Top Story
After a two-decade freeze on federal funding for gun violence research, Congress in 2019 allocated millions to the CDC to back studies examining firearm use and access. Now, House Republicans are proposing to zero out that funding — and their effort may be overlooked amid the drama of potential government shutdowns and defaults. [Wired]
Mental Health
Just a few months before he killed 18 people in a gun rampage, the perpetrator of the October massacre in Lewiston, Maine, was admitted to a psychiatric facility in New York state for two weeks. Though it’s unclear if his stay was voluntary or involuntary, officials say he was still qualified to legally purchase firearms afterward. If those claims hold up, that would make the Lewiston attack one of more than a dozen high-profile shootings over the past 20 years that were carried out by perpetrators who retained their gun rights after hospitalization during a mental health crisis, according to a comprehensive new analysis by The Trace.
The Lewiston case has raised questions about what kinds of mental health hospitalizations disqualify someone from buying or owning firearms, and how so many mass shooters retain their gun rights even after interactions with mental health systems. The Trace’s analysis reveals that few states impose some form of a gun ban after an emergency mental health hospitalization that’s not followed by a court-ordered commitment. Jennifer Mascia and Chip Brownlee have the story, published in partnership with The New Republic.
Public Health
In July 2022, a landmark study of Indianapolis census tracts found a strong connection between drug abuse and gun violence. The research, led by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, showed that 75 percent of census tracts in the city with high rates of firearm injuries also had high rates of opioid overdoses, and that rates for both crises were two times higher in these communities than in nearby areas.
But in the year since the study was published, solutions to Indianapolis’s dual crises remain disjointed, reports The Trace’s Fairriona Magee, in a feature published in partnership with The Indianapolis Recorder. And the city’s community activists told Magee that a fragmented response is trapping neighborhoods in a dangerous cycle.
What to Know Today
After a two-decade freeze on federal funding for gun violence research, Congress in 2019 allocated millions to the CDC to back studies examining firearm use and access. Now, House Republicans are proposing to zero out that funding — and their effort may be overlooked amid the drama of potential government shutdowns and defaults. [Wired]
U.S. Senators Angus King, an independent from Maine, and Democrat Martin Heinrich of New Mexico introduced the Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion Act, or GOSAFE, legislation that would ban weapons with a magazine capacity exceeding 10 rounds and make conversion devices like bump stocks and auto sears illegal. In a statement, King tied the bill directly to the October attack in Lewiston. [News Center Maine/The Hill]
A Texas judge ordered the state Department of Public Safety to release law enforcement records that would shed light on the disastrous police response to the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde. The state police agency could still delay the files’ release by appealing the latest ruling. [The Texas Tribune]
RemArms — the parent company of firearms manufacturer Remington Arms — is shutting down its factory in Ilion, New York, where the gunmaker was founded in 1816. In a letter to union officials, the company mentioned “an environment in Georgia,” where it recently moved its global headquarters, “that supports and welcomes the firearms industry.” [Utica Observer Dispatch/Associated Press]
Anti-government extremist Ammon Bundy, the leader of an armed militia group and scion of the country’s foremost far-right family, seemed poised for another confrontation with the law this past summer. Then he disappeared. [The Atlantic]
Tens of thousands of shootings take place each year in the U.S., but no single federal agency keeps track of the data. Enter the team behind the Gun Violence Archive, the country’s sole source of near-real-time information on shootings, who spend their days tracking, logging, and verifying every instance of gun violence in America. The work takes a toll. [Bloomberg Businessweek]
Over the past 16 months, the Justice Department has charged more than 250 people under a gun trafficking law passed as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, according to law enforcement, administration, and congressional officials. [The Washington Post]
Data Point
18 months — the period of time that the Texas Department of Public Safety has blocked the release of its investigation of the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. [The Texas Tribune]
