Authorities are reporting 21 casualties and five fatalities from a mass shooting between Midland and Odessa in Texas.
Midland Police say there was one shooter who was killed by police.
"Multiple people were shot Saturday afternoon in two West Texas cities with at least one suspect reported to be roaming the streets of Odessa, Texas, and nearby Midland, police said," NBC News reports. "At least one person was killed and about 10 have been injured, said Devin Sanchez, director of communications for the city of Odessa."
Authorities have been aggressively investigating potential mass shooters since the white supremacist terrorist attack at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas.
"In the four weeks since a 21-year-old alleged white nationalist was charged in the slaughter of 22 people inside a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, law enforcement authorities have arrested more than 40 people as potential mass shooters — an average of more than one per day," the Huffington Post reported Saturday.
"A HuffPost survey of these arrests likely didn’t capture every one, but it offers a snapshot of the types of cases that law enforcement officials face in a country with easy access to weapons capable of killing a lot of people quickly. The cases range from allegations of vague social media threats from juveniles that set parents on edge to well-developed plots from people who had access to weapons and appeared to authorities to have been planning a mass murder," HuffPost revealed. "There were roughly a dozen cases involving right-wing ideology. There were at least a dozen alleged threats against schools. There were half a dozen cases involving alleged threats against Walmarts."
Patrick Crusius was arrested for the El Paso attack, which killed 22 people and injured 24. He reportedly published a right-wing manifesto on 8chan shortly before the shooting.
Read the full report, which includes background on the individual cases.
Far-right provocateur Ammon Bundy on Saturday posted a video to Facebook where he vowed to obtain an assault rifle after failing a federal background check to purchase a firearm.
"I call a buddy, he says, 'Yeah, I got a guy who can get some lowers for an AR-15 or an AR-10' and then I tell him that I was just denied and he's like, 'Oh, that guy can't help you, you know.' And basically what that does is it forces me to go on the street and find a gun."
"And I will do that, I'll find one. It will be a good weapon," he said.
“I’ll get a gun, I’ll build a gun. I’ll go mine the ore if I have to — I don’t think I’ll have to go that far, but I’ll have a gun," he vowed. "I’ll have many guns."
"And I’ll defend myself against who? Against street criminals and government criminals," he threatened.
"You should understand that disarmament of the American population is wicked," he added.
On Saturday, Newsweek reported that the National Rifle Association is badly losing the campaign funding war to gun control groups promoting new legislation in the wake of the mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.
OpenSecrets.org shows that groups like Giffords and Everytown for Gun Safety have spent nearly $2 million on a campaign urging the public and Congress to support universal background checks and a federal "red flag" law allowing temporary confiscation of firearms from people deemed a risk to themselves and others.
By contrast, the NRA — which has spent the last year roiled by financial and legal troubles — has not launched a countercampaign at all, let alone matched their funding.
This comes as a new poll from Quinnipiac finds a gigantic level of support for new gun laws, with 93 percent of voters supporting universal background checks, 82 percent supporting a "permit-to-purchase" law, 80 percent supporting a red flag law, and 60 percent supporting an assault weapons ban.
One of the most significant increases of gun control support came from a five-point increase in support for permit-to-purchase, which requires anyone wishing to buy a gun to obtain their license to carry it before doing so. A recent Johns Hopkins University study suggested this is the only type of gun purchasing law that significantly impacts homicides.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has said he plans to debate background checks when the Senate reconvenes. But President Donald Trump, despite having initially said he was open to the idea, reportedly has promised the NRA that it is "off the table."
An Alabama father is dead after he told his teenage son to clean his room.
The Associated Press reported the teen's 12-year-old brother is still in critical condition after a shooting in their home.
Rick and Linda McNamara told WAFF-TV that their 43-year-old son Chad Wanca was shot and killed this week when a domestic incident erupted after their 16-year-old grandson was told to clean his room.
“I’m going to the hospital. I hope I’ll be able to get in and see my grandson. I’d like to go to the jail as well and see my other grandson. I want to talk to him. I don’t know where his head is at. I love my grandsons. I love them both,” said Linda McNamara.
Deputies received multiple 911 calls and the teen was outside when they arrived. Mrs. McNamera said she wasn't allowed to see her grandson that is in jail at this time, but hopes she can in the future.
“We hope to. I really would and need to talk to my grandson and let him know that we are there for him,” she said.
Reports have not revealed where the 16-year-old obtained his gun.
A top vendor complained it would “not tolerate” further contact between the official and its employees.
The National Rifle Association over the past two years has grappled with two separate sexual harassment allegations against Josh Powell, a senior official, including a case involving an employee.
