Category Archives: US gun control

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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Biden and Harris unveil first federal gun violence prevention office, citing 100 people shot and killed daily – live

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US president urges action as Kamala Harris says one in five Americans have lost family member to gun violence

Faced with the House stalemate over a government stopgap funding bill, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday set up a path for the Senate to move first on a bill to fund the government beyond 30 September.

Senate aides told the Hill the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bill could serve as a legislative vehicle to pass a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for a few weeks – but that it will likely not include money for the war in Ukraine or disaster relief.

This is painful. It gives me a headache. This is a very difficult series of missteps by our conference. If you can’t do [the defense bill], what can you do?

At this point, it seems like there are some people playing policy warfare, and I think we need to move our country forward.

For my colleagues, they have to come to a realization: If they are unable or unwilling to govern, others will. And in a divided government where you have Democrats controlling the Senate, a Democrat controlling the White House, there needs to be a realization that you’re not going to get everything you want.

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New Mexico judge blocks suspension of right to carry guns in public

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Setback for Governor Lujan Grisham as judge sides with advocates for gun rights even after recent shootings took lives of children

A federal judge has blocked part of a public health order that suspended the right to carry guns in public across Albuquerque, New Mexico, the state’s largest metro area, as criticism mounted over the actions taken by the governor and political divides widened.

The ruling Wednesday by US district judge David Urias marks a setback for Michelle Lujan Grisham, the Democratic governor, as she responds to several recent shootings that took the lives of children, including an 11-year-old boy as he left a minor league baseball game in Albuquerque.

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Revealed: far-right venture capitalist has contracts with US for ammunition

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Nathaniel Fischer co-owns ammunition company that has contracts with federal government totaling $78,678

A far-right figure who is involved in a secretive invitation-only fraternal organization, whose founder has spoken of being at war with the US government, is also part-owner of an ammunition company that has contracts with the federal government and law enforcement, the Guardian can reveal.

Nathaniel Fischer – a venture capitalist, former Claremont Institute fellow and president of the Dallas lodge of the secretive Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR) – is also part-owner of Texas-based ammunition manufacturer S1 Armory, which trades as Stand 1 Armory.

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Gun rights group sues New Mexico governor over emergency firearm ban

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Michelle Lujan Grisham announced open and concealed carry restrictions on Friday after the deaths of three children

A pro-gun group is suing the New Mexico governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, in an effort to block a 30-day emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in Albuquerque’s Bernalillo county issued last week after a spate of shootings.

The governor announced open and concealed carry restrictions on Friday in a public health order relating to gun violence after the fatal shootings of an 11-year-old boy on his way home from a minor league baseball game last week, as well as the fatal shooting of a four-year-old girl in her bed in a motor home and a 13-year-old girl in Taos county in August.

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New Mexico officials call for governor’s impeachment after firearms restriction

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Democratic governor’s emergency order restricts carrying firearms for at least 30 days amid spate of gun violence

New Mexico state representatives Stefani Lord and John Block are calling for the impeachment of Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham after Grisham issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public in and around Albuquerque, the state’s largest city.

The governor on Friday issued an emergency order suspending the right to carry firearms in public across Albuquerque and the surrounding county for at least 30 days amid a spate of gun violence.

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‘Even more insidious than the NRA’: US gun lobby group gains in power

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The National Shooting Sports Foundation has been aggressively pushing gun manufacturers’ interests, and is starting to eclipse its bigger rival

A business trade group representing 10,000 gunmakers, dealers and other firearm firms is emerging as a rising force in the US and starting to eclipse – in some respects – the might of the powerful but scandal-plagued National Rifle Association.

Meet the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s conservative and aggressive lobbying group. Its range of activities are broad but always geared to zealously and single-mindedly preserving and extending the power of the gun industry.

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Five wounded, two critically, in Seattle parking lot shooting

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Shooting on Friday night, in lot near where community event was taking place, the 413th US mass shooting this year

The latest mass shooting in the US left five people wounded in a Seattle parking lot Friday night, including two who were in critical condition, the city’s police chief said.

Seattle police responded to the shooting about 9pm on Rainier Avenue South in the parking lot of what was formerly known as King Donuts, and a community event was occurring nearby, the city’s police chief, Adrian Diaz, said at the scene.

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White House calls on Republicans to act on gun control after Fourth of July weekend killings – as it happened

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White House press secretary urges Republicans to act to protect US communities after latest spate of gun violence

The Washington Post reports that the cocaine discovered at the White House was found on the ground floor in an area where visitors leave their cellphones.

White House employees can give tours of the building, usually on evenings and weekends, and part of the security protocol involves having visitors leave their cellphones in a locked box. As the for the cocaine, the Post adds that “Authorities are trying to find the person who left it at the White House.”

