Featured Story
The National Rifle Association’s lobbying arm announced that it plans to challenge Massachusetts’ new gun reform law, signed by Governor Maura Healy just last week. Among other measures, the law strengthens restrictions on ghost guns and gun modification devices; prohibits gun carrying in polling places and government buildings; and authorizes more people, including family members, to petition to temporarily remove guns from someone they believe could be dangerous. [Boston.com]
From The Trace
Over the past month, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker signed over 100 bills. But three gun violence prevention measures that advocates thought could make a difference were not among them: Karina’s Bill, the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act, and the Homicide Data Transparency Act. Despite being introduced at the start of the year, legislators did not bring these bills up for a vote during the session that ended in late May.
Gun violence prevention advocates and bill sponsors are hopeful that the setback is just a delay — but they plan to continue pressuring lawmakers until they reconvene in the fall.
In her latest story, The Trace’s Rita Oceguera breaks down what each of the bills would do, and speaks with advocates about their hopes for the measures going forward. Read her piece here.
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What to Know Today
The shooter who tried to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally began making gun-related purchases more than a year ago, the FBI said Monday. House leaders have appointed 13 lawmakers to a bipartisan task force to investigate the rally shooting, including one with a history of endorsing conspiracy theories about the 2021 Capitol insurrection. In the wake of the attack, gun safety advocates have ramped up calls for greater gun restrictions in Pennsylvania, and for the GOP-led state Senate to move forward on firearm legislation passed in the Democrat-led lower chamber. [The Wall Street Journal/The New York Times/PublicSource]
Colorado expanded the categories of people who can ask a court to temporarily remove guns from a potentially dangerous person more than a year ago. Why isn’t the law being used more? [Colorado Newsline]
Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of X (formerly Twitter), switched out an emoji of a playful water pistol for a realistic depiction of a Colt firearm on his social media platform’s keyboard. Why that matters: Apple led the industry in changing the gun emoji in 2016, when emerging court cases began questioning “whether it constituted a threat,” according to the editor in chief of a website that catalogues emojis and their meanings. [Fast Company]
Gun rights and gun safety proponents are waiting to see if the North Carolina Supreme Court will take up an unusual case challenging a state law banning weapons on educational property, with some exceptions. The challenge centers on a man who was convicted for parking his car on a campus lot at UNC-Chapel Hill while it had six unsecured long guns in the backseat. In May, a state appeals court ruled that the parking lot was not educational property. [The Assembly]
In March, Chicago filed a federal lawsuit against Glock’s U.S. operator alleging that the company manufactured pistols with designs that encourage modification with devices like “switches.” That suit was thwarted — but now, Chicago’s back with a similar challenge and a new legal strategy. [ProPublica]
Archive
Research Indicates That Red Flag Laws Work — But Only If People Know About Them
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act incentivized states to implement extreme risk protection orders, and provide information about them to the public. What messages are likely to work best? (August 2023)