Top Story
At least two people were killed and four injured in a mass shooting at a park in Louisville, Kentucky, when someone shot into a crowd on Saturday evening. It was the second mass shooting in Louisville within a week. [Louisville Courier Journal]
From Our Team
The Philadelphia Police Department has a shaky record of solving murders: With more than 500 homicides in each of the past two years, law enforcement has warrants for the arrests of just 59 fugitives wanted for murder, officials said in April. Now, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, Police Department, and Sheriff’s Office have formed a new partnership to solicit help from the public to find homicide suspects.
Relatives of some murder victims are skeptical of the new campaign, The Trace’s Mensah M. Dean reports. They say that they’ve gathered and passed along tips to police, with no resulting arrests, and that their calls to the department frequently go unanswered. “Fifty-nine warrants is a laughingstock,” said Schaine Isaac, whose son was killed in 2021. “I don’t know what and how we can help them — we try. But there’s no giving help to someone that doesn’t want to do nothing with it.” Read more from The Trace →
What to Know Today
At least four people were killed and 28 injured in a mass shooting at a Sweet 16 celebration in downtown Dadeville, Alabama, on Saturday night. [Montgomery Advertiser]
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed gun reform legislation expanding background checks and requiring gun owners to store firearms in a locked container or use a locking device if they have a child in the house. Whitmer signed the bills at Michigan State University, the site of a mass shooting earlier this year. [Detroit Free Press]
Hundreds of protesters in Kansas City called for the shooter of Ralph Yarl, a Black 16-year-old, to be charged with a hate crime. A homeowner shot Yarl when the teenager knocked on the wrong door while picking up his brother from a friend’s house. [KCUR] Context: In 1992, a similar shooting of a Japanese exchange student spurred federal firearm reform.
At the NRA’s annual meeting in Indianapolis last weekend, days after the mass shooting at a bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, Republican presidential hopefuls bashed the idea that gun restrictions could curb gun violence. [The New York Times] Context: Is a “good guy with a gun” really the only thing that can stop a “bad guy with a gun”?
A young gun enthusiast known as “OG” was allegedly behind the massive leak of classified Pentagon documents that exposed tactical information about the war in Ukraine. [The Washington Post]
Victims of the 2021 mass shooting at an Indianapolis FedEx are suing American Tactical, the distributor of the gunman’s high-capacity magazine, alleging that the company negligently and unlawfully marketed the magazine. [U.S. District Court filing]
After a two-year decline, a new CDC report shows, the number of people who died by suicide increased in 2021, reaching 2018’s highest recorded number. [ABC News]
Elementary school enrollment in Portland, Oregon, is plunging — and concerns about gun violence, which appears to be a big problem in Portland schools, might be contributing to the decline. [Willamette Week]
Archive
How the Far Right Took Control of Texas’ Response to Mass Shootings: The “God-given right” to self-defense has become a rallying cry in Texas politics, further cementing gun ownership as a holy cause and political identity. The state’s Republican leadership has spent decades carrying the banner. (May 2022)
Correction: A previous version of this newsletter said that Ralph Yarl had been killed. He is alive in critical condition.
