Category Archives: US gun control

Republicans blocked gun reform laws a year before Michigan State shooting

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Democrats attempted to advance bills requiring secure storage of firearms and expanding background checks for gun buyers

Less than a year before a gunman attacked Michigan State University’s campus on Monday, killing three students and injuring five, Republican legislators in the state rejected an opportunity to change gun regulations.

In the aftermath of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Michigan Democrats attempted to advance bills requiring secure storage of firearms and expanding background checks for gun buyers. Six months earlier, a shooting at Oxford high school near Detroit had also reinvigorated Democratic efforts to change Michigan gun laws. But the gun bills were blocked by Republicans, who controlled both chambers of the state legislature.

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California gun laws can’t stop mass shootings without federal support

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The Golden State will struggle to stop mass shootings and protect citizens until uniform federal laws on firearms are signed

The recent mass shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay have brought devastation, outrage and shock to Californians. As the state grieves the loss of 19 residents, one question continues to arise: how could this happen in the state with some of the strongest gun laws in the US?

California’s gun laws include bans on the military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines that have been used in many mass shootings. It is one of just two states, along with New Jersey, to receive an “A” rating from the gun safety group Giffords, based on the strength of its firearm regulations.

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Virginia school ‘couldn’t be bothered’ to stop boy with gun, teacher’s lawyer says

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Abigail Zwerner, seriously wounded in attack by six-year-old, plans to sue school district as superintendent sacked

Concerned teachers and employees warned administrators at a Virginia elementary school three times that a six-year-old boy had a gun and was threatening other students in the hours before he shot and wounded a teacher, “but the administration could not be bothered” and didn’t call police, remove the boy from class or lock down the school, a lawyer for the teacher said.

Diane Toscano, an attorney for Abigail Zwerner, told reporters on Wednesday she had notified the Newport News school board that the 25-year-old Richneck elementary school teacher plans to sue the school district over the 6 January shooting, which left Zwerner with serious injuries.

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Washington Circle K shooter apparently kills self as police close in

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Police say 21-year-old Jarid Haddock ‘just walked in and started shooting’, killing three in a ‘random situation’

A 21-year-old man wanted in connection with the random killing of three people at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington, early Tuesday shot and killed himself as officers approached him behind some warehouses several hours later, authorities said.

Yakima police chief Matt Murray said in a video message posted online that a woman called 911 on Tuesday afternoon. The caller reported that the man had used her phone to make a call.

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Judge to rule on releasing Georgia grand jury report into Trump election meddling – live

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Jurors recommended making public the report into efforts to overturn results of 2020 election

A judge in Atlanta will at 12 pm eastern time convene a hearing to determine whether to release a special grand jury’s report into attempts by Donald Trump and his allies to meddle in the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.

The jurors have recommended making the report public, and Fani Willis, the district attorney in Fulton county, which encompasses Georgia’s capital, is using its findings to determine whether to bring charges in the investigation, which has centered on the attempts by top Trump allies like attorney Rudy Giuliani and senator Lindsey Graham to convince state officials to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the state. It’s unclear if Willis is considering charges against Trump in the case. Attorneys for the former president said yesterday they will not attend the hearing, and that Trump has not committed any crimes.

The shift in the U.S. position follows a call on Jan. 17 between President Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in which Mr. Biden agreed to look into providing the Abrams tanks against the judgment of the Pentagon. A senior German official said that the issue had been the subject of intense negotiation between Washington and Berlin for more than a week and appeared to be on the way to resolution.

Military officials have argued publicly that the Abrams tanks require a substantial amount of training and logistics support and therefore aren’t appropriate for this moment in the conflict.

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Biden once again urges Congress to pass assault weapons ban

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Intervention comes after a mass shooting in Monterey Park, California, and a pair of shootings near Half Moon Bay, California

Joe Biden once again called on Congress to pass a bill banning assault weapons, following a string of recent mass shootings in California that in total killed at least 18 people.

“For the second time in recent days, California communities are mourning the loss of loved ones in a senseless act of gun violence,” the president said in a statement released on Tuesday.

