Category Archives: US gun control

Seven children, ages 12 to 17, wounded in Indianapolis mass shooting, police say

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Victims transported to area hospitals after police heard shots fired near Circle Centre Mall on Saturday night

Seven children between the ages of 12 and 17 were wounded in one of the US’s latest mass shooting, which erupted outside a shopping mall in downtown Indianapolis late Saturday night, authorities said.

Police officers patrolling the area heard shots fired near the Circle Centre Mall shortly after 11.30pm, said the deputy chief of the Indianapolis metropolitan police department, Tanya Terry.

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Arizona court rules Mexico can proceed with lawsuit against five US gun dealers

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Companies accused of facilitating gun trafficking and and of being responsible for bloodshed that their guns contribute to in Mexico

A trial court in Arizona has ruled that the Mexican government may proceed in its trailblazing lawsuit against five US gun dealers, who stand accused of facilitating gun trafficking across the border into Mexico.

Mexico argues that the companies’ marketing campaigns and distribution practices mean that they are legally responsible for the bloodshed that their guns contribute to.

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Wyoming governor vetoes bill on concealed carry of guns in public schools

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Bill vetoed by Republican Mark Gordon, who expressed concerns about separation of powers, also covers government meetings

The Republican governor of Wyoming, Mark Gordon, has vetoed a bill that would have allowed people to carry concealed guns in public schools and government meetings.

In his veto letter Friday night, Gordon said he had concerns the bill would exceed the separation-of-powers provision in the state constitution since any policy, further regulation or clarification of the law could only be implemented by the Wyoming legislature.

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Kamala Harris announces new office to implement ‘red flag’ gun control laws

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Vice-president launches national resource center at site of 2018 Florida school shooting where 17 were killed

The White House has announced a new national office to support states implementing “red flag” laws to combat gun violence, an initiative funded by the justice department.

Kamala Harris made the announcement on Saturday during a visit to Parkland, Florida, where she toured the site of the nation’s worst high school shooting, the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas massacre that killed 17.

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Police had cause to detain gunman before deadly Maine shooting last year – report

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Before Robert Card killed 18 last year, police had opportunity to seize his guns and place him in custody after several incidents

Law enforcement should have seized a man’s guns and put him in protective custody weeks before he committed Maine’s deadliest mass shooting, a report found Friday.

An independent commission has been reviewing the events that led up to army reservist Robert Card killing 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston on 25 October, as well as the subsequent response.

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Gunman who killed 18 in Maine shooting had brain injury, study shows

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Brain tissue analysis showed degeneration in the nerve fibers that allow for communication between different areas of the brain

An army reservist who shot and killed 18 people in Maine last year had evidence of traumatic brain injuries, according to a brain tissue analysis by researchers from Boston University.

There was degeneration in the nerve fibers that allow for communication between different areas of the brain, inflammation and small blood vessel injury, according to Dr Ann McKee of Boston University’s Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) center. The analysis was released Wednesday by the family of the deceased gunman and military reservist, Robert Card.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

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Patrick Mahomes visits sisters injured in Super Bowl parade shooting

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Champion quarterback makes hospital visit to Madison and Melia Reyes, who were hit by gunfire in Kansas City mass shooting

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, visited two young sisters who were both shot in the legs during Wednesday’s parade for the reigning Super Bowl champions.

The Mahomeses on Thursday paid a call to 10-year-old Madison Reyes and Melia Reyes, age eight, at Children’s Mercy hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, where they were recovering from surgeries.

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Boy injured in Osteen church shooting lost ‘portion of his frontal lobe’

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Samuel Moreno-Carranza’s grandmother posted about boy’s condition, who was injured when police killed the shooter – his mother

A boy who was shot in the head at celebrity Joel Osteen’s Houston megachurch on 11 February has lost “a portion of his frontal lobe” while recovering at the hospital, according to his grandmother.

In a Facebook post three days after the shooting, Walli Carranza said her seven-year-old grandson – Samuel Moreno-Carranza – “has lost a major part of what makes us who we are” after “half of his right skull [had] to be surgically removed during two surgeries done in less than 24 hours”. Samuel had endured “cardiac arrest multiple times, and no one can determine whether he has significant brain activity because his scalp tissue is too friable” to let doctors attach electroencephalogram wires to him, Carranza added in a post that doubled as a criticism of the US’s lack of meaningful gun control.

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New York jury begins deliberations in NRA civil corruption trial

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Gun rights group and ex-leader Wayne LaPierre accused of being ‘caught with their hands in the cookie jar’ over lavish spending

A New York state jury on Friday began its deliberations in the civil corruption trial of the National Rifle Association and its former long-serving leader Wayne LaPierre.

Jurors started deliberating a day after a lawyer with the New York attorney general’s office said on Friday that the NRA and LaPierre were caught “with their hands in the cookie jar”, summarizing accusations that the gun rights group’s executives wildly misspent millions of dollars on private flights, vacations and other lavish perks.

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Michigan school shooter’s mother on trial for manslaughter in student deaths

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Prosecutors say parents made gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley and ignored his mental health needs

Jury selection began on Tuesday in the trial of the mother of a teenager who carried out a deadly mass shooting at his school on involuntary manslaughter charges in an unusual effort to pin criminal responsibility on the shooter’s parents for the deaths of four students.

Jennifer and James Crumbley are not accused of knowing their son planned to kill fellow students at Oxford high school in 2021. But prosecutors said they made a gun accessible to Ethan Crumbley, ignored his mental health needs and declined to take him home when confronted with his violent drawings at school on the day of the attack.

