Top Story
Two police officers and one fire department medic — Paul Elmstrand, 27; Matthew Ruge, 27; and Adam Finseth, 40 — were shot and killed over the weekend in Burnsville, Minnesota, while answering a domestic violence call about a man who had barricaded himself inside a home with seven children and several guns. Authorities said the suspect, who reportedly killed himself, was the subject of two orders of protection and was barred from owning firearms because of an assault conviction, a lifelong ban he had unsuccessfully challenged in court. [Star Tribune/NBC]
Community Violence
In the spring of 2021, while America was still reckoning with the murder of George Floyd and the chaotic months that followed, three children in North Minneapolis were shot in the head by stray bullets within a month. That community, and the man at its center, was the subject of a story by The Trace’s Selin Thomas. While North Minneapolis is unique in many ways, the reality is familiar to people in cities nationwide: Kids are frequently caught in crossfire.
Child shootings, particularly those involving stray bullets, are difficult to track. Research shows that Black children in the U.S. are far more likely to die by gunfire than white children, but pinning down exact numbers about kids caught in the crossfire is difficult; the primary sources of tracing and tracking this data often disagree about who qualifies as a “child” and what counts as a “stray” bullet. In a new piece, Thomas explores these dueling definitions, and examines what the shootings in Minneapolis reveal about child gun deaths more broadly.
What to Know Today
During Day Two of deliberations in the National Rifle Association’s civil corruption trial in Manhattan, repeated requests for additional trial materials led Judge Joel M. Cohen to agree to provide the jury with all exhibits admitted over the course of the six-week argument period. That amounts to several boxes of documents, the judge said. At the request of the jury foreperson, Cohen also asked the parties to reach agreement on a trial transcript that will be digitized, made searchable, and provided to the six-member jury. “The jury seems to desire really wanting to get their hands dirty in this stuff,” said Cohen, “which is fine.” —Will Van Sant
Three police officers fired at a 16-year-old student who allegedly brought a gun inside a Dallas-area high school; the student was hospitalized for “injuries sustained during the incident,” Mesquite Police wrote on Facebook, without specifying whether the student had been shot. Per police, the student was alone in an office when officers arrived. [The Dallas Morning News/Dallas Observer]
Two men were charged with second-degree murder in the deadly mass shooting at the Super Bowl victory rally in Kansas City, Missouri. The new charges come after police detained two youths on gun-related counts last week. [Associated Press]
In 2012, Corey Jennings pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder for shooting a man in Baltimore. He spent about a decade incarcerated, working on his education and spiritual development, then the man died. Now, in an unusual legal situation that doesn’t qualify as double jeopardy, Jennings is facing a new indictment with a first-degree murder charge, again facing a potential life sentence for the shooting. [The Baltimore Banner]
The Supreme Court is scheduled next week to hear oral arguments in Garland v. Cargill, one of three cases that could have major ramifications for how guns are regulated in the United States. With Garland, justices will weigh the legality of bump stocks — and whether the ATF has the authority to regulate them. [Vox]
In October, influencer Larry Vickers pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally import machine guns. That’s done little to dent his profile on YouTube, Facebook, and the array of internet platforms that made him famous within the online firearms community. [NBC]
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry called a special session of the state Legislature to fulfill a campaign promise to crack down on crime. Among legislation up for debate are bills that would allow adults 18 or older to carry concealed handguns without the training or permits that are currently required and another that would create some liability protections for defensive gun use. [Shreveport Times]
Archive
Dangerous Homes: Guns and Domestic Violence Exact a Deadly Toll on Kids: Most parents worry that a shooting could happen at their children’s school. But a Trace analysis found that three times as many kids were shot in domestic violence incidents between 2018 and 2022. (March 2023)
