Guns: how much longer will it take ....

Experts say most guns smuggled from states with lax firearms laws such as Florida, Arizona and Georgia

As Haiti has again plunged into violent chaos, images of gang members bearing high-powered rifles, pump action shotguns or automatic weapons in the streets of Port-au-Prince have become ubiquitous.

But this weaponry is not made in Haiti, a country with no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities.

It is an arsenal that largely comes directly from the US, with most guns, experts say, likely to have originated from states with lax firearm laws, and many trafficked into Haiti from Florida.

This clandestine trade has left Haiti’s gangs with a vast cache of illegal arms and much greater firepower than the country’s dispirited and underfunded police force.

A 2020 estimate published by Haiti’s disarmament commission estimated there could be as many as 500,000 small arms in the country, with just 38,000 of those legally registered. The number, analysts say, is now likely to be even higher following an uptick in trafficking operations in recent years.

A large portion of these, said Robert Muggah, a security expert and co-founder of the Igarapé Institute security thinktank, are obtained in the US by straw purchasers (buyers who obtain the guns on behalf of the smugglers). The weapons are largely bought in states with weak gun regulations like Florida, Arizona, Texas and Georgia.

“Easily accessible firearms from the US are one of several factors that are deepening Haiti’s instability,” Muggah said. “The abundance of high-powered rifles, handguns and ammunition is dramatically amplifying the power of criminal gangs who easily outgun Haiti’s depleted national police and modest security agencies. They are also playing a key role in driving-up high rates of sexual violence, violent assaults, kidnapping and internal displacement.”

A number of recent seizures have laid bare the relative ease with which traffickers operate. In February, US prosecutors secured guilty pleas for two senior members of the 400 Mawozo – the gang which became internationally notorious with a 2021 kidnapping of 17 Christian missionaries from Ohio who were visiting an orphanage in Port-au-Prince.

Investigators discovered an arsenal of at least 24 firearms including AK-47s, AR-15s, an M4 Carbine rifle and a military grade .50 caliber sniper rifle, following purchases at several gun shops in the Florida cities of Miami, Orlando and Pompano beach, according to an unsealed indictment.

Joly Germine, a 31-year-old leader of 400 Mawozo, directed specific requests for high powered weapons via WhatsApp messages sent from Haitian prison. The requests were made to US citizens in Florida, including Germain’s romantic partner, and the weapons were then stuffed in garbage bags, loaded into large barrels and hidden under “clothes, shoes and Gatorade” ready for shipment.

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Jurors found both a school shooter’s father and mother guilty of manslaughter

A jury issued a groundbreaking verdict in Michigan Thursday, finding James Crumbley, whose son killed four students at a Michigan high school in 2021, guilty of four involuntary manslaughter counts in a case that experts say could set an important precedent for the extent to which parents of school shooters can be held responsible.

Just last month, the shooter’s mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted of the same charges. That made her the first parent ever held directly responsible for a mass shooting committed by their child.

In arguments during the weeklong trial, prosecutors said James Crumbley was “grossly negligent.” He bought a SIG Sauer 9mm gun for his son four days before the attack, failed to properly secure it, ignored his son’s spiraling mental health and did not take “reasonable care” to prevent foreseeable danger, prosecutors said.

They also argued that the shooting could have been prevented if James or Jennifer Crumbley had listened to a school counselor’s recommendation and taken their son out of school the day of the shooting, or if they had mentioned to school employees they had just purchased him a gun.

Ethan Crumbley, then 15, used the SIG Sauer 9mm weapon to kill four students and wound six students and a teacher at Oxford High School on November 30, 2021. He was sentenced last year to life in prison without parole.

Biden to close ‘gun-show loophole’ and expand background checks for firearms
New rule comes under legislation passed after Uvalde, Texas shooting

The Biden administration is moving to expand background checks for gun purchases, fulfilling a key demand of advocates following the deadly shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

The final rule, expected to be submitted Thursday to the Federal Register by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, would eliminate a loophole that has allowed sales of guns without background checks of guns outside of brick-and-mortar stores.

