Hello, readers. Bullets flew Sunday night on a football field in Dallas, where an assailant on a moped and spectators pulled out guns and fired away. Five were injured in the chaos. That story and more, below.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
Parkland’s ex-school resource officer opens up. Scot Peterson worked for 10 years as a sheriff’s deputy at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School before a gunman opened fire at the school in February. He told the Washington Post’s Eli Saslow what went through his mind as he stood outside the building during the six-minute siege that day, and how he’s struggled to make some sense of it ever since.
President Trump’s plan to relax firearm exports could have unforeseen consequences. The proposal to shift oversight of certain overseas arms shipments from the Department of State to the Department of Commerce will make it more difficult to control the spread of guns internationally. But one surprising result of the rule change is that it could also make it easier to distribute untraceable 3-D printed weapons. As this Washington Post piece points out, the State Department had charged the founder of a 3-D printed gun company with violating arms export laws, since anyone anywhere could download his instructions and make their own guns, skirting regulations. Under the rule change, those arms export restrictions would no longer apply, unless Congress intervenes.
Five people were injured when a firefight broke out on a football field in south Dallas. Police say a man drove a moped onto the field Sunday night and shot into a crowd of spectators at a pickup football game – several of whom returned fire. The victims included a pregnant 17-year-old.
A post-Parkland increase in gun background checks has leveled off. The FBI’s background check figures are considered a simple proxy for gun sales. The numbers were up significantly in February and March, then declined for two straight months. This May was nonetheless the busiest for background checks since the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) was created in 1999.
The Archdiocese of Chicago has created a position focused on gun violence. A former FBI agent and gunshot survivor has been hired to coordinate the Catholic church of Chicago’s new gun-violence-prevention initiative to advocate for stricter gun laws and start dialogues on gun safety.
An assault weapons ban is set to go into effect in Deerfield, Illinois, next week, but it will need to overcome some legal hurdles first. In April, the Deerfield Village Board voted to ban assault weapons and fine violators up to $1,000 per day. Local gun groups quickly filed two lawsuits challenging the ordinance, asking for a temporary restraining order against it. A hearing on one of those lawsuits is expected this Friday, five days before the ban is set to take effect.
A suspect in an Arizona killing spree shot himself after SWAT officers entered his hotel room. Dwight Lamon Jones was the suspect in the murder of four people in Arizona including a forensic psychiatrist and two paralegals. Police say he killed himself as officers closed in on him yesterday morning.
A man in Sioux City, Iowa, was arrested for putting a gun to his girlfriend’s head. The man allegedly pulled the trigger three times while threatening his girlfriend on Sunday night. He was charged with intimidation with a weapon, felon with possession of a firearm, and aggravated domestic abuse. A gun doesn’t need to go off to cause harm in an abusive relationship. We’re working on a story about this often-overlooked aspect of domestic violence. Have you ever been threatened with a gun in an intimate relationship? We would like to hear your story.
AFTERMATH, EPISODE 4
He came to America to escape violence, only to find himself surrounded by it. Javier Arango remembers seeing his first dead body when he was just 4 years old. Born in conflict-ravaged Colombia, he and his father moved to Oakland, California, for refuge. But just four years after their arrival, Arango was hit by a bullet that left him paralyzed. In today’s episode of Aftermath, he shares the story of how fear pulled him to a life of crime, and how his faith is finally leading him out.
