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The SPLC, a leading hate group monitor, released its annual analysis of hate and extremism in the U.S., reporting that the overall number of active militia groups declined over the year, and white Christian nationalist groups, like the ReAwaken Tour, created an especially toxic environment for vulnerable and marginalized people, among other findings. The SPLC also added several “parents’ rights” groups — part of a far-right movement that posits parents should have ultimate authority over their children and public education — to its list of extremist organizations. [USA TODAY/SPLC]
From Our Team
SIG Sauer is facing new claims that one of its weapons has a lethal defect. In a recently filed lawsuit, the family of Dalton Harrell, a 21-year-old college baseball star, alleges that he was struck by gunfire and killed after the manufacturer’s P938 pistol dropped from the pocket of a friend’s truck door and discharged.
The suit, which names the friend and SIG Sauer as defendants, frequently references alleged defects in another of the gunmaker’s models, the P320, which has been plagued by reports of unintentional discharge. In April, The Trace and The Washington Post revealed that more than 100 people have claimed that their P320s fired without them pulling the trigger. The incident highlighted in the new lawsuit raises questions about SIG Sauer’s design and manufacturing process. Read more →
What to Know Today
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The 3rd Circuit ruled that at least some people convicted of nonviolent crimes can’t be banned from possessing guns under federal law. For criminal justice reform advocates, that could be good news. [The Trace/Reuters]
California’s Medicaid program may soon fund hospital-based violence intervention programs, thanks to a bipartisan bill signed into law last year. The legislation framed gun violence as a public health issue, not just a criminal justice concern — and it could be a gamechanger. [The Guardian]
Demonstrators with the advocacy group Here 4 the Kids have been holding sit-ins at the Colorado Capitol this week, demanding that Governor Jared Polis sign an unconstitutional executive order banning all guns. Organizers know their radical request will almost certainly go unmet, but that might not be the central point of the protests. [The Colorado Sun]
Gun deaths in the U.S. reached an all-time high in 2021 for the second year in a row, with an average of one gun death taking place every 11 minutes, according to a new Johns Hopkins study based on CDC data. [NPR/Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions]
A white woman who allegedly shot and killed her neighbor Ajike Owens, a Black woman who was beloved in her community, in front of Owens’s children last week in Florida was arrested days after the incident, following mounting calls for the woman to face charges. Police said they delayed the arrest to investigate whether the shooter was abiding by the state’s “stand your ground” laws. [Complex/The 19th] Context: A 2023 RAND report found that “stand your ground” laws increase levels of violence.
What’s behind the apparent rise in everyday vigilantism and “self-defense” shootings? One possibility: The pandemic may have changed how we define personal space. [The New Republic]
School shooting hoaxes, false threats often referred to as “swatting,” are by all accounts on the rise. Though they don’t receive the same media attention as real attacks, the hoaxes can be similarly traumatizing. [Women’s Health]
A federal judge declined to block Washington state’s new ban on some semiautomatic rifles, ruling that the restriction had precedent in the U.S.’s history of firearm regulation, including Colonial-era prohibitions on “trap guns.” [Associated Press]
A Republican in the Louisiana House voluntarily shelved a bill to legalize permitless concealed carry in the state after a Senate committee suggested amending the legislation to include firearm education requirements. [The Advocate]
Archive
When Fourth-Grade Problems Include Gunfire: In West Philadelphia, a teacher willing to broach a heavy subject is helping his students make sense of the shootings that shape their world. (April 2016)