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‘Tragedy upon tragedy’: why 39 US mass shootings already this year is just the start

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With 1,214 gun deaths so far in January, the ready availability of weapons means the toll can only climb

Two horrific killings separated by just a few days have shaken California, but such nightmarish mass shootings cannot be considered abnormal in the US. With a week still left in January, this year there have already been 39 mass shootings across the country, five of them in California.

Reports from the Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit research group, show the predictability of American mass shootings. Nearly 70 people have been shot dead in mass shootings so far in 2023, according to their data – which classifies a mass shooting as any armed attack in which at least four people are injured or killed, not including the perpetrator.

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Two students killed and a teacher injured in ‘targeted shooting’ in Iowa

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Three suspects arrested following the incident at Starts Right Here, an educational program helping at-risk youth in Iowa

Two students were killed on Monday and a teacher was injured in what police said was a targeted shooting at a school in Des Moines, Iowa, that is dedicated to helping at-risk youth. Three suspects were arrested.

The shooting was at an educational program called Starts Right Here that is affiliated with the Des Moines school district.

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Monterey Park shooting death toll rises to 11, including dance hall manager

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California officials name two of those killed, while friends and colleagues say much-loved ‘Mr Ma’ was among dead

The death toll in a mass shooting at a ballroom dance studio in California has risen to 11 people, after health officials said that one of the people wounded in the shooting had died.

According to friends and colleagues, the beloved manager of the dance hall was among the 11 victims of Saturday’s gun massacre, which took place during a lunar new year celebration in Monterey Park, a majority Asian American community in the Los Angeles area.

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Finding who can be held to account after a six-year-old shoots a teacher

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Where does the responsibility lie in the recent shooting in Newport News, Virginia, for a country so inured to gun violence?

The shooting of a Virginia teacher by her six-year-old student last week left the town of Newport News and the rest of the US shaken and shocked.

Even in a country long used to the sort of school shootings that are rare in much of the rest of the world, the astonishingly young age of the shooter prompted a bout of public agonizing in the US about its gun violence problem.

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No fight or warning before six-year-old boy shot teacher, say Virginia police

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Police chief gives first detailed description of last week’s classroom shooting that has shocked US

The shooting of a Virginia teacher by a six-year-old boy in her classroom last week happened without warning, and with no fight or physical struggle, authorities have said.

“What we know today is that she was providing instruction. He displayed a firearm, he pointed it and he fired one round,” said the Newport News police chief, Steve Drew.

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Six-year-old intentionally shot teacher in Virginia school, police say

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Authorities said they had arrested the boy for shooting a female teacher at Richneck elementary school in Newport News

A six-year-old child deliberately shot a teacher at an elementary school in Virginia on Friday afternoon, according to police.

Police said in a statement that they have arrested the boy accused of shooting a female teacher at Richneck elementary school in Newport News, Virginia, a city in the south-eastern part of the state.

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What Democrats achieved – and didn’t – in two years controlling Congress

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From same-sex marriage protections to veterans’ aid, Joe Biden’s party used its thin majority to deliver many campaign promises

In January, Democrats will lose their unified control of Capitol Hill, ending a remarkable legislative streak that saw the party deliver on many of their campaign promises.

While Joe Biden and his party did not accomplish everything they set out to do, Democrats in Congress spent the last two years marshalling their thin majorities to pass consequential legislation that touches nearly every aspect of American life from water quality to marriage equality. Some of the most notable measures even earned Republican support.

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Failure of officials to follow policy caused California gun owners’ data leak

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Investigation says personal information of nearly 200,000 people was released as officials didn’t understand their website

California’s department of justice mistakenly posted the names, addresses and birthdays of nearly 200,000 gun owners on the internet because officials didn’t follow policies or understand how to operate their website, according to an investigation released Wednesday.

The investigation, conducted by an outside law firm hired by the California department of justice, found that personal information for 192,000 people was downloaded 2,734 times by 507 unique IP addresses during a roughly 12-hour period in late June. All of those people had applied for a permit to carry a concealed gun.

