Gun industry found 'positive feelings' among gun owners to reform

 In 2019, with the horrors of the Parkland mass shooting still fresh in most Americans’ minds, the gun industry funded a study to “determine the most effective ways of communicating with the American public about the benefits of firearm ownership,” reported The Trace/Rolling Stone.                                  

Its findings, which were not shared with the public, indicated that Americans who support gun ownership could be persuaded by the value of reforms that are vigorously opposed by the gun industry, gun rights groups, and Republican lawmakers. Those reforms include universal background checks, red flag laws, and even a gun registry, which vocal gun rights advocates have falsely claimed made the Holocaust possible.

The study, titled “Communicating With The American Public About Firearm Ownership,” was commissioned by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a nonprofit that serves as the gun industry’s trade group, founded to ensure the survival of its dues-paying members, which include firearms manufacturers, retailers, and ranges. An online survey administered to more than 4,000 Americans tested the power of 24 pro-gun and 24 anti-gun messages. The respondents were divided into multiple categories, including those who had a “positive feeling” about gun ownership.

While the study does not cite Parkland or any mass shooting as a reason for its undertaking, it was conducted at a moment when substantial reforms seemed possible. The indiscriminate killing of students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had galvanized the nation in a manner not seen since Newtown, and the pressure for regulation and accountability was high. Many young Americans, in particular, who had come of age as mass shootings became commonplace, held a negative view of firearms, according to industry research, and that posed a problem for future business. There was a need, it seemed, to find the most resonant ways to convey the value of gun ownership.  

“While the sports shooting industry devotes substantial funding and effort to communications initiatives to boost participation in and support for sport shooting and firearms,” the study notes, “little reliable data exists indicating which messages and communications themes work best.” 

The Trace and Rolling Stone obtained a copy of the study for an ongoing series that seeks to unearth what the gun industry conceals about its customers and practices from public view. The NSSF declined to provide a comment for this story.

On Wednesday, August 27, a 23-year-old shooter, who legally purchased three firearms recovered by law enforcement, opened fire at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, murdering two children and injuring 14 more before taking their own life. The setting and the ages of the victims evoked the 2022 massacre in Uvalde, Texas. That year, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law, a gun bill that contained politically safe reforms, such as the allocation of funds for mental health resources and school safety. 

After decades of congressional gridlock on the issue, the package was hailed as an epic breakthrough, a valiant example of bipartisan compromise that still mostly relied on Democrats for passage. The NSSF study, then, raises a key question: Why have Republican lawmakers largely stood against more significant reforms, let alone any reform at all? As the study indicates, many people with a favorable view of gun ownership appear open to going further than the lawmakers and special interests who represent them.

For people who the study says have a “positive feeling” about gun ownership, the study ranks the top five arguments for and against it. The top arguments in favor almost all revolve around rights, beginning with “Self-defense is a basic right,” followed by “Americans have the right to own a gun,” “It’s people’s right as Americans to own a gun,” and “Gun ownership is protected by the Constitution.” The remaining argument, which came in at No. 3, states, “Owning and training with a firearm teaches important skills, including responsibility, accuracy, safe gun handling, self-defense, and strategies to avoid dangerous situations.”

When told to rank the “most effective arguments against firearm ownership,” these same respondents chose policies that the gun industry and Republican lawmakers actively oppose. The argument the group found to be most effective is: “Universal background checks for gun sales and transactions are supported by approximately 85 percent of Americans.” 

Other statements deemed highly effective by these respondents included “Guns should be licensed just like cars,” “State red flag laws to remove guns from those who show warning signs of violence keep guns out of the hands of those who would harm themselves or others,” “Gun violence is an epidemic in the U.S.,” and “Common sense gun laws to close loopholes in current gun laws will save lives and prevent gun violence.”

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Trump administration has cut more than half of gun violence prevention programs

The Trump administration has terminated more than half of all federal funding for gun violence prevention programs in the U.S., cutting $158 million in grants that had been directed to groups in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, DC, and Baltimore, reported Reuters.

Of the 145 community violence intervention (CVI) grants totaling more than $300 million awarded through the U.S. Department of Justice, 69 grants were abruptly terminated, opens new tab in April, according to government data analyzed by Reuters.

The elimination of CVI programs is part of a broader rollback at the department's grant-issuing Office of Justice Programs, which terminated 365 grants valued at $811 million in April, impacting a range of public safety and victim services programs.

A DOJ official told Reuters the gun violence grants were eliminated because they "no longer effectuate the program's goals or agency's priorities." Thousands of Office of Justice Programs grants are under review, the official said, and are being evaluated, among other things, on how well they support law enforcement and combat violent crime.

The majority of CVI grants were originally funded through the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and part of a push by former President Joe Biden to stem the rise of gun violence in America, including establishing the first White House Office for Gun Violence Prevention.

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2nd Circuit upholds NY law allowing lawsuits against gun manufacturers

The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a New York law that permits state and private actors to sue gun manufacturers and sellers for contributing to gun violence, reported Jurist.

In its opinion, a three-judge panel rejected arguments that the state’s law is preempted by the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA), which shields gun makers from liability when their products are used unlawfully.

Writing for the majority, Judge Eunice Lee held that New York’s statute fits within PLCAA’s “predicate exception,” which allows liability where gun sellers knowingly violate state or federal laws related to the marketing or sale of firearms. Lee stated that “PLCAA’s text and history therefore do not clearly establish that the statute’s aim was to prevent state legislatures from creating avenues to hold gun manufacturers liable for downstream harms caused by their products.”

The panel also dismissed claims that the law discriminates against interstate commerce or violates the dormant Commerce Clause.

Judge Dennis Jacobs, concurring, called the statute “a broad public nuisance statute,” but agreed it survives a facial challenge under federal law, leaving open the door to narrower as-applied preemption challenges in future cases.

The ruling affirms a 2022 district court decision dismissing the case brought by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) and major gun manufacturers, including Glock and Smith & Wesson. NSSF general counsel Lawrence Keane argued that New York’s law “is intended to evade the will of Congress” in its passing of the PLCAA “to prevent baseless litigation from bankrupting an entire industry.”

In a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James called the decision “a massive victory for public safety and the rule of law” that “will help [New York] continue to fight the scourge of gun violence to keep our communities safe.”

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More American children and teens die from firearms than any other cause

More American children and teens die from firearms than any other cause, but there are more deaths — and wider racial disparities — in states with more permissive gun policies, according to a new study, reported by Nada Hassanein of Stateline.

The study, published in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics last week, analyzes trends in state firearm policies and kids’ deaths since 2010, after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago. The ruling struck down the city’s handgun ban, clearing the way for many states to make it easier for people to buy and carry guns.

