Featured Story
Data leaked from SoundThinking, the new name of the company behind gunshot-detection technology ShotSpotter, revealed the secret locations of the controversial company’s sensors across the globe. An analysis of the coordinates confirms criticisms that the technology disproportionately targets communities of color. [WIRED]
National Rifle Association
On Friday, a jury found the National Rifle Association and its recently departed chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, liable in the civil corruption case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The former CEO was ordered to pay the gun group more than $4 million in damages, The Trace’s Will Van Sant reported; two other defendants — Wilson Phillips, a longtime NRA treasurer who left the organization in 2018, and John Frazer, the gun group’s general counsel — were also found liable. The verdict came nearly five years after an investigation by The Trace revealed that a small group of NRA insiders and vendors had extracted millions of dollars from the group’s budget through gratuitous payments, sweetheart deals, and opaque financial arrangements.
LaPierre was impassive as the verdict was read. The trial had forced the former CEO to tell the truth about himself. He had defended himself by portraying the NRA as a heavily scripted production, framing his three-decade tenure as a long-running political drama in which he had been cast as the star. He had given the role everything he had, but he had only been playing a character — and the trial, writes The Trace’s Mike Spies, revealed the extent to which LaPierre the man and LaPierre the character were distinct.
Jury Finds the NRA, Wayne LaPierre Liable in Corruption Case
A New York jury ordered the gun group’s former CEO to pay more than $4.3 million in damages.
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The Unmasking of Wayne LaPierre
The NRA corruption trial forced its former CEO to tell the truth about himself, as the curtain dropped on a three-decade act.
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What to Know Today
Data leaked from SoundThinking, the new name of the company behind gunshot-detection technology ShotSpotter, revealed the secret locations of the controversial company’s sensors across the globe. An analysis of the coordinates confirms criticisms that the technology disproportionately targets communities of color. [WIRED]
A Michigan man whose daughter shot herself in the head became the first person charged under the state’s new safe firearm storage law. The shooting happened one day after the law, part of a suite of gun reforms, took effect. [Associated Press]
What does it look like to work inside a homicide unit? A new collection from a photographer who embedded inside the Dallas Police Department for a year provides insight into the job — and jarring evidence that when people are murdered, they are most often killed by gunfire. [Texas Monthly]
As Hawaii fends off challenges to some of its current gun regulations, lawmakers in the state are pursuing legislation to expand the types of weapons covered under its assault weapons ban, which currently only prohibits assault pistols. The bill would add assault rifles, assault shotguns, and high-capacity magazines to the ban. [Honolulu Civil Beat]
Opening statements in the trial of “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who faces charges over the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, began last week with prosecutors arguing that Hutchins’ death was the result of the armorer’s “sloppy” handling of firearms on set. [NBC]
St. Louis has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the country, and, particularly in recent months, it’s been criticized over claims of inequitable policing. Now, leaders are questioning why the city’s top cop is receiving a third of his salary, or $100,000 annually, from a nonprofit organization made up of local business leaders. [ProPublica]
Homicide clearance rates have decreased precipitously over the past few decades; in 2020, only about half of killings led to an arrest and prosecution. New research shows that the drop is particularly pronounced for Black victims, whose cases are less likely to be solved than those of white victims — and the study shows that the disparity is getting worse. [The Guardian]
Data Point
More than 12 million — the number of Americans who live in neighborhoods with at least one ShotSpotter sensor. [WIRED]
