Latest news with #Giffords
The Herald Scotland
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Trump admin reverses Biden, allows device for semiautomatic rifles
"This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement, referring to the constitutional right to bear arms. "And we are glad to end a needless cycle of litigation with a settlement that will enhance public safety." The deal was condemned by Vanessa Gonzalez, vice president of government and political affairs at the gun control group Giffords, who said "the Trump administration has just effectively legalized machine guns." "Lives will be lost because of his actions," she said. In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives notified firearms licensees that it had determined some such devices constituted illegal machine guns under the National Firearms Act. The DOJ a year later filed a lawsuit in New York against a company that made and distributed such devices nationwide, Rare Breed Triggers, leading to a court ruling blocking it from continuing to sell them. In moving to prevent the sale of such devices, the Biden administration cited the frequency at which AR-15-style semiautomatic firearms have been used in mass shootings nationwide. While the New York case was pending, the National Association for Gun Rights filed a lawsuit in Texas challenging the Biden-era ban, leading to a judge concluding the ban was unlawful as he barred its enforcement. The Trump administration's settlement resolved those lawsuits, which were on appeal, with an agreement to return all forced-reset triggers seized or surrendered to the government to their owners. The Trump administration agreed to not apply the machine gun ban to such devices so long as they are not designed for use with handguns. "This decision marks a new era of holding the DOJ and ATF accountable when they trample the rights of law-abiding gun owners," Dudley Brown, the National Association for Gun Rights' president, said in a statement. (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Leigh Jones and William Mallard)
Reuters
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Reuters
Trump administration, reversing Biden, allows 'forced reset triggers' for guns
May 16 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's administration agreed on Friday to permit the sale and possession of devices that let gun enthusiasts convert semiautomatic rifles into weapons that can shoot as fast as machine guns. The agreement came in a settlement, opens new tab announced by the Department of Justice resolving lawsuits brought under Trump's Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, after his administration banned certain "forced-reset triggers." "This Department of Justice believes that the 2nd Amendment is not a second-class right," Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement, referring to the constitutional right to bear arms. "And we are glad to end a needless cycle of litigation with a settlement that will enhance public safety." The deal was condemned by Vanessa Gonzalez, vice president of government and political affairs at the gun control group Giffords, who said "the Trump administration has just effectively legalized machine guns." "Lives will be lost because of his actions," she said. In 2022, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives notified firearms licensees that it had determined some such devices constituted illegal machine guns under the National Firearms Act. The DOJ a year later filed a lawsuit in New York against a company that made and distributed such devices nationwide, Rare Breed Triggers, leading to a court ruling blocking it from continuing to sell them. In moving to prevent the sale of such devices, the Biden administration cited the frequency at which AR-15-style semiautomatic firearms have been used in mass shootings nationwide. While the New York case was pending, the National Association for Gun Rights filed a lawsuit in Texas challenging the Biden-era ban, leading to a judge concluding the ban was unlawful as he barred its enforcement. Friday's settlement resolved those lawsuits, which were on appeal, with an agreement to return all forced-reset triggers seized or surrendered to the government to their owners. The Trump administration agreed to not apply the machine gun ban to such devices so long as they are not designed for use with handguns. "This decision marks a new era of holding the DOJ and ATF accountable when they trample the rights of law-abiding gun owners," Dudley Brown, the National Association for Gun Rights' president, said in a statement.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
3 shot dead and 5 injured in Glendale is no reason to expect gun reform
Not every instance of gun violence warrants an immediate call for gun reform, including the multiple killings that happened in Glendale on May 4. I know. That is a terrible thing to say. But it's true. Three people were killed. Five others were injured. Families and friends have been left grief-stricken and traumatized. It was awful. It was tragic. But it wasn't the kind of incident — at least from what authorities have said so far — that cries out for new legislation. No more so than the three other mass shootings that occurred that day in different parts of the country, as catalogued by the Gun Violence Archive. As Giffords knows, 'It does not have to be this way' Or the 100 mass shootings that have occurred in the U.S. so far this year. Or the nearly 5,000 firearms deaths, and we're not even six months into the year. Police are calling what happened in Glendale an isolated incident driven by 'bad blood' between those involved in the gunplay. It happened during a Cinco de Mayo party at the restaurant El Camarón Gigante, attended by a couple of hundred people. A fight started inside, where police say the first shots were fired, then ramped up in the parking lot, where deadly gunfire was exchanged. Former Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a victim of gun violence, tweeted afterward, 'Another celebration devastated by gun violence, this time in our home state, at a Cinco de Mayo party in Glendale, Arizona. My heart breaks for the Arizonans impacted. It does not have to be this way.' Ansari is right about support for gun law reform Arizona U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari chimed in, issuing a statement that read, 'For too long, Americans have been forced to watch as gun violence affects every corner of our communities — schools, movie theaters, places of worship, and local restaurants like El Camaron Gigante. 