firearms
U.S. Senate Democrats unveil legislation to ban high-capacity gun magazines
WASHINGTON — New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, along with 27 of his U.S. Senate colleagues, introduced legislation Tuesday to ban high-capacity magazines, which can be used on the type of semi-automatic firearm that is typically used in most mass shootings. “High-capacity magazines were designed for one purpose and one purpose only — high-capacity killing […]
Monday numbers: The military history and civilian tragedy of the AR-15
Why the weapon of choice for so many mass murderers is not what a lot of its defenders would have us believe Last month, after the horrific mass shootings at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, Monday Numbers took a look at the AR-15 style semi-automatic assault rifles favored by mass shooters in America.
Do to guns what we did to cigarettes — make them culturally repellent
Maybe you’ve wondered how much innocent blood needed to get spilled to finally convince Senate Republicans that gun violence has spiraled out of control, and we need to do something. The back-to-back mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde gave us the unhappy answer. One month later Congress presented President Joe Biden with a modest bipartisan […]
Responsible gun owners know it’s nuts to permit firearms that scare police
Last month, an untrained 18-year-old kid, armed with an AR-15 and multiple high-capacity magazines, intimidated an entire police force into doing nothing while he slaughtered their town’s helpless schoolchildren. For more than an hour, while kids frantically texted and called 911 begging to be rescued, the “good guys” did nothing. They did nothing because they […]
DOJ rule cracks down on untraceable firearms known as ‘ghost guns’
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden Monday unveiled the Department of Justice’s plan to regulate untraceable firearms known as ghost guns, as well as announced his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The Department of Justice’s final rule bans the business of manufacturing ghost guns, such as “buy build shoot” kits […]
U.S. House panel debates record number of guns found at airport checkpoints
WASHINGTON — U.S. House members wrestled Tuesday with how to address a spike in travelers trying to bring firearms through airport screening points in carry-on bags. During 2021, Transportation Security Administration officers detected 5,972 firearms at checkpoints, 86 percent of which were loaded. That number was up from the previous record of 4,432 discovered in 2019.
Michigan woman arrested with guns in her truck near U.S. Capitol
WASHINGTON — The United States Capitol Police said in a press release that they arrested a Michigan woman Wednesday on charges of unlawful possession of multiple firearms. The woman, identified by officers as Kery Lynn McAttee, told police she was traveling from Michigan and went to the U.S. Capitol Police headquarters to talk about information […]
Special report from Michigan: After mass shootings, many GOP leaders’ ‘concern is for guns,’ experts say
[Editor’s note: This special report was published by Policy Watch’s sibling States Newsroom outlet, the Michigan Advance in response to a recent school shooting in that state that claimed the lives of four schoolchildren.] After police say a 15-year-old shot and killed four of his classmates and wounded seven others at Oxford High School in […]
Monday numbers: A closer look at child injury and fatality trends
NC experienced a big spike in child firearm deaths in 2020 While parents and health care providers have been laser focused on the pandemic this year, members of the North Carolina Child Fatality Task Force (CFTF) offered some sobering numbers last week about overall child injury trends.
Monday numbers: A closer look at rapidly climbing gun violence statistics
As Policy Watch reported earlier this month, the North Carolina Senate passed a bill (HB 398) that would repeal the state’s pistol purchase permit requirement. Though the bill is likely to see a veto from Gov. Roy Cooper, elimination of the state permit requirement has for years been a conservative goal that has at times divided Republicans and law enforcement in the state.
NC House votes to repeal state pistol purchase permit system
Proponents say federal background checks will suffice, but critics fear that a loophole for private sales will lead to a spike in murders and suicides The North Carolina state House of Representatives okayed a bill (HB 398) that would do away with the state’s pistol purchase permit system. The proposal would repeal current statutory provisions […]
Law experts: Constitutional issues often misunderstood in gun, protest and militia debates
As guns become an increasing part of conflicts around elections, political protests and demonstrations, law experts say many Americans have a fundamental misunderstanding of the legal and constitutional issues around them. The Duke Center for Firearms Law held an online roundtable discussion Tuesday exploring the issue in the wake of the 2020 election, the insurrection […]