Gun politics

FILE - New Mexico Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks at Arcosa Wind Towers, Aug. 9, 2023, in Belen, N.M. On Wednesday, April 17, 2024, New Mexico’s Democratic governor announced plans for a mid-summer special legislative session that focuses on public safety after a long list initiatives related to crime languished during the standard annual session. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

New Mexico special legislative session to focus on public safety initiatives

New Mexico’s Democratic governor is calling a special legislative session focused on public safety initiatives. Gov.
 
FILE - Visitors stand on the west steps of the Colorado Capitol, April 23, 2023, in Denver. Colorado's Democratic-controlled House on Sunday, April 14, 2024, passed a bill that would ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic firearms, a major step for the legislation after roughly the same bill was swiftly killed by Democrats last year. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Semiautomatic firearm ban passes Colorado’s House and heads to Senate

 
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on proposed spending on child care and other investments in the "care economy" during a rally at Union Station, Tuesday, April 9, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Biden administration will require thousands more gun dealers to run background checks on buyers

 
FILE - Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, stands in a House committee meeting during special session of the state legislature on public safety Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee could lift its requirement that people with a felony conviction must get their gun rights restored if they want the ability to vote again under a bipartisan bill that has begun progressing late in the legislative calendar. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

Tennessee bill to untangle gun and voting rights restoration is killed for the year

 
FILE - John Weare of Free the Vote Coalition speaks during a news conference Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Tennessee could lift its requirement that people with a felony conviction must get their gun rights restored if they want the ability to vote again under a bipartisan bill that has begun progressing late in the legislative calendar. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

Tennessee bill untangling gun and voting rights restoration advances, but faces uncertain odds

 

Kamala Harris tours bloodstained building where 2018 Parkland massacre happened

Vice President Kamala Harris toured on Saturday the classroom building where the 2018 Parkland high school massacre happened, then announced a program to assist states that have laws allowing police to temporarily seize guns from people judges have found to be dangerous.
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Former mother-in-law says warning signs mounted before Texas shooter entered church with her son

Families using re-created voices of gun violence victims to call lawmakers

AP Explains: Gun laws to take effect on 1-year anniversary of Michigan State University attack

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Washington state ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines ruled unconstitutional, but state appeals

A judge in Washington state has ruled that the state’s ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines is unconstitutional, but the law will remain in effect while the state appeals the decision.
 

Pennsylvania House advances measure to prohibit ‘ghost guns’

A proposal to ban the purchase, sale and production of untraceable gun parts has passed the Pennsylvania state House of Representatives.
 
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz delivers his State of the State speech in the auditorium of Owatonna High School on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Owatonna, Minn. ( Clay Masters/Minnesota Public Radio via AP)

Walz calls for new gun safety measures in State of the State speech at Owatonna High School

Gov. Tim Walz used the backdrop of a gleaming new high school to call on the Legislature in his State of the State speech to enact new gun control measures to make schools and communities safer.
 
FILE - Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon speaks during a news conference in Cheyenne, Wyo., Monday, June 3, 2019. Gordon, on Friday, March 22, 2024, vetoed a bill that would have repealed certain gun-free zones, allowing people to carry concealed firearms in schools and government meetings. (Jacob Byk/The Wyoming Tribune Eagle via AP, File)

Wyoming governor vetoes bill to allow concealed carry in public schools and meetings

Wyoming Republican Gov. Mark Gordon has vetoed a bill that would have allowed people to carry concealed guns in schools and government meetings.
 
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster holds up a ceremonial copy of a bill allowing anyone who can legally own a gun to openly carry the weapon in the state at an event on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. McMaster signed the bill into law March 7. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

South Carolina’s governor marks new gun law with ceremonial bill signing

South Carolina Gov, Henry McMaster has held a ceremony marking a new law allowing any adult who can legally own a gun to carry the weapon openly without a permit.
 

