Good morning, Bulletin readers. A member of Congress opened yet another probe into the NRA. And gun reform again emerged as a significant priority for Democrats during the second half of the party’s first 2020 debate. Those stories lead your end-of-week roundup.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
Newest House NRA probe is the 9th official investigation of the gun group. In a letter to Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s CEO, on Wednesday, Representative Brad Schneider of the House Ways and Means Committee demanded documents related to the NRA’s internal audits, financial conduct, and apparent conflicts of interest. It’s the third probe of the NRA’s nonprofit status that’s been launched since The Trace and The New Yorker reported in April on self-dealing by NRA insiders. Here’s a roundup of everything else under scrutiny at the gun group.
More Democratic candidates declared gun reform a priority during the second night of the party’s opening 2020 debate. The most dramatic exchange on the issue came when Representative Eric Swalwell, who wants to launch a mandatory nationwide assault weapons buyback, pushed Senator Bernie Sanders to support the idea. Senator Kamala Harris reiterated her plan to issue executive orders on gun reform if Congress doesn’t act. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a combat veteran, said assault-style rifles “have absolutely no place in American cities or neighborhoods in peacetime, ever” and got in perhaps the best soundbite: “If more guns made us safer, we’d be the safest country on earth.”
The governor of Hawaii signed a red flag law. It’s the 17th state to allow people to request the removal of legally purchased guns from those deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
Two more Parkland school resource officers were fired for “neglect of duty.” A total of four Broward Sheriff’s Office deputies have been terminated for failing to mount a vigorous response to last year’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
An Alabama woman who lost her pregnancy following a shooting has been charged with manslaughter. Police say Marshae Jones, 27, was at fault for initiating a fight that led to another woman shooting her. A grand jury failed to indict the other woman.
Five police officers have been fatally shot in the line of duty this month. Officers in California, Illinois, Missouri, Texas, and Wisconsin were killed between June 17 and June 23, and a 25-year-old officer in Chicago is fighting for his life after being shot Wednesday.
A man who spent years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit was gunned down in Mississippi. Cedric Willis, 44, was found with multiple gunshot wounds on a street corner in Jackson on Monday. In 2006, he was exonerated after spending a dozen years in prison for a 1997 murder and robbery. “I’m just so sad the world doesn’t have Cedric Willis anymore,” an attorney with the Innocence Project said.
ONE LAST THING
The Capital Gazette shooting, a year later. Today marks the one-year anniversary of a shooting rampage in the Annapolis newsroom of The Capital Gazette, which took the lives of five staffers: Gerald Fischman; Rob Hiaasen; John McNamara; Rebecca Smith, and Wendi Winters. Earlier this week, Baltimore Sun reporter Jean Marbella examined some objects left behind by the victims that hold special significance. In two cases, these included unfinished works. Hiaasen left behind a manuscript for a novel, which was completed by his wife, Maria, and will be published in September. McNamara, a sports reporter, was working on a book about the history of D.C.-area high school basketball and left behind three boxes of research. His wife, Andrea, used it to finish the volume, which will be published in November. “This is my love letter to John,” she said. On Tuesday, several lawmakers introduced a bill that would create a Fallen Journalists Memorial on or near the National Mall, an effort that was announced on Sunday in the pages of The Capital Gazette. The publication will have special coverage of the anniversary here.
