a protocol in 2008 to help medical workers identify cases, while Madrid hospitals adopted a similar working document in February 2015. Hospital Clínic has found little scientific evidence to support this use and relies on the victims' stories to reach any conclusion. Although poisoning by scopolamine appears quite often in the media as an aid for raping, kidnapping, killing, or robbery, the effects of this drug and the way it is applied by criminals (transdermal injection, on playing cards and papers, etc.) are often exaggerated, especially skin exposure, as the dose that can be absorbed by the skin is too low to have any effect. Scopolamine transdermal patches must be used for hours to days. There are certain other aspects of the usage of scopolamine in crimes. Powdered scopolamine is referred to as "devil's breath". In popular media and television, it is portrayed as a method to brainwash or control people into being defrauded by their attackers; there is debate whether these claims are true. It is not verified if the powdered form is capable of inducing a suggestive state. The danger is real enough that in addition to the Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) in 2012, the US Department of State, as well as the Government of Canada, published travel advisories warning travelers about the possibility of targeting. Criminals using Devil’s Breath often use attractive, young women to target men that they believe are wealthy. Nevertheless, the drug is known to produce loss of memory following exposure and sleepiness, similar to the effect of benzodiazepines or alcohol poisoning.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine is used as a research tool to study memory encoding. Initially, in human trials, relatively low doses of the muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine were found to induce temporary cognitive defects. Since then, scopolamine has become a standard drug for experimentally inducing cognitive defects in animals. Results in primates suggest that acetylcholine is involved in the encoding of new information into long-term memory. Scopolamine has also been shown to exert a greater impairment on episodic memory, event-related potentials, memory retention and free recall compared to DPH (an anticholinergic and antihistamine).


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine produces detrimental effects on short-term memory, memory acquisition, learning, visual recognition memory, visuospatial praxis, visuospatial memory, visuoperceptual function, verbal recall, and psychomotor speed. It does not seem to impair recognition and memory retrieval, though. Acetylcholine projections in hippocampal neurons, which are vital in mediating long-term potentiation, are inhibited by scopolamine. Scopolamine also inhibits cholinergic-mediated glutamate release in hippocampal neurons, which assist in depolarization, potentiation of action potential, and synaptic suppression. Scopolamine's effects on acetylcholine and glutamate release in the hippocampus favor retrieval-dominant cognitive functioning. Scopolamine has been used to model the defects in cholinergic function for models of Alzheimer's, dementia, fragile X syndrome, and Down syndrome.


title: Scopolamine

text: Scopolamine has been identified as a psychoplastogen, which refers to a compound capable of promoting rapid and sustained neuroplasticity in a single dose. It has been, and continues to be investigated as a rapid-onset antidepressant, with a number of small studies finding positive results, particularly in female subjects.


title: Scopolamine

text: NASA agreed to develop a nasal administration method. With a precise dosage, the NASA spray formulation has been shown to work faster and more reliably than the oral form to treat motion sickness.


title: Scopolamine

text: Although a fair amount of research has been applied to scopolamine in the field of medicine, its hallucinogenic (psychoactive) effects as well as the psychoactive effects of other anticholinergic deliriants hasn’t been extensively researched or as well understood compared to other types of hallucinogens such as psychedelic and disassociative compounds, despite the alkaloid’s long history of usage in mind-altering plant preparations.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: , formerly , is a Japanese doomsday cult founded by Shoko Asahara in 1987. It carried out the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in 1995 and was found to have been responsible for the Matsumoto sarin attack the previous year.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: The group says that those who carried out attacks did so secretly, without being known to other executives and ordinary believers. Asahara insisted on his innocence in a radio broadcast relayed from Russia and directed toward Japan.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On 6 July 2018, after exhausting all appeals, Asahara and six followers were executed as a punishment for the 1995 attacks and other crimes, and the remaining six on death row were executed on 26 July. At 12:10 am, on New Year's Day 2019, at least nine people were injured (one seriously) when a car was deliberately driven into crowds celebrating the new year on Takeshita Street in Tokyo. Local police reported the arrest of Kazuhiro Kusakabe, the suspected driver, who allegedly admitted to intentionally ramming his vehicle into crowds to protest his opposition to the death penalty, specifically in retaliation for the execution of the aforementioned Aum cult members.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Aum Shinrikyo, which split into Aleph and Hikari no Wa in 2007, had already been formally designated a terrorist organization by several countries, including Russia, Canada, Kazakhstan, as well as the European Union. It was previously designated by the United States as a terrorist organization until 2022, when the State Department determined the group to be largely defunct as a terrorist organization.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: The Public Security Intelligence Agency considered Aleph and Hikari no Wa to be branches of a "dangerous religion" and it announced in January 2015 that they would remain under surveillance for three more years. The Tokyo District Court canceled the extension to surveillance of Hikari no Wa in 2017 following legal challenges from the group, but continued to keep Aleph under watch. The government appealed the cancellation, and in February 2019, the Tokyo High Court overturned the lower court's decision, reinstating the surveillance, citing no major changes between Aum Shinrikyo and Hikari no Wa.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Shinrikyo Aum is a syncretic belief system that draws upon Asahara's idiosyncratic interpretations of elements of early Indian Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Hinduism, taking Shiva as the main image of worship; it also incorporates Christian millennialist ideas, the theory and practice of yoga, and the writings of Nostradamus. Its founder, Chizuo Matsumoto, claimed that he sought to restore "original Buddhism" but employed Christian millennialist rhetoric.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In 1992, Matsumoto, who had changed his name to Shoko Asahara, published a foundational book, declaring himself to be "Christ", Japan's only fully enlightened master, as well as identifying himself as the "Lamb of God".


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Asahara's purported mission was to take upon himself the sins of the world, and he claimed he could transfer spiritual power to his followers and ultimately take away their sins and bad deeds. While some reject Aum Shinrikyo's claims of Buddhist characteristics and affiliations with Buddhism, other scholars refer to it as an offshoot of Japanese Buddhism, and this was how the movement generally defined and saw itself.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Humanity would end, except for the elite few who joined Aum. Aum's mission was not only to spread the word of salvation, but also to survive these End Times. Asahara predicted the gathering at Armageddon would happen in 1997. Kaplan notes that in his lectures, Shoko Asahara referred to the United States as "The Beast" from the Book of Revelation, predicting it would eventually attack Japan. Asahara outlined a doomsday prophecy, which included a Third World War instigated by the U.S.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Arthur Goldwag, author of a book on conspiracies and secret societies, characterizes Asahara as someone who was influenced by conspiratorial writings about Jews, Freemasons and the British royal family.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In the opinion of Daniel A. Metraux, Aum Shinrikyo justified its violence through its own unique interpretation of Buddhist ideas and doctrines, such as the Buddhist concepts of "Mappō" and "Shōbō". Aum claimed that by bringing about the end of the world, they would restore "Shōbō". Furthermore, Lifton believes, Asahara "interpreted the Tibetan Buddhist concept of "phowa" in order to claim that by killing someone contrary to the group's aims, they were preventing them from accumulating bad karma and thus saving them".


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: The name , usually rendered in English as "Aum Supreme Truth", derives from the Sanskrit syllable "Aum", used to represent the universe, followed by the Japanese "Shinrikyo" (meaning, roughly, "Teaching of Truth") written in kanji. (In Japanese, kanji are often used to write both Sino-xenic and native Japanese words, but only rarely to transcribe direct borrowings from other languages.)