The study authors split states into three groups: “most permissive,” “permissive” and “strict,” based on the stringency of their firearm policies. Those policies include safe storage laws, background checks and so-called Stand Your Ground laws. The researchers analyzed homicide and suicide rates and the children’s race.

Using statistical methods, the researchers calculated 6,029 excess deaths in the most permissive states between 2011 and 2023, compared with the number of deaths that would have been expected under the states’ pre-McDonald rules. There were 1,424 excess deaths in the states in the middle category.

In total, about 17,000 deaths were expected in the post-decision period, but 23,000 occurred, said lead author Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, in an interview.

Among the eight states with the strictest laws, four — California, Maryland, New York and Rhode Island — saw statistically significant decreases in their pediatric firearm death rates. Illinois, which was directly affected by the court’s decision in the McDonald case, and Connecticut saw increases in their rates. In Massachusetts and New Jersey, the changes were not statistically significant.

The rate increased in all but four (Alaska, Arizona, Nebraska and South Dakota) of the 41 states in the two permissive categories. (Hawaii was not included in the study due its low rates of firearm deaths.)

Non-Hispanic Black children and teens saw the largest increase in firearm deaths in the 41 states with looser gun laws. Those youths’ mortality rates increased, but by a much smaller amount, in the states with strict laws.

Experts say the study underscores the power of policy to help prevent firearm deaths among children and teens. The analysis comes less than a month after the release of a federal report on children’s health that purported to highlight the drivers of poor health in America’s children but failed to include anything on firearm injuries — the leading cause of death for children and teens in 2020 and 2021, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Trauma surgeon Dr. Marie Crandall, chair of surgery at MetroHealth medical center and a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, researches gun violence. She previously practiced at a Jacksonville, Florida, urban trauma unit, where she frequently saw children and teens caught in gun violence.

“When I see children come in with 10 holes in them that I can’t save — that is a loss. That is a completely preventable death, and it is deeply emotionally scarring to have to have those conversations with families when we know, as a society, there are things we could do to de-escalate,” said Crandall, who wasn’t involved in the new study.

When I see children come in with 10 holes in them that I can't save — that is a loss. That is a completely preventable death.

– Dr. Marie Crandall, chair of surgery, MetroHealth medical center, Cleveland

In her state of Ohio, firearm death rates among children and teens increased from 1.6 per 100,000 kids in the decade before the McDonald decision to 2.8 after it, according to the study. Ohio was categorized in the group with the most permissive laws.

The study adds to previous research that shows state laws around child access to firearms, such as safe storage and background checks, tend to be associated with fewer child firearm deaths.

“We know that child access prevention decreases unintentional injuries and suicides of children. So having your firearms locked, unloaded, stored separately from ammunition, decreases the likelihood of childhood injuries,” Crandall said. “More stringent regulation of those things also decreases childhood injuries.”

But she said it’s hard to be optimistic about more stringent regulation when the current administration dismisses gun violence as a public health emergency. The Trump administration earlier this year took down an advisory from the former U.S. surgeon general, issued last year, that emphasized gun violence as a public health crisis.

Faust, the lead author of the new study, stressed that firearm injuries and deaths were notably missing from the Make America Healthy Again Commission report on children’s health. He said the failure to include them illustrates the politicization of a major public health emergency for America’s kids.

“It’s hard to take them seriously if they’re omitting the leading cause of death,” Faust said. “They’re whiffing, they’re shanking. They’re deciding on a political basis not to do it. I would say by omitting it, they’re politicizing it.”

Faust and pediatric trauma surgeon Dr. Chethan Sathya, who directs the Center for Gun Violence Prevention at the Northwell Health system in New York, each pointed to the development of car seat laws and public health education, as examples of preventive strategies that helped reduce childhood fatalities. They support a similar approach to curbing youth gun deaths.

“We really have to apply a public health framework to this issue, not a political one, and we’ve done that with other issues in the past,” said Sathya, who wasn’t involved in the study and oversees his hospital’s firearm injury prevention programs. “There’s no question that this is a public health issue.”

In Louisiana, which the study categorized as one of the 30 most permissive states, the child firearm mortality rate increased from 4.1 per 100,000 kids in the pre-McDonald period to 5.7 after it — the nation’s highest rate. The study period only goes to 2023, but the state last year enacted a permitless carry law, allowing people to carry guns in public without undergoing background checks. And just last month, Louisiana legislators defeated a bill that would have created the crime of improper firearm storage.

Louisiana Democratic state Rep. Matthew Willard, who sponsored the safe storage legislation, said during the floor debate that its purpose was to protect children. Louisiana had the highest rate of unintentional shootings by children between 2015 to 2022, according to the research arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, which advocates for stricter gun access. Willard cited that statistic on the floor.

But Republican opponents said Willard’s proposal would infringe on residents’ gun rights and make it more difficult for them to use guns in self-defense.

“Nobody needs to come in our houses and tell us what to do with our guns. I think this is ridiculous,” Republican Rep. R. Dewith Carrier said during the debate.

Another Republican opponent, state Rep. Troy Romero, said he was concerned that having a firearm locked away would make it harder for an adult to quickly access it.

“If it’s behind a locked drawer, how in the world are you going, at 2 or 3 in the morning, going to be able to protect your family if somebody intrudes or comes into your home?” Romero said.

Gun violence researcher Julia Fleckman, an assistant professor, and her team at Tulane University in New Orleans have started to collect data on the impact of the state’s permitless carry law.

“It places a disproportionate impact on really vulnerable people, really, our most vulnerable people,” Fleckman said, noting kids bear the brunt of legislators’ decisions. “They don’t have a lot of control over this or the decisions we’re making.”

In South Carolina, another one of the most permissive states, the mortality rate increased from 2.3 to 3.9 per 100,000 kids in the time before and after the McDonald decision. South Carolina Democratic state Rep. JA Moore, who lost his adult sister 10 years ago today in the 2015 racist shooting that killed nine at a Charleston church, said state policy alone isn’t enough. He implored his colleagues to also examine their perception of guns.

“We have a culture here in South Carolina that doesn’t lend itself to a more safe South Carolina,” said Moore, who added he’s been advocating for background checks and stricter carry laws. “There is a need for a culture change in our state, in our country, when it comes to guns and our relationships with guns as Americans, realizing that these are deadly weapons.”

And investing in safer neighborhoods is crucial, he said.

“People are hurt by guns in places that they’re more comfortable, like their homes in their own neighborhoods,” he said.

Community-based interventions are important to stemming violence, experts said. Crandall, the Cleveland surgeon, said there’s emerging evidence that hospital-based and community-based violence prevention programs decrease the likelihood of violent and firearm-related injury.