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‘Personal piggy bank’: ex-NRA chief accused as civil corruption trial begins

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Trial under way in New York despite Wayne LaPierre announcing on Friday that he is stepping down as lobby group’s chief executive

A civil trial that will lift the lid on decades of alleged financial mismanagement and corruption by senior officials of the National Rifle Association (NRA) got under way in New York on Monday, with opening statements expected later in the day.

The case against the gun rights group’s former chief executive Wayne LaPierre and other executives is progressing despite LaPierre’s resignation on Friday, and a pre-trial settlement by another of the four defendants, former chief of staff Joshua Powell.

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Former NRA chief of staff admits wrongdoing before corruption trial

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Joshua Powell, one of five defendants in lawsuit including former CEO Wayne LaPierre, has agreed to pay $100,000

A former chief of staff to Wayne LaPierre – who resigned as the National Rifle Association’s chief executive on Friday – has agreed to a $100,000 settlement in connection with a civil lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general’s office.

As part of the settlement announced on Saturday, Joshua Powell – one of five defendants in the lawsuit against the NRA, a gun-rights organization – admitted to wrongdoing in failing to fulfill his fiduciary responsibilities and misusing charitable funds.

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Sandy Hook parents press gunmakers to stop marketing weapons of war to kids

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Families of children killed in massacre call out manufacturers’ push to sell weapons to adolescents

Parents of children massacred in the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting are stepping up their anti-gun violence campaign by exposing how the firearms industry is marketing weapons of war specifically to vulnerable adolescents.

In a fresh stage in their battle to staunch the rising loss of life from mass shootings, Sandy Hook parents are pressuring gun manufacturers to stop what they say is a cynical and aggressive effort to sell military-style weapons to young and impressionable Americans. They are alarmed by a shift in tone in gun advertising in which, they say, major companies have consciously decided to boost profits by targeting kids as young as 10.

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New gun safety laws take effect around US after over 650 mass shootings in 2023

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California, Illinois and Colorado among states implementing ‘red flag’ laws after US ends 2023 with more mass shootings than days

New gun safety laws are taking effect in several states around the US on 1 January after the country ended 2023 with more mass shootings than days.

States including California, Illinois and Colorado are starting the year by implementing extreme risk protection orders, more commonly referred to as “red flag” laws, as a means to prevent further gun violence. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 655 mass shootings in the US in 2023.

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Kentucky mass shooter detailed mental health issues and ease of gun purchase

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Gunman who killed five in April wrote in journal how ‘ridiculous’ it was to buy a gun while having mental health problems

The man who fatally shot five co-workers at a Louisville bank in April wrote in his journal that he wasn’t sure if his mental health struggles would preclude him from purchasing a gun. Later, after acquiring a gun just days before carrying out the mass shooting, he remarked that buying it was “so easy” , calling the transaction “ridiculous”.

The journal writings by Connor Sturgeon were contained in a 64-page report released on Tuesday by Louisville police, in which authorities say they have now closed the investigation into the actions of the 25-year-old who also died that day after being shot by police .

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As the NRA fades, a more zealous US pro-gun group rises as a lobbying power

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Gun Owners of America, formed in belief NRA was ‘too liberal’, spent $3.3m lobbying against gun control and boasts 2m members

A zealous gun rights group, even more uncompromising than the once formidable National Rifle Association, is emerging as a force in US politics with a mission to oppose efforts at gun control and ease further America’s already lax regulations on firearms.

Last year the Gun Owners of America (GOA) spent $3.3m on lobbying, a record sum for the hardline foe of gun control that now claims over 2 million members and activists, and has previously operated in the shadows of the larger NRA.

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Virginia teacher shot by six-year-old can go ahead with $40m lawsuit, judge rules

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Abby Zwerner was hospitalized for two weeks after the January shooting and is suing school administrators for negligence

A teacher who was shot by her six-year-old student in Virginia can press forward with her $40m lawsuit against a school system over claims of negligence by school administrators, a judge ruled Friday.

The surprise decision by the Newport News circuit court judge Matthew Hoffman means that Abby Zwerner could get much more than just workers’ compensation for the serious injuries caused by January’s classroom shooting.

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Maine gunman’s family alerted sheriff five months before shootings

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Concern over Robert Card’s mental health dated back to last summer after a training facility episode sparked an evaluation

Five months before the deadliest mass shooting in the history of the New England state of Maine, the gunman’s family alerted the local sheriff that they were becoming concerned about his deteriorating mental health while he had access to firearms, according to authorities.

After the alert, the Sagadohoc county sheriff’s office reached out to officials of Robert Card’s army reserve unit, which assured deputies that they would speak to Card and make sure he got medical attention, sheriff Joel Merry said.

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California doubles taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for school security

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Gavin Newsom, the governor, signed a law that adds an 11% state fee to the existing federal taxes for arms sales

California will double the taxes on guns and ammunition and use the money to pay for more security at public schools and various violence prevention programs under a new law Gavin Newsom, the governor, signed on Tuesday.

The federal government already taxes the sale of guns and ammunition at either 10% or 11%, depending on the type of gun. The law Newsom signed adds another 11% tax on top of that – making it the only state with its own tax on guns and ammunition, according to the gun control advocacy group Brady.

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‘It will save lives’: Biden and Harris launch federal gun control prevention office

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Vice-president to lead office tasked with coordinating mental and physical health services and exploring executive actions

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris announced Friday the creation of a first-of-its-kind federal Office of Gun Violence Prevention, aimed at reducing the US’s epidemic of gun violence, which claimed the lives of more than 48,000 people last year.

“None of these steps alone is going to solve the entirety of the gun violence epidemic,” Biden said during a White House event. “But together they will save lives and it’s going to help rally the nation to a sense of urgency and seriousness and purpose.”

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