The week at a glance...United States

Austin

Printable gun: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week called for a ban on 3-D-printable plastic weapons after a Texas company announced that it had developed the world’s first such device. Defense Distributed, a collective of gun-rights advocates headed by self-styled “free-market anarchist” Cody Wilson, unveiled “The Liberator” last week, and said it would release blueprints online that anyone could download for free. The handgun fires regular .380 caliber bullets, and its components can be printed out and assembled at home. The design skirts current bans on all-plastic guns by including a single metal component, but that piece can easily be replaced with plastic, making the Liberator practically untraceable at security checkpoints and by metal detectors. “Now anyone, a terrorist, someone who is mentally ill, a spousal abuser, a felon, can essentially open a gun factory in their garage,” Schumer said. “It must be stopped.”

Charleston, S.C.

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Sanford victory: Rebounding from one of the biggest political scandals in recent years, former Republican Gov. Mark Sanford this week won a special election for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives with a decisive 54 percent of the vote over Democratic challenger Elizabeth Colbert Busch. Sanford, 52, fell from grace in 2009 when he went missing for six days and claimed he’d been hiking the Appalachian Trail before admitting he’d been visiting his lover in Argentina. His wife filed for divorce, and national Republican leaders offered little support. But he prevailed in the highly conservative district by linking Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and liberal causes. “I am one imperfect man, saved by God’s grace,” Sanford said in his victory speech.

Arlington, Va.

Officer arrested: The head of the unit responsible for preventing sexual assault in the U.S. Air Force was charged this week with sexual battery, and just days later, officials released figures showing an increase in military sexual assaults. Reported incidents rose from 3,192 in 2011 to 3,374 in 2012, but the Pentagon estimated that if unreported assaults were taken into account, the total rose to 26,000 last year alone. The Air Force has come under particular scrutiny after a rash of sexual assaults at a Texas training facility, making the charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Krusinski, chief of the service’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program, all the more embarrassing. He was removed from his post this week after Arlington County Police charged him with drunkenly grabbing a woman’s breasts and buttocks. Addressing the continuing problem of sexual harassment in the military, President Obama said his administration needed to “exponentially step up” its game. “It is not acceptable. Period.”

Cleveland

Kidnap shock: Three women who were kidnapped a decade ago were freed this week from a run-down house where they had allegedly been imprisoned, raped, and beaten by former school bus driver Ariel Castro, 52. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight all disappeared between 2002 and 2004. They told police that since then they had been bound and repeatedly raped by Castro, resulting in up to five pregnancies. When Castro left the house this week, Berry yelled to neighbor Charles Ramsey to help her kick the door down before running out with her 6-year-old child—allegedly fathered by her abductor—and calling 911 to free the other women. Local authorities have come under fire for allegedly missing warnings about the kidnappings, including reports by neighbors that a naked woman was seen crawling in the backyard several years ago. Castro has been charged with kidnapping and rape.

Trenton, N.J.

Fighting fit: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has admitted that he underwent secret gastric-band surgery in February to lose weight, prompting speculation that he is preparing for a 2016 White House run. The popular governor, thought to weigh between 300 and 350 pounds, underwent the one-day outpatient procedure without the knowledge of anyone but his family and chief of staff. In an interview this week, Christie said that his 50th birthday prompted the procedure, and that he had done it for his family, not in anticipation of a presidential run. “The idea that public criticism or ridicule or a public race could force me to do this is laughable to me,” he said. “Any of that stuff is minuscule pressure compared to what I put on myself when I look at my children and look at my wife.”

Boston

Burial trouble: Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev remained unburied this week after officials in his hometown of Cambridge and several local cemeteries refused to accept his remains. His uncle Ruslan Tsarni, who publicly attacked Tamerlan and younger brother Dzhokhar as “losers” for their alleged terror attack on the Boston Marathon last month, claimed the body last week after Tsarnaev’s widow declined to do so, but he has yet to find a spot to bury it. Meanwhile, two of Dzhokhar’s friends were charged last week with conspiring to obstruct justice, and a third was charged with lying to investigators. The three allegedly visited Dzhokhar’s dorm room three days after the bombings, and two of them are accused of removing the suspect’s laptop and backpack, which police say contained remnants of fireworks emptied of gunpowder for use in the bombs.