Such programs aim to break cycles of violence by connecting injured patients with community engagement services. After New York City implemented its hospital-based violence interruption program, two-thirds of 3,500 violent trauma patients treated at five hospitals received community prevention services.

After her 33-year-old son was killed in her neighborhood in 2019, Michelle Bell started M-PAC Cleveland — “More Prayer, Activity & Conversation” — a nonprofit collaborative of people who’ve lost loved ones to violent crime. She’s encountered many grieving parents who lost their children to gunfire. The group advocates and educates for safe storage laws and holds peer grief support groups.

She also partners with the school district in a program that shares stories of gun violence’s long-lasting impact on surviving children, families and communities and non-violent interpersonal conflict resolution.

“Oftentimes, the family that has lost the child, the child’s life has been taken by gun violence, there are other children in the home,” she said.

“It’s so devastating. It’s just so tragic that the No. 1 cause of death for children 18 and under is gun violence,” Bell continued.

The decision to “pull a trigger,” she said, changes a “lifetime of not only yours, but so many other people.”

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American emergency rooms treat at least one firearm injury every 30 minutes

The COVID-19 pandemic and its corresponding increase in shootings sparked a national conversation around firearm injury, emergency room visits, and the treatment of gun violence victims in hospitals. Five years later, the conversation has faded, but new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that gun violence remains a stubborn presence across the country, with 93,022 shooting injuries treated in hospitals from 2018 to 2023. 

According to the research, an American emergency room treats at least one firearm injury every 30 minutes, reported The Trace.

“Most cities use police data to inform prevention planning, but data from hospital and public health sources is an essential, and often missing, piece to guide action, as many incidents of violence and crime are not reported to police,” said Dr. Adam Rowh, a medical epidemiologist at the CDC and lead author of the study, via e-mail to The Trace.

The study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine last month, analyzed the CDC’s data on emergency department firearm injuries, which is limited to the District of Columbia and nine states: Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. The study showed that the monthly rates for shooting injuries were highest in July and lowest in February; daily rates were disproportionately high on holidays, and nighttime peaks were the highest on Friday and Saturday, consistent with prior research. The researchers also found that rates were highest between 2:30 and 3:00 a.m., and were the lowest between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m. 

The authors of the study concluded that knowing the periods when gunshot injuries are highest could be essential both in deploying care and in effectively allocating resources, such as trauma preparedness, ambulance services, hospital staffing, and strategies for intervention. 

One of those strategies is hospital-based violence intervention programs (HVIPs), an effort aimed at mitigating reinjury by providing holistic and rehabilitative care to shooting victims. The model, first developed 30 years ago, has spread nationwide, and various programs fund their services through myriad resources, most notably through grants now facing the threat of cuts and closures. 

“It’s happening on every front,” January Serda, the grant coordinator of one such program in Newport News, Virginia, said of federal cuts to community violence intervention funding, education, and healthcare.

Dr. Randi Smith, a trauma surgeon who launched an HVIP at Grady Memorial Hospital, in Atlanta, Georgia, said she has attended to a gunshot victim on every one of her on-call days in the trauma center. Financial and social investment in such programs is as paramount to treatment as life-saving medical care, she emphasized. 

“I was very motivated to start a violence intervention program, taking best practices from some of the programs that I have been a part of and shortcomings that I had learned from the past,” Smith said. The program she started in 2023, Interrupting Violence Among Youth and Young Adults, is one of the few based in the Southeast. 

The program has served more than a thousand people, including survivors and their family members. According to Smith, its reinjury rates are less than 3 percent, compared with national benchmarks that are up to 30 percent and institutional benchmarks that are between 12 and 15 percent. 

Her work has a long legacy. Nearly four decades ago, physicians and nurses —  especially those with public health experience — were among the first cohort of medical practitioners to recognize gun violence as a public health issue. That recognition was largely based on what they witnessed in hospitals and emergency rooms, as the rate of shootings reached historic highs in the 1980s and ‘90s. Those firsthand accounts were pivotal in the development of the nation’s first hospital-based violence intervention programs.

Serda, the grant coordinator for an HVIP in Virginia, said in today’s multilayered crisis, it’s more paramount than ever to prioritize care for the people on the frontlines. She came to violence intervention from nonprofit management and fundraising for survivors of sexual assault in 2022, after her 17-year-old son, Justice Dunham, was fatally shot in a high school parking lot after a basketball game.

“I was blown away by the lack of training around trauma-informed care, or safe spaces and outlets, for nurses and practitioners, and people who are seeing this firsthand and helping the community,” said Serda, who began to advocate for trauma-informed initiatives designed to help patients, her HVIP team and others address the emotional impact of caring for victims of violence and firearm injuries. “There was no discussion about compassion fatigue, or burnout, or vicarious trauma.”

As hospital personnel adjust to the ever-evolving firearm violence crisis, Smith said listening to their experiences, and supporting their well-being, has never been more crucial. 

“I think a lot of people are looking at the recent news, post-pandemic, that shootings have decreased, and have not realized that we as hospital staff are still treating patients day after day,” said Smith, “dealing with a medical environment that shifted significantly since the pandemic, and navigating extreme burnout.”

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CREATORS: Gun Violence is a Health Epidemic in This Country

Matthew T. Mangino
CREATORS
May 5, 2025

Last summer, the U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence a public health crisis.

The advisory issued by the nation's top doctor was the first step to drive down gun deaths. Data from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that gun violence claimed 46,728 lives in 2023, down slightly from 2022, but still the third-highest annual gun-related deaths ever recorded in the United States.

Though they tend to get less public attention than gun-related murders, suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. In 2023, according to the Pew Research Center, 58% of all gun-related deaths in the U.S. were suicides.

With that in mind, only weeks into his new term, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to protect the Second Amendment: "The Second Amendment is an indispensable safeguard of security and liberty. It has preserved the right of the American people to protect ourselves, our families, and our freedoms since the founding of our great Nation. Because it is foundational to maintaining all other rights held by Americans, the right to keep and bear arms must not be infringed."

In March, consistent with the President's order, the administration removed the advisory on gun violence as a public health issue from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' website.

According to The Guardian, the CDC website "Firearm Violence in America," where the advisory had been posted, was filled with data and information about the ripple effects of shootings, the prevalence of firearm suicides and the number of American children and adolescents who have been shot and killed.

The removal of the website and the Surgeon General's warning is unconscionable. Gun violence is a health epidemic for young people in this country.

A report released in September of 2024, by the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, based on data from the CDC, found for the third straight year, firearms killed more children and teens, ages 1 to 17, than any other causes of death, including car crashes and cancer.

The CDC is part of the federal Department of Health and Human Services. HHS is slashing personnel from the CDC. In a recently issued fact sheet, HHS said the CDC's workforce was being reduced by 2,400 people, and the goal is to streamline divisions within the agency and get rid of redundancies.

