Good morning, Bulletin readers. In Houston, the police chief decried GOP inaction on a lapsed domestic violence bill. In New York, the attorney general’s office is reportedly broadening its investigation into the National Rifle Association. Those stories and more, below.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
The NRA has been hit with a new subpoena. In his scoop on the development, The New York Times’s Danny Hakim writes that the New York attorney general’s request hints at a deepening probe that includes potential violations of the gun group’s tax-exempt status as well its possibly unlawful campaign spending practices, both of which were uncovered by The Trace.
The day before the Pensacola shooting, police arrested a San Diego man who threatened a Las Vegas-style massacre. The suspect, 30, posted videos of himself aiming assault-style rifles at pedestrians out the window of a hotel room in the southern California city. A tip to federal law enforcement officials led to his arrest on December 5. Police seized 14 registered guns from his home.
The fatal shooting of a Houston police officer becomes part of the fight over reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act. Sergeant Chris Brewster, a nine-year veteran, was killed while responding to a domestic violence call on Saturday. During his funeral procession, Police Chief Art Acevedo tore into Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Texas’s two Republican U.S. senators for not extending funding for the 1994 law, which lapsed last year and has stalled in the GOP-led Senate. The bill to reauthorize the act includes provisions to prevent stalkers and abusive dating partners from possessing guns. From The Trace archives: Here’s why domestic disputes are especially dangerous for police officers.
A group of nonprofits is sending lawmakers a yearbook of school shooting victims. The three groups — Search For Common Ground, Amani Project, and COMMON — are mailing a volume listing the 37 students killed in an American K-12 school, university, or school bus in 2018 to President Trump, Democratic presidential candidates, U.S. senators, and all 50 governors. The victims’ names will appear next to empty boxes where their photos should be. The project was coordinated by a grieving Sandy Hook mother.
Convicted abusers in Philadelphia aren’t complying with a state gun surrender law. The measure, passed six months ago, shortens the window to turn in guns from 60 days to 24 hours following a domestic violence conviction or final restraining order. In Philadelphia, 574 gun owners have been subject to it; only 62 have turned in their guns by the deadline, the The Philadelphia Inquirer found. Surrounding counties have fared much better.
The 2015 Planned Parenthood shooting suspect was indicted on dozens of federal charges. Intent on going to “war” against the Colorado Springs clinic because of its abortion services, the gunman armed himself with with six rifles, five handguns, a shotgun, and more than 500 rounds of ammunition. His attack left three people dead and nine others — including five police officers — wounded. State murder charges have been held up by rulings that the shooter is mentally incompetent. To beat the statute of limitations, federal prosecutors moved to indict him Monday on 65 counts of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act and three gun charges.
Nine people were shot in 24 hours in New Orleans. Two people were killed and seven others were injured during the spasm of violence Sunday and Monday. Five of the victims were shot outside a bar on Sunday night.
DATA POINT
There have been 927 shootings in the entire country of Sweden since January 2017, according to a researcher at Malmö University. That’s the same number recorded in Philadelphia in just the past six months. —Jeff Asher/Twitter
