Good morning, Bulletin readers. A new analysis bolsters the case that banning large-capacity magazines could reduce the lethality of mass shootings. That takeaway leads your Friday roundup.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
States that ban high-capacity ammunition magazines have had fewer high-casualty mass shootings. Researchers at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Harvard School of Public Health examined 69 mass shootings with six or more fatalities between 1990 and 2017. They found that states that don’t prohibit large-capacity magazines have had more than twice as many high-casualty active shootings as the nine states that ban the accessories. Attacks in which the perpetrators used large-capacity magazines had a 62 percent higher mean death toll. The study was published in American Journal of Public Health.
Seattle Police used the state’s red flag law to disarm a high-ranking member of a militant neo-Nazi group. The Daily Beast revealed that Kaleb Cole, 24, who heads the Washington State chapter of the Atomwaffen Division, was stripped of an AK-47-type pistol, a high-capacity drum magazine, and his concealed pistol license earlier this month. Federal prosecutors filed firearm charges against two members of the same group in Virginia earlier this year.
Local officials in three Nevada cities voted to circumvent a domestic violence gun ban. The Henderson, Las Vegas, and North Las Vegas city councils authorized prosecutors to charge alleged abusers with simple battery in order to get around a state Supreme Court ruling that defendants in domestic violence cases are entitled to a jury trial. The localities say the requirement could overburden the courts. But convictions for simple battery don’t come with a ban on gun ownership, and victims advocates are concerned the move will put women and children at risk.
Post-Parkland safety laws create other dangers for Florida schoolchildren. So argues a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center. It says the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission’s recommendations — arming teachers, expanding zero-tolerance policies, and allowing social media and cellphone activity to be shared with law enforcement — put students at higher risk of arrest and jeopardize privacy and civil liberties. ICYMI: Earlier this week, The 74 (in partnership with The Trace) showed how research casts doubts about whether school law enforcement prevents shootings.
- Have your children experienced an active shooter drill at school this year? We want to hear from you for an upcoming project that we’re reporting in partnership with Slate. Please send a note to [email protected] if you are willing to share your story with one of our journalists.
A Us. senator from Florida wants to fix the FBI tip line that failed to stop the Parkland shooter. The bureau failed to thoroughly investigate two tips about the Parkland gunman in the months prior to the 2018 shooting. Under a new bill introduced by Republican Rick Scott, the bureau would be required to submit tips about potential mass shooters to local police.
A South Carolina woman whose son killed his younger sister faces criminal charges. Police said Thursday that the woman was arrested on October 9, four days after her 11-year-old son found her loaded, “easily accessible” handgun and shot his 10-year-old sister while they were home alone.
DATA POINT
584 kids under 18 have been killed in St. Louis since 1990, a rate that’s 10 times the national average. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