Last month, the CDC's Injury Center and its Division of Violence Prevention — a unit that studies and works to prevent gun deaths and injuries — lost personnel.

According to National Public Radio, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, "(T)he reality is clear: what we've been doing isn't working. Despite spending $1.9 trillion in annual costs, Americans are getting sicker every year."

More than half a century ago, when Kennedy's father was the U.S. Attorney General, Luther L. Terry, M.D., Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service, released the first report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. Terry convened a committee of specialists who reviewed some 7,000 scientific articles and worked with more than 150 consultants to formulate the report, finding that cigarette smoking caused lung cancer.

The report spawned numerous other efforts at various levels of government to curb smoking, including the now-familiar surgeon general's warning on the side of cigarette packages, increased taxation, restrictions on advertising and limiting public areas where people can smoke, along with programs and products to help people kick the habit.

Fortunately, when former President Richard Nixon was elected in 1968, he didn't undo the work of Terry, nor has any president since. Why was that fortunate for America?

As a result of Terry's groundbreaking health advisory, it is estimated that, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association, between 1964 and 2014, 8 million lives were saved due to pervasive tobacco-control measures.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on Twitter @MatthewTMangino.

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Trump administration removes surgeon general's warning of gun violence as health emergency--47,000 died from firearms in 2023

 The Trump administration has removed the former surgeon general Vivek Murthy’s advisory on gun violence as a public health issue from the US Department of Health and Human Services’ website. This move was made to comply with Donald Trump’s executive order to protect second amendment rights, a White House official told the Guardian.

The “firearm violence in America” page, where the advisory had been posted, was filled with data and information about the ripple effects of shootings, the prevalence of firearm suicides and the number of American children and adolescents who have been shot and killed. Now, when someone reaches the site they will be met with a “page not found” message.

When it was originally released last summer, Murthy’s advisory was met with praise from violence prevention and research groups, and was lambasted by second amendment law centers and advocacy groups that argued the Biden administration was using public health as a cloak to push forward more gun control.

“This is an extension of the Biden Administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners. America has a crime problem caused by criminals,” the National Rifle Association (NRA) said in a statement posted to X on 25 July 2024.

But Daniel Semenza, a firearm violence researcher with Rutgers University, argues that talking about gun violence through a public health lens is meant to “bring the heat down” about a deeply politicized issue and broaden what prevention can look like.

In 2023, nearly 47,000 people died by firearms, most of them suicides.

“When people read gun violence is a public health problem, they read guns are a public health problem,” Semenza said. “This idea actually removes the politics from the issue and is an engine to get us on the same page. [The removal] feels like an unnecessary and mean-spirited way to politicize something that people have actively been trying to bring people together on.”

The removal of Murthy’s advisory and the rest of the information on the page is one of the thousands of pieces of health information and research removed from federal websites. They include information about vaccines, health risks among youth and gender-based violence, the New York Times reported.

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SCOTUS upholds restrictions on ghost guns

The Supreme Court upheld federal restrictions aimed at curtailing access to kits that can be easily assembled into homemade, nearly untraceable firearms, a rare move by a court that has taken an expansive view of gun rights, reported The New York Times.

In a 7-to-2 decision, written by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, one of the court’s conservatives, the justices left in place requirements enacted during the Biden administration as part of a broader effort to combat gun violence by placing restrictions on so-called ghost guns.

Justice Gorsuch included photographs, unusual in court opinions, to illustrate how one of the gun kits, Polymer80’s “Buy Build Shoot,” came with “all of the necessary components to build” a Glock-style semiautomatic weapon. He wrote that it was “so easy to assemble” that it could be put together in about 20 minutes.

“Plainly, the finished ‘Buy Build Shoot’ kit is an instrument of combat,” Justice Gorsuch wrote, adding that no one would confuse the pistol “with a tool or a toy.”

The ruling in favor of gun regulations is a departure for the court, which has shown itself to be skeptical of them — and of administrative agency power. Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Clarence Thomas, both conservatives, filed dissents.

The “weapon-parts kits themselves do not meet the statutory definition of ‘firearm,’” Justice Thomas wrote, important because Congress in 1968 agreed the government could legally impose some regulations on firearms. “That should end the case.”

Legal experts said the decision was a victory for those advocating more gun regulations.

“Although this is not a Second Amendment ruling, it shows that the justices are not uniformly hostile to gun regulation,” said Adam Winkler, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Ghost guns have been found in increasing numbers at crime scenes, and today’s decision should help the problem.”

The Biden administration in 2022 enacted rules tightening access to the weapons kits, after law enforcement agencies reported that ghost guns were exploding in popularity and being used to commit serious crimes.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimated that use of the gun components and kits in crime increased tenfold in the six years before the rules were adopted.

Among the regulations: requiring vendors and gun makers to be licensed to sell the kits, mandating serial numbers on the components so the weapons could be tracked and adding background checks for would-be buyers.

Steven M. Dettelbach, the former director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who shepherded the regulation, urged the Trump administration and Congress to “fully support” the agency to implement the ghost gun regulations. With support from the administration, he said in a statement, “today’s decision can save lives.”

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Gun rights groups based their challenge to the regulations by claiming that the government had overstepped its bounds in regulating the gun kits because they did not meet the definition of firearms under the Gun Control Act of 1968.

Opponents of gun regulations argued that most people who bought the kits were hobbyists, not criminals. In legal filings, the groups argued that a majority of firearms used in crimes were traditional weapons that were manufactured professionally.

Lawyers for the government, arguing in October while President Joseph R. Biden Jr. was in office, said the guns kits should be regulated as firearms because they allowed “anyone with basic tools and access to internet video tutorials to assemble a functional firearm ‘quickly and easily’ — often, in a matter of minutes.”

During the oral argument in Bondi v. VanDerStok, No. 23-852, a majority of the justices had appeared to favor keeping the rules in place. At least two conservatives, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, raised sharp questions about arguments by the plaintiffs that the administration had overstepped its bounds.

The justices had wrestled with how best to draw analogies to the gun kits. Chief Justice Roberts seemed skeptical of attempts by the gun rights lawyers to say that people who put together the kits were similar to amateur car hobbyists, saying that the kits seemed to require much less effort to put together.

“Drilling a hole or two,” Chief Justice Roberts said, “doesn’t give the same sort of reward that you get as working on your car on the weekends.”

Justice Gorsuch returned to this point in the opinion, explaining that the gun kits could be considered weapons even though they were unfinished objects because “their intended function is clear.”

An author might ask for an opinion on her latest novel, Justice Gorsuch wrote, even though the person was referring to an unfinished draft. A friend might talk about a table he bought at IKEA, even though he had hours of assembly ahead of him.

