Rubi Patricia Vergara and her family loved to laugh. That was a central message at Vergara's funeral, held at City Church Madison on Saturday.
The post Madison community mourns and celebrates Rubi Vergara, victim of Abundant Life school shooting appeared first on WPR.
More than 100 Madison high schoolers marched to the state Capitol Friday where they denounced lawmakers' inaction on firearm legislation and funding for mental health support in schools.
The post Wisconsin students call for change days after deadly Madison school shooting appeared first on WPR.
Madison, Wisconsin high school students march on the Capitol on Friday, Dec. 20 | Photo by Daphne Cooper
It was a brilliant, snowy Friday, the last day of school before winter break, as more than 100 students from high schools across Madison converged inside the Capitol. They gathered around the 30-foot balsam fir festooned with handmade ornaments, a model train chugging around the track at the base of the tree. At first it looked like a festive scene, but as the students poured into the first floor of the rotunda, then filled the second- and third-floor balconies, their shouting drowned out a group of Christmas carolers, who retreated, their songs giving way to chants of “No more silence! End gun violence!”
The Madison teens showed up to express their grief and outrage over the deaths this week of a 14-year-old student, her teacher and a gun-wielding 15-year-old girl who opened fire Monday in a classroom at the small private Abundant Life Christian School on Madison’s east side. It was the city’s first school shooting but, incredibly, the 323rd in the nation this year.
Gun violence is the leading cause of death of children and teens in the U.S. Shouting, chanting, demanding to be heard, the crowd of children came to the Capitol Friday demanding that we wake up and do something about this appalling fact.
Our nation is an outlier, with a rate of gun violence that dwarfs other large, high-income countries. Firearm homicides here are 33 times higher than in Australia and 77 times higher than in Germany, according to a report from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington medical school. Not surprisingly, firearm injuries tend to be more frequent in places where people have easy access to firearms, according to a 2018 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
What other country in the world could live with the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where 20 little children between 6 and 7 years old and six adult staff were gunned down, and respond by making no significant restrictions on firearms?
“My parents constantly talk about how, when Sandy Hook happened, they thought that would be the end of it,” said Danny Johnson, a first-year student at Madison West High School who joined the 3-mile march to the Capitol on Friday, carrying a sign scrawled on a sheet of notebook paper that said, “Thoughts and prayers until it’s your own child.”
“To constantly have to go through it — we shouldn’t have to be here. We should be in school not having to worry about it at all,” Johnson added.
Hanging over balconies and leaning against marble pillars, teens held up handmade signs that said; “Enough!” “You write your policies on a carpet of our dead bodies,” and “Graduations not funerals.”
In Wisconsin, the rate of gun deaths increased 45% from 2013 to 2022, compared to a 36% increase nationwide, according to the Giffords Law Center.
Every year since he was elected in 2018, Gov. Tony Evers and Democrats in the state Legislature have tried in vain to get Republican cooperation on ending the state’s current exemption from background checks for private gun sales. A proposed “red flag” law that would allow police or family members to seek an extreme risk protection order in court to take guns from gun owners who are found to be a danger to themselves or others has also gone nowhere. Both of these measures are broadly popular with voters across the political spectrum. Somehow that doesn’t seem to matter.
After this week’s school shooting. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos released a statement saying, “Today’s tragedy is shocking, senseless and heartbreaking. My thoughts and prayers are with the students, parents and faculty who will have to live with the trauma and grief of this day for the rest of their lives.” But Vos stopped short of saying he would make any effort whatsoever to protect kids and teachers from being shot to death at school. That phrase “thoughts and prayers,” rightly derided by the students who protested at the Capitol on Friday, is a pathetic substitute for action.
“Last year it was 12 years since Sandy Hook, 25 years since Columbine, and all our politicians can say from their cushy seats is that they’re sending out their thoughts and prayers about the leading cause of death for children in America!” yelled Ian Malash, a senior at Vel Phillips Memorial High School in Madison, pacing around the tree in the center of the rotunda. “We’re showing them right now and we are going to continue to show them that we are done with thoughts and prayers. We will make change happen because our lives depend on it.”
Vos, apparently recovered from his heartbreak over Monday’s tragedy and back to his old snarky self by Wednesday, mounted a robust defense of the status quo on X, retweeting a post from Wisconsin Right Now that mocked Democrats who “politicize this tragedy with cheap talking points.” The post claimed that, since it’s already illegal for a 15-year-old to possess a handgun, it’s ridiculous to connect the recent shooting to any effort to change gun laws.