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In January 2000, the organization changed its name to "Aleph", a reference to the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and it also replaced its logo.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: The movement was founded by Shoko Asahara in his one-bedroom apartment in Tokyo's Shibuya ward in 1987, starting off as a yoga and meditation class known as and steadily grew in the following years. It gained official status as a religious organization in 1989 and attracted a considerable number of graduates from Japan's elite universities, thus being dubbed a "religion for the elite".


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Although Aum was, from the beginning, considered controversial in Japan, it was not initially associated with serious crimes. It was during this period that Asahara became obsessed with Biblical prophecies. Aum's public relations activities included publishing comics and animated cartoons that attempted to tie its religious ideas to popular anime and manga themes, including space missions, powerful weapons, world conspiracies, and the quest for ultimate truth. Aum published several magazines including "Vajrayana Sacca" and "Enjoy Happiness", adopting a somewhat missionary attitude.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Isaac Asimov's science fiction "Foundation Trilogy" was referenced "depicting as it does an elite group of spiritually evolved scientists forced to go underground during an age of barbarism so as to prepare themselves for the moment...when they will emerge to rebuild civilization". Lifton posited that Aum's publications used Christian and Buddhist ideas to impress what he considered to be the more shrewd and educated Japanese who were not attracted to boring, purely traditional sermons.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In private, both Asahara and his top disciples reportedly continued their humble lifestyles, the only exception being the armored Mercedes-Benz gifted by a wealthy follower.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Advertising and recruitment activities, dubbed the "Aum Salvation plan", included claims of curing physical illnesses with health improvement techniques, realizing life goals by improving intelligence and positive thinking, and concentrating on what was important at the expense of leisure. This was to be accomplished by practicing ancient teachings, accurately translated from original Pali sutras (these three were referred to as "threefold salvation"). These efforts resulted in Aum becoming one of the fastest-growing religious groups in Japan's history.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: David E. Kaplan and Andrew Marshall, in their 1996 book, "The Cult at the End of the World: The Terrifying Story of the Aum Doomsday Cult, from the Subways of Tokyo to the Nuclear Arsenals of Russia", claim that its practices remained secret. Initiation rituals, assert the authors of the book, often involved the use of hallucinogens, such as LSD. Religious practices often involved extremely ascetic practices claimed to be "yoga". These included everything from renunciants being hung upside down to being given shock therapy.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: The cult started attracting controversy in the late 1980s with accusations of deception of recruits, holding cult members against their will, forcing members to donate money and murdering a cult member who tried to leave in February 1989.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In October 1989, the group's negotiations with Tsutsumi Sakamoto, an anti-cult lawyer threatening a lawsuit against them which could potentially bankrupt the group, failed. In the same month, Sakamoto recorded an interview for a talk show on the Japanese TV station TBS. The network then had the interview secretly shown to the group without notifying Sakamoto, intentionally breaking protection of sources. The group then pressured TBS to cancel the broadcast. The following month Sakamoto, his wife and his child went missing from their home in Yokohama. The police were unable to resolve the case at the time, although some of his colleagues publicly voiced their suspicions of the group. It was not until after the 1995 Tokyo attack that they were found to have been murdered and their bodies dumped in separate locations by cult members.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Kaplan and Marshall allege in their book that Aum was also connected with such activities as extortion. The group, authors report, "commonly took patients into its hospitals and then forced them to pay exorbitant medical bills".


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: The cult is known to have considered assassinations of several individuals critical of the cult, such as the heads of Buddhist sects Soka Gakkai and The Institute for Research in Human Happiness. After cartoonist Yoshinori Kobayashi began satirizing the cult, he was included on Aum's assassination list. An assassination attempt was made on Kobayashi in 1993.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In July 1993, cult members sprayed large amounts of liquid containing "Bacillus anthracis" spores from a cooling tower on the roof of Aum Shinrikyo's Tokyo headquarters. However, their plan to cause an anthrax epidemic failed. The attack resulted in a large number of complaints about bad odors but no infections.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: At the end of 1993, the cult started secretly manufacturing the nerve agent sarin and, later, VX. Aum tested its sarin on sheep at Banjawarn Station, a remote pastoral property in Western Australia, killing 29 sheep. Both sarin and VX were then used in several assassinations (and attempts) over 1994–95.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On the night of 27 June 1994, the cult carried out a chemical weapons attack against civilians when they released sarin in the central Japanese city of Matsumoto, Nagano. With the help of a converted refrigerator truck, members of the cult released a cloud of sarin which floated near the homes of judges who were overseeing a lawsuit concerning a real-estate dispute which was predicted to go against the cult. This Matsumoto incident killed eight and harmed 500 more. Police investigations focused only on an innocent local resident, Yoshiyuki Kouno, and failed to implicate the cult at the time. It was only after the Tokyo subway attack that Aum Shinrikyo was discovered to be behind the Matsumoto sarin attack.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: At the end of 1994, the cult broke-into the Hiroshima factory of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in an attempt to steal technical documents on military weapons such as tanks and artillery.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In December 1994 and January 1995, Masami Tsuchiya of Aum Shinrikyo synthesized 100 to 200 grams of VX which was used to attack three people. Two people were injured and a 28-year-old man was killed. He is believed to be the first fully documented victim of VX. The VX victim, who Shoko Asahara had suspected was a spy, was attacked at 7:00 a.m. on 12 December 1994, on the street in Osaka by Tomomitsu Niimi and another Aum member, who sprinkled the nerve agent on his neck. He chased them for about before collapsing, dying 10 days later without coming out of a deep coma. Doctors in the hospital suspected at the time he had been poisoned with an organophosphate pesticide. But the cause of death was pinned down only after cult members arrested for the subway attack in Tokyo in March 1995 confessed to the killing. Ethyl methylphosphonate, methylphosphonic acid, and diisopropyl-2-(methylthio) ethylamine were later found in the body of the victim. Unlike the cases for sarin (Matsumoto incident and Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway), VX was not used for mass murder.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In February 1995, several cult members kidnapped Kiyoshi Kariya, a 69-year-old brother of a member who had escaped, from a Tokyo street and took him to a compound in Kamikuishiki near Mount Fuji, where he was killed. His corpse was destroyed in a microwave-powered incinerator and the remnants disposed of in Lake Kawaguchi. Before Kariya was abducted, he had been receiving threatening phone calls demanding to know the whereabouts of his sister, and he had left a note saying, "If I disappear, I was abducted by Aum Shinrikyo".