Appeals court weighs Delaware laws banning certain semiautomatic firearms, large-capacity magazines

Gun rights groups are urging a federal appeals court to overturn a judge’s refusal to halt enforcement of Delaware laws banning certain semiautomatic firearms and restricting the size of firearm magazines.
 
FILE - Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Feb. 8, 2024, in Washington. Veterans whom the government declares incapable of managing their own affairs would have easier access to firearms under spending legislation expected to be signed by President Joe Biden in the coming days. Murphy said the change could result in thousands of mentally ill people having increased access to guns, “a death sentence for many,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Spending bill would ease access to guns for some veterans declared mentally incapable

Veterans whom the government declares incapable of managing their own affairs would have easier access to firearms under spending legislation expected to be signed by President Joe Biden in the coming days.
 
FILE - Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon looks on during the opening of the Western Governors Association Winter Meeting, Monday, Nov. 6, 2023, in Teton Village, Wyo. A bill that would allow concealed carry of firearms in schools and government meetings is headed to Wyoming's governor after clearing the state Legislature by a wide margin Thursday, March 7, 2024. What happens next is somewhat uncertain because Wyoming governors traditionally don’t say if they plan to sign or veto bills. Gov. Mark Gordon has not spoken publicly about the bill, but he is a Republican gun rights supporter. (Bradly J. Boner/Jackson Hole News & Guide via AP, File)

Concealed guns could be coming soon to Wyoming schools, meetings

A bill that would allow concealed carry of firearms in schools and government meetings heads to Wyoming’s governor after clearing the state Legislature.
 
South Carolina House members watch the voting board as the House approved on a 86-33 vote a bill that would allow open carry of guns on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Law-abiding adults can now carry guns openly in South Carolina after governor approves new law

Any adult who can legally own a gun can now carry one openly in South Carolina. Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill loosening gun laws Thursday, just a day after it received final legislative approval.
 
FILE - A police officer guards a street in downtown Prague, Czech Republic, on Dec. 21, 2023. Czech police say a shooting in downtown Prague has killed an unspecified number of people and wounded others. The Czech Parliament's upper house, the Senate followed the lower house on Wednesday March 6, 2024, to approve changes in the gun law that tighten requirements for owning a weapon following the worst mass killing in the nation's history. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek, File)

The Czech parliament toughens gun laws after the worst mass shooting in the country’s history

The Czech Parliament has approved changes in the gun law that tighten requirements for owning a weapon following the worst mass killing in the nation’s history.
 
South Carolina House members watch the voting board as the House approved on a 86-33 vote a bill that would allow open carry of guns on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

South Carolina lawmakers are close to loosening gun laws after long debate

South Carolina lawmakers appear close to approving a bill that would allow anyone who can legally own a gun to carry the weapon openly.
 
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, center, prepares to sign House Bill 129, as bill co-sponsor Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, left, clasps her hands at West Mesa High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Monday, March 4, 2024. Some guns will be banned at voting locations and the waiting period for purchasing firearms is being extended to seven days under measures signed into law Monday by Grisham. (Jon Austria/The Albuquerque Journal via AP)

New Mexico governor signs bill that bans some guns at polls and extends waiting period to 7 days

Some guns will be banned at voting locations, and the waiting period for purchasing firearms is being extended to seven days under measures signed into law by Gov.
 
FILE - A bump stock is displayed in Harrisonburg, Va., on March 15, 2019. The Supreme Court will hear a challenge Wednesday, Feb. 28, to a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, a gun accessory used in a Las Vegas massacre that was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

The Supreme Court appears torn about a Trump-era ban on a gun accessory known as bump stocks

The Supreme Court appears torn about a challenge to a Trump-era ban on bump stocks. That’s the gun accessory that allows semi-automatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns and was used in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
 
Steven Dettelbach, the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, talks with community members that were personally effected by the October 2023 mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine at Central Maine Community College, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024, in Auburn, Maine. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Chief enforcer of US gun laws fears Americans may become numb to violence with each mass shooting

The head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives says he fears that a drumbeat of mass shootings and other gun violence across the United States could make Americans numb to the bloodshed.
 