But, as state Sen. Kelda Roys told the crowd on Friday, “We know that states that have passed gun safety laws like background checks, like red flag laws … they see gun deaths and firearm injuries go down. We can do that here in Wisconsin, too. We just need to change the minds or change the legislators — and the judges, too, by the way.”
“My generation and the people in this building have let you down,” Rick Abegglen, the parent of a West High School daughter who helped organize the protest, told the crowd in the Capitol. “I am so proud of each and every one of you for standing up for yourselves. A few moments ago I saw somebody close the doors of the Senate because they did not want to hear your voices. Think about it.”
As he spoke, the students yelled louder, their voices bouncing off the marble walls, becoming harder and harder to ignore.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The father of a child killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting offers insight into moving forward and efforts to prevent this from happening again.
The post ‘No wrong way to move through this’: Sandy Hook Promise co-founder on dealing with school violence aftermath appeared first on WPR.
There have been two fatal school shootings in U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan’s district in 2024. He says they will continue to happen until people stand up to the gun industry.
The post US Rep. Mark Pocan urges people to treat gun violence like a public health emergency appeared first on WPR.
Several hundred people gathered on the Capitol Square in Madison Tuesday evening for a vigil following a school shooting Monday that left three dead and injured six other people. (Erik Gunn | Wisconsin Examiner)
A day after a student killed two people, injured six others and took her own life at a Madison private school, public officials and community members mourned and processed their own trauma from the devastating violence.
“It is OK to ask for what you need to take care of your own mental health,” said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway at a vigil on Madison’s Capitol Square Tuesday evening. “Please. Please. Let us be a community where it is okay to ask for help. Let us be a community where, when we see someone who needs help, that we are the first to extend our hands and to offer resources where they are needed. Let us be a community that takes care of each other. That is where our focus is right now — on caring for everyone who has been impacted by this gun violence.”
The vigil was organized by the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County. “We come together to begin the healing journey for our children and to support one another in this face of another school shooting that has hit our community,” said Michael Johnson, the organization’s president. “Let us remind each other that we are loved, that we are valued and we are not alone in this difficult time.”
“Violence in our community is preventable,” said state Rep. Sheila Stubbs (D-Madison). “We must not stand silent, but instead be moved to action.” She quoted Rev. Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist: “At the end of the day, we must go forward with hope and not backwards by fear and division.”
Elected officials have united in expressing grief at the shooting. Following through on his announcement Monday, Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order Tuesday morning calling for the U.S. and Wisconsin flags to be flown at half staff on all state buildings through Sunday, Dec. 22, as well as on the date of each victim’s funeral.
In the well of the U.S. House Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan, flanked by a bipartisan group of six of Wisconsin’s eight House members, led a moment of silence in recognition of those affected by the shooting.
“These were innocent lives, innocent victims of senseless violence, and we mourn their loss with their families and loved ones and the entire Abundant Life Community,” Pocan said. He thanked law enforcement, first responders and health care workers who went to the scene or treated the victims. He emphasized as well that not just the dead and wounded, but the school community, its students, staff and parents, are all victims.
Pocan, like many Democratic lawmakers, has long been an outspoken advocate for tougher gun laws aimed at curbing gun violence. He alluded to that cause in his House speech, saying, “We must do better and we must turn these moments of silence into moments of action.”
But Pocan demurred from discussing specific policy talking points.
At a WisPolitics panel, Assembly Democratic leader Rep. Greta Neubauer cited direct policy changes that Democrats in the Legislature have tried in vain to pass over the last several years, only to be blocked by large Republican majorities: red flag laws that enable authorities to take guns from people perceived to be dangerous and universal background checks on all gun purchases. With a narrower GOP majority in both houses, she said, she hopes measures such as those could advance in the session starting in January.
Meanwhile, on the same panel, incoming Republican Senate President Mary Felzkowski highlighted concerns ranging from violent entertainment to social media — rather than firearms — as potential targets for regulation to reduce gun violence.
In a television interview, Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) told Emilee Fannon of TV station CBS 58 that he would support a request by Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul for $2.3 million in the state’s 2025-27 budget to continue permanent funding for the Office of School Safety in the Wisconsin Department of Justice. The office provides K-12 schools with resources to improve security measures and trains school staff on handling traumatic events and crisis prevention and response. It also runs a round-the-clock tip line.
The office became a partisan flashpoint in the Legislature’s 2023-25 budget deliberations after Republicans rejected funding and Democratic lawmakers attacked their decision. The state DOJ subsequently extended its operation by redirecting $1.3 million in federal pandemic relief funds.
In the hours after the shooting, elected officials were unanimous in their expressions of grief while dividing along party lines in their policy responses.
“Today’s tragedy is shocking, senseless and heartbreaking,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said Monday.
