Good morning, Bulletin readers. New Jersey has strengthened its already tough gun laws, while Facebook goes in the opposite direction of its fellow social media companies on 3D-printed guns. And teens in Chicago are learning how to stop the bleed.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
Facebook quietly relaxed its ban on sharing blueprints for 3D-printed guns. Earlier this month, the social media giant revised an 11-month-old policy and will now allow “legitimate” gun dealers — both brick-and-mortar and online — to offer instructions for printing untraceable guns in states where they’re legal. The platform still bans private individuals from sharing such files.
A top staffer departed the NRA’s lobbying division. Sources told Politico that Jennifer Baker, the director of public affairs for the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Affairs, has left her post. The NRA confirmed the news in a statement to Talking Points Memo. The departure follows the abrupt resignation of chief NRA lobbyist Chris Cox, who has since opened his own firm. Baker was reportedly part of Cox’s inner circle.
Self-defense killings are relatively rare, according to one estimate. The Violence Policy Center, which advocates for stricter gun laws, analyzed FBI data and identified 274 incidents in 2016 that law enforcement determined to be justifiable firearm homicides. That same year, there were more than 10,000 criminal homicides committed with guns in the United States.
New Jersey adopts a law intended to help pave the way for smart guns.
The legislation signed by Democratic Governor Phil Murphy requires the state’s gun retailers to stock at least one firearm model equipped with technology designed to make it fire only for its owner. It replaces an older law that would have required New Jersey gun dealers to only stock smart guns, which sparked a fierce backlash from some gun rights advocates. New Jersey got three other new gun laws yesterday: One bans gun possession for people convicted of making terroristic threats. The other two would encourage firearm retailers and range operators to attend suicide prevention courses, and increase penalties for individuals trying to obtain a firearm if they are previously banned from owning one.
School safety in Colorado is a patchwork of different practices and resources. That’s the key takeaway from state lawmakers tasked with evaluating the state’s school security framework in the aftermath of the STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting in May. Gun reform will not be a main focus of the committee. But the issue of safe storage did come up in light of the fact that the guns used in the shooting were stolen from the parents of one of the shooters.
After a spike in shootings, residents of a Pennsylvania city want more cops on the street. At least 21 people have been shot in Allentown over the last month, according to Gun Violence Archive, which is four times the number of shootings typically seen during that period. Concerned community members met Tuesday night to demand solutions, including beefed-up police patrols.
A school superintendent in California will be disciplined after an active shooter drill “terrorized the kids.” During the surprise June 3 drill at Raisin City Elementary School near Fresno, a school custodian donning a mask and wielding a fake rifle shook classroom doors, terrifying students and teachers alike.
A Mississippi House candidate committed a murder-suicide. Police say Carl Robinson shot and killed his estranged wife at the medical clinic where she worked on Tuesday and then killed himself. He’d just been served with divorce papers.
CORRECTION: Yesterday’s newsletter incorrectly identified Dr. Michael S. Brown as an NRA board member. He is an NRA member and a contributor to Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership.
ONE LAST THING
Chicago teens are learning how to render first aid to gunshot victims. The youth anti-violence organization GoodKids MadCity has been holding training sessions in which children and teenagers learn how to perform CPR and apply tourniquets using items of clothing. “If I actually get shot and nobody’s there, I can do it to myself instead of just sitting there and dying on the scene,” ninth-grader Darrion Johnson, whose brother was shot to death last year, noted at a recent session. “They’re forced to be adults at a young age,” GoodKids MadCity’s founder Carlil Pittman told NBC News.
