Good morning, Bulletin readers. Our new West Coast correspondent Alain Stephens brought in a strong contender for The Trace Quote of the Month in his latest article, which focuses on the jumbo ammunition magazines that gun companies have been churning out: “They know damn well they are highly increasing the lethality of firearms available to the public — for profit,” an ex-ATF agent told him. Find his story, and more, below.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
NEW from THE TRACE: The gun industry is betting on even higher-capacity magazines. Spurred by the prospects of lucrative military contracts, American gun companies have developed a new generation of high-capacity magazines that let users reliably fire 40 or more rounds before stopping to reload. Experts say the larger models will soon dominate the civilian market. But they’re not just sought after by gun enthusiasts: Perpetrators of some of the most high-profile shootings over the last five years used magazines with capacities of 40 rounds or higher, according to a review of police records by The Trace’s Alain Stephens. In the majority of states, extended magazines can be purchased without a background check.
Officials in St. Louis voted to fund a violence interruption program. On Tuesday, the city’s Board of Estimate and Apportionment agreed to set aside $500,000 for a program that uses the Cure Violence model. Four children have been fatally shot in the Missouri city since Saturday. Myiesha Cannon, 16, was the most recent victim. The others are a 3-year-old girl, an 11-year-old girl, and a 16-year-old boy. Mayor Lyda Krewson called the deaths “outrageous.”
Maine rejected a “Stand Your Ground” bill. The measure would have removed the duty to retreat to safety before using deadly force in a public confrontation. It was voted down in the state House along party lines.
New York lawmakers aim to pressure other states on gun trafficking. The state Senate passed a measure that would require the state Department of Criminal Justice Services to publish quarterly reports on the origin of crime guns. The proposal aims to reduce activity along the “Iron Pipeline,” a smuggling route along the I-95 corridor by which guns are acquired in Southern states with lax laws and sold in Northern states with tighter controls. The bill cleared he New York State Senate on Tuesday and now moves to the Democratic-controlled Assembly.
An off-duty FBI agent may have stopped a shooting at a New Mexico brewery. A Utah man followed his ex-girlfriend into an Albuquerque establishment this past weekend and pulled out a gun, drawing the notice of two off-duty FBI agents. One of them opened fire, killing him. “Those FBI agents were heroes,” a witness said.
A 12-year-old Mississippi girl was unintentionally shot and killed by her brother. The boy, also 12, suffered a gunshot wound to his hand as they played with an unsupervised firearm in Horn Lake on Monday.
ONE LAST THING
Three years after the Pulse massacre, the shuttered nightclub stands as a rebuke to hate. Yesterday marked the third anniversary of the rampage at the Orlando nightclub. In the city’s downtown, bells tolled 49 times to remember each of the victims of the shooting, which remains the largest attack on the LGBTQ community in modern American history. “It was a terrorist attack,” the club’s owner, Barbara Poma, told People. “It happened to a community that was already disenfranchised.” Since the shooting, an interim memorial has sprung up in front of the club that includes tributes to the victims and remembrances of the lives lost. A permanent memorial and museum are scheduled to open on the site in 2022.