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Police made plans to simultaneously raid cult facilities across Japan in March 1995. Prosecutors alleged Asahara was tipped off about this and that he ordered the Tokyo subway attack to divert police.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Meanwhile, Aum had also attempted to manufacture 1,000 assault rifles, but only completed one. According to the testimony of Kenichi Hirose at the Tokyo District Court in 2000, Asahara wanted the group to be self-sufficient in manufacturing copies of the Soviet Union's main infantry weapon, the AK-74; one rifle was smuggled into Japan, to be studied so that Aum could reverse engineer and mass-produce the AK-74. Police seized AK-74 components and blueprints from a vehicle used by an Aum member on April 6, 1995.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On the morning of 20 March 1995, Aum members released a binary chemical weapon, most closely chemically similar to sarin, in a coordinated attack on five trains in the Tokyo subway system, killing 13 commuters, seriously injuring 54 and affecting 980 more. Some estimates claim as many as 6,000 people were injured by the sarin. It is difficult to obtain exact numbers since many victims are reluctant to come forward.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Prosecutors allege that Asahara was tipped off by an insider about planned police raids on cult facilities and ordered an attack in central Tokyo to divert police attention away from the group. The attack evidently backfired, and police conducted huge simultaneous raids on cult compounds across the country.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Over the next week, the full scale of Aum's activities was revealed for the first time. At the cult's headquarters in Kamikuishiki on the foot of Mount Fuji, police found explosives, chemical weapons, and a Russian Mil Mi-17 military helicopter. While the finding of biological warfare agents such as anthrax and Ebola cultures was reported, those claims now appear to have been widely exaggerated. There were stockpiles of chemicals that could be used for producing enough sarin to kill four million people.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Police also found laboratories to manufacture drugs such as LSD, methamphetamine, and a crude form of truth serum, a safe containing millions of U.S. dollars in cash and gold, and cells, many still containing prisoners. During the raids, Aum issued statements claiming that the chemicals were for fertilizers. Over the next six weeks, over 150 cult members were arrested for a variety of offenses. The media was stationed outside Aum's Tokyo headquarters on Komazawa Dori in Aoyama for months after the attack and arrests waiting for action and to get images of the cult's other members. On 30 March 1995, Takaji Kunimatsu, chief of the National Police Agency, was shot four times near his house in Tokyo and was seriously wounded. While many suspected Aum involvement in the shooting, the "Sankei Shimbun" reported that Hiroshi Nakamura is suspected of the crime, but nobody has been charged.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On 23 April 1995, Hideo Murai, the head of Aum's Ministry of Science, was stabbed to death outside the cult's Tokyo headquarters amidst a crowd of about 100 reporters, in front of cameras. The man responsible, a Korean member of Yamaguchi-gumi, was arrested and eventually convicted of the murder. His motive remains unknown. On the evening of 5 May, a burning paper bag was discovered in a toilet in Tokyo's busy Shinjuku station. Upon examination it was revealed that it was a hydrogen cyanide device which, had it not been extinguished in time, would have released enough gas into the ventilation system to potentially kill 10,000 commuters. On 4 July, several undetonated cyanide devices were found at other locations in the Tokyo subway.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: During this time, numerous cult members were arrested for various offenses, but arrests of the most senior members on the charge of the subway gassing had not yet taken place. In June, an individual unrelated to Aum had launched a copycat attack by hijacking All Nippon Airways Flight 857, a Boeing 747 bound for Hakodate from Tokyo. The hijacker claimed to be an Aum member in possession of sarin and plastic explosives, but these claims were ultimately found to be false.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Asahara was finally found hiding within a wall of a cult building known as "The 6th Satian" in the Kamikuishiki complex on 16 May and was arrested. On the same day, the cult mailed a parcel bomb to the office of Yukio Aoshima, the governor of Tokyo, blowing off the fingers of his secretary's hand. Asahara was initially charged with 23 counts of murder and 16 other offenses. The trial, dubbed "the trial of the century" by the press, ruled Asahara guilty of masterminding the attack and sentenced him to death. The indictment was appealed unsuccessfully. A number of senior members accused of participation, such as Masami Tsuchiya, also received death sentences.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: The reasons why a small circle of mostly senior Aum members committed atrocities and the extent of personal involvement by Asahara remain unclear, although several theories have attempted to explain these events. In response to the prosecution's charge that Asahara ordered the subway attacks to distract authorities, the defense maintained that Asahara was not aware of events, pointing to his deteriorating health. Shortly after his arrest, Asahara abandoned his post as the organization's leader, and maintained silence afterward, refusing to communicate even with lawyers and family members.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On 21 June 1995, Asahara acknowledged that in January 1994 he ordered the killing of a sect member, Kotaro Ochida, a pharmacist at an Aum hospital. Ochida, who tried to escape from a sect compound, was held down and strangled by another Aum member who was allegedly told that he too would be killed if he did not strangle Ochida. On 10 October 1995, Aum Shinrikyo was ordered stripped of its official status as a "religious legal entity" and was declared bankrupt in early 1996. However, the group continues to operate under the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion, funded by a successful computer business and donations, and under strict surveillance. Attempts to ban the group altogether under the 1952 Subversive Activities Prevention Law were rejected by the Public Security Examination Commission in January 1997.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: The group underwent a number of transformations in the aftermath of Asahara's arrest and trial. For a brief time, Asahara's two preteen sons officially replaced him as guru. It re-grouped under the new name "Aleph" in February 2000. It announced a change in doctrine: religious texts related to controversial Vajrayana Buddhist doctrines and the Bible were removed. The group apologized to the victims of the sarin gas attack and established a special compensation fund. Provocative publications and activities that alarmed society are no longer published.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Fumihiro Joyu, one of the few senior leaders of the group under Asahara who did not face serious charges, became official head of the organization in 1999. Kōki Ishii, a legislator who formed an anti-Aum committee in the National Diet in 1999, was murdered in 2002.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: For over 15 years, only three fugitives were being actively sought. At 11:50 p.m. on 31 December 2011, Makoto Hirata surrendered himself to the police and was arrested on suspicion of being involved in the 1995 abduction of Kiyoshi Kariya, a non-member who had died during an Aum kidnapping and interrogation. On 3 June 2012, police captured Naoko Kikuchi, the second fugitive, acting on a tip from local residents.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Acting on information from the capture of Kikuchi, including recent photographs showing a modified appearance, the last remaining fugitive, Katsuya Takahashi, was captured on 15 June 2012. He is said to have been the driver in the Tokyo gas attack and was caught in Tokyo, having been on the run for 17 years.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On 6 July 2018, Asahara and six other Aum Shinrikyo members were executed by hanging. Japan's Justice Minister Yōko Kamikawa stated that the crimes "plunged people, not only in Japan but in other countries as well, into deadly fear and shook society to its core." Amnesty International criticized use of the death penalty in the case. While executions are rare in Japan, they have public support according to surveys. There were 13 members on death row at the time:


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Shoko Asahara's ashes will be collected by his youngest daughter according to his will. She urged her relatives and cult members to "put an end to the Aum and stop hating society". The ashes will be kept at the detention center for the time being for fears of reprisals from other elements of the cult.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: According to a June 2005 report by the National Police Agency, Aleph had approximately 1,650 members, of whom 650 lived communally in compounds. The group operated 26 facilities in 17 prefectures, and about 120 residential facilities. An article in the "Mainichi Shimbun" newspaper on 11 September 2002 showed that the Japanese public still mistrusts Aleph, and compounds are usually surrounded by protest banners from local residents.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In January 2000, the group was placed under surveillance for a period of three years under an anti-Aum law, in which the group was required to submit a list of members and details of assets to the authorities. In the same year, a Russian member was arrested for plotting a bombing attack as part of a plan to rescue Asahara from police custody.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In January 2003, Japan's Public Security Intelligence Agency received permission to extend the surveillance for another three years, as they found evidence which suggested that the group still revered Asahara. According to the Religious News Blog report issued in April 2004, the authorities still considered the group "a threat to society".


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On 15 September 2006, Shoko Asahara lost his final appeal against the death penalty. The following day Japanese police raided the offices of Aleph in order to "prevent any illegal activities by cult members in response to the confirmation of Asahara's death sentence". Thirteen cult members were eventually sentenced to death.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On 8 March 2007, Fumihiro Joyu, former Aum Shinrikyo spokesman and head of Aum's Moscow operation, formally announced a long-expected split. Joyu's group, called "Hikari no Wa" ("The Circle of Light"), claims to be committed to uniting science and religion and creating "the new science of the human mind", having previously aimed to move the group away from its criminal history and toward its spiritual roots.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In April 2011, the Public Security Intelligence Agency stated that Aum had about 1,500 members. In July 2011, the cult reported its membership as 1,030. The group was reportedly active in trying to recruit new members via social media and proselytizing on college campuses.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Japan's Public Security Examination Commission announced in January 2015 that Aum Shinrikyo's two spinoffs would remain under surveillance for three more years starting 1 February 2015.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In 2014, "The Japan Times" alleged that "good looks and commitment to a cause", demonstrated by Aleph, "inspire a new generation of admirers". Dissatisfaction with society and low degrees of success in life make them "identify with the cult" and "adore the cultists as if they were pop idols".