The employee’s complaint was settled in 2017 using the nonprofit’s funds, according to three sources familiar with the matter. Earlier that year, Wayne LaPierre, the organization’s leader, had promotedPowell to executive director of general operations.
ProPublica could not confirm the settlement amount, which is not noted in the nonprofit’s public filings. In a statement, John Frazer, the NRA’s general counsel and secretary, told ProPublica that Powell denied the allegations.
“The NRA opted to confidentially resolve the matter in the best interest of all involved,” Frazer said.
The disclosure of the settlement comes amid a stream of reports alleging mismanagement and questionable spending by NRA leadership. The organization faces congressional inquiries and investigations into its tax-exempt status by attorneys general in New York and Washington, D.C.
Powell is a top adviser to LaPierre and is among the NRA’s highest-paid officials, with compensation of nearly $800,000 in 2017.
In a separate harassment dispute in 2018, Powell’s behavior toward a woman who works for Ackerman McQueen, then the NRA’s advertising firm, escalated tensions in their decadeslong business relationship and caused Ackerman to bar him from any further contact with its employees.
Ackerman told ProPublica in a written statement that the firm “formally declared to Mr. LaPierre that it would not have any more dealings with Mr. Powell.” Ackerman said there was “clear reason to believe supported by evidence that he sexually harassed one of our employees and we would not tolerate his further involvement with any of our employees in order to protect their right to a safe work environment.”
Ackerman said the NRA “refused to cooperate” in addressing the complaint against Powell. Instead, Ackerman said Powell received “the full support of Mr. LaPierre and the board of directors.”
Over the last four months, Ackerman and the NRA have been locked in litigation in Virginia state court, with the gun group accusing the firm of dubious billing practices and Ackerman countersuing for defamation. Before the legal dispute, the two entities spent four decades working closely together. Ackerman helped shape the NRA’s messaging and public image.
The NRA responded to Ackerman’s statement on behalf of itself and Powell. A spokesperson for the organization called the firm’s claim part of a larger “extortion demand,” in which Ackerman said the NRA “must withdraw” its lawsuit “or face a smear campaign that would include sexual harassment allegations against one of its executives. Ackerman is now delivering on its threat. We are not surprised.”
Ackerman said the NRA’s “false” narrative “grows more ridiculous each day,” and its response to Powell’s actions created what became an irreparable rift in the business relationship, which brought tens of millions of dollars annually to Ackerman. “We believe our decision to take this decisive action to protect our employees contributed to the program of retaliation against Ackerman McQueen, and NRA Board members were not being told about these problems,” Ackerman’s statement says.
But NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the organization “acted appropriately and swiftly” in response to the harassment allegation involving Ackerman. “The NRA removed Mr. Powell from his position as liaison between the NRA and Ackerman, and Mr. Powell had no further involvement with Ackerman.”
The spokesman called Ackerman’s harassment allegations “cryptic,” adding that they “first surfaced in October 2018, shortly after Mr. Powell participated in an effort to significantly reduce Ackerman’s budget with the NRA. Immediately, remarks allegedly made more than a year before became fodder for a harassment claim — accompanied by a demand that Mr. Powell be excluded from any further budget negotiations with the agency. The NRA committed in good faith to investigate the allegation, but the accuser and Ackerman declined to participate in any interview about the alleged incident.”
NRA chief of staff Josh Powell appearing on NRATV in 2018. Powell has been accused of sexual harassment in two separate instances over the past two years.
Despite recent negative publicity, the NRA continues to have broad support among Republican members of Congress and with President Donald Trump, who was elected in 2016 after the NRA spent more than $30 million to boost his candidacy. After recent discussions with LaPierre, in the wake of mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas, Trump has reportedly backed away from favoring more stringent background checks for gun owners.
After receiving a tip, ProPublica asked Ackerman to respond to questions about a harassment complaint involving one of its employees. The woman who filed the complaint did not respond to a request for comment.
Powell has served as LaPierre’s chief of staff since 2016. In December 2018, after the Ackerman dispute occurred, LaPierre announced to staff that Powell would step away from his additional duties as executive director of general operations and join the NRA’s legal team as a “senior strategist” in a high-stakes lawsuit that had been filed that spring against New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York Department of Financial Services.
Powell has long been a source of contention among NRA staff and even some board members. Before arriving at NRA headquarters in 2016, he ran two upscale clothing catalogs that were intended to appeal to wealthy outdoorsmen. Vendors working with Powell sued him on at least 20 occasions, alleging unpaid invoices totaling more than $400,000.
