Good morning, Bulletin readers. A judge quashed the NRA’s attempt to prevent its former marketing firm from handing over documents as part of an official investigation into possible financial misconduct. That story leads your Tuesday roundup.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
NEW from THE TRACE: The National Rifle Association can’t block its former ad firm from releasing records. The gun group’s former marketing firm must hand over materials that New York State Attorney General Letitia James subpoenaed seven months ago, a judge ruled. James’s office is investigating possible financial misconduct at the gun group. “We won’t allow the NRA to control or intimidate witnesses’ responses to subpoenas or compromise the integrity of our investigation,” she said in a statement. Will Van Sant has the scoop.
The CDC is calling for gun violence research proposals. In December, Congress awarded the federal agency $12.5 million to study gun violence, the first time it had allocated taxpayer money for that purpose in over two decades. (The same amount went to the National Institutes of Health.) Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has put out a call for “research grants to prevent firearm-related violence and injuries” to be submitted by May 5. The agency is awarding 20 grants, capped at $650,000 each.
An ICE agent shot him in the face. Now he’s filing a federal lawsuit. Erick Diaz Cruz, 26, was wounded by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who tried to detain his mother’s boyfriend in Brooklyn, New York, earlier this month. Cruz, who may have permanent vision loss, filed suit against the officer last week. In a newly published investigation, the Department of Homeland Security disclosed to The Arizona Republic that federal Homeland Security investigations agents had been involved in 13 shootings between 2007 and 2018. But looking at media reports alone, the paper said it found several more instances the agency didn’t disclose.
Major bills in Virginia’s gun reform push advance. The Senate Judiciary Committee — which last week tabled an assault weapons ban — passed bills on Monday that would establish a red flag law; require universal background checks; require gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms; let local governments enact their own gun laws; limit handgun purchases to one per month, and expand the state’s child access prevention law. They now head to the full Senate. Read more about the legislation here.
An 11-year-old girl brought a loaded AR-15 to a gun bill hearing in Idaho. She accompanied her grandfather to the Statehouse in support of a bill that would let out-of-state residents carry concealed guns in cities without a permit or training. He explained: “She got her first deer with this weapon at 9. She carries it responsibly.”
Wisconsin high schoolers are suing for the right to wear gun-themed T-shirts. The federal lawsuit contends their principal violated the First Amendment when invoking the school’s dress code in asking the students cover their pro-gun attire. Earlier this month, a middle school student in the state sued his assistant principal over a Smith & Wesson T-shirt. In 2018, a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled that schools can’t ban gun-themed T-shirts.
DATA POINT
Unintentional shootings, like the one at a Houston flea market on Sunday that wounded seven people, make up 1.3 percent of gun deaths and 18 percent of gun injuries. — Giffords
