Good morning, Bulletin readers. At 11:02 on Tuesday morning, Trace reporter Alex Yablon called the chambers of a federal judge in Virginia to ask him about something he’d discovered: An attorney representing the NRA in a case before the judge didn’t disclose a prior ethics sanction when he applied for the required waiver to represent the gun group in a state where he’s not admitted to the bar.
Alex’s reporting got immediate results. At 5:15 pm the same day, according to document metadata, the judge ordered the lawyer, William A. Brewer III, to explain the omission, scheduling a hearing for next month.
More on that story, and today’s other developments, as your roundup continues below.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
After we reported that a lawyer representing the NRA did not disclose a serious ethics violation, the judge in the case wants answers. Hired by the National Rifle Association to bring the force of law against its foes, big-time corporate lawyer William A. Brewer III now finds himself under court scrutiny. According to a new filing, a federal judge in Virginia has ordered Brewer to explain why he did not disclose a $177,000 fine from a previous case when applying for permission to represent the gun group. The court appearance, scheduled for September 14, presents a new headache for the NRA at a moment when the gun group is depending on Brewer to help lead legal battles against the state officials and former corporate partners who’ve left it isolated as a business. The Trace broke the news of Brewer’s possible misrepresentation on Tuesday evening.
The e-commerce giant Shopify banned the sale of certain guns on its site. The online retailer, which is based in Canada, now prohibits the sale of semiautomatic guns that accept detachable magazines, as well as suppressors. The change comes less than a month after a mass shooting in Toronto killed two people and wounded 13 others. The new policy has presented a hurdle for at least one American gun maker: Spike’s Tactical, based in Florida, runs its entire online operations through the site.
A shooting at a Pennsylvania Walmart injured five people. A man who appeared to be intoxicated grabbed a gun from his sister’s waistband during an argument in the checkout line of a Walmart in the Philadelphia suburb of Wyncote on Tuesday evening and opened fire, injuring five people. After a police pursuit, the siblings were apprehended in Philadelphia. Earlier that day at a Target in Hyattsville, Maryland, a shopper was grazed by a bullet during a fight among three men.
The FBI somehow allowed a convicted felon to legally buy the gun he used to shoot three cops. Last month, Marlin Mack, a 25-year-old ex-convict who was wanted for the fatal shooting of a grad student during an attempted armed robbery on July 6, passed a background check and bought a pistol at a Missouri gun store. The next day he used it to wound three police officers who were pursuing him in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2011, police in Tulsa, Oklahoma, said Mack was one of city’s most dangerous armed robbers. The bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says it’s investigating.
An anti-violence activist in San Francisco was shot while returning home from a meeting on how to reduce gun crime. Joseph Taeotui, 43, was accosted by two gunmen outside his home on Monday afternoon. He is clinging to life after being shot five times. His older brother said he worked with the mayor’s office to educate young people of color about street violence.
A federal judge in Florida is accused of pointing a gun at the mother of his child. He was arrested Tuesday for allegedly threatening his ex-girlfriend with a handgun and a rifle when she came to his home to pick up their child.
ONE LAST THING
Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to school Wednesday, one day after the six-month anniversary of the massacre that killed 14 students and three teachers. Some of the young gun reform activists who emerged in the aftermath commemorated the occasion on social media. Matt Deitsch, a Stoneman Douglas grad whose brother survived the massacre, tweeted a Los Angeles teen’s rendering of the 17 victims created for last spring’s March For Our Lives with the caption: “No one should feel the pain Parkland feels. Remember the names and work to stop the pain that this nation continues to feel from gun violence.”