“My thoughts and prayers are with the students, parents and faculty who will have to live with the trauma and grief of this day for the rest of their lives,” he said. “There are no words to adequately express condolences to those who have lost loved ones or to express gratitude for the first responders who were on scene for this violence.”
The statement made no reference either for or against legislation to address gun violence.
Democratic lawmakers weren’t so reticent.
“Right now, it’s hard to think of a greater moral failing as a nation and society than our inaction and unwillingness to keep our children safe from gun violence,” said Sen. Kelda Roys (D-Madison). “We do not have to accept this as an ordinary part of life. No other country does. Indeed – guns are the number one cause of death for American children, and that is a policy choice.”
At a news conference hours after the shooting Monday, Rhodes-Conway largely kept her focus on trauma and healing. “I am on record that I think we need to do better in our country and our community to prevent gun violence,” she said, adding that solutions should be the work of the whole community. A little later, she added: “But first and foremost, what needs to be a priority for all of us is supporting our young people, and that is where our community’s attention needs to turn at this point in time.”
And at Tuesday night’s vigil, she kept the attention on those who had immediately responded to the crisis. “Our community showed up in a big way, and is still continuing to show up,” Rhodes-Conway said. “Ultimately, that’s what gives me hope.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Two events were held in Madison on Tuesday evening following a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. A vigil took place at the state Capitol and a prayer service was held at City Church.
The post Mourners gather in vigil across Madison after deadly school shooting appeared first on WPR.
"Everyone was targeted in this incident, and everyone was put in equal danger," Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.
The post Victims’ names not yet released as investigation continues into Abundant Life Christian School shooting appeared first on WPR.
In the wake of a school shooting at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison on Tuesday that left three people dead and six injured, members of the Madison community are wondering what they can do.
The post How to help: Madison community comes together to support Abundant Life families appeared first on WPR.
Those who died include the shooter, a teacher and a teenage student.
The post 3 dead, including suspect, in shooting at Madison’s Abundant Life Christian School appeared first on WPR.
Some state and local governments are pushing gun manufacturer Glock to change its gun design so it is less compatible with “auto sears” — plastic switches that transform semi-automatic Glock handguns into fully automatic weapons.
The post Devices that make some handguns fully automatic on the rise in Milwaukee, police say appeared first on WPR.
Guns are shown at Caso’s Gun-A-Rama in Jersey City, New Jersey, which has been open since 1967. (Aristide Economopoulos | NJ Monitor)
This is one in a series of States Newsroom reports on the major policy issues in the presidential race.
WASHINGTON — A mass shooting at a Georgia high school in September thrust the issue of gun violence to the forefront of the presidential race.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump agree that gun violence is a major problem, but they offer strikingly different views on how to address it.
Two 14-year-old students and two math teachers were killed at Apalachee High School.
While at a campaign rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, shortly after the Apalachee shooting, Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, renewed calls for an assault weapons ban, universal background checks and red flag laws.
Students should not have to be frightened of school shootings, she said. “They are sitting in a classroom where they should be fulfilling their God-given potential, yet some part of their big, beautiful minds is worried about a shooter breaking through the door,” she said. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, expressed his condolences.
“Our hearts are with the victims and loved ones of those affected by the tragic event in Winder, GA,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social. “These cherished children were taken from us far too soon by a sick and deranged monster.”
Trump has survived two assassination attempts, one where he was injured in the ear, but has not changed his stance on guns.
After the first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump campaign senior adviser Chris LaCivita said at the Republican National Convention that the party won’t back away from its support of Second Amendment rights.
During a Univision town hall with undecided Latino voters that aired Wednesday night, an audience member asked Trump how he would explain his gun policy to “parents of the victims of school shootings.”
“We have a Second Amendment and a right to bear arms,” Trump said. “I’m very strongly an advocate of that. I think that if you ever tried to get rid of it, you wouldn’t be able to do it. You wouldn’t be able to take away the guns, because people need that for security, they need it for entertainment and for sport, and other things. But they also, in many cases, need it for protection.”
A majority of Americans view gun violence as a problem — about 60% — and they expect it to only get worse over the next five years, according to a Pew Research Center study.
This year there have been 421 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks gun violence in the U.S.
For a third year in a row, in 2022 — the most recent year of finalized data — firearms were the leading cause of death for children and teens ages 1 to 17, according to a report from the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
In the aftermath of two mass shootings in 2022, Congress passed the most comprehensive bipartisan gun safety legislation in decades.
In Uvalde, Texas, 19 children and two teachers were murdered, making it the second-deadliest mass shooting since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012. In Buffalo, a white supremacist targeted a Black neighborhood and killed 10 Black people in a grocery store.
