This week, we saw a horrific shooting at Apalachee High School, where an attacker took the lives of two students and two staff members.
It was the first shooting all year to meet the Violence Project definition of a mass shooting after an unusually long absence of this particular kind of spectacular violence. Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Donald Trump reacted in different ways to the immediate aftermath. Unfortunately, we may now find out the answer to the question of how a mass shooting might shake up the 2024 race that I asked in a member-exclusive piece last Sunday.
With charges now filed against both the shooter and his father, it appears the attack will also answer whether the charges against the Crumbleys would be an outlier or the beginning of a new trend.
We also saw Ben & Jerry’s team up with a gun-control group on a new ad campaign to push for the removal of school resource officers. In court, a federal judge struck down Illinois’s gun-carry ban on public transit.
Plus, gun-rights lawyer Matt Larosiere joins the podcast to discuss the first post-Bruen ruling against the federal machinegun ban. And we have a slew of other gun stories in our links section down at the bottom of the email!
Harris Calls for AR Ban, Trump Claims He’ll ‘Heal the World’ After Georgia School Shooting
By Stephen Gutowski
The Presidential candidates reacted in different ways to Wednesday’s shooting at a Georgia high school.
After a 14-year-old alleged shooter killed four and injured nine more at Apalachee High School, the pair spoke to supporters at different events. During a campaign speech in New Hampshire, Vice President Kamala Harris called the killings a “senseless tragedy” and said, “It doesn’t have to be this way.” She called for three gun restrictions, including a ban on guns like the AR-15, which she has made the centerpiece of her firearms policy.
“Let us finally pass an assault weapons ban and universal background checks and red flag laws,” Harris said. “It is a false choice to say you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone’s guns away.”
Analysis: A Trend in Charging the Parents of School Shooters [Member Exclusive]
By Stephen Gutowski
The father of the Apalachee High School shooting suspect has been arrested and charged with numerous crimes related to the murder spree. The prosecutors bringing those charges appear to be following in the footsteps of their Michigan counterparts who secured convictions against the parents of the Oxford High School shooter.
After Jennifer Crumbley was convicted of involuntary manslaughter under the theory that her negligence led to her son murdering four of his fellow students, rather than any direct involvement in the attack, I predicted we’d likely see more cases down the line. The conviction marked a success for the first of its kind charges, but I reasoned it also wouldn’t be the last time we saw a case like that.
“The more common way we’ll likely see these lines tested in the wake of Jennifer Crumbley’s conviction is through prosecutors pursuing similar charges,” I said at the time. “The outcome in this case will probably embolden prosecutors to go after parents of other mass shooters and lower-profile killers.”
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Ben & Jerry’s Partners With Gun-Control Group for Ad Campaign
By Stephen Gutowski
One of the nation’s biggest ice cream brands has joined with a gun-control group to push for removing police from schools.
On Friday, Ben & Jerry’s announced it partnered with March for Our Lives on a new digital ad campaign. The pair launched an ad campaign they said would primarily target swing states, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. They didn’t say how much money they planned to spend on the ads but said the ads would run on Facebook and Instagram through October 2nd.
“For too long, our approach to student safety has been to harden our schools with armed police officers, locked doors, fences, and metal detectors, all of which have proved ineffective in protecting students,” Christopher Miller, Global Social Mission Director at Ben & Jerry’s, said in a statement.
Federal Judge Strikes Down Illinois Public Transit Gun Ban
By Jake Fogleman
The Second Amendment protects the right to carry a firearm for self-defense while taking public transit, a federal judge has ruled.
On Friday, US District Judge Iain Johnston found a provision in Illinois’ Firearm Concealed Carry Act banning all forms of carrying a firearm on or near any public transportation facility is unconstitutional. He ruled the state failed to prove that its restriction aligned with the nation’s historical approach to firearms regulation.
“After an exhaustive review of the parties’ filings and the historical record, as required by Supreme Court precedent, the Court finds that Defendants failed to meet their burden to show an American tradition of firearm regulation at the time of the Founding that would allow Illinois to prohibit Plaintiffs—who hold concealed carry permits—from carrying concealed handguns for self-defense onto the CTA and Metra,” Judge Johnston wrote in Schoenthal v. Raoul.
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Podcast: Gun-Rights Lawyer Matt Larosiere on a Federal Judge Ruling Against the Machinegun Ban
By Stephen Gutowski
This week, we’re covering the very first time since the Supreme Court handed down the Bruen ruling that a federal judge has struck down the machinegun ban.
That may have implications for not just the ban itself but the law it is housed under: The National Firearms Act (NFA). That’s why we’ve got a gun-rights lawyer who has handled NFA cases. Matt Larosiere gives his view of what the holding in US v. Morgan means for the ban on post-1986 fully-automatic weapons and the NFA writ large.
You can listen to the show on your favorite podcasting app or by clicking here. Video of the episode is available on our YouTube channel.
Plus, Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman and I cover the latest federal campaign finance numbers showing gun-control groups outraising the gun-rights organizations in the lead-up to the election. We also talk about a pair of federal appeals court rulings, one striking down the federal gun ban for marijuana users and the other striking down Missouri’s expansive Second Amendment Sanctuary law. Finally, we wrap up with a quick discussion of gun groups officially appealing to the Supreme Court over Maryland’s AR-15 ban and a pair of dueling court decisions on the legality of switchblade bans from across the country.
Analysis: How Would a Mass Shooting Affect the Election? [Member Exclusive]
By Stephen Gutowski
The presidential election is 65 days away, and the gun policy debate has stagnated. But a high-profile shooting could change that.
To this point in 2024, there has not been a single mass shooting that meets The Violence Project’s definition where four or more people are killed in a random public attack. That is highly unusual because we’ve usually seen between five to ten mass shootings over the past decade. And since those are the kinds of shootings that tend to drive media coverage, we haven’t had a lot of national gun news.
Even beyond mass shootings, there have only really been two high-profile shootings this year. The first was the Super Bowl parade shooting. And that was back in March, months before President Joe Biden would even drop out of the race. It was too early, and the details were too disconnected from the political gun debate to make much of a lasting impact on the race.
If a major shooting happens between now and election day, things would probably be very different.
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Outside The Reload
The Country’s Biggest Ghost Gun Manufacturer Has Shuttered | The Trace | By Alain Stephens
New gun group launches to fill NRA vacuum | Axios | By Hans Nichols
Oregon ‘ghost gun’ ban goes into effect after judge rejects gun rights challenge | AP News
How Some Courts are Evading Bruen by Changing its Rules | The Volokh Conspiracy | By David Kopel
Goodbye, Paul Harrell | Bearing Arms | By Tom Knighton
That’s it for this week in guns.
I’ll see you all next week.
Thanks,
Stephen Gutowski
Founder
The Reload