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: Sometime after April 2013, the Public Security Intelligence Agency took a photograph inside of Aleph's facilities. In this photograph, a bundle of papers is pierced with a knife on an altar-like object. The papers included photographs of PSIA employees and directors, police officers, and lawyer Taro Takimoto, who helped followers leave Aum Shinrikyo. At least at this point in time, Aleph still displayed portraits of Shoko Asahara and demanded followers' dependence using videos of Asahara.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On 5 April 2016, the Investigative Committee of Russia announced it opened a criminal case against Aum Shinrikyo followers and that its investigators, along with Federal Security Service (FSB) forces, were conducting raids in Moscow and Saint Petersburg to find them and confiscate literature, religious items and electronic information. On 20 September 2016, the Russian government banned Aum Shinrikyo in the country, declaring it a terrorist organization.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: In November 2017, Japanese police raided five offices of Aleph in an investigation into the group's recruiting practices after a woman paid tens of thousands of yen for study sessions.


title: Aum Shinrikyo

text: On 1 January 2019, in Tokyo, Aum sympathizer Kazuhiro Kusakabe told authorities he intentionally rammed into pedestrians crowded into narrow Takeshita Street in Harajuku district as a terrorist attack in "retaliation for an execution". It remains unclear whether he was referencing the 2018 executions of Aum Shinrikyo doomsday cult members directly or making a broader statement. The attack, on New Year's Day, left eight injured. A ninth person was also directly injured by the driver.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Pistole Parabellum—or Parabellum-Pistole (Pistol Parabellum), commonly known as just Luger or Luger P08 is a toggle-locked recoil-operated semi-automatic pistol. The Luger was produced in several models and by several nations from 1898 to 1949.


title: Luger pistol

text: The design was first patented by Georg Luger. It was meant to be an improvement of the Borchardt C-93 pistol, and was initially produced as the "Parabellum Automatic Pistol, Borchardt-Luger System" by the German arms manufacturer Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken (DWM). The first production model was known as the "Modell 1900 Parabellum". It was followed by the "Marinepistole 1904" for the Imperial German Navy.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Luger was officially adopted by the Swiss military in 1900, the Imperial German Navy in 1906 and the German Army in 1908. The Luger was the standard service pistol of Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, Brazil, Bolivia, and Bulgaria. It was widely used in other countries as a military service pistol and by police forces. In the German Army service, it was adopted in a slightly modified form as the Pistole Modell 1908 (Pistole 08) in caliber 9×19mm Parabellum. The Model 08 was eventually succeeded by the Walther P38.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Luger is well known for its wide use by Germany during World War I and World War II, along with the interwar Weimar Republic and the postwar East German Volkspolizei.


title: Luger pistol

text: The name "Parabellum", which also featured in DWM's telegraphic address, comes from the Latin phrase, "If you wish for peace, prepare for war."


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1897, after the success of the Borchardt C-93, the first semi-automatic pistol, the Swiss military began to look for a semi-automatic pistol to replace their issued pistol, the Ordonnanzrevolver 1872. Georg Luger, working for the German company Deutsche Waffen- und Munitionsfabriken, provided the Borchardt-Luger design, which during Swiss military trials, was found to be more accurate and reliable than competing designs such as the Mannlicher M1901 and Mauser C96. 20 examples of the Borchardt-Luger were sent to Switzerland in 1899, and after a revision to reduce its weight, was adopted the following year as the Ordonnazpistole 1900. The Luger remained in Swiss service until 1949, when it was replaced by the SIG P210.


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1898, Germany adopted a total of 145 C96 pistols, but found that it jammed too often to be effective. In 1901, testing of the Luger commenced, alongside an improved version of the C96, in which the Luger was found to be both lighter and more reliable. Following a change in caliber from 7.65×21mm Parabellum to 9×19mm Parabellum, the Luger was adopted by the Imperial German Navy as the "Selbstlade-Pistole Modell 1904, and" later simply the "Pistole 1904". The Army delayed their adoption, as Mauser requested time to develop a new pistol of their own, which was finished in 1907. However, the new pistol was still found to be less desirable than the Luger, and on 22 August 1908, Kaiser Wilhelm II signed an order for 50,000 Lugers for the German Army, with orders to produce a total of 170,000.


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1901, DWM sent two Lugers to the United States, who were also interested in a semi-automatic pistol. After doing well in testing, a total of 1,000 pistols and 200,000 rounds were purchased for use by the Military Academy at West Point, and several other forts. The Luger was unpopular, with most troops preferring their .38 Long Colt revolvers, resulting in the Luger being recalled in 1905.


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1906, the United States evaluated several domestic and foreign-made semi-automatic pistols, including the Colt M1900, Steyr Mannlicher M1894, and an entry from Mauser. This was in response to combat reports which stated that the .38 caliber revolvers used in the 1899–1902 Philippine Insurrection lacked stopping power. Due to the findings in the Thompson–LaGarde Tests, the military required a handgun in .45 (11.25mm) caliber.


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1906 and 1907, the U.S. Army held trials for a large-caliber semi-automatic pistol. At least two, and possibly three Parabellum Model 1902/1906 pattern pistols in were brought to the U.S. by Georg Luger for the 1907 trials, each chambered in .45 ACP caliber. Prior to his arrival, the U.S. Frankford Arsenal had provided Luger with 5,000 rounds of .45 ammunition for experimentation and to serve as a guide for chambering measurements. Finding numerous defects in this prototype ammunition (U.S. authorities later were forced to produce new ammunition for the 1907 trials), Luger had DWM pull the bullets of these cartridges and had them re-loaded with a special faster-burning powder in new brass cases. Luger brought 746 rounds of this new ammunition to the March 1907 trials with his .45 Luger pistol. Two test .45 Luger pistols, bearing serial numbers 1 and 2 are known to have been used in the 1907 tests. Although the .45 Luger passed the firing tests, it was ranked below the Colt/Browning and Savage pistols in number of malfunctions and misfires, though Army officials conceded that the .45 Luger performed satisfactorily with the DWM-loaded ammunition: "The Luger automatic pistol, although it possesses manifest advantages in many particulars, is not recommended for service tests because its certainty of action, even with Luger ammunition, it is not considered satisfactory, because of the final seating of the cartridge is not by positive spring action, and because the powder stated by Mr. Luger to be necessary, for its satisfactory use is not now obtainable in this country." DWM and Luger later rejected an invitation by Army officials to produce 200 pistols in .45 caliber for further competition against the Colt and Savage submissions, at which point DWM effectively withdrew from the U.S. trials.


title: Luger pistol

text: The fate of the .45 Luger, serial number 1 is unknown, as it was not returned and is believed to have been destroyed during testing. The .45 Luger prototype serial number 2, believed to have been a back-up to Serial Number 1, survived the 1907 trials and is in private ownership. Its rarity gives its value of around US$1 million at the time the "Million Dollar Guns" episode of the History Channel's "Tales of the Gun" was filmed, recheck by "Guns & Ammo" as of 1994. At least two .45 caliber Luger pistols were manufactured later for possible commercial or military sales; one is exhibited at the R. W. Norton Art Gallery, in Shreveport, Louisiana. The other was sold in 2010 and remains in a private collection. A single .45 Luger carbine is also known to exist.