'Common sense policy reform to regulate guns has broad, bipartisan support. It's long past time we stand up and do something." Giffords is correct, of course. It doesn't have to be this way. Opinion: Guns or kids? Arizona stubbornly refuses to protect the right one But it took a long time for it to get this way, and whether we like it or not, gun violence like this has become accepted. Even worse, expected. Ansari also is correct, sort of. Polls consistently show there is widespread support for things like universal background checks, 'red-flag' laws, restrictions on large capacity magazines and assault weapons. But we don't know yet whether any of those reforms, if in place, would have changed anything in Glendale. Gun death statistics should horrify us. They don't We do know, however, that public calls for changes in gun laws after every shooting are now so predictable that they are ignored. It may be the opposite of offering 'thoughts and prayers,' but it gets the same reaction. Nothing. Here's why: More than 31,000 Americans died by firearms in 2024. Among the victims, 250 were children younger than 11. More than 1,000 were between 12 and 17. Seventy-five were police officers. Numbers like that should horrify us. But they don't. Numbers like that should have us electing a majority of politicians hellbent on reducing those casualties. But we don't. Reach Montini at Like this column? Get more opinions in your email inbox by signing up for our free opinions newsletter, which publishes Monday through Friday. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Glendale shooting doesn't make the case for gun control | Opinion
Washington Post
01-05-2025
- Health
- Washington Post
Trump administration cuts school mental health grants created after shootings
The Education Department this week began cutting about $1 billion in mental health-related grants created in response to mass school shootings, claiming that schools that want to diversify their pool of psychologists are misusing the funds. School psychology professionals across the country are scrambling to figure out how to move forward after being told funding for their multiyear programs will expire at the end of December if they don't decide to appeal. The two grants affected received an additional $1 billion after President Joe Biden signed a sweeping bipartisan gun safety bill into law in 2022, a month after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The cuts that started Tuesday are in line with President Donald Trump's executive order that seeks to eliminate programs that foster diversity, equity and inclusion in schools. Last month the administration canceled grants funding gun-violence prevention programs and crime-victim advocacy. Republicans over the past decade have sought to blame mass shootings, especially ones in schools, on mental health issues of the killers — as opposed to America having more guns per civilian than any other country. 'Our president claims that America's gun violence crisis is a mental health issue, not a gun issue — then turns around and slashes $1 billion in mental health resources for kids and schools,' said Emma Brown, executive director of the gun control advocacy group Giffords. 'Republican leaders worked side by side with Democrats to allocate these funds to save lives and stop school shootings, and now the administration is trampling that progress. This decision will cost American children their lives.' There has also been a focus on physical security measures, like metal detectors in schools in response to school shootings. But research shows those aren't as effective as addressing mental health issues, said Nancy Duchesneau, a senior research associate at Edtrust, an educational equity group. 'These resources are a lifeline for a lot of students. Many youth don't have access to resources for mental health outside of school,' she said. The programs affected by the cuts offer counseling to students, who Duchesneau said need help after the developmental and academic disruptions of covid. But the grants also remove financial barriers for people interested in becoming school psychologists, which has some worried that this move from the White House will crack the pipeline that helps people get training. 'The domino effect of this is tremendous,' said Kelly Vaillancourt Strobach, director of policy and advocacy at the National Association of School Psychologists. Research shows students of color are more likely to seek out and engage with a counselor who has a similar background. Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann said some grants were being misused and not helping students or mental health professionals in schools. 'Instead, under the deeply flawed priorities of the Biden administration, grant recipients used the funding to implement race-based actions like recruiting quotas in ways that have nothing to do with mental health and could hurt the very students the grants are supposed to help,' Biedermann wrote in an email to The Washington Post. Biedermann said some grant applications that were previously approved for funding had a diversity goal. For example, an applicant school wanted eight out of the 24 counselors hired using the grant and matching funds to be not White. Another example Biedermann provided from an application was a training for counselor educators 'to recognize and challenge systemic injustices, anti-racism, and the pervasiveness of white supremacy to ethically support diverse communities.' Leandra Parris said funding for her program was cut short Tuesday, but it had no race-based recruitment quotas nor does she know of anyone else whose program has such requirements. Parris, a professor of school psychology at William & Mary, was in her office when she received the email that most of her $3 million grant was not being continued. 'I just sat there and started shaking, and all I could think about were all the students we said we'd be supporting and all the schools we asked for a list of their students to help,' she said, adding: 'I just started crying.' Parris said she is the only trainer in the Tidewater region certified to train schools on how to prepare or and mitigate school crises, such as natural disasters or school shootings. She was set to provide the training in the Newport News, Norfolk and Chesapeake public school districts. 