What To Know Today
Remington decamps to the South. Remington Firearms, formed after two bankruptcies forced various parts of the original Remington company to be sold off, will relocate its headquarters from New York to LaGrange, Georgia, where it is expected to open a new manufacturing facility and research center. Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, said the company would spend $100 million and hire more than 800 workers in LaGrange; his office didn’t specify the extent of the tax incentives provided to the company, but the Associated Press reports the state will pay to train Remington workers and that the gunmaker could claim an income tax credit amounting to over $12 million over five years. Remington is currently locked in a legal battle with families of the Sandy Hook victims who sued because the gunmaker’s rifle — which it no longer makes — was used in the shooting. A growing migration of gunmakers: Remington joins Beretta, Magpul, Smith & Wesson, Stag Arms, and Troy Arms as companies that have all left states with tighter gun laws to more gun-friendly locales in the South.
Missouri’s gun sanctuary law draws more opposition in pro-gun law enforcement circles. The Second Amendment Preservation Act, which went into full effect in August, blocks local and state law enforcement from enforcing federal gun regulations at the cost of up to a $50,000 fine, and has drawn the ire of the Justice Department and state officials. As “60 Minutes” reports, the law is also finding opposition among some conservative state officials for stymieing state and federal cooperation to prosecute gun crimes. One rural prosecutor said the law has hurt the ability of Missouri’s law enforcement “to interact with their federal partners to go after people who are violent in nature and are committing crimes in our community.” State troopers are no longer working with federal agents on cases involving guns, and several departments have stopped participating in a federal ballistics database.
Kenosha shooting survivor says he had his gun pointed at Kyle Rittenhouse. Gaige Grosskreutz, a volunteer medic, testified during the 18-year-old’s murder trial that he had drawn his own pistol after hearing gunshots, moved toward Rittenhouse, and pointed the gun at him with no intent to shoot before the man shot him last August 25 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse fatally shot two people that night before firing at Grosskreutz, whose upper arm was damaged in the shooting.
For the first time, a white officer in Kansas City, Missouri, faces a criminal trial for the fatal shooting of a Black man. The trial for Eric J. DeValkenaere began yesterday for the 2019 killing of Cameron Lamb, who was parking a car on his own property at the time. DeValkenaere faces first-degree involuntary manslaughter and armed criminal action charges. Police officers are rarely arrested for on-duty killings, with fewer than 150 examples between 2005 and 2020, according to one study. But murder convictions are even rarer: The same study found just seven cases resulted in a guilty verdict in the same period.
Data Point
13 percent — the increase in the share of gun suicides among women veterans from 2001 to 2019; firearms were involved in about half of all suicides in that group in 2019. By comparison in the same period, the number of gun suicides increased by 3 percent among men veterans (to account for 70 percent of overall suicides in 2019) and declined by 4 percent among nonveteran women (accounting for 31 percent of overall suicides). [The VA’s Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention]