title: Luger pistol

text: The first known instance of the Luger being used in combat was during the Maji Maji Rebellion in 1905-06. Therein, it was somewhat poorly received, as it was thought to be too heavy to be used quickly, in particular because the grip safety had to be held tightly, reducing accuracy, leading to the removal of the safety in the P08 model.


title: Luger pistol

text: At the beginning of World War I, not all units of the German Army had been equipped with the Luger, leading to an acceleration in production. Alongside the P08, Germany also developed the LP08, a version with a stock and longer barrel that could also accept drum magazines. The LP08 was used by the Luftstreitkräfte during the early days of the war, before planes were equipped with machine guns, although due to a lack of pre-war production, the LP08 was much less commonly used than the P08. The main user of the LP08 was the Army, who used its drum magazine to deliver a high rate of fire at a close range, a concept which would lead to the development of the Stormtroopers and the MP 18. After the end of the war, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, which restricted the size of their army – the treaty specified that the German Army could only have 50,000 pistols, and prohibited submachine guns and pistols with stocks altogether.


title: Luger pistol

text: As the Luger was expensive to produce, Germany started to look for a replacement as early as 1927, settling on the Walther P38 in 1938, which offered similar performance to the Luger, but took almost half the time to produce. Moving the production lines to the P38 once World War II started took longer than expected, leading to the P08 remaining in production until September 1942, and pre-existing copies remained in service until the end of the war. In East Germany, the P08 was used by the Volkspolizei, mostly from ex-Nazi stocks, but they produced a small number up until 1953.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Luger has a toggle-lock action that uses a jointed arm to lock, as opposed to the slide actions of many other semi-automatic pistols, such as the M1911. After a round is fired, the barrel and toggle assembly travel roughly rearward due to recoil, both locked together at this point. The toggle strikes a cam built into the frame, causing the knee joint to hinge and the toggle and breech assembly to unlock. The barrel strikes the frame and stops its rearward movement, but the toggle assembly continues moving, bending the knee joint, extracting the spent casing from the chamber, and ejecting it. The toggle and breech assembly then travel forward under spring tension and the next round is loaded from the magazine into the chamber. The entire sequence occurs in a fraction of a second and contributes to the above average mud resistance of the pistol.


title: Luger pistol

text: This mechanism works well for higher-pressure cartridges, but cartridges loaded to a lower pressure can cause the pistol to malfunction because they do not generate enough recoil to work the action fully. This results in the breech block either not clearing the top cartridge of the magazine or becoming jammed open on the cartridge's base. This malfunction with under-powered cartridges does occur with Browning-type and other pistol designs as well, but the Luger is sensitive to cartridges other than the brass-cased ammunition that it was designed to use.


title: Luger pistol

text: Submachine guns were found to be effective in trench warfare during World War I, and experiments were conducted to convert various types of pistols to fully automatic machine pistols, including the P08. The Luger proved to have an excessive rate of fire in full-automatic mode, however, as did the Mauser C96. The 'snail drum' magazine for the MP 18, which was used by German Stormtroopers towards the end of the war, was originally designed for the Artillery Luger.


title: Luger pistol

text: Luger pistols were manufactured in Germany and Switzerland to very close tolerances and exacting standards using the highest quality materials of the day, and original pistols were known for having a long service life. The design requires hand fitting of certain parts for proper operation. Assembling the gun using a sideplate from another pistol, for example, may prevent the sear from working, making the pistol inoperable. The Luger barrel, which was rigidly fixed to the barrel extension and carried the front sight, provided excellent accuracy. William B. "Bill" Ruger praised the Luger's 145° (55° for Americans) grip angle and duplicated it in his .22 LR pistol. Handgun author and enthusiast Elmer Keith observed that the Luger design had been unfairly criticized by gun writers over the years as unreliable, partly due to poor experiences with Lugers constructed from salvaged parts. Keith noted that the Luger was a "natural pointer", one of the most accurate of all autoloading pistols—particularly at long ranges—and reminded critics that the Luger was the choice of more nations as their military sidearm than any other contemporary pistol or revolver.


title: Luger pistol

text: From 1919 on, DWM rebuilt P08 frames with new parts or existing parts (including barrels) into complete pistols for sales to the civilian and export markets. These sales helped restore DWM to solvency after the Armistice. Most of these commercial pistols were in 7.65 Parabellum (.30 Luger) caliber, although a number of pistols were also rebarrelled to 9mm Parabellum (9×19mm). The new component parts were stamped with serial numbers to match the frame to ensure that all the fitted parts stayed together. Many thousands of these pistols were thought to have been assembled and sold between 1919 and 1923. Some of these pistols were fitted with new barrels of different lengths by the importer upon customer request. Many so-called 1919 and 1920 Commercial Lugers were imported to the United States by such firms as Abercrombie & Fitch, Pacific Arms Co., and A.F. Stoeger Inc. The latter importer sought and registered the name "Luger" in 1929 in the United States.


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1923, A.F. Stoeger Inc., the predecessor to Stoeger, Inc. began importing commercial pistols from DWM stamped "A.F.Stoeger Inc. – New York." and "Germany". These pistols were exported to the United States in both 7.65 Parabellum (.30 Luger) and 9mm calibers, with barrel lengths from 75 mm to 600 mm. These imported Parabellums were also the first pistols to bear the name "Luger", roll stamped on the right side of the receiver. That same year, DWM also signed contracts to supply small numbers of P08 pistols to the armed forces of Finland (8,000 pistols, designated "m/23"), the Netherlands, and Sweden.


title: Luger pistol

text: Until 1930, DWM continued to export both P08 and commercial Parabellum pistols to nations in Europe and to overseas markets, including the United States and the Far East. Although never officially adopted by Nationalist forces, all variants of the Parabellum or Luger pistol were highly sought after by both Chinese Nationalist officers and irregular guerrilla forces. In 1924, just before the outbreak of the Chinese Civil War, a review of Chinese Nationalist small arms reported that "Among officers, bodyguards, and police, the German Parabellum (Luger) 9-mm automatic pistol was the weapon of choice...".


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1930, Mauser took over manufacture of the P.08 from DWM. Additional P08s were produced by Simson and later Krieghoff. Many P04 and P08 pistols would continue in service with German army and navy personnel throughout World War II. Towards the end of 1937 (beginning with 't' & 'u' block pistols) Mauser phased out rust blue process and "straw finishing" small parts and levers on the P08, choosing to salt blue all parts of the weapon at one time. In 1941 some of these pistols were fitted with inexpensive black Bakelite grip panels to cut production time and expense. Years after the war, these pistols would be given the name "Black Widow" by a postwar US arms dealer as a marketing ploy.


title: Luger pistol

text: The P08 was technically replaced in service in 1938 by the Walther P38, but ever-growing wartime demands for handguns resulted in continued P08 production by Mauser until December 1943. Mauser production was supplemented by a small contract for Luger pistols given to Heinrich Krieghoff & Son of Suhl in 1935 to produce a Luger variant for the Luftwaffe; a second contract for 15,000 pistols was only partially completed when Krieghoff ceased Luger production in 1944. The German Army took their last delivery of 1,000 Mauser-made pistols in November 1943. A further 4,000 pistols assembled by Mauser in December of that same year were sold to Portugal, which renamed them the Model 943. German military authorities refused to take any more Luger pistols, leaving a large stock of parts at the factory in Oberndorf.