In both cases, the justice wrote, “the intended function of the unfinished object is obvious to speaker and listener alike.”

The same, he said, was true for the ghost gun kits.

“Yes, perhaps a half-hour of work is required before anyone can fire a shot,” Justice Gorsuch wrote. “But even as sold, the kit comes with all necessary components, and its intended function as instrument of combat is obvious. Really, the kit’s name says it all: ‘Buy Build Shoot.’”

Like Justice Gorsuch, Justice Thomas also included photographs of gun kits to illustrate his point. But he came to the opposite conclusion.

Justice Thomas wrote that in his view, an object that “may readily be converted” into a gun would only qualify as a firearm if it was already a weapon.

“The ordinary meaning of ‘weapon’ does not include weapon-parts kits,” he wrote.

His point echoed a debate from the oral argument, when Justice Alito disputed the idea that the gun kits could count as firearms. Justice Alito made an analogy to cooking an omelet in his questions to the government’s lawyer.

As in, when do the components of a gun become a firearm?

“If I show you — I put out on a counter some eggs, some chopped-up ham, some chopped-up pepper and onions, is that a Western omelet?” Justice Alito asked.

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Pa. High Court to Decide Whether Flight in a High Crime Area Can Result in an Investigative Stop

Matthew T. Mangino
The Legal Intelligencer
February 6, 2025

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will decide whether unprovoked flight from the police in a high crime area provides police with the requisite reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigatory detention.

In 2021, following a bench trial, Phillip Shivers was convicted of violating 18 Pa.C.S.A. 6105, 18 Pa.C.S.A 6106 and 18 Pa.C.S.A 6108 under the Uniformed Firearms Act. On July 18, 2019, Philadelphia police were on regular patrol in a neighborhood known for "drug activity and gun violence.” Shivers was observed near the entrance of a nearby a 7-Eleven.

As police approached Shivers, he took off running. He was soon detained by police where it was discovered that Shivers illegally possessed a firearm.

Shivers sought to suppress the discovery of the firearm based on the premise that the police violated Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution in not having reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigator detention. The motion to suppress was denied, and he was convicted following a bench trial. The language of Article I, Section 8 and the Fourth Amendment are very similar.

On direct appeal to the Pennsylvania Superior Court, Shivers challenged the trial court’s ruling dismissing his suppression motion.

There are three distinct levels of interaction between police officers and citizens:

• a mere encounter;
• an investigative detention;
• a custodial detention.

In this instance, the police did not have probable cause to detain or arrest Shivers. Prosecutors contend what started as mere encounter evolved into reasonable suspicion as Shivers fled from the police while in a high crime area.

Shivers asserted the police provoked his flight by pursuing him as he walked away, and that the Pennsylvania Constitution provides greater protections to an individual subject to detention than does the U.S. Constitution.

In Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119 (2000), the U.S. Supreme Court held that an unprovoked flight in a high crime area is sufficient to create reasonable suspicion to justify an investigatory detention pursuant to Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S 1 (1968).

Let’s look at Terry first. On Oct. 31, 1963, while walking the beat through downtown Cleveland, police detective Martin McFadden, with 39 years of police experience, noticed three men acting suspiciously and pacing in front of a jewelry store on Euclid Avenue.

McFadden, based on his years of experience was concerned the men were “casing a job, a stick up” and were carrying weapons. McFadden identified himself as a police officer and asked their names and searched the three for weapons.

The searches resulted in John Terry’s arrest for possessing a firearm without a license. He was convicted and appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although the Supreme Court in Terry acknowledged that a hunch was not enough, the court carved out a new standard of proof—reasonable suspicion.

Some 30 years later, in Chicago, Sam Wardlow was holding a bag on a city street known for heavy narcotics trafficking. After noticing police officers in the area, Wardlow fled on foot. When officers caught up with him, they conducted a protective Terry pat-down search for weapons, their training and experience told them that weapons are usually in the vicinity of narcotics transactions. The officers arrested Wardlow after discovering that he was carrying a handgun.

At a suppression hearing, Wardlow claimed that in order to stop an individual, short of actually arresting the person, police first had to have reasonable suspicion to conduct an investigatory detention. The motion was denied and he was convicted at trial.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for a 5-4 majority, held that police officers did not violate the Fourth Amendment when they stopped Wardlow, because the officers were justified in suspecting that the accused was involved in criminal activity and, therefore, justified in investigating further. Rehnquist wrote "flight is the consummate act of evasion."

In 1999, it appeared that Pennsylvania would adopt a contrary position on flight as a factor in reasonable suspicion determinations. In the Interest of D.M., 743 A.2d 422 (Pa. 1999), police received an anonymous phone call about a man with a gun on a street corner in Philadelphia. The call stated that he was a Black male and described his clothing. The officer was only a block away when he heard the radio call. He drove to the corner and saw D.M. who matched the description. D.M. ran from the officer and police ultimately caught up with him.

The court held that his flight was irrelevant to the reasonable suspicion analysis because D.M. did nothing to arouse the officer’s suspicion before he fled. Finding the matching of the nondetailed clothing description alone insufficient to provide reasonable suspicion for a seizure, the court held that there was a violation of the Fourth Amendment and Article I, Section 8.

In light of the Wardlow decision, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the decision in D.M. and ordered reconsideration of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision. On remand, the court reversed its earlier Fourth Amendment ruling and held that it incorrectly ruled that flight was irrelevant to the reasonable suspicion analysis. “The totality of the circumstances test, by its very definition, requires that the whole picture be considered when determining whether the police possessed the requisite cause to stop appellant,” and “flight was clearly relevant.”

In recent years, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has limited long accepted indicia of reasonable suspicion due to evolving legislation with regard to firearms and marijuana.

In Commonwealth v. Hicks, 208 A.3d 916 (Pa. 2019), this court held that criminal activity justifying a stop could not be inferred from carrying a concealed gun in public because many people have licenses to carry firearms. The court held, the conduct at issue was solely possession of the gun, “there remains no particularized basis upon which to suspect that Hick’s mere possession of a concealed firearm was unlawful.”

In Commonwealth v. Barr, 266 A.3d 25 (Pa. 2021), the commonwealth claimed that there was probable cause to search a vehicle solely because police smelled marijuana after a lawful traffic stop, and the stop was in a high crime area. The Medical Marijuana Act now permits many people to have a license to possess marijuana. As the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, held a stop based on the mere smell of marijuana was unconstitutional.

Shivers contends the Pennsylvania Constitution, Article I, Section 8, can go further than the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in protecting people during investigatory detentions. Fleeing is an individual’s decision, and fleeing—in and of itself—is not a basis for reasonable suspicion. Being in a high crime area is not the conduct of an individual, but the conduct of others. Innocent people are in high crime areas—they may live there or work there or have friends or family living there, through no choice of their own. At times, innocent people flee from the police in high crime areas due to a fear of dangerous and even deadly encounters with the police.

