Good morning, Bulletin readers. The NRA has axed its video arm after announcing the dissolution of its relationship with the firm that produced the content. That story leads your midweek news roundup.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
NRATV is no more. The National Rifle Association has pulled the plug on its video channel and severed ties with its longtime marketing firm, Ackerman McQueen, which produced the content, according to a late-breaking report last night from The New York Times. In a court filing last week, Ackerman had threatened the closure of NRATV if the gun group didn’t post a $3 million letter of credit. The end of the relationship between Ackerman and the NRA may also have implications for some of the organization’s most famous faces: Spokesperson Dana Loesch was paid by Ackerman, for instance. The final split follows months of dueling lawsuits and finger-pointing between the two entities over fees and reimbursements. As our Mike Spies reported in April, the NRA and Ackerman had become so intertwined that it was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began.
Three people were killed in a workplace shooting in the San Francisco Bay Area. An employee at a Silicon Valley Ford dealership fatally shot two managers who had just fired him on Tuesday evening, then took his own life.
An armed militia leader was arrested for impersonating a Border Patrol agent. Jim Benvie, a member of the United Constitutional Patriot, was filmed rounding up migrants at gunpoint on New Mexico’s southern border in April.
A California city joined the “Second Amendment sanctuary” movement. The City Council in Needles, located in California’s San Bernardino County next to the Arizona border, made the declaration at a meeting on June 11. It said it would stop complying with the state’s strict gun laws partly because they’re keeping Arizonans out and hurting local business as a result, city officials said.
An Ohio preschool blamed its closure on gun violence. Woodland Preschool is housed in a wing of a Methodist church in West Akron. It said it’s closing its doors after 55 years because of gunfire plaguing the area. After four reported shootings nearby since October, parents began withdrawing their children. There were 32 students enrolled last fall, but only six planned on returning.
A man opened fire on a woman who rejected him at a party, wounding her infant daughter. Marcos Antonio Echartea, 23, shot at Deziree Menagh, 18, as a friend drove her away from a house party in Fresno, California, early Sunday. Her 10-month-old daughter, who was sitting on her lap, was struck in the head. She underwent emergency surgery and will likely survive. Echartea was charged with three counts of attempted murder.
A man was killed after trying to get into the wrong home in Pennsylvania. Corey Laguardia, 22, was fatally shot outside of Pittsburgh by the owner of a home he tried to enter early Tuesday because he thought a friend lived there. Laguardia was reportedly intoxicated. The homeowner asked him to leave and opened fire when Laguardia began kicking down the door. No charges have been filed.
ONE LAST THING
A Parkland survivor says there have been multiple threats on his life. David Hogg, 19, one of the most visible survivors of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, told The Washington Post that he’s been the target of “seven assassination attempts” since he started advocating for gun reform. “It’s horrible that I have to live through this, and it is traumatizing,” he said. “But you eventually become desensitized to it. Like, oh, your house got SWAT-ted. You got a call from the police saying someone said that everyone in your family had been killed and that you are being held hostage for $100,000. Right? That becomes part of daily life. It’s just something that you have to get through. But I mean, what am I going to do? Stop?”