In 2018, Powell came under scrutiny from NRA accountants. In a document that compiled a list of “top concerns” for the board’s audit committee, which provides the organization with fiscal oversight, arrangements that involved Powell and posed alleged conflicts of interest were repeatedly flagged. The accountants noted payments to Powell’s father, a photographer, and referenced his wife, Colleen Gallagher, who in late 2017 was hired by one of the NRA’s top fundraising vendors, McKenna & Associates. An NRA spokesperson said in May that the audit committee was “aware of the relationship and approved the consulting arrangement with McKenna.”
In June, Robert Brown, an NRA board member, emailed LaPierre and Frazer about Powell. ProPublica obtained a copy of the note, which is addressed to Frazer. “John,” it says, “Since Wayne refuses to respond to my emails, plez pass on to him the message below.”
“Wayne,” the message reads, “At the last NRA BoD meeting, you promised me you were going to terminate that worthless scoundrel, Josh Powell, in 60 days. Well, 60 days have passed. When are you going to fire him?”
Brown declined to provide a comment for this story. “I do not discuss internal NRA politics with the media,” he told ProPublica in an email. “Period.”
When the alleged gunman walked into an El Paso Walmart earlier this month to carry out the worst massacre of Hispanic people in recent American history, he went in with an assault weapon he said he bought from Romania, according to a Texas Department of Public Safety report obtained by The Texas Tribune.
The white 21-year-old suspect in the shooting told El Paso police shortly after his arrest that the Romanian AK-47 was sent to a gun dealer near his home in Allen, a suburb outside of Dallas. He also said he bought a thousand rounds of ammunition from Russia.
El Paso police previously said that the AK-47 used in the shooting that killed 22 people was bought legally, but they did not provide any additional details about its purchase. In a manifesto published just before the shooting, the alleged shooter said the rifle was a WASR-10, a semi-automatic version of a Romanian military AK-47 weapon. The DPS report obtained by the Tribune includes a summary of the suspect's interview with police, providing more details on the weapon and the suspect's actions in the racist slaying where he said he “wanted to shoot as many Mexicans as possible.”
DPS referred questions about the report to the El Paso Police Department, which declined to comment on the investigation. The suspect's lawyer did not respond to request for comment.
Gun experts said it’s common for people to buy imported firearms online and have them delivered through local gun stores, which complete the necessary background check. Although the suspect said he purchased the gun from Romania, they said he likely bought online a Romanian-manufactured gun that had been imported into the United States.
“Primarily the reason that people are attracted to these imports is that they’re less expensive,” said David Chipman, a senior policy adviser at Giffords, a national gun control group, referring to similar U.S. weapons like the AR-15.
The suspected shooter told El Paso detectives shortly after his arrest that the Romanian rifle was delivered to “Gun Masters” in Allen, where he picked it up, according to the report. There is no store with that name in Allen, but there is a Gunmaster gun shop in neighboring Plano.
Gunmaster’s owner couldn’t be reached Tuesday by The Tribune. Brian Park, the store’s gunsmith, said he didn’t know if the El Paso shooter received the AK-47 from his store. When a reporter mentioned the alleged shooter referenced a store called Gun Masters in Allen, Park said, “That would be us.” But, Park added, he thought he would have heard if the shooter received his weapon from his store.
Gun imports are regulated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and high-powered semi-automatic weapons must be recognized as being used for "sporting purposes," not military use, to be admitted, according to a bureau guidebook. Last year, Romania exported about 9,000 semi-automatic rifles to the U.S., according to an Arms Trade Treaty report.
“Largely, today these styles of assault weapons are being characterized as sporting weapons,” Chipman said, adding that the interpretation varies in different presidential administrations.
Chipman said the importer for the WASR-10 was likely Florida-based Century Arms, which makes any modifications to ensure they’re legal in the U.S. and then transfers the purchased guns to local dealers. Century Arms did not return calls or emails from the Tribune.
Michael Cargill, owner of Central Texas Gun Works in Austin, said the process is similar to buying a foreign car — but with an added federal background check of the buyer at the local store.
“Think of it like a BMW or a Mercedes,” he said. “You get it through a local dealer here.”
Ammunition bought online, however, can be shipped directly to your door if it’s legal in the receiving state, Cargill said. Only six states and Washington, D.C., have bans on possessing assault weapons, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Violence. Texas is not one of them.
In addition to information about the weapon, the alleged gunman told detectives about his manifesto, seemingly confirming he wrote the hate-filled writings that described the attack as a “response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.” After the discovery of the manifesto, federal authorities began investigating the shooting as an act of domestic terrorism.
According to the DPS report, the suspect told police he went into the Walmart, went back out to his car to finish and publish the manifesto, and then walked back into the store to kill Hispanic shoppers.
