What To Know Today
Most Americans still support stronger laws on gun sales. But support is steadily decreasing. Fifty-two percent of American adults favor stricter laws related to the sale of guns, according to Gallup’s annual survey on guns, down five percentage points since last year. This year’s decline was largely fueled by a 15-point drop among independents. Thirty-five percent of U.S. adults think such laws should be kept the same, and 11 percent that they should be less strict. Since Gallup first asked the question in 1990, no more than 14 percent of adults have said they wanted laws governing gun sales to become less strict. The share of people wanting the laws to be tougher reached a low of 43 percent in 2011. Other findings:
- Gun attitudes reflect polarization: Democrats (91 percent) and liberals (82 percent) were more likely to support restrictions on gun sales. Republicans (24 percent) and conservatives (29 percent) were far less likely to.
- Most men and white respondents did not support more restrictions: By contrast, 60 percent of women and 63 percent of people of color did.
- Support for banning handguns hits all-time low: Just 19 percent supported a ban, compared to 41 percent in 1990.
California’s failure to disarm abusers. The state has some of the nation’s toughest gun laws and people subject to permanent or temporary protection orders are legally required to relinquish their guns. But a new feature from CalMatters that documents the tragic case of Calley Garay shows the state court system often fails to enforce that law. The state has no data on how often alleged abusers surrender their guns, or how often armed abusers subject to a protection order kill their partners. And fewer than half of the state’s superior courts have access to a state Department of Justice web portal that shows if an alleged abuser owns a legally purchased gun. Also in California: The Trace’s recent reporting shows that law enforcement agencies are flouting a state law to log crimes guns, a tool that policing experts say can help reduce gun violence.
New mistrial request in Kyle Rittenhouse case as jury begins third day of deliberations. Defense attorneys for the 18-year-old asked the trial judge for a mistrial over key drone video footage shown during the trial by the prosecution. After the jury asked to rewatch the video yesterday, the defense objected that they had previously received a poor quality version. The mistrial request was made without prejudice, meaning prosecutors could still retry Rittenhouse. The judge said he would rule on the request only if there is a guilty verdict.
Pennsylvania’s GOP legislature passed a permitless carry bill. The governor plans to veto it. The state House followed the Senate in approving a measure that would eliminate current license requirements for concealed carry. The law is similar to those passed by a slew of other GOP-dominated state houses, but Governor Tom Wolf, a Democrat, has indicated he will veto the measure.
Data Point
4 — the number of people on Oklahoma’s death row granted clemency since 1973. The state parole board, a bipartisan mix of politicians, and advocates have called on GOP Governor Kevin Stitt to spare Julius Jones over doubts about his conviction for a 1999 fatal shooting. Jones is set to be executed this afternoon. [Washington Post]
