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| Hello, readers. Is there something that just doesn’t make sense to you when it comes to guns and gun violence in America? A statistic you’ve been searching for, but haven’t been able to locate? Are you curious about the stories behind the gun laws we have (or don’t)?
We had a lot of questions of our own when we launched The Trace, which was founded in part to close the knowledge deficit that has left people in the dark on the issue. Now we want to do a better job of understanding your questions, and how we can help to answer them.
That’s the idea behind Ask The Trace, a special project driven by the curiosity of readers like you. Here’s how it works: Tell us what you wonder, big or small, about guns or gun violence in America. The more specific the question, the better. After we’ve received the first batch of questions, you can vote to help us decide which to answer first. Members of our team will track down the info you’re seeking. Then we’ll share the results with you at thetrace.org.
Ask us anything, and help us find our next stories, here. |
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| Nearly three weeks after we revealed that the NRA’s top election contractor could be a shell company that exists principally on paper, the firm won’t provide documentation or answer questions from journalists. [The Trace]
The NRA says it might not be able to put on events, produce videos, or do basic advocacy because the New York governor’s campaign to pressure financial firms to cut ties with the gun group has prevented it from renewing its liability insurance or getting banking services. [The Trace]
At noon today, student activists plan to shut down the street in front of the NRA’s headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. Satellite demonstrations will occur in strategic locations in several cities nationwide, including at the site of local gun groups and in front of municipal buildings. [The Trace]
A federal judge blocked the online posting of blueprints for 3-D-printed, untraceable “ghost guns” hours before they were cleared for mass downloading. Eight state attorneys general had sued to block their publication, arguing that it was a national security threat. [Washington Post]
According to the final report on the Las Vegas massacre, the gunman used 13 rifles outfitted with bump stocks to fire 1,049 rounds. [The Trace]
Counterintelligence officers say that accused Russian agent Maria Butina and her American associate, Republican operative Paul Erickson, moved more than $200,000 in and out of their bank accounts, transactions that could provide a road map of back channels from Russia to the NRA. [BuzzFeed News]
In a uniquely sweeping response to a single mass shooting, states have enacted 50 new laws restricting access to guns since the Parkland massacre. Fourteen passed in states with Republican governors. [Stateline]
A new poll suggests that a bold approach to gun restrictions would go over well with voters, even in general elections. [Roll Call] Another survey found that the majority of voters say protection from gun violence is more important than the right to own guns. [YouGov]
The NRA’s Florida lobbyist, who wrote the state’s “stand your ground” law, suggested the self-defense statute is being misapplied in the case of a white man who fatally shot an unarmed black man during a fight over a parking spot. [The New York Times]
The TSA’s proposal to eliminate passenger screening at 150 small and medium-sized airports raises the risk that passengers could bring guns on board. [CNN] A Michigan state lawmaker was detained after a TSA agent found a loaded handgun in his carry-on bag in a small regional airport on July 15. He said he “honestly forgot” it was there. [Detroit Free Press] His Taurus .380 was one of 17 guns seized from airline passengers across the U.S. that day. [TSA]
Ten people were shot, three fatally, in a shooting outside a strip mall in New Orleans last Saturday night. At least 34 people, including four young children, have been shot in the city in the past two weeks. [Times-Picayune] |
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| Earlier this month, Makiyah Wilson, 10, was killed in a hail of gunfire while on her way to an ice cream truck in Washington, D.C. On Monday, Makiyah’s uncle, Mike D’Angelo, set off from the spot where she was killed and embarked on a three-day, 130-mile walk to Philadelphia, where he said his little brother was fatally shot around the same time. “So many kids lost their life in the District,” he told the D.C. Fox affiliate at the start of his walk, which he documented on Instagram, “and I feel like now is the time that somebody step up and just try to make a stand, do something legendary that the people remember no matter what, you can think twice about squeezing that trigger.” |
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| On Monday, Jonathan Rojas, 18, was fatally shot as he sat in an SUV in Camden, New Jersey. Two years ago, Jonathan was charged in connection with a shooting and served time in a juvenile detention center. When he was released, he set his sights on attending college. The co-director of the youth community program Jonathan attended remembered him as a “jokester,” but also respectful. “The tough-guy image he had outside the classroom was not the same image he had inside the classroom,” said Tim Gallagher of Community Adolescents Striving for Achievement. “He was a funny kid, lighthearted. He was trying to look toward a brighter future.” |
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“Every time we plan to stand up for students there is always a group or someone who thinks it is OK to threaten innocent lives.”
—Ethan Somers, 18, a gun reform activist from Colorado, after receiving violent online threats ahead of an anti-NRA march, as quoted by The Denver Post. |
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| The Canon is compiled by Jennifer Mascia.
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