The report also said the suspect, wearing ear protection and carrying an assault weapon, “was surprised no one challenged him or shot him” when he walked into the store. Under Texas law, no license is needed to openly carry a rifle in public. He also said that after the shooting, he left in his car and called 911, but he couldn’t get through to a dispatcher. He told detectives he was returning to the store to surrender when he encountered Texas Rangers.
On Wednesday, WBZ CBS News reported that a Boston teenager attending college at High Point University in North Carolina has been arrested on suspicion of plotting a mass shooting.
Paul Steber, a freshman, was arrested after campus police became aware he had illegally brought guns and ammunition into his dorm, and notified the authorities. Upon being questioned, Steber revealed he had a plan to shoot up the school. One officer said that he had a "plan and timeline to kill people."
According to WBZ reporter Liam Martin, Steber was an avid fan of the National Rifle Association and told his classmates that he "needed guns to protect [himself] from illegal aliens." One student who attended class with him said, "Basically every single day during class, all he did was look up the NRA, look up guns, politicians. He would look up politicians both Democratic and Republican and just stare at them."
Steber is being charged with having weapons on campus and communicating a threat of mass violence on educational property. He is being held on $2 million bond.
This marks the latest in a series of thwarted mass shooting plots in the wake of the devastating massacres in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio. More than 30 people have been arrested in that time period for allegedly targeting schools, churches, and stores.
The Mormon Church has banned the carrying of firearms in its places of worship, upgrading previous rules that only discouraged bringing guns as "inappropriate."
The Church -- officially called the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- said the move was not directly linked to the series of deadly mass shootings that have recently plunged the United States into mourning.
Instead, the ban is a response to an imminent change to the law in the state of Texas that removes churches, synagogues and other places of worship from the list of places where carrying a handgun is punishable by one year in prison.
"Churches are dedicated for the worship of God and as havens from the cares and concerns of the world," the new Mormon Church regulations say.
"With the exception of current law enforcement officers, the carrying of lethal weapons on Church property, concealed or otherwise, is prohibited."
Founded in 1830, the Mormon Church, the headquarters of which are located in Salt Lake City, Utah, has 16 million members.
More than half of them live outside the United States, in countries where the culture of firearms is not necessarily as widespread.
Some 350,000 live in Texas.
The Mormon Church says its mission is to restore a true church in preparation for the return of Jesus Christ.
Its informal name refers to the "Book of Mormon" -- named after a prophet -- which followers believe is a restored version of the true word of Jesus, rather than traditional Christian scripture.
A pregnant Colorado woman said that she was abused by police after she had a disagreement with Target employees about a coupon.
Jazzmin Downs told KUSA that the incident occurred when she tried to use a coupon that she had printed out online. After the clerk refused, Downs asked to speak to the manager but she was told to leave the store.
The pregnant shopper demanded to know why she was being denied service, the manager called security and the Aurora Police Department.
Downs, who is black, walked outside to call Target's corporate offices when a police officer showed up. At first she said he joked with her about needing coupons for dog food, but his attitude changed after he spoke with Target employees.
Downs said four more officers showed up while the first officer was inside talking to the manager.
The woman explained to KUSA that one of the officers noticed that her hand was in her pocket. Down said that she had unzipped her jeans because they were uncomfortable due to her pregnancy. Her hand was in her pocket to help hold up her pants, she said.
“I was still explaining to them what was going on and then he yelled at me stating get my hand out of my pocket and I look at him confused," she recalled. "When I took my hand out of my pocket, I took the lining with me to show him there was nothing in my pocket, and I put my hand up. Well that wasn’t obviously good enough for him and he yelled that they had to search for a gun."
In video shared on social media, officers can be seen forcefully searching Downs. She accused them of squeezing her stomach area.
“All I want is an answer as to why they did what they did," she insisted. "They violated me as a human. They violated me as a mother. They violated me as a pregnant woman. They violated me just in general for no reason and they had no explanation but we were in fear of you or you made me nervous.”
One officer told Downs that she had no idea why they were called to the Target in the first place.
"We just came here; we have no idea what had happened," the officer reportedly said.
A Target spokesperson accused Downs of being "angry and aggressive." For their part, the Aurora police have said that they did nothing wrong.
In a moment captured by the Topeka Capital-Journal, Watkins was confronted by Danielle Twemlow, a member of Moms Demand Action about why he refused to support gun safety as well as the Violence Against Women Act. An audience member can be heard gasping upon hearing he refused to reauthorize the 25-year-old law that helps survivors of domestic and sexual violence.
Watkins told her that the bill was filled with "poisoned pills" so he wasn't going to support it. As Twemlow began debating with Watkins, a staffer stepped in to say that they were running short on time and had two questions left.
