Election Day is a little more than two weeks away, and the atmosphere is tense — particularly for poll workers. As Votebeat reports, election administrators nationwide are taking dramatic steps to increase physical security around election offices and polling locations. A county in an Atlanta suburb purchased panic buttons for poll workers; in Maricopa County, Arizona, officials from all levels of government have essentially “war gamed” emergency voting situations; earlier this year, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro established a task force dedicated to addressing election threats.
Threats of political violence this election season aren’t limited to the polls, however. This month alone, authorities arrested an armed North Carolina man after he allegedly threatened to harm FEMA workers responding to Hurricane Helene, and an Alaska man was arrested after vowing to shoot multiple Supreme Court justices. That follows two attempts on Donald Trump’s life in which both would-be assassins wielded semiautomatic assault-style rifles.
Research shows that threats against public officials, many of which involve guns, have risen in recent years. But as my colleague Will Van Sant recently reported, although the political climate is volatile — in part because of the availability and lethality of firearms — the prevalence of threats may mask the reality. America is not, in fact, experiencing greater political violence this election season. And by some measures, Van Sant writes, the opposite appears to be true.
From The Trace
- Threats of Political Violence Are Distorting Reality: Mobilizations by extremist groups in 2024 are on track to be at their lowest level since 2020, according to a new report, but public officials — particularly those who work on elections — continue to face threats.
- The Straw Man: Over 18 months, Dylan Russell bought 15 guns in Vermont. His case exposes how firearms have become currency in the opioid trade.
What to Know Today
The number of congressional candidates who received “A” ratings from the National Rifle Association declined this year for the seventh straight election cycle, indicating that the gun group’s political influence continues to wane. Meanwhile, the NRA board is under pressure to suspend chief executive Greg Hamlin over revelations that, decades ago, he was involved in a sadistic animal cruelty incident. Anonymous “concerned employees” sent a letter to the board listing a litany of concerns about Hamlin. “If something is not done,” the employees wrote, “Doug Hamlin will destroy any chances of a NRA comeback.” [The New York Times/The Guardian]
Former President Donald Trump has said that the rioters who attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021, did not have guns. A newly unsealed court filing shows that isn’t the case. [HuffPost]
Americans with military backgrounds have been radicalizing at a faster rate than the overall population — and their extremist plots are more likely to involve weapons training or firearms than those that don’t involve someone with a military background. Though the number of veterans or current service members who plan extremist attacks is small, their plots have more potential for mass injury or death. Despite the uptick in extremist participation, the military still has no force-wide system to track it. [Associated Press]
A grand jury indicted both a father and son on murder charges for the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, last month. Two teachers and two students were killed in the attack. [Associated Press]
A few years ago, Jalesha Fitzpatrick’s father was shot and wounded in front of her. Jalesha, now 17, had already been recognized as a leader in her Oakland, California, community — even before the shooting, she’d been working on violence prevention, advising students through a local after-school program. After she recovered from what she’d witnessed, Jalesha channeled her experience into that work. [The Oaklandside]
In August, a Washington, D.C., City Council member was arrested for allegedly taking bribes on behalf of two violence interruption contractors. In response, the city’s police union called for the district’s entire community violence interruption program to be defunded. A leading criminal justice reform advocate argues that slashing the budget is misguided. [The Appeal]
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said she would not renew a public health order that, among other things, temporarily banned carrying guns in public parks and playgrounds in Bernalillo County, where Albuquerque is located. The ban, initially a 30-day prohibition on gun carrying on all public and state property in the county, was met with immediate, and bipartisan, pushback when it was issued in September 2023; at the time, Bernalillo County’s sheriff, a Democrat, decided not to enforce the ban. [NBC]
Via The Weekly Briefing newsletter: Nearly two decades ago, Drew Crecente’s daughter, Jennifer, was found shot to death near her home in Austin, Texas. Earlier this month, he was disturbed to find that her name and likeness had been used to create an AI chatbot without her family’s permission. He isn’t the first grieving parent to discover their child’s information manipulated by AI. [The Washington Post]
Data Point
31.5 percent — the proportion of candidates running for the U.S. House or Senate who received top marks from the National Rifle Association this cycle, down from 36 percent in the 2022 elections. About 44 percent of the 920 candidates have “F” grades. [The New York Times]
Non Sequitur
“The world sees Japan as a paragon of minimalism. But its hidden clutter culture shows that ‘more’ can be as magical as ‘less.’” [Aeon]