'I just felt like this was a dream,' Parris said of the grant. She said the government has given her no explanation as to why her grant has ended. She said all she can think of was that, in their application, they were told while applying during the Biden era that they would receive a competitive edge if they showed how they would diversify the field of school psychologists and have inclusive practices. 'Now we're being punished for doing that,' she said. The cut is happening at a time when there's a severe shortage of school psychologists across the nation. Experts agree the ideal ratio is one school psychologist to every 500 students. The ratio of the Chesapeake Public Schools is 1 to 2,173 students and 1 to 2,177 for Newport News Public Schools during the 2023-2024 school year, Parris said. She said her program included recruiting locals interested in becoming school psychologists and offering them some money to complete their studies. Parris said she will do the best she can with the $500,000 her team has received so far, but they are sad to miss out on $2.5 million more for being wrongly accused of violating guidelines. 'To be told we're harming students or discriminating when that's the opposite of what was intended to do, I had a good cry and mourned a little bit. But now we're going to work on the appeal and do our best,' she said. Laura Meckler contributed to this report.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Sarah Palin showed no harm in libel case, NY Times lawyer says
NEW YORK — A Manhattan jury heard closing arguments Tuesday in former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's defamation case do-over against The New York Times, a high-stakes suit that First Amendment advocates worry could lead to the paring away of protections for the press. Palin, who got another chance to try the case she lost in 2022 when New York's Court of Appeals last year found errors plagued the first trial and revived it, alleges in her suit that an inaccuracy in a June 2017 Times editorial damaged her reputation. The editorial, 'America's Lethal Politics,' argued heated political rhetoric could influence gun violence in the U.S. after a gunman opened fire at a congressional baseball game, wounding House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. Former Times editor James Bennet added the details to the writer Elizabeth Williamson's article about a digital graphic put out by Palin's political action committee in 2011 before former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot and paralyzed in a supermarket parking lot. He inaccurately described the graphic as featuring stylized crosshairs over Giffords and other Democratic officials when it depicted crosshairs over their electoral districts. On Tuesday, a lawyer for The Times, Felicia Ellsworth, asked the jury to reject Palin's arguments as 'just another opportunity to take on the fake news.' Palin's lawyer, Ken Turkel, said the error was not an 'honest mistake about a passing reference,' but for Palin, 'a life changer.' He said the newspaper had greater responsibility than other media outlets as 'the world's most authoritative news organization.' 'If someone is going to lie about you, you cannot pick a worse organization,' he said. He added that the editorial came when Palin was not running for office or otherwise in the spotlight but just 'trying to live her life' and make money doing speaking engagements. Ellsworth noted that Palin had not requested damages to repay supposed lost earnings for the engagements or anything at all. 'She's not seeking those damages because she doesn't have them,' the lawyer said. 'She hasn't hired anyone to fix the supposed harm of her reputation. She didn't identify a single person who told her they believed she caused the Arizona shooting as a result of the 2017 editorial. She did not identify a single person who has … thought less of her because of the editorial. She offered no witnesses to show she was harmed.' Within 14 hours, the error was fixed. A correction said that no link had ever been established between political rhetoric and the shooting of Giffords and noted, 'the editorial also incorrectly described a map distributed by a political action committee before that shooting. It depicted electoral districts, not individual Democratic lawmakers, beneath stylized cross hairs.' Turkel said The Times's decision not to name Palin in the correction was part of the reason she brought suit, saying doing so would have been 'common respect.' 'She just doesn't matter to them,' he said. 'As we sit here today, that is still the last correction up there.' Turkel, who represented Terry Bollea, known as Hulk Hogan, in his Silicon Valley-funded defamation suit against Gawker Media that led to the shuttering of the popular gossip blog before it relaunched years later, seemed to acknowledge that Bennet may not have known the detail was inaccurate. He said the editor should have, having had the relevant information 'at his fingertips.' Ellsworth said Palin's lawyers had failed to prove Bennet acted with 'actual malice,' meaning he knew the detail was false but included it anyway. She noted that fact-checkers and editors had interpreted it differently. 'James Bennet, Elizabeth Williamson, Linda Cohen and the other editors and fact checkers who worked on the editorial did not think that the editorial was saying the map caused the shooting, but once they realized it was being read that way, they acted quickly,' Ellsworth said, noting Bennet woke at 5 a.m. the morning after the piece went up and told his team to determine the facts as fast as possible. 'If he was avoiding learning the truth, you'd expect him to keep his head in the sand as long as possible,' Ellsworth said. 'These are not the actions of a person who was purposely avoiding the truth.' As in Hogan's suit, First Amendment advocates worry the suit has been brought as a vehicle to ultimately get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a 1964 landmark ruling in a case also involving The Times, which set a high bar for public officials who try to sue journalists. Currently, they have to prove an error was intentional. It comes as the Trump administration has aggressively ramped up attacks on the media, filing mammoth lawsuits against ABC and CBS over coverage Donald Trump didn't like, seeking to curtail access for The Associated Press for refusing to capitulate to his editorial preferences, and expanding White House access to non-traditional, right-wing media outlets and bloggers who support him. _____