The case is Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Shivers, 50 EAP 2024.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly and George and the former district attorney of Lawrence County. He is the author of "The Executioner’s Toll." You can follow him on Bluesky @matthewmangino.bsky.social or contact him at mmangino@lgkg.com.

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PA prosecutors want statewide ban on machine gun conversion devises

The Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association (PDAA) called on state lawmakers to help find solutions for several public safety concerns, which includes adopting a statewide ban on machine gun conversion devices, also known as “switches.” These devices enable shooters to unload an entire magazine of bullets in a couple of seconds, reported WJET-TV in Erie, Pennsylvania. 

The PDAA says machine gun conversion devices are inexpensive, easily obtained by criminals, and can be manufactured with 3D printers.

The letter cites the March 2024 after-school shooting at a SEPTA bus stop in Northeast Philadelphia, where three teenagers used a machine gun conversion device and eight high school students were severely injured. Philadelphia Police say one of the teenage shooters had a switch on a .40 caliber handgun, which allowed him to shoot 23 rounds in less than two seconds.

While the devices are illegal under federal law, most of the gun cases in Pennsylvania are prosecuted on the county or state level. This, the PDAA argues, is why the organization is asking lawmakers to give state prosecutors “the tools they need to get these devices off the streets and stop endangering our law enforcement officers, who simply do not have the same firepower as criminals carrying these machine gun-like weapons.”

To read the full letter, click here.

U.S. gun violence continued to decline significantly in 2024

Gun violence in the United States continued to decline significantly in 2024, providing yet another signal that the pandemic-era surge has come to an end, reported The Trace. Firearm deaths and injuries dropped for a third straight year. Homicides in major cities, mass shootings, and child and teen gun deaths also fell.

Yet the toll of gun violence remains. Even as shootings decline, tens of thousands of lives continue to be lost or permanently changed by guns.

Data helps provide a clearer picture of gun violence trends, informing prevention efforts and highlighting both the progress made and the challenges that remain. 

Here are two of 13 statistics offered by The Trace that help shed light on America’s gun violence epidemic.

16,576

The number of firearm deaths, excluding suicides, in 2024

Gun deaths decreased for a third consecutive year, dropping 12 percent from 2023’s total of nearly 19,000. While still slightly above pre-pandemic levels, gun deaths this year were 21 percent lower than the pandemic-era peak of more than 21,000 in 2021. These figures, compiled by the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, include murders, accidental shootings, and homicides deemed legally justified. GVA does not track suicides, which account for more than half of all gun deaths. [Gun Violence Archive]

-14 percent

The decrease in firearm injuries in 2024

Firearm injuries fell to 31,409 in 2024 — down nearly 14 percent from 2023, when there were 36,338. Tracking gun injuries is challenging. The Gun Violence Archive attempts it by monitoring media reports, which may not capture all incidents. Still, the data suggests a significant overall decline in firearm injuries. [Gun Violence Archive]

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New gun laws take effect with the new year

Gun laws across the US states are undergoing changes in 2025, with many states strengthening gun safety laws while others have expanded the rights of firearm owners, reflecting the polarization on the issue of gun control in the country, writes Sean Nolan for Jurist.

While new laws taking effect January 1, 2025 in California, Colorado, New York, Delaware and Minnesota have focused on increasing gun control in various ways, laws in New Hampshire and Kentucky have expanded in favor of strengthening the right to own and use firearms. Legislation enacted during 2024 in South Carolina and Louisiana that legalized open carry without a permit further paints a picture of a country moving in two different directions.

In California, several laws are taking effect, including AB1483, AB1598, and AB2917. New rules include the strengthening of limitations pertaining to the purchase of handguns, including consumer warnings on firearm sales, and creating guidance for courts when considering restraining orders related to gun violence. New York has enacted a similar law to California’s, requiring consumer warnings when purchasing firearms.

Colorado’s new law requires gun owners who store their weapon in an unoccupied vehicle to do so in a locked out-of-view hard-sided container. Colorado also increased training requirements for concealed carry permits while prohibiting particular misdemeanor offenders from obtaining the permits. The new concealed carry laws will go into effect later this year in July.

Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s new gun laws for 2025 bar employers from preventing employee storage of firearms in locked vehicles, and increase privacy protections for gun owners. The new Kentucky law similarly increases privacy protections by prohibiting use of merchant category codes for firearms dealers. The codes are used to help financial institution track where a purchase is made from but do not necessarily detail what is being bought.

In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which represented the first comprehensive gun reform bill undertaken by Congress in 30 years. The bill expanded background checks and restrictions on who can own a gun but fell short of the goals set by progressive lawmakers. Last year the administration issued an executive order intended to reduce gun violence, and in July the Department of Justice expanded firearms background check requirements for gun dealers.

With the pro-gun Trump administration, Republican majority Congress, and a gun rights friendly US Supreme Court, the country stands to face a potential reckoning over the widening gap in the treatment of gun violence and safety issues across the nation.

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Theory that gun restrictions must align with nation’s history and tradition generates pattern of partisan decisions

 In 2011, a federal appeals court voted 2-1 to uphold Washington, D.C.’s assault weapons ban. The lone dissent came from then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, who argued that a gun restriction could only be constitutional if it fit with the nation’s history and tradition of gun regulation. Such a test, he wrote, would be “much less subjective,” preventing judges from injecting their personal ideologies. 

Eleven years later, in June 2022, Kavanaugh and his Republican-appointed allies on the Supreme Court incorporated that test into their decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, reshaping the right to bear arms and setting off a flurry of legal challenges to gun regulations.

But a new analysis by The Trace of more than 1,600 Second Amendment rulings filed in the wake of Bruen found that, instead of limiting judges’ discretion as Kavanaugh and the other conservative justices predicted, the decision has made federal courts even more of a political battleground, where gun laws rise and fall along partisan lines.

The Trace’s analysis identified 150 lawsuits seeking to overturn state assault weapons bans, age limits on buying firearms, licensing rules, and other gun restrictions. In these cases — many of which were brought by the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups — Republican-appointed judges sided with plaintiffs 48 percent of the time. 

That is four times the rate of Democratic appointees, who did so in 13 percent of the cases they heard.

The remaining 1,450 rulings reviewed by The Trace involved criminal defendants, many of whom were using Bruen in an attempt to have their charges or convictions thrown out. In these cases, some Democratic judges have been sympathetic to arguments that gun regulations not only have little historical support but also disproportionately affect marginalized groups.

