Good morning, Bulletin readers. Another Wisconsin high school saw a school resource officer shoot a student to defuse a threatening situation. That story leads your Wednesday round-up, below.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
For the second straight day, an officer shot an armed high school student in Wisconsin. On Tuesday, a student at Oshkosh West High School stabbed the officer, who then shot the student. On Monday, a school resource officer at a high school in Waukesha, 80 miles south of Oshkosh, shot a student who brandished a pellet gun and refused to drop it. The students involved in the two shootings are recovering from non-life threatening injuries. “The last two days tells us that we can’t keep pretending that this only happens in other communities or in other states — it’s happening here, too,” said Governor Tony Evers.
The FBI fails to complete an average of 185,000 gun background checks each year. That’s according to federal data obtained by Roll Call. The checks in question are delayed because of an inconclusive initial scan that requires further investigation. Under federal law, a gun can be sold to a buyer after three business days, even if the background check remains incomplete — the loophole through which the Charleston church shooter got his gun.
Nine in 10 suicide attempts by gun are fatal, a study finds. Harvard researchers studied suicide data from 2007 to 2014. The 89.6 percent lethality rate is compared to 8.5 percent of attempts using all other available methods. Because suicide is most often impulsive, the study’s lead author said, separating people in crisis from firearms is vital. But “it’s not specific to guns,” Dr. David Brent, a suicide expert at the University of Pittsburgh, told Reuters. “With any method that has a high fatality rate, making access more difficult will prevent some suicides.” The findings were published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Connecticut is divesting from guns. The state’s treasurer said Tuesday that he’s moving $30 million of the $37 billion in public pension funds he manages out of shares in gunmakers and banning future gun investments. “The cost, the economic cost, the social cost of gun violence is very, very significant,” Treasurer Shawn Wooden said.
Private Facebook groups are still a hotbed of illegal gun sales, Chicago Police say. Officials said Tuesday they had made dozens of arrests as the result of a two-year crackdown on drugs and guns being sold on the social media platform. “Facebook is harboring criminals,” First Deputy Police Superintendent Anthony Riccio said.
A bill in Virginia would ban firearms at public demonstrations. The Senate bill, pre-filed last week ahead of the upcoming legislative session, would ban the act of marching with guns “with the intent of intimidating any person or group,” labeling such gatherings “paramilitary activity.” The measure is state lawmakers’ latest attempt to prevent armed militia mobilizations that added to the chaos at the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017.
Another slew of Virginia counties declared themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries.” At least 31 of Virginia’s 95 counties have now passed such resolutions.
Feud preceded New Orleans mass shooting. Police said Monday that a shooting in the city’s French Quarter that left 10 people injured early Sunday was the result of an interpersonal conflict. None of the survivors, who range in age from 16 to 36, were from New Orleans.
A teen anti-violence advocate in Indianapolis is fighting for his life after being shot. Quintez Tucker, 16, was critically injured in a shooting on Friday. Tucker is involved in several local teen violence intervention programs. “Sometimes you can do everything right and be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said the executive director of one such program.
DATA POINT
A 16-year-old girl was the 106th person under 18 to be shot in Philadelphia this year, an average of once every 3.7 days. —The Philadelphia Inquirer