The package that Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law provided $11 billion in mental health funds and $750 million for states to enact red flag laws. It also closed loopholes and established a White House Office for Gun Violence Prevention, among other provisions.
Red flag laws allow courts to temporarily remove a firearm from an individual who is a threat to themselves or others, among other provisions.
Biden tasked Harris with leading the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which helps local communities implement that 2022 bipartisan gun legislation and aids communities impacted by gun violence.
During Trump’s first presidency, he had a mixed record on gun policy.
After a mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, the Trump administration moved to ban bump stocks, which allow a semi-automatic rifle to quickly fire bullets.
However, the U.S. Supreme Court, to which Trump appointed three conservative justices, struck down the ban on bump stocks.
Trump also threatened to veto legislation from Congress that would have enhanced background checks on guns.
Promise: a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines
Democrats have long called for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, which are typically used in mass shootings.
The U.S. used to have a ban on assault weapons, but it expired in 2004 and Congress failed to renew the ban.
“I am in favor of the Second Amendment, and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban,” Harris said at the White House in late September.
Fulfilling this promise would come down to the makeup in Congress and overcoming the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance legislation.
Promise: a rollback of Biden regulations
During a forum with the National Rifle Association in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in February, Trump promised to roll back all gun-related regulations that the Biden administration has implemented.
“Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be terminated on my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day,” Trump said.
Trump specifically said he would cancel the Biden administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy, which revokes federal licenses from gun dealers who violate firearm laws.
Brian Hughes, a Trump campaign senior adviser, said in a statement to States Newsroom that if Trump wins a second term, “he will terminate every single one of the Harris-Biden’s attacks on law-abiding gun owners his first week in office and stand up for our constitutionally enshrined right to bear arms.”
Promise: tax credits, no gun-free zones
During an NRA event in April 2023, Trump said that he was supportive of a tax credit for teachers who wanted to carry a firearm in schools.
Trump has also previously voiced his disapproval of schools being gun-free zones. Days after the Uvalde school shooting, Trump attended another NRA event in Houston, Texas, where he argued that a gun-free zone does not allow people to protect themselves.
“As the age-old saying goes, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Trump said. “The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens.”
He argued that schools should have metal detectors, fencing and an armed police officer.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
A new report tallies deaths in Wisconsin from gun violence, including murders and suicides, and makes recommendations for prevention. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Guns claimed the lives of 830 Wisconsin residents in 2022 according to Gun Death in Wisconsin, a new joint report by the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE) Educational Fund, the state’s leading gun violence prevention organization, and the Violence Policy Center (VPC), a national research and advocacy organization working to stop gun death and injury.
The study was released as part of the Emergency Gun Violence Summit being held Thursday at the Baird Center in Milwaukee. It analyzes data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on lethal gun violence in the state and compares Wisconsin firearm death data to other Great Lakes states.
The study offers year-over-year trend analyses by sex, age, race, and ethnicity for firearm suicide and firearm homicide.
It also examines gun suicide and homicide deaths in urban and rural areas and presents firearm criminal trace data from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
The report also presents personal stories of Wisconsin residents affected by lethal gun violence.
“This report highlights the toll of gun violence on Wisconsin communities and the disparities that must be addressed,” said Nick Matuszewski, director of policy and program at WAVE Educational Fund. “WAVE is committed to advocating for necessary changes to protect every Wisconsinite. Research shows that policies like universal background checks and extreme risk laws effectively reduce gun violence. By prioritizing these measures, we can create safer environments and protect our communities from the impacts of gun-related incidents.”
“Effective public policy relies on comprehensive, reliable data not only to recognize public health threats but also identify effective solutions,” said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the Violence Policy Center. “This annual study is one more tool for advocates, organizations, and policymakers working to reduce gun violence in Wisconsin.”
Wisconsin gun death findings:
The report also cites WAVE’s recommended gun violence prevention policies for the state as well as its recent policy successes.
The Violence Policy Center is a national educational organization working to stop gun death and injury.
Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort Educational Fund (WAVE) is a statewide grassroots organization dedicated to preventing gun violence, injuries and deaths through education and advocacy.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday considered a federal firearm regulation aimed at reining in ghost guns, untraceable, unregulated weapons made from kits. In this photo, a ghost gun is displayed before the start of an event about gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House April 11, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — U.S. Supreme Court justices Tuesday grappled with whether the Biden administration exceeded its authority when it set regulations for kits that can be assembled into untraceable firearms, and a majority of justices seemed somewhat skeptical the rule was an overreach.