title: Luger pistol

text: Captured Lugers were much prized by Allied soldiers during both of the world wars as war trophies. However, during World War II, German soldiers were known to sometimes use a discarded Luger pistol to lure unsuspecting trophy hunters, rigging it to detonate land mines or hidden booby traps when disturbed. Word also spread of accidental discharges and deaths of Allied troops by users unfamiliar with the P08 and its safety mechanisms, as well as stories circulating that American soldiers were being executed if captured in possession of German weapons.


title: Luger pistol

text: Soviet forces captured tens of thousands of Lugers but they were never issued to their own troops, only kept in storage.


title: Luger pistol

text: Although Mauser P08 production terminated in 1943, the P08 re-appeared in postwar form because of the continuing demand for handguns for military and police requirements. In 1945, Mauser restarted Luger production under the control of the French occupation authority to supply the French military and occupation police forces. Assembly commenced under French control from June 1945 until mid-1946. In the second half of 1946, tooling and some Mauser personnel moved from Oberndorf to Châtellerault in France, the location of MAC (Manufacture d'Armes de Châtellerault) to continue assembly from existing parts stocks. About 4,000 Luger 'parts' pistols, including a few LP 08 models, are thought to have been assembled for French forces, a sufficient number to justify the production of new-manufacture Luger magazines in France for several years. Surviving examples of Lugers assembled under French supervision are sometimes found with a distinct, gray parkerized finish. A few early French control pistols bear a five-pointed star proof mark known to have been used by French Occupation authorities. Later pistols assembled in France often carry a French arsenal/manufacturer name, such as "Manufacture Française d'Armes & Cycles de St. Etienne" (Manufrance). Surviving French Control Lugers were retained in French storage depots of the paramilitary National Gendarmerie as late as 1970.


title: Luger pistol

text: Pistols were also assembled under the direction of Soviet (and later, East German) authorities to arm military and MP units, as well as the Volkspolizei. During the immediate postwar period, complete Luger pistols were also assembled from rejected or salvaged parts with different serial numbers, then sold as souvenirs to occupation forces in Germany. Thousands of original Luger pistols were taken home by returning Allied soldiers after both world wars. Other Luger pistols were later assembled in the United States by gunsmiths of varying aptitude using secondhand, rejected, or salvaged parts imported from Germany and other countries. These pistols and their construction quality (or lack of it) would contribute to criticism of the Luger as a finicky and unreliable weapon. However, a well-maintained Luger with new springs and suitable cartridges is a very reliable weapon.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Swiss Parabellum 06/29 continued in production until 1946. In 1969, after purchasing the Swiss 06/29 tooling, Mauser Werke in Oberndorf restarted Parabellum production, which ceased in 1986 when the last commemorative model was produced. While new Mauser Luger production ended at this time, pistols continued to be assembled and sold from parts on hand until the 1990s.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Luger pistol is still sought after by collectors both for its sleek design and accuracy, and for its connection to Imperial and Nazi Germany. It is one of the most collected pieces of militaria, with collectors purchasing them for prices ranging from $34,500, and $1,000,000.


title: Luger pistol

text: Aaron Davis, writing in "The Standard Catalog of the Luger", claimed that "From its adoption, the Luger was synonymous with the German military through the end of World War II" and "Ask any World War II vet of the [European Theater of Operations] what the most prized war souvenir was and the answer will invariably come back, 'a Luger'." Colonel David Hackworth mentions in his autobiography that it was still a sought-after sidearm in the Vietnam War. Vietnamese gunsmiths even copied the basic Luger design, producing a few crude 'Luger' pistols with which to arm Viet Cong and other irregular forces.


title: Luger pistol

text: A number of countries purchased the Model 1900 Parabellum in 7.65×21 mm Parabellum (.30 Luger) caliber and issued the pistol on a limited basis to officers, non-commissioned officers and mounted troops, including Germany, Switzerland, and the United States. The Model 1900 or Pistole Modell 1900 was issued to German officers and likely first saw combat in China during intervention by German troops in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. On April 16, 1901, following a successful preliminary test of the Model 1900 at the Springfield Armory, the U.S. Board of Ordnance purchased 1,000 "Model 1900" Parabellum pistols with 4.75-inch barrels, marked with what appear to be standard U.S. ordnance bomb proofs, but are not, and "American Eagle" stamps over the chambers, and issued them to each troop of mounted cavalry of the U.S. Army for field testing, with the remainder to the light artillery and officers at West Point. In 1902, U.S. Army officials purchased another 50 "Model 1902" Parabellum pistols with 4-inch barrels, again in 7.65mm Parabellum, for further testing and evaluation. This was followed by a third test of 50 so-called "cartridge counter" Parabellum pistols in 9×19mm by Springfield Armory in 1904. Other nations either tested the Model 1900 or purchased small numbers for limited field service, including Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Russia, Norway, Sweden, and Portugal.


title: Luger pistol

text: Commercial models of the Model 1900 were exported in quantity as well. In the U.S., Model 1900 pistols in 7.65 Parabellum caliber (aka .30 Luger in the U.S.) were first imported by Georg Luger, then by a DWM sales agent, Hans Tauscher, until World War I. Referred to at the time as the 'Borchardt-Luger' by U.S. authorities, Tauscher consistently referred to the pistol in his marketing and advertising materials as the 'Luger', after its inventor. Model 1900 pistols shipped to the U.S. were typically stamped with an American Eagle atop the barrel extensions. 'American Eagle' 7.65 Model 1900 pistols were used by a variety of buyers, including American lawmen such as Stringer Fenton, outlaws, and Texas Rangers.


title: Luger pistol

text: After testing, the Swiss Army adopted the Model 1900 on April 4, 1901, in 7.65x21mm caliber as its standard sidearm, designated "Pistole 1900". This model uses a barrel and incorporates a grip safety and leaf-type mainspring. A later Swiss military contract with DWM resulted in the latter supplying improved Model 1900/06 pattern pistols designated the Model 1906 or "Pistole 1900/06". Commencing in 1918, these Model 1906 Parabellum pistols were manufactured and assembled at Waffenfabrik Bern, Switzerland.


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1929, Swiss authorities adopted an improved version of the Modell 1900 designated the "Modell 06/29" with improved sights, trigger and a stronger toggle link. Manufactured entirely at Waffenfabrik Bern, the 06/29 pistol served the Swiss Army until well after the adoption of the SIG Sauer P210 in 1949, and remained in limited service until the late 1960s.


