Good morning, Bulletin readers. As more details come out about the lavish spending of NRA executives, Democrats in the House are widening their probe into the group’s nonprofit status. Plus, authorities in California say they may have foiled a mass shooting at a Los Angeles-area hotel.
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The NRA’s longtime PR firm says a top NRA fundraiser racked up $450,000 worth of expenses. More documents are emerging as a result of the New York attorney general’s investigation into the National Rifle Association’s tax-exempt status, including a letter that the PR firm Ackerman McQueen sent it in April regarding unreported expenses incurred by NRA executive Tyler Schropp. A document disclosure in May provided a glimpse into CEO Wayne LaPierre’s lavish spending habits, which included hundreds of thousands of dollars on clothes on travel.
Meanwhile, a House Democrat widened his probe into the NRA. In a letter obtained by CNN, Representative Brad Schneider of Illinois, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, asked Ackerman McQueen to release financial documents involving the NRA. In June, Schneider wrote a similar letter to LaPierre demanding internal NRA documents.
California police arrested a man they say planned a mass shooting. Authorities in Long Beach apprehended the 37-year-old Marriott hotel cook who reportedly had plans to open fire on guests and employees. After receiving a tip from a co-worker, the police found an arsenal at his Huntington Beach home that included tactical gear and hundreds of ammunition rounds, as well as assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines, which are illegal in the state.
March for Our Lives unveiled a new gun violence prevention plan. The Peace Plan for a Safer America, introduced Wednesday by the group made up of teenage Parkland survivors, calls for a national gun registry and licensing program, a mandatory federal assault-style rifle buyback, and the creation of a national director of gun violence prevention.
A federal court ordered the ATF to release gun tracing data. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives lost its fight to block the release of data about guns used in suicide as part of a Freedom of Information Act request by the gun reform group Everytown For Gun Safety. The ATF argued that it was blocked from doing so by the Tiahrt Amendment, a rider that’s been attached to Department of Justice appropriations bills since 2003 which prevents the agency from releasing gun trace data to anyone but law enforcement agents.
New Orleans is embarking on a “generational plan” to reduce shootings. Mayor Latoya Cantrell unveiled a three-point strategy on Tuesday that will see the city partner with researchers to gather data on what causes gun violence, create a crime lab to help the Police Department solve more shootings, and deliver community-based services to residents in violent areas.
California legislators want Nevada to strengthen its gun laws. Twenty-seven California state lawmakers made the request in a letter sent to the Democratic-led Nevada Legislature. Last month, it was revealed that the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter got his gun in Nevada, where laws aren’t as strict. As The Trace has reported, Nevada’s lax gun laws have made it a hotspot for traffickers and criminals eager to bring weapons into California.
The family of a man killed by Indiana police seeks answers. Rashad Cunningham, 25, was fatally shot during a traffic stop in Gary, Indiana, on Saturday. Police have released few details about the shooting, except that the man was armed. But his family says he was a licensed concealed carrier. “He had a Second Amendment right to carry a weapon,” his uncle said Tuesday at a City Council meeting.
