Guns

Buzzfeed reports: Just 10 days after a 6-year-old shot his teacher during class, a gun trade show will feature a JR-15 .22-caliber long rifle meant for kids. “The JR-15 is the first in a line of shooting platforms that will assist families in safely passing on the proud American tradition of responsible gun ownership to the next generation of recreational …

Fox News reports: More than six dozen Illinois sheriffs have vowed to defy a gun-control law signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker that bans semiautomatic rifles. “Part of my duties that I accepted upon being sworn into office was to protect the rights provided to all of us, in the Constitution,” Edwards County Sheriff Darby Boewe said in a Facebook …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge has declined a request to temporarily block a California law that allows the state to share personal information about gun owners with gun violence researchers. Assembly Bill 173 amended California firearms laws to authorize the state attorney general to disclose gun owners’ personal information to the California Firearm Violence Research Center at UC Davis, …

Yahoo News reports: January is not even over, but this weekend’s On Patrol: Live aired what may end up being the most shocking TV moment of the year. At the beginning of Saturday’s episode of Reelz’s law enforcement docuseries, police in Beech Grove, Ind. responded to reports of a diaper-clad child roaming the halls with a firearm at a local …

Hampton Roads’ NBC affiliate reports: During a virtual Town Hall with Richneck parents on Thursday, officials said that at least one administrator knew that the six-year-old student may have had a weapon on him hours before the shooting happened. Superintendent Dr. George Parker (photo) revealed that there was a report that the boy might have had a weapon on him …

The Chicago Sun-Times reports: Assault weapons can no longer be sold in Illinois. The state immediately banned the sale of the military-style weapons and high-capacity magazines Tuesday evening, with Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature on a bill the House had passed just hours earlier. “Today, we made history, becoming the ninth state to institute an assault weapons ban —and one of …

Florida Politics reports: Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson is unveiling his first legislative proposal since taking office, a first-in-the-nation measure to prevent businesses from tracking Floridians’ firearm and ammo purchases. Simpson, the former Senate President who was sworn in as Agriculture Commissioner last week, announced his proposal for the “Florida Arms and Ammo Act” Tuesday. The measure comes in response to new …

CBS News reports: The teacher, identified as 25-year-old Abigail Zwerner, was teaching a lesson when the child drew the weapon, Police Chief Steve Drew said a a news conference. The teacher “took a defensive position” and held up her hand, Drew said; the bullet passed through her hand and entered her chest. He said there had been no physical fight …

The Washington Post reports: The first-grade class at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News was in a small reading group about to go to art when one of their classmates pulled a handgun from his backpack and pointed it at his teacher, according to Brittaney Gregory, whose son was in the class. “She was going to confiscate it, and that’s …

The New York Times reports: The 6-year-old, a first grader at Richneck Elementary in Newport News, Va., shot a teacher with a handgun on Friday afternoon, the Newport News Police Department said, in an incident that the police said was “not an accidental shooting.” The boy and the teacher had been involved in an altercation in a classroom before the …

The Associated Press reports: Alabama on Jan. 1 will become the latest state to allow people to carry a concealed handgun without a state permit that requires a background check. The new state law ends the requirement for a person to get a permit to legally carry a concealed handgun in public. The National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, …

Law & Crime reports: A federal judge threw out a challenge to D.C.’s concealed pistol law after four D.C.-area residents failed to include a basic part of their case. Although the challengers made multiple arguments about the use of guns in 1600s New England, they included nothing to show that they were — or ever would be — personally affected …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas will no longer fight to ban 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying handguns in public. A judge ruled earlier this year that a state law banning the practice was unconstitutional, and Texas initially filed a notice that it would appeal. But Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw withdrew the appeal to the 5th U.S. …

Courthouse News reports: The city of Buffalo sued a slew of gunmakers Tuesday, accusing them of oversupplying weapons and using marketing tactics that have fueled gun violence in the city. In May, the city was rattled after a white teenage gunman killed 10 people at a Tops supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo.  Among the defendants in Erie …

Florida Politics reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday that he expects the GOP-led Legislature to pass a bill next year that would allow people to carry guns without a concealed-weapons permit, but a new poll of voters taken in Miami-Dade County shows that the public — particularly Hispanic voters — strongly oppose that measure. The survey says that 60% of …

Florida Politics reports: Florida’s Governor is locked and loaded and ready for constitutional carry legislation in the 2023 Legislative Session. During a Friday press conference, Ron DeSantis left little ambiguity about his stance on constitutional carry, which would give gun owners the right to carry their firearms without the need for a license or permit. Legislation to this end has stalled in …

Via press release from the White House: Ten years ago today at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, our nation watched as the unthinkable happened. Twenty young children with their whole lives ahead of them. Six educators who gave their lives protecting their students. And countless survivors who still carry the wounds of that day. We should have societal …

Slate reports: For decades, federal law has forbidden gun owners from scratching out the serial numbers that manufacturers are legally required to place on firearms. The reason is obvious: These serial numbers help state and federal law enforcement trace guns that are used in crimes and identify suspected shooters. Indeed, the only apparent reason anyone would remove a serial number …

The New York Times reports: A federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed a New York law barring the carrying of guns in some public places to stay in effect, granting a request from the state’s attorney general, who is fighting to keep the law in place a week after a judge blocked large portions of it. The decision from the …

Via press release from New York AG Letitia James: New York Attorney General Letitia James today took action to maintain the Concealed Carry Improvement Act (CCIA) and protect New Yorkers after a federal judge last week granted a temporary restraining order in Antonyuk v. Hochul: “Today my office filed a motion to keep the entire Concealed Carry Improvement Act in …