What To Know Today
Shooting at Michigan high school leaves three students dead, eight others injured. The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon at Oxford High School in the Detroit suburb of Oxford. The suspected shooter, a 15-year-old student, was taken into custody. A teacher and seven students are among the injured, three of whom were in critical condition. The suspect’s father purchased the 9mm semiautomatic handgun used in the shooting just four days earlier, the county sheriff said. Meanwhile, his deputy noted that the school had significant security measures in place, including numerous security cameras, frequent active shooter drills, and a full-time sheriff’s deputy who assisted in apprehending the suspect. After the shooting, a local NBC News station spoke with a student who said rumors had been circulating about threats in the days before the shooting, but authorities are still investigating. The incident was the 53rd shooting at an elementary or secondary school this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Those 53 shootings, which do not include shots fired without any injuries or deaths, represent 17 people killed and 73 others injured.
Federal appeals court upholds California’s ban on high-capacity magazines. The full panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a 2-1 decision by the same court last year that had invalidated the state law limiting magazines with over 10 rounds of ammunition. Plaintiffs have argued that the law violates the Second and Fifth Amendments, the latter of which restricts public seizure of private property without fair compensation. “The statute outlaws no weapon, but only limits the size of the magazine that may be used with firearms,” Judge Susan Graber wrote in an opinion for the court’s 7-4 majority. She added that historical use of statutes like California’s shows they interfere “only minimally with the core right of self-defense” and can be justified on the state’s rationale that they save lives. In regard to the Fifth Amendment, the court said the statute was not in violation because California doesn’t acquire anything for the limitation and allows owners to modify magazines, sell them, or remove them from the state rather than give them up. Gun rights groups have promised an appeal to the Supreme Court.
D.C. violence interruption expands to more city neighborhoods. Cure the Streets, a street outreach organization run through the District’s Attorney General’s Office, will expand to four new sites in neighborhoods with elevated violence by early next year. The pilot program sees outreach staff broker relationships with people deemed at risk of being a victim or perpetrator of gun violence to try and disrupt conflicts and prevent retaliation in the aftermath of shootings. According to the D.C. Attorney General’s office, Cure the Streets has organized hundreds of mediations between rival groups since it launched. Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, whose area will now be covered, applauded the additional resources: “We view gun violence as a disease and we know that we gotta stop the spread.” The expansion, which brings the citywide total to 10, comes as the District scrambles to reverse homicide numbers that have exceeded 200 for the first time since 2003.
Los Angeles City Council votes to ban ghost guns. The unanimous vote would ban the possession, transfer, or sales of guns that lack serial numbers as well as restrict ghost gun kits that sell nearly completed firearms that can be built at home. The mayor is expected to sign the ordinance, which follows in the wake of bans from several other large California cities amid a statewide uptick in police recoveries of the untraceable, DIY guns.
Data Point
Four — the number of children under 12 in one family who were fatally shot Sunday night in Los Angeles County. Their grandmother was also killed in the incident in which the father is the suspect. [NBC News]
