Receive this daily news briefing by email every morning. Sign up here.
NEW from THE TRACE: Arkansas moms turn to food pantry boxes to distribute safe gun storage tips. In the first week of April, a 14-year-old girl in Jonesboro, Arkansas, found her father’s rifle during a game of hide-and-seek with a friend. The gun went off, killing the other child. It was the kind of tragic accident Rebekah Evans had worried about since the coronavirus crisis forced schools to close. So she and a group of local activists found a way to increase awareness of the risk of unsecured guns by piggybacking on another pandemic response: the packages of canned goods and other emergency supplies that food banks are distributing to economically devastated families. Ann Givens has the story.
Accidental shootings add to holiday weekend toll. Yesterday, we compiled a list of 13 multiple-casualty shootings we spotted over the Memorial Day weekend. Since then, local reports have come out about three child-involved accidental shootings: In San Antonio, a 4-year-old boy died after being shot with a gun found by a 10-year-old friend during a barbecue; in Washington, D.C., a 4-year-old girl is fighting for her life after her 7-year-old friend unintentionally shot her with a gun they were playing with; and in Morris, Alabama, a 5-year-old boy died after firing a gun his mother’s boyfriend left unattended.
NYPD redeploys coronavirus resources in a bid to stanch shootings. For an annual summer initiative, the force temporarily shifts some desk officers to high-crime areas. To staff an augmented anti-violence surge this summer, the department is significantly curtailing how many officers it has monitoring social distancing compliance, a top NYPD officer announced. New York City is one of many major U.S. metropolitan areas to have seen shootings surge during the coronavirus, despite a national decline in other kinds of violence.
On guns, SCOTUS demurs again. The high court has delayed whether to take one of nearly a dozen gun cases currently under consideration, pushing the soonest possible decision to after its next conference on June 1. CNN has the latest look at some key Second Amendment questions the justices could explore and how they may shake out. “The court’s composition has changed considerably since Heller,” said one legal expert, referring to the 2008 case that established the right to own a firearm in one’s home. But Chief Justice John Roberts’s “position as the median may make him more cautious, seeking a narrower decision, with a more gradual approach to the Second Amendment.”
A manhunt rattles Newtown. Peter Manfredonia, 23, a senior at the University of Connecticut, has been on the run since Friday and is suspected of killing two men, injuring another, kidnapping, and gun theft. He was last seen walking along train tracks in the Poconos region of Pennsylvania, carrying a large duffle bag that authorities believe may be filled with stolen firearms. Manfredonia graduated from high school in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2015, three years after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
DATA POINT
In March and April, 21 children under the age of 17 were unintentionally killed by guns, a 43 percent increase over the same period last year. — Everytown for Gun Safety
(Everytown provides grants to The Trace through its nonpolitical arm. Here’s our list of major donors and our policy on editorial independence.)