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1902 DWM introduced a slightly improved version of the Model 1900 Parabellum as the Model 1902. The Model 1902, with its shortened 4-inch barrel, was the first Parabellum pistol to be offered in 9×19mm Parabellum caliber, along with a change from four-groove to six-groove rifling.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Luger pistol was accepted by the Imperial German Navy in 1904 in 9mm Parabellum as the "Pistole 04" (P04). The navy model had a barrel and a two-position – or – rear sight. This version was also referred to as the "Marine Modell 1904" or, more colloquially in the US as the "navy Luger". The Pistole 04 was later updated with a coil mainspring to Model 1906 pattern as Luger continued to refine and improve his design.


title: Luger pistol

text: Georg Luger introduced a new version of the Parabellum pistol in 1906, which would become known as the Model 1906 or "New Model" ("Neues Modell"). This version of the Parabellum replaced the old flat laminated main spring with a more reliable coil design. As all models of the Luger built after 1906 have the coil mainspring, they are known as "New Models". Older Parabellum pistols in German service were usually upgraded to the "New Model" specification.


title: Luger pistol

text: In 1908, the German Army adopted the DWM Parabellum pistol as the "Pistole Modell 1908" (P08) Parabellum to replace the Reichsrevolver in front-line service. The Pistole 08 (or "P.08") had a barrel and was chambered in 9×19mm Parabellum. This version of Georg Luger's design reflected a number of improvements requested by German military authorities. The grip safety used on earlier versions was omitted, while a lug was attached to the heel of the pistol frame for attachment of a shoulder stock. The barrel was reduced in length to 4 inches (102mm), and the caliber was 9×19mm Parabellum, and the 9×19mm DWM cartridge (Catalog No. 278F) initially adopted by the German Army featured a 123-grain truncated-nose bullet design intended to increase wounding effect of the fully jacketed bullet. With slight modifications, notably the addition of a stock mounting lug and a hold-open latch, the P08 would serve as the German Army's principal sidearm during World War I, augmented by Mauser C96 and Model 1914 pistols. Over 2 million Luger pistols were used by German forces from 1914 to 1918.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Bolivian Army also adopted the DWM Luger in 9×19mm Parabellum as an officer's sidearm; 500 were bought in 1913. They bore the legend "Ejercito Boliviano" stamped on the chamber.


title: Luger pistol

text: The adoption of the "Lange Pistole 08" or LP 08, known as the "Artillery Luger", was authorised by the Kaiser on 2 July 1913. This P08 variation was equipped with a barrel, an 8-position tangent rear sight (calibrated to ) and a board-type shoulder stock with an attached leather holster. In the event of close combat, the pistol was intended to be used as a carbine with the shoulder stock attached to a lug mounted on the heel of the pistol frame. When set for long range use the rear sight element visibly moves to the left to compensate for spin drift. While initially intended for use by German artillery units who could not be encumbered by the long and heavy K.98 rifle, the LP 08 was also used by Aviation units (prior to equipping aircraft with machine guns) as well as the infantry, primarily on the Western front during World War I. "Stoßtruppen" (stormtrooper infantry) units frequently employed the Artillery Luger equipped with a new large magazine, the 32-round Trommelmagazin or 'snail' magazine. Production of the LP 08 ended in 1918 with the end of the war. By that time, German troops had begun using the newly developed MP 18 submachine gun in place of the LP 08 for their stormtrooper assault companies. However, by this time enough LP 08 barrels had been manufactured and stockpiled to fill LP 08 export orders into the 1930s.


title: Luger pistol

text: Carbine versions of the LP 08 were also produced commercially, with yet longer barrels. The firm Armeria Belga of Santiago (Chile) also manufactured a detachable stock, the Benke Thiemann stock, that could fold out from the grip section.


title: Luger pistol

text: In the early 1920s, carbine production was restarted. Under a small contract, LP 08 or Artillery P08s were assembled in the 1930s to fill an order from the Shah of Iran for his artillery troops, with some of these weapons ending up with Thai police forces. Existing LP 08 pistols that had remained in storage were re-issued in World War II with new-production board stocks for some German units such as artillerymen and Waffen-SS units, and these continued in use until the end of the war in 1945.


title: Luger pistol

text: The Luger rifle was an attempt by Georg Luger to make a full-powered semi-automatic rifle using the same toggle-bolt action of the pistol. A single rifle, serial number 4, exists in a private collection. The Luger rifle was protected under British patent No. 4126 of 1906. It was chambered in 7.92x57mm Mauser.


title: Barrister

text: A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and giving expert legal opinions.


title: Barrister

text: Barristers are distinguished from both solicitors and chartered legal executives, who have more direct access to clients, and may do transactional legal work. It is mainly barristers who are appointed as judges, and they are rarely hired by clients directly. In some legal systems, including those of Scotland, South Africa, Scandinavia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and the British Crown dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man, the word "barrister" is also regarded as an honorific title.


title: Barrister

text: In a few jurisdictions, barristers are usually forbidden from "conducting" litigation, and can only act on the instructions of a solicitor, and increasingly - chartered legal executives, who perform tasks such as corresponding with parties and the court, and drafting court documents. In England and Wales, barristers may seek authorisation from the Bar Standards Board to conduct litigation. This allows a barrister to practise in a "dual capacity", fulfilling the role of both barrister and solicitor.


title: Barrister

text: In some common law jurisdictions, such as New Zealand, Canada and some Australian states and territories, lawyers are entitled to practise both as barristers and solicitors, but it remains a separate system of qualification to practise exclusively as a barrister. In others, such as the United States, the barrister, solicitor and chartered legal executive distinction does not exist at all.


title: Barrister

text: A barrister, who can be considered a jurist, is a lawyer who represents a litigant as an advocate before a court of appropriate jurisdiction. A barrister speaks in court and presents the case before a judge or jury. In some jurisdictions, a barrister receives additional training in evidence law, ethics, and court practice and procedure. In contrast, a solicitor or chartered legal executive generally meets with clients, does preparatory and administrative work and provides legal advice. In this role, they may draft and review legal documents, interact with the client as necessary, prepare evidence, and generally manage the day-to-day administration of a lawsuit. In England and Wales, solicitors, and to some, yet steadily increasing degree, chartered legal executives, can provide a crucial support role to a barrister when in court, such as managing large volumes of documents in the case or even negotiating a settlement outside the courtroom while the trial continues inside.


title: Barrister

text: There are other essential differences. A barrister will usually have rights of audience in the higher courts, whereas other legal professionals will often have more limited access, or will need to acquire additional qualifications to have such access. As in common law countries in which there is a split between the roles of barrister and solicitor, the barrister in civil law jurisdictions is responsible for appearing in trials or pleading cases before the courts.


title: Barrister

text: Barristers usually have particular knowledge of case law, precedent, and the skills to "build" a case. When a solicitor or chartered legal executive in, respectively, general and specific practice is confronted with an unusual point of law, they may seek the "opinion of counsel" on the issue.


title: Barrister

text: In most countries, barristers operate as sole practitioners and are prohibited from forming partnerships or from working as a barrister as part of a corporation. (In 2009, the Clemens Report recommended the abolition of this restriction in England and Wales.) However, barristers normally band together into barristers' chambers to share clerks (administrators) and operating expenses. Some chambers grow to be large and sophisticated and have a distinctly corporate feel. In some jurisdictions, they may be employed by firms of solicitors and chartered legal executives, banks, or corporations as in-house legal advisers.


title: Barrister

text: In contrast, solicitors, chartered legal executives and attorneys work directly with the clients and are responsible for engaging a barrister with the appropriate expertise for the case. Barristers generally have little or no direct contact with their "lay clients", particularly without the presence or involvement of the solicitor and/or chartered legal executive. All correspondence, inquiries, invoices, and so on, will be addressed to the solicitor or to the chartered legal executive, who is primarily responsible for the barrister's fees.


title: Barrister

text: In court, barristers are often visibly distinguished from solicitors and other legal practitioners by their apparel. For example, in Ireland, England, and Wales, a barrister usually wears a horsehair wig, stiff collar, bands, and a gown. Since January 2008, solicitor advocates have also been entitled to wear wigs, but wear different gowns.