Democratic appointees have sided with gun rights claims in 30 out of the 525 criminal cases they’ve heard, or 6 percent. Two judges — Robert Gettleman and Staci Yandle, both in Illinois — alone issued 17 of those 30 rulings. By comparison, Republican-appointed judges ruled in favor of defendants in 22 out of 748 criminal cases, or 3 percent. (The remaining criminal cases were heard by nonpartisan magistrate judges.)

“You’ve got the same Supreme Court decision, yet you’re getting this ideological difference in how the same rule is applied by all these different people,” said Jeremy Fogel, who served as a federal judge in California for 20 years before retiring in 2018. “It undermines trust when people think that judges are just deciding cases based on their policy preferences.”

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Convenience store owner shoots Black child falsely accused of shoplifting

On November 10, 58-year-old Rick Chow, owner of Columbia’s Xpress Mart Shell Station in South Carolina, chased and shot 14-year-old Cyrus Carmack-Belton whom he falsely accused of shoplifting, reported Martie Bowser at Blavity News. 

According to local news station WLTX, Chow accused Carmack-Belton of stealing four water bottles.  

During a press conference on Monday, Sheriff Leon Lott revealed the teenager had not shoplifted anything from the store. He later described the shooting as “unjustified” and “senseless.”

As he commented on Sunday’s tragic event, Lott told the media and members of the community, “You don’t do what happened last night.”

The interaction between Chow and Carmack-Belton began around 8 p.m. The teen and the store owner argued after Chow accused the 14-year-old of stealing water he touched.

Although Carmack-Belton touched the bottles, surveillance footage showed he placed them back in the cooler.

After the teen left the store, Chow’s son chased Carmack-Belton into a nearby apartment complex.

Lott stated the teen tripped and fell before Chow shot him in the back after his son claimed the teen had a gun.

The outlet reports authorities confirmed Carmack-Belton had a gun, but he didn’t point it at the father and son.

The Richland County coroner, Naida Rutherford, reported the gunshot wound injured the teen’s heart.

She later took to social media to clear up any misinformation about the shooting, stating it would be ruled a homicide.

Lott was openly distraught during the press conference. The Daily Mail transcribed the transgressions he felt with Chow’s actions.

“You don’t shoot somebody in the back if he’s not a threat to you. It’s the same standard that we do, that cops have to live by. You have to be defending someone’s life or your life. There has to be immediate danger to you.”

He emphasized the teen was running away with his back turned and wasn’t pointing a gun at anyone.

“Even if he had shoplifted four bottles of water, it’s not something you shoot anyone over much less a 14-year-old.”

Since the shooting, the convenience store on Parklane Road has been vandalized and looted in retaliation for the murder.

Community members have held multiple protests and vigils at the location, demanding justice for the teenager.

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Creators: The US Supreme Court Takes up Ghost Guns

Matthew T. Mangino
Creators Syndicate
October 8, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court opened its new term this week with a near-record-low approval rating of 43%, according to a recent Gallup poll.

The new term promises to be closely followed with a number of politically charged cases, including another gun rights case. Last term, the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on bump stocks in a 6-3 decision. Bump stocks are so-called conversion devices for semiautomatic AR-style rifles — allowing a rifle to fire like a machine gun.

This term, the justices will hear arguments on the regulation of ghost guns. The untraceable guns are assembled without serial numbers. Ghost gun kits can be bought online without presenting identification or undergoing the background check required by federally licensed dealers. The gun kits can be purchased anonymously through a variety of methods commonly used online.

Under federal law, gun manufacturers and dealers have to obtain a federal license, keep records of gun sales and transfers, conduct background checks, and in the case of manufacturers, stamp the firearms with serial numbers. Law enforcement officials use those serial numbers to track guns used in crimes.

The problem for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was that these rules don't apply uniformly to homemade guns, which have become increasingly popular.

Between 2016 to 2022, ATF agents saw a tenfold increase in reports of ghost guns. In fact, 14,000 suspected ghost guns were recovered by law enforcement and reported to the ATF in just five months last year, according to the Justice Department.

Not to mention, firearm violence generally is a public health tragedy. According to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 48,204 people died by firearms in the United States in 2022 — an average of one death every 11 minutes.

In 2022, in an effort to deal with ghost guns, the ATF implemented a rule amending the definition of a "firearm" to include certain weapon components that "may be readily converted into firearms," as well as certain partially complete, disassembled or nonfunctional frames or receivers.

According to the Constitutional Accountability Center, an organization that filed a "friend of the court" brief in the matter before the Supreme Court, "The ATF's rule is consistent with the plain text of the GCA (Gun Control Act of 1968)."

According to the CAC, the ordinary meaning of the GCA's phrase "may be readily converted" indisputably covers the kits and devices specified in ATF's rule, which "may be readily converted" into fully functional firearms.

The CAC argues that when an "amateur working at home transforms a weapons parts kit into a finished state with fairly quick efficiency, that person 'readily ... convert[s]' the kit into a weapon that 'expel[s] a projectile by the action of an explosive' within the meaning of the GCA."

The rule's challengers have argued that the changes made by ATF are "inconsistent" with the definition of a firearm, according to NBC News. "An incomplete collection of parts isn't a weapon," they argued in their brief to the Supreme Court, and it's up to Congress, not the ATF, to decide whether privately made guns should be regulated.

The question is whether a majority of this Supreme Court — which often, as we saw last year, takes an expansive view of gun rights — will sign onto this attempt to evade background checks and serial numbers for ghost guns.

In 2023, in a surprising alignment of justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined the court's three Democratic appointees in issuing a temporary order to leave the status quo — the background check and serial number requirements — until the high court resolves the ghost gun issue.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on the ATF rule on Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book "The Executioner's Toll, 2010" was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on X @MatthewTMangino.

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Biden issues executive order targeting 'emerging firearms threats'

President Joe Biden is creating a federal task force to target “emerging firearms threats,” including cheap devices that can convert commonly owned semiautomatic pistols into fully automatic machine guns, reported The Trace. 

The executive order, signed by Biden during an event on September 26, also seeks to crack down on 3D-printed guns and improve school active shooter drills. It likely marks one of the last gun violence initiatives of his presidency, with a little more than a month to go before the 2024 election and four months before the inauguration of his successor.

“The streets are flooded with machine gun conversion devices because the parts are small, cheap, and easy to make. The impact of these devices is devastating,” Biden said. “It’s about sending a clear message to local law enforcement, and cities across the country, that we’re here to help, and together we can save lives.”

The new Emerging Firearms Threats Task Force — composed of leaders from several federal departments and agencies — will be responsible for developing a plan to combat machine gun conversion devices. The devices, also known as Glock switches, auto sears, or trigger activators, have been showing up at crime scenes in increasing numbers.  