The rule was issued under a provision of the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It requires that anyone who sells guns for profit to have a license and that buyers be subject to a background check, including at firearms shows and flea markets. The administration had been working on the rule since last spring. Once publicized, it will take effect in 30 days.

The so-called gun show loophole has for years allowed unlicensed gun dealers to sell firearms without background checks at gun shows, on the internet and out of their homes. The new rule, the most sweeping expansion of firearms background checks in decades, will apply to more than 20,000 individuals engaged in unlicensed gun dealing and affect “tens and tens of thousands of gun sales” each year, an administration official told reporters during a call previewing the announcement.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention uses death certificates to compile data on causes of death in the United States. That includes both an overall tally of firearm-related deaths each year but also different types of deaths from different types of firearms. The most recent full year of CDC data is from 2022; the most recent three years of CDC data shows the surge in gun deaths that Murthy pointed to in making his declaration.

Vending machines stocked with ammunition have been installed in several grocery stores across the United States.

The machines are made by American Rounds and allow customers over the age of 21 to buy ammunition with the same ease as using an ATM, the company says.

"Our automated ammo dispensers are accessible 24/7, ensuring that you can buy ammunition on your own schedule, free from the constraints of store hours and long lines," American Rounds says on its website.

The company says that their vending machines have "built-in AI technology, card scanning capability and facial recognition software."

Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund will fund a grassroots organizing program aimed at winning the White House and Congress for Democrats.

The political arm of Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun regulation group founded by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, plans to spend $45 million over the coming months to elect favored candidates in eight of the states that could determine control of the White House, House, Senate and local offices.

The effort will include a new student organizing drive, with plans to hire 30 new organizers for volunteer recruitment drives at 32 college and university campuses in Arizona, California, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The group’s leaders said the effort will focus on younger voters, voters of color and suburban women, with new field offices in Arizona, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

“With MAGA Republicans pushing an extreme ‘guns everywhere’ agenda, this election is a life-or-death moment — so Everytown is going all-out to mobilize the majority of Americans who want to live free from the fear of gun violence,” Everytown for Gun Safety president John Feinblatt said in a statement. “From sending Vice President Harris to the Oval Office to helping our own volunteers win office, we’ll elect gun sense champions up and down the ballot.”

The group — along with its grassroots networks, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action — endorsed Harris for president last week.

About 80 percent of the $45 million will go to television and digital advertising, according to a person familiar with the spending who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

The full list of candidates that the money will support will be determined over the coming weeks. Some of the money is expected to support local candidates Everytown has recruited through its “Demand a Seat” program, which encourages activists and survivors of gun violence to run for public office.

Bloomberg, one of the biggest donors to Democratic politics, gave $19 million this year to Future Forward, a super PAC supporting Harris, and nearly $1 million to the coordinated Democratic presidential campaign, which at the time was supporting President Biden before he left the presidential race. Bloomberg remains a donor to Everytown, but the group also raises money from its grassroots efforts.

Everytown announced a $60 million spending plan before the 2020 election aimed at defeating then-President Donald Trump and electing more Democrats who support gun regulations.

New gun group launches to fill NRA vacuum

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The NRA — the longtime premier gun-rights group in the U.S. — cut its political spending from $54 million in 2016 to $29 million in 2020, according to OpenSecrets data. It has reserved $1.3 million in ad spending in 2024, according to AdImpact.

The Secure Our Freedom Alliance, a 501(c)4 organization, isn't looking to compete with existing firearm groups, but wants to fill what it sees as an urgent need to address gun owners this election cycle.

By some estimates, post-pandemic, there are some 22 million new gun owners.

The goal is to convince new gun owners, especially women and minorities, that their rights are under attack by the Biden administration and progressive politicians.

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