title: Barrister

text: In many countries the traditional divisions between barristers and solicitors and other legal representatives are breaking down. Barristers once enjoyed a monopoly on appearances before the higher courts, but in Great Britain this has now been abolished, and solicitor advocates and Rights of Audience conferred - chartered legal executives can generally appear for clients at trial. Increasingly, firms of solicitors and their rapidly emerging and increasingly recognised counterparts - the chartered legal executives, are keeping even the most advanced advisory and litigation work in-house for economic and client relationship reasons. Similarly, the prohibition on barristers taking instructions directly from the public has also been widely abolished. But, in practice, direct instruction is still a rarity in most jurisdictions, partly because barristers with narrow specializations, or who are only really trained for advocacy, are not prepared to provide general advice to members of the public.


title: Barrister

text: Historically, barristers have had a major role in trial preparation, including drafting pleadings and reviewing evidence. In some areas of law, that is still the case. In other areas, it is relatively common for the barrister to receive the brief from the instructing solicitor to represent a client at trial only a day or two before the proceeding. Part of the reason for this is cost. A barrister is entitled to a "brief fee" when a brief is delivered, and this represents the bulk of his or her fee in relation to any trial. They are then usually entitled to a "refresher" for each day of the trial after the first, but if a case is settled before the trial, the barrister is not needed and the brief fee would be wasted. Some solicitors avoid this by delaying delivery of the brief until it is certain the case will go to trial.


title: Barrister

text: A detailed examination of the justifications for a split legal profession and of the arguments in favor of a fused profession can be found in English solicitor Peter Reeve's 1986 book, "Are Two Legal Professions Necessary?"


title: Barrister

text: Barristers are regulated by the Bar for the jurisdiction where they practise, and in some countries, by the Inn of Court to which they belong. In some countries, there is external regulation.


title: Barrister

text: Inns of Court, where they exist, regulate admission to the profession. Inns of Court are independent societies that are titularly responsible for the training, admission (calling), and discipline of barristers. Where they exist, a person may only be called to the Bar by an Inn, of which they must first be a member. In fact, historically, call to and success at the Bar, to a large degree, depended upon social connections made early in life.


title: Barrister

text: A Bar collectively describes all members of the profession of barrister within a given jurisdiction. While as a minimum the Bar is an association embracing all its members, it is usually the case, either "de facto" or "de jure", that the Bar is invested with regulatory powers over the manner in which barristers practise.


title: Barrister

text: In the common law tradition, the respective roles of a lawyer – that is as legal adviser and advocate – were formally split into two separate, regulated sub-professions, the other being the office of solicitor. Historically, the distinction was absolute, but in the modern legal age, some countries that had a split legal profession now have a fused profession – anyone entitled to practise as a barrister may also practise as a solicitor, and vice versa; and alternatively – as a chartered legal executive.


title: Barrister

text: In practice, the distinction may be non-existent, minor, or marked, depending on the jurisdiction. In some jurisdictions, such as Australia, Scotland and Ireland, there is little overlap.


title: Barrister

text: In the Australian states of New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, there is a split profession. Nevertheless, subject to conditions, barristers can accept direct access work from clients. Each state Bar Association regulates the profession and essentially has the functions of the English Inns of Court. In the states of South Australia and Western Australia, as well as the Australian Capital Territory, the professions of barrister and solicitor are fused, but an independent bar nonetheless exists, regulated by the Legal Practice Board of the state or territory. In Tasmania and the Northern Territory, the profession is fused, although a very small number of practitioners operate as an independent bar.


title: Barrister

text: Generally, counsel dress in the traditional English manner (wig, gown, bar jacket and jabot) before superior courts, although this is not usually done for interlocutory applications. Wigs and robes are still worn in the Supreme Court and the District Court in civil matters and are dependent on the judicial officer's attire. Robes and wigs are worn in all criminal cases. In Western Australia, wigs are no longer worn in any court.


title: Barrister

text: Each year, the Bar Association appoints certain barristers of seniority and eminence to the rank of "Senior Counsel" (in most States and Territories) or "King's Counsel" (in the Northern Territory, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia). Such barristers carry the title "SC" or "KC" after their name. The appointments are made after a process of consultation with members of the profession and the judiciary. Senior Counsel appear in particularly complex or difficult cases. They make up about 14 per cent of the bar in New South Wales.


title: Barrister

text: In Bangladesh, the law relating to the Barristers is the Bangladesh Legal Practitioners and Bar Council Order, 1972 (President Order No. 46) as amended which is administered and enforced by the Bangladesh Bar Council. Bangladesh Bar Council is the supreme statutory body to regulate the legal professions in Bangladesh and ensure educational standard and regulatory compliance by the Advocates on roll of the Bar Council. The Bar Council, with the help of government, prescribes rules to regulate the profession. All law graduates educating from home or abroad have to write and pass the Bar Council Examination to be enrolled and admitted as professional Advocates to practise law both as Barristers & Solicitors. The newly enrolled advocates are permitted to start practice in the lower (District) courts after admitting as members of the local (District) Bar Associations. After two years of Practice in lower court, the Advocates are eligible to be enrolled in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. By passing the Bar Council Examination, the advocates are issued with certificates of enrollment and permission in prescribed form to practise in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court also. Only those advocates who became Barristers in the U.K. maintain their honorific title of barristers. In Bangladesh, there is an association called Barristers' Association of Bangladesh that represents the such U.K. bases barristers.[10]


title: Barrister

text: In Canada (except Quebec), the professions of barrister and solicitor are fused, and many lawyers refer to themselves with both names, even if they do not practise in both areas. In colloquial parlance within the Canadian legal profession, lawyers often term themselves as "litigators" (or "barristers"), or as "solicitors", depending on the nature of their law practice though some may in effect practise as both litigators and solicitors. However, "litigators" would generally perform all litigation functions traditionally performed by barristers and solicitors; in contrast, those terming themselves "solicitors" would generally limit themselves to legal work not involving practice before the courts (not even in a preparatory manner as performed by solicitors in England), though some might practise before chambers judges. As is the practice in many other Commonwealth jurisdictions such as Australia, Canadian litigators are "gowned", but without a wig, when appearing before courts of "superior jurisdiction". All law graduates from Canadian law schools, and holders of NCA certificates of Qualification (Internationally trained lawyers or graduates from other law schools in common-law jurisdictions outside Canada) from the Federation of Law Societies of Canada after can apply to the relevant Provincial regulating body (law society) for admission (note here that the Canadian Provinces are technically each considered different legal jurisdictions). Prerequisites to admission as a member to a law society involve the completion of a Canadian law degree (or completion of exams to recognize a foreign common law degree), a year of articling as a student supervised by a qualified lawyer, and passing the bar exams mandated by the province the student has applied for a licence in. Once these requirements are complete then the articling student may be "called to the bar" after the review if their application and consideration of any "good character" issues at which they are presented to the Court in a call ceremony. The applicant then becomes a member of the law society as a "barrister and solicitor".


title: Barrister

text: The situation is somewhat different in Quebec as a result of its civil law tradition. The profession of solicitor, or "avoué", never took hold in colonial Quebec, so attorneys ("avocats") have traditionally been a fused profession, arguing and preparing cases in contentious matters, whereas Quebec's other type of lawyer, civil-law notaries ("notaires"), handle out-of-court non-contentious matters. However, a number of areas of non-contentious private law are not monopolized by notaries so that attorneys often specialise in handling either trials, cases, advising, or non-trial matters. The only disadvantage is that attorneys cannot draw up public instruments that have the same force of law as notarial acts. Most large law firms in Quebec offer the full range of legal services of law firms in common-law provinces. Intending Quebec attorneys must earn a bachelor's degree in civil law, pass the provincial bar examination, and successfully complete a legal internship to be admitted to practice. Attorneys are regulated by the Quebec Law Society ("Barreau du Québec").