One recent example was in Birmingham, Alabama, where four people were killed and 17 injured in a mass shooting on September 21. Law enforcement recovered more than 100 shell casings and believe machine gun conversion devices were used. While the devices are illegal on the federal level, Alabama and some other states do not have state-level bans, leaving local law enforcement with few tools to arrest and prosecute people caught with the devices.

Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin was among dozens of gun violence prevention advocates, law enforcement officials, and others who attended the September 26 signing ceremony. 

 “We’ve been working with our U.S. attorney, with the Justice Department, to get machine gun conversions like Glock switches off our city streets,” Woodfin said. “But still, my community, and I imagine other communities, are still finding the use of these devices at crime scene after crime scene.”

The ceremony marked the first time that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democratic nominee for president, have appeared together at a gun violence-focused event since Biden placed Harris in charge of the new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention one year ago.

“For as much as we have accomplished, more must be done,” Harris said. “We need more leaders like the leaders in this room, in Congress, who have the courage to take action, to stand up to the gun lobby, and to put the lives of our children first.”

To read more CLICK HERE

 

Three mass killings of four or more in Alabama this year

A late night shooting in Birmingham’s Five Points South neighborhood left four dead and 17 injured is one of three quadruple homicides in the city thus far in 2024, according to AL.com.

On July 13, a drive-by shooting at an adult birthday party left four people dead and nine others injured. The victims were Angela Weatherspoon, 56, of Center Point, Markeisha Gettings, 42, of Birmingham, Stevie McGhee, 39, of Birmingham, and Lerandus Anderson, 24, of Center Point.

On Feb. 16, four men were killed in a drive-by shooting in the Smithfield neighborhood. Talton “TJ” Tait, 36, Cortez Ray, 32, Terrell Edwards, 38, and Kevin McGhee, 38, were killed in that shooting.

It also the most recent mass homicide in the state.

The FBI defines mass killings as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer, according to The Associated Press.

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Kentucky sheriff allegedly shoots and kills judge in courthouse

 A Kentucky sheriff allegedly shot and killed a district judge after the two had an argument inside the judge’s chambers, according to CNN.

District Judge Kevin Mullins, 54, was found around 3 p.m. Thursday with multiple gunshot wounds and he was pronounced dead at the Letcher County courthouse in Whitesburg, Kentucky, Kentucky State Police Trooper Matt Gayheart said at a Thursday evening news conference.

Letcher County Sheriff Shawn M. Stines, 43, shot Mullins after an argument inside the judge’s chambers, a preliminary investigation revealed. Stines is now facing a first-degree murder charge, state police said. CNN is trying to determine whether Stines has retained an attorney.

Stines turned himself in after the shooting and was arrested at the scene without incident on Thursday, authorities said. He is cooperating with authorities, Gayheart said. It is unclear who will take over as the county sheriff following the arrest of Stines, who had been sheriff for about eight years.

“This community is small in nature, and we’re all shook,” Gayheart said about the shooting.

While other people were in the building at the time, no one else was inside the judge’s chambers and no other injuries were reported. There’s no threat to the public, Gayheart added.

Law enforcement has yet to release details about the argument that led up to the shots being fired, and the motive remains under investigation, Gayheart said, adding that the incident was “isolated.”

“We’re still trying to get answers to what led up to the actual shooting itself and the moments prior to the shooting,” Gayheart said.

The killing came less than two weeks after southeast Kentucky was rocked by a shooting at an interstate that wounded five people in Laurel County earlier this month. And just three days ago, a Russell Countydeputy had been killed in the line of duty, officials said.

“There is far too much violence in this world, and I pray there is a path to a better tomorrow,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a social media post.

To read more CLICK HERE

Creators: We Need to Squeeze Some Intelligence Into the Discussion About School Shootings

Matthew T. Mangino
Creators Syndicate
September 10, 2024

In the aftermath of another school shooting, this time in Georgia, parents will be clamoring to keep guns out of the hands of would-be mass killers, school boards will be looking for money to bring more armed security into school buildings, and politicians will be telling every interest group exactly what they want to hear.

Schools don't need more school resource officers, armed guards or, for that matter, armed teachers. Schools need to become adept at gathering information, sharing intelligence and, most importantly, making sense of what they learn.

The mother of the suspected Apalachee High School gunman told family members that she called the school on the morning of the shooting and warned a counselor about an "extreme emergency" involving her 14-year-old son, "according to text messages obtained by The Washington Post and an interview with a family member."

That account is supported by a call log from the family's shared phone plan, which shows a 10-minute call from the mother's phone to the school starting at 9:50 a.m. — about a half-hour before witnesses said the gunman opened fire.

In Uvalde, Texas, we learned far too well that good guys, many good guys, with guns can't always stop a bad guy with a gun. In Florida, Nikolas Cruz was sentenced to life in prison after killing 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. The school's resource officer was criminally charged for failing to enter the school and confront Cruz. He was ultimately tried and acquitted.

Nearly every school in America has prepared for a shooting, more than 96% of public schools hold active-shooter drills, reports The Washington Post. Active shooter training, although needed, is a reaction to a shooting — not an effort to prevent one. According to the Post, "A pricey, multilayered security plan can be undone by something as small as an open door and a school police force can fail to prevent a worst-case scenario."

Target hardening and emergency response strategies are important components to minimize, or even deter, an attack. Intelligence is essential to preventing one.

School attacks are often the result of meticulous planning. With planning comes the potential for leaving clues. Jeff Kaas, author of "Columbine: A True Crime Story," wrote in the Post that 81% of school shooters tell someone about their plans. In addition, most attackers engaged in some behavior before the attack that caused others concern or indicated a need for help.

Suspicious conduct, indirect threats, even alarming expressions in school assignments need to be documented. Information must be shared so that a coherent snapshot can be created of a potentially volatile situation.

School districts need to collect, document and share intelligence. To that end, schools should establish fusion coordinators, "intel officers," who can synthesize documented activity occurring in school, outside of school and on social media networks. Teachers, administrators and staff should have regular roundtable discussions about unusual behavior, threats, bullying and social isolation of students.

Would a school district be better off with another armed resource officer or intelligence officer armed with a laptop, cellphone, intelligence software and an email serving as a central point of contact trying to make sense of information from teachers, staff, students and outside public sources?

Intelligence has been cultivated and used effectively in this country's antiterrorism efforts. An intelligence model might not only help prevent a violent rampage but may assist school districts to more effectively reach out to students who need support, counseling or more specific interventions.

One thing is for certain: What America is doing to address mass school shootings is not working. The time is right to look at other options, and just maybe the next officer a school district should hire is an intelligence officer, not a police officer.

Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George P.C. His book The Executioner's Toll, 2010 was released by McFarland Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and follow him on X @MatthewTMangino.

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