FILE - The Louisiana state Capitol stands on April 4, 2023, in Baton Rouge, La. Under a new era of conservative leadership, Louisiana’s GOP-dominated legislature will gather Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, for a special legislative session that could reshape the state’s criminal justice system and the public safety sector. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith, File)

Louisiana lawmakers advance permitless concealed carry gun bill

Louisiana is one step closer to joining the list of states that allow people to carry concealed guns without a permit.
 
FILE - State Rep. David Meuse, D-Portsmouth, speaks to gun control supporters outside the New Hampshire Statehouse in Concord, N.H., on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024. The New Hampshire House on Thursday, Feb. 22, narrowly rejected creating a process by which people could voluntarily prohibit themselves from buying guns. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer, File)

New Hampshire House rejects allowing voluntary waiver of gun ownership rights

The New Hampshire House has voted against creating a process by which people could voluntarily prohibit themselves from buying guns. Democratic bill sponsor Rep.
 
FILE - The Pennsylvania Judicial Center, home to the Commonwealth Court, is seen on Feb. 21, 2023, in Harrisburg, Pa. A township ordinance that limits firing guns to indoor and outdoor shooting ranges and zoning that significantly restricts where the ranges can be located do not violate the Second Amendment, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

Pennsylvania’s high court sides with township over its ban of a backyard gun range

Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court says a township ordinance that limits firing guns to indoor and outdoor shooting ranges and zoning that significantly restricts where the ranges can be located do not violate the Second Amendment.
 
People stand at a memorial dedicated to the victims of last week's mass shooting in front of Union Station, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. Authorities say two juveniles have been charged with crimes connected to the shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl rally. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Missouri House votes to ban celebratory gunfire days after Chiefs’ parade shooting

Missouri’s Republican-led House has passed a ban on celebratory gunfire in cities less than a week after a deadly shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade.
 
Police escort Kansas City Chiefs tight end Noah Gray and his teammates off the stage after a shooting following their victory parade and rally in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. Authorities in Kansas City are trying to decipher who was behind the mass shooting that unfolded Wednesday. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann)

Gun rights are expansive in Missouri, where shooting at Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration took place

A shooting that killed a person and wounded more than 20 others during the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory celebration occurred in a state with few gun regulations and historic tension over how cities handle crime.
 
The sun sets on the New Mexico Statehouse in Santa Fe, N.M., Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, as legislators rush to pass bills before the end of a 30-day legislative session. Lawmakers are creating new endowments and trusts to support future spending amid a windfall in state income from oil production. (AP Photos/Morgan Lee)

Legislature and New Mexico governor meet halfway on gun control and housing, but paid leave falters

New Mexico’s Democrat-led Legislature has met the governor halfway in her calls for public safety reforms, gun control measures, housing construction and the use of incentives to forge new solutions to climate change.
 
Walli Carranza discusses the mental health struggles that her former daughter-in-law, Genesse Moreno, dealt with before she opened fire at a megachurch earlier in the week, Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024, in Houston. Carranza says she believes that systemic failures as well as lax gun laws ultimately led to Sunday's shooting at the church (AP Photo/Lekan Oyekanmi)

Warning signs mounted before Texas shooter entered church with her son, former mother-in-law says

The former mother-in-law of the woman who opened fire at a Houston megachurch says she tried for years to alert authorities and other, including church staff, to her ex-daughter-in-law’s mental health struggles.
 
Manuel and Patricia Oliver, the parents of Joaquin Oliver, one of the victims of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., sit for an interview in Coral Springs, Fla., on Friday Feb. 9, 2024. The Olivers are launching a campaign where re-created voices of gun violence victims will call federal lawmakers. The recordings re-creating voices of victims from around the country are being robocalled to U.S. senators and House members who oppose stricter gun laws. (AP Photo/Cody Jackson)

They died from gun violence. Now NRA-supporting lawmakers are getting phone calls from their voices

The family of a teen murdered at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is launching a campaign where re-created voices of gun violence victims will call federal lawmakers.
 
