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Following a lawsuit by several news outlets, the city of Uvalde just released new documents and a body camera video showing the moment when officers finally breached the classroom at Robb Elementary School two years ago, where a shooter killed 19 young students and two teachers. The footage has reignited the frustration of the victims’ families, who have been asking for the information to be made public since the shooting.
Of the nearly 400 local, state, and federal law enforcement officers who responded to the scene that day, former Police Chief Pete Arredondo and another former school police officer are the only two people to have been charged. Arredondo recently said he’s been “scapegoated” over the botched law enforcement response to the massacre, during which police waited more than an hour before intervening. Back in 2022, Bekah Neel, a contributor to The Trace, talked to some of the survivors in the midst of their grief about the pressure they put on Texas officials for gun reform after the tragedy. They said it was a battle that would last generations.
Criminology and criminal justice professor Dr. Johnny Nhan analyzed the 30-minute body camera video in which Arredondo is seen directing officers and debating how to access the classroom. Nhan concluded that poor communication led to the delayed and inefficient police response.
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On a recent Sunday morning, 22-year-old Maddy Keyes, who has never received any gun training, quickly bought bullets from a grocery store vending machine in Noble, Oklahoma — one of the first cities to see the installation of a gun ammunition vending machine in local grocery stores. It took Keyes less than two minutes, four steps, and around six taps of the screen to purchase a pack of 12-gauge slugs for $7.50 in her hand. [Slate]
In Maine, gun retailers now require a three-day waiting period for buyers to complete a purchase and receive a weapon. The new law was passed after the state’s deadliest mass shooting in Lewiston, in October 2023, when an Army reservist killed 18 people and injured 13 others. Maine joins a dozen other states with similar laws. [ABC News]
In 1991, a shooting left Chicago resident Angelo Perez paralyzed from the waist down. Over the three decades that followed, he endured many surgeries, navigated life in the early years of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and struggled with addiction — eventually, he found a home in the world of adaptive sports. Now 54, Perez says he’s “more active now than I was in high school” and ready to tackle his next challenge: the Chicago Marathon. [Block Club Chicago]
Missouri voters approved a ballot measure requiring Kansas City to spend at least 25 percent of its general revenue on police. Though city officials already allocated around that amount for policing, activists say the new mandate will further limit investment into resources that address the root causes of violence: “Cities that have shown a major impact on gun violence have invested in root causes,” said Gwendolyn Grant, head of the local Urban League. “There’s so many different things that we could be investing in.” [Bolts]
Last month, 36-year-old Sonya Massey was shot and killed in her Springfield, Illinois, home by a sheriff’s deputy after she called 911. Five weeks later, Sangamon County Sheriff Jack Campbell, who hired the deputy and faced calls to resign, announced his retirement. [CBS News/AP News]
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In Uvalde, a Community Struggles for Reform Amid Grief: After the funerals, residents continue to pressure Texas officials to address gun access. It may become a fight that spans generations. (November 2022)