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At least 38 people shot, including two fatally, at weekend in US

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There have been more than 305 mass shootings in the US so far this year as of Sunday morning

At least 38 people were shot – including two fatally – in three different mass shootings reported Saturday and Sunday in separate parts of the US, according to officials.

One minor was killed and nine others were wounded in a shooting in a building in downtown St Louis, Missouri, about 1.45am Sunday, the local television station KMOV reported. The name of the slain victim wasn’t immediately available, and information on the conditions of the wounded wasn’t released right away either.

Associated Press contributed reporting

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‘I can’t’: Georgia gun shop owner to close store as US reels from mass killings

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Jon Waldman says attacks have weighed on his conscience and that Atlanta shooting earlier this month was ‘final straw’

A Georgia gun shop owner said he is closing his store in the wake of several mass shootings targeting young children, as the country reels from recent attacks and an escalating rate of killings.

Jon Waldman, a gun shop owner in Duluth, Georgia, said that he had already closed his store and will have the gun inventory cleared out by 15 June, NBC News reported.

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Winnie-the-Pooh book teaches Texas kids to ‘run, hide, fight’ in a shooting

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Stay Safe book, produced by a law enforcement consulting firm in Houston, was sent home in backpacks of children

Texas schoolchildren as young as four years old are being given Winnie-the-Pooh cartoon books, teaching them to “run, hide, fight” if a gunman enters their building.

Parents and teachers in the Dallas area have expressed alarm and concern that the Stay Safe book, produced by a law enforcement consulting firm in Houston, has been sent home in the backpacks of children in pre-kindergarten and elementary classes.

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Family of teen shooter who killed three says he struggled with mental illness

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New Mexico 18-year-old killed three women and injured six others in mass shooting on Monday in Farmington

The family of an 18-year-old high school student who took three of more than a dozen guns to which he had access and killed three elderly women without provocation in New Mexico on Monday has claimed he was struggling with his mental health before the attack.

The shooter, who was armed with at least three guns and wore body armor before police killed him, “was fighting a battle of mental illness that he lost”, his family asserted on Friday in a statement, according to the Albuquerque Journal.

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Gun violence is top public health concern for quarter of Americans – poll

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After several mass shootings this year, 26% of Americans believe guns are the number one public health threat

A quarter of Americans now believe guns are the number one public health threat, according to new polling.

According to the Axios/Ipsos American Health Index, 26% of Americans believe access to guns is the top threat to public health. Around 25% believe opioids and fentanyl are the top concern.

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Texas man kills girlfriend after she had an abortion in Colorado

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Gabriella Gonzalez, 26, was shot in the head in a parking lot by Harold Thompson, 22, shortly after she ‘shrugs off’ his chokehold

A 26-year-old woman from Texas was shot and killed by her boyfriend after getting an abortion in another state, Dallas police said.

He was jailed on a murder charge as of Friday.

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Oregon Republican boycott threatens key bills on abortion and gun control

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Walkout lasting more than a week has thrown statehouse into disarray and jeopardized Democrats’ legislative agenda

Oregon Republicans boycotted the statehouse for a ninth day on Thursday, denying lawmakers the quorum necessary to pass legislation, in a protest that could derail hundreds of bills, including proposals on gun control and abortion rights.

While Democrats control the capital in the Pacific north-west state, Republicans have leveraged rules requiring two-thirds of lawmakers be present to pass legislation, which means Democrats need a certain number of Republicans to be there too.

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Texas gunman who killed eight had ‘neo-Nazi’ ideation, say officials

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Mauricio Garcia, who was discharged from the US army in 2008, reportedly also had Nazi tattoos on his body

The gunman who killed eight people and wounded seven others at a suburban Dallas shopping mall had no prior criminal record but had “neo-Nazi ideation”, authorities said on Tuesday.

Investigators are still trying to determine why Mauricio Garcia opened fire on Saturday at the Allen Premium Outlets, Hank Sibley, the regional director of the Texas department of public safety, said at a news conference.

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Louisiana teenager shot by neighbor as she played hide-and-seek

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The latest shooting of an innocent victim spotlights ‘stand your ground’ laws, which some Republicans are trying to strengthen

A 14-year-old girl was playing hide-and-seek with her friends when she was shot in the head by her neighbor in Louisiana, according to authorities.

The shooting on Sunday adds to a recent string of gun attacks across the US aimed at people who were engaged in innocuous activities when they encountered their shooter.

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US on track to set record in 2023 for mass killings after series of shootings

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Country is seeing an average of more than one mass killing weekly – amid little political prospect of meaningful gun control

After a series of shootings and other attacks, 2023 is on track to be the worst in recent history for mass killings in the US.

Mass killings are defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed, not including the shooter or other type of perpetrator. According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, the US is on pace for 60 mass killings this year. There were 31 in 2019, 21 in 2020, 28 in 2021 and 36 in 2022.

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