South Carolina state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, left, asks questions to Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, right, during a debate over gun laws, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Open gun carry proposal in South Carolina on the ropes as conservatives fight among themselves

A proposal to allow anyone who can legally own a gun in South Carolina to carry their weapon in public is struggling to pass through the General Assembly as Republicans and gun rights supporters argue among themselves.
 
FILE - Michigan State University professor Marco Díaz-Muñoz talks during an interview, Feb. 16, 2023, at his home in Lansing, Mich. New gun laws take effect Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2024, in Michigan on the one-year anniversary of a shooting at Michigan State University that claimed the lives of three students and left five in critical condition. The gunman entered Díaz-Muñoz's class in Berkey Hall that day and killed two students and left others with critical wounds. (Clarence Tabb Jr./Detroit News via AP, File)

New gun laws take effect on one-year anniversary of Michigan State University shooting

New gun laws take effect Tuesday in Michigan on the one-year anniversary of a shooting at Michigan State University that claimed the lives of three students and left five in critical condition.
 

Judge blocks Omaha’s ban on guns in public places while lawsuit challenging it moves forward

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska’s largest city won’t be able to enforce its ban on guns on all public property, including parks and sidewalks, while a lawsuit challenging that restriction moves forward.
 
FILE - People walk past a gun club on June, 23, 2022, in Honolulu. A ruling by Hawaii's high court saying that a man can be prosecuted for carrying a gun in public without a permit uses pop culture references in an apparent rebuke of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights nationwide. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia, File)

Hawaii’s high court cites ‘The Wire’ in rebuke of US Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights

A ruling by Hawaii’s high court saying that a man can be prosecuted for carrying a gun in public without a permit uses pop culture references in an apparent rebuke of a U.S.
 
FILE - Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin delivers his State of the Commonwealth address before a joint session of the Virginia General Assembly, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, at the Capitol in Richmond, Va. Dozens of pieces of gun-related legislation that advocates say will bolster public safety are winding their way through Virginia’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly, including a measure that would halt the sale of certain semi-automatic rifles and pistols. The question hanging over all the bills is: Just how many will a the Republican governor veto? (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Virginia Democrats are sending gun-control bills to a skeptical Gov. Youngkin

Dozens of pieces of gun-related legislation that advocates say will bolster public safety are winding their way through Virginia’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly.
 
Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka, flanked by fellow Democrats, House Speaker Ronald Mariano, left, and Gov. Maura Healey speaks during a news conference on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024 in Boston. Spilka is championing a sweeping gun bill that would ensuring accountability for those who own ghost guns, toughen the state's existing prohibition on assault weapons, and make it illegal to possess devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns. (AP Photo/Steve LeBlanc)

Massachusetts Senate approves gun bill aimed at ghost guns and assault weapons

The Massachusetts Senate approved a sweeping gun bill Thursday designed to crack down on “ghost guns,” toughen the state’s prohibition on assault weapons and outlaw devices that convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns.
 
South Carolina Sen. Shane Martin, R-Pauline. speaks in favor of a bill that would allow anyone who could legally own a gun to carry the weapon openly on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

South Carolina to provide free gun training classes under open carry bill passed by state Senate

The South Carolina Senate has approved a bill that would allow anyone who can legally own a gun to carry their weapon in public.
 
Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka, flanked by fellow Democrats, House Speaker Ronald Mariano, left, and Gov. Maura Healey speaks during a news conference on Monday, Jan. 22, 2024 in Boston. Spilka is championing a sweeping gun bill that would ensuring accountability for those who own ghost guns, toughen the state's existing prohibition on assault weapons, and make it illegal to possess devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic machine guns. (AP Photo/Steve LeBlanc)

Massachusetts Senate debates gun bill aimed at ghost guns and assault weapons

The Massachusetts Senate is debating a sweeping gun bill as the state crafts its response to a 2022 U.S.
 
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