Featured Story
Two years after a shooting at Robb Elementary School killed 19 students and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, families of victims are suing UPS and FedEx for allegedly breaking state and federal law. The stated violations included sending a trigger enhancement to the shooter’s home, which was less than 1,000 feet away from the school, and illegally transferring an AR-15 to a 17-year-old. [KUT]
What To Know Today
Montana had the highest suicide rate of any state from 2021 through November 2023; in 2022, 67 percent — 12 percent higher than the national average — involved a gun. Suicide is often steeped in secrecy and shame, but in Montana, where firearms are entwined with its rugged, frontier ethos, there is little political will to support reform. [The New York Times]
Maine’s Department of Public Safety released more than 3,000 pages of documents related to the Lewiston shooting, the state’s deadliest mass shooting, which left 18 people dead and 13 wounded. The documents included first-hand accounts of the carnage witnessed by police officers last October, and portrayed the confusion and lack of communication between officers from 14 different agencies and 16 SWAT teams who were on the manhunt. [The Associated Press]
City Council members in Savannah, Georgia, unanimously passed an ordinance earlier this year making it illegal to keep a gun in an unlocked car. It’s an attempt by a blue city in a red state to push back on looser gun laws at the state level, such as the removal of permitting and training requirements to carry a firearm in public. Violations are punishable by up to 30 days in jail. [The Christian Science Monitor]
A bill introduced in Kansas would require schools to prohibit using cell phones during school hours. It’s receiving strong pushback from parents, who are worried about not having contact with their children if a shooting took place. About one-third of parents nationwide support banning cell phones, and some argue that few children who are killed by gunfire lose their lives in high-profile shootings. [Slate]
Archive
Dangerous Homes: Guns and Domestic Violence Exact a Deadly Toll on Kids: Most parents worry a shooting could happen at their children’s school. But a Trace analysis found that three times as many kids were shot in domestic violence incidents between 2018 and 2022. (June 2023)