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Six million Americans carried guns daily in 2019, twice as many as in 2015

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The trend is expected to continue, after the supreme court ruling earlier this year overturning strict limits on public gun-carrying

An estimated 6 million American adults carried a loaded handgun with them daily in 2019, double the number who said they carried a gun every day in 2015, according to a new study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The new estimates highlight a decades-long shift in American gun ownership, with increasing percentages of gun owners saying they own firearms for self-defense, not hunting or recreation, and choosing to carry a gun with them when they go out in public, said ​​Ali Rowhani-Rahbar, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington, and the study’s lead author.

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Joe Biden renews call for assault weapons ban after latest mass shootings

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President says he will seek to pass gun control before new Congress is seated in January, but odds of success are low

Joe Biden reiterated his calls on Thursday to ban assault weapons after mass shootings at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs on Saturday and a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, on Tuesday left 11 people dead.

While visiting a firehouse on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, to thank first responders on Thanksgiving, Biden told reporters he would attempt to pass some form of gun control before a new Congress is seated in January, possibly renewing his attempt to ban assault weapons.

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Migos’s record label rails at ‘senseless violence’ that killed rapper Takeoff

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Atlanta-based Quality Control issues statement speaking of ‘monumental loss’, as Houston police appeal for any of 40 people at scene to come forward

Migos’s Atlanta-based record label Quality Control has shared a statement on the fatal shooting of their rapper Takeoff. “It is with broken hearts and deep sadness that we mourn the loss of our beloved brother Kirshnik Khari Ball, known to the world as Takeoff,” the label wrote on Instagram. “Senseless violence and a stray bullet has taken another life from this world and we are devastated. Please respect his family and friends as we all continue to process this monumental loss.”

At a press conference, Houston mayor Sylvester Turner and police chief Troy Finner responded to the shooting, asking any of the supposedly 40 people who were present on the scene to come forward with details.

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Guns bought through credit cards in the US will now be trackable

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A new ISO-approved measure will also allow sharing of suspicious purchases with law enforcement

Credit card purchases of firearms in the US can now be tracked and purchases deemed suspicious can even be shared with law enforcement, according to a new measure approved by an organization that sets parameters for business transactions.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) voted in favor of creating a merchant code for firearms stores, according to Reuters.

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New York enacts new gun restrictions in response to supreme court decision

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After court overturned 1911 New York law, state lawmakers produced act to create ‘gun-free zones’ and strengthen gun control measures

After a federal judge said New York could implement new gun restrictions passed after the US supreme court struck down a century-old law, the state attorney general saluted “a victory in our efforts to protect New Yorkers”.

“Responsible gun control measures save lives and any attempts by the gun lobby to tear down New York’s sensible gun control laws will be met with fierce defense of the law,” Letitia James said on Wednesday night.

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Biden ‘determined to ban assault weapons’ as he lays out crime prevention plans – as it happened

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President details his Safer America Plan in Pennsylvania speech and says funding police provides ‘peace of mind’

The White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is holding a gaggle aboard Air Force One, as Joe Biden heads to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to talk about gun safety.

The first topic in the gaggle is the flooding in Mississippi and the failure of the Jackson area water treatment services, which has caused a crisis over clean drinking water.

US Secret Service official Tony Ornato, a figure of intense interest to the congressional committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, has retired from the agency. He was an eyewitness to some of the most critical incidents involving Donald Trump in the hours leading up to the deadly assault on the US Capitol.

NBC News reported that Trump has hired a criminal attorney who was once Florida’s solicitor to his legal team. Chris Kise is expected to make his first appearance in federal court in West Palm Beach on Thursday when district judge Aileen Cannon mulls Trump’s request for a special master to oversee the justice department’s review of classified materials seized by the FBI at his home.

We’re awaiting at any moment the justice department’s legal response to Trump’s request, which will be a lengthy filing running up to 40 pages after Cannon waived a 20-page limit imposed by the court.

Incumbent Democratic Arizona senator Mark Kelly leads Republican challenger Blake Masters by more than three points in a poll released today, appearing to confirm a growing belief within the party that pro-choice messaging on abortion will be vote-winner in November’s midterms.

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