In Garland v. VanDerStok, the nine justices are tasked with determining whether a rule issued by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives in 2022 overstepped in expanding the definition of “firearms” to include “ghost guns” under a federal firearms law.
Ghost guns are firearms without serial numbers and can be easily bought online and quickly assembled in parts, usually through a kit. Law enforcement officials use serial numbers to track guns that are used in crimes.
Arguing on behalf of the Biden administration, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar told the justices that there has been an “explosion in crimes” with untraceable guns across the U.S.
She added that the federal government has for years required gun manufacturers and sellers to mark firearms with a serial number.
“The industry has followed those conditions without difficulty for more than half a century, and those basic requirements are crucial to solving gun crimes and keeping guns out of the hands of minors, felons and domestic abusers,” Prelogar said.
She said with the kits to make untraceable homemade guns in as little as 15 minutes, those manufacturers “have tried to circumvent those requirements.”
Prelogar said untraceable guns “are attractive to people who can’t lawfully purchase them or who plan to use them in crime.”
Because the ATF saw a spike in crimes committed with those firearms, Prelogar said it promulgated the 2022 rule. The Biden administration said since 2016, it’s seen a tenfold increase in ghost guns.
The regulation does not ban ghost guns, but requires manufacturers of those firearm kits or parts to add a serial number to the products, as well as conduct background checks on potential buyers. The regulation also clarified those kits are considered covered by the 1968 Gun Control Act under the definition of a “firearm.”
The Biden administration is advocating for the Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s decision that favored gun rights groups and owners that argued the agency exceeded its authority.
Pete Patterson on Tuesday represented those gun rights groups, such as the Firearms Policy Coalition and clients, and argued the ATF expanded the definition of a firearm to “include items that may readily be converted to a frame or receiver.”
A frame or receiver is the primary structure of a firearm that holds the other components that cause the gun to fire.
“Congress decided to regulate only a single part of a firearm, the frame or receiver, and Congress did not alter the common understanding of a frame or receiver,” he said. “ATF has now exceeded its authority by operating outside of the bounds set by Congress.”
The case has already been before the high court on an emergency basis in 2023. The three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, and two conservative justices, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. and Amy Coney Barrett, allowed the regulation to remain in place while going through legal challenges.
The case is similar to the Supreme Court decision that struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks from the ATF, but that was on the grounds of a Second Amendment argument.
Justice Samuel Alito questioned Prelogar whether the kits were defined as weapons.
“Here’s a blank pad and here’s a pen,” he said. “Is this a grocery list?”
She said it wasn’t because “there are a lot of things you could use those products for to create something other than a grocery list.”
Alito asked her if he had eggs, chopped up ham, peppers and onions, “is that a Western omelet?”
“No, because, again, those items have well known other uses to become something other than an omelet,” Prelogar said. “The key difference here is that these weapon parts kits are designed and intended to be used as instruments of combat, and they have no other conceivable use.”
Barrett asked if her answer would change if “you ordered it from HelloFresh and you got a kit and it was like turkey chili, but all of the ingredients are in the kit?”
Prelogar said it would.
“We are not suggesting that scattered components that might have some entirely separate and distinct function could be aggregated and called a weapon, in the absence of this kind of evidence that that is their intended purpose and function,” she said.
“But if you bought, you know, from Trader Joe’s, some omelet-making kit that had all of the ingredients to make the omelet, and maybe included whatever you would need to start the fire in order to cook the omelet, and had all of that objective indication that that’s what’s being marketed and sold, we would recognize that for what it is,” Prelogar continued.
Roberts asked Patterson what the purpose would be of selling a receiver without a hole in it, meaning the gun is not complete.
Patterson argued that the kits are mainly for gun hobbyists, who would have to drill their own holes to put the product together.
“Some individuals enjoy, like working on their car every weekend, some individuals want to construct their own firearms,” Patterson said.
Roberts seemed skeptical.
“I mean drilling a hole or two, I would think doesn’t give the same sort of reward that you get from working on your car on the weekends,” Roberts said.
Patterson argued that putting together a homemade gun was somewhat difficult, especially if an individual had no experience.
“Even once you have a complete frame, it’s not a trivial matter to put that together,” he said. “There are small parts that have to be put in precise locations.”
In her rebuttal, Prelogar pushed back on the notion that hobbyists were using those kits, arguing that “if there is a market for these kits, for hobbyists, they can be sold to hobbyists, you just have to comply with the requirements of the Gun Control Act.”
“What the evidence shows is that these guns were being purchased and used in crime. There was a 1,000% increase between 2017 and 2021 in the number of these guns that were recovered as part of criminal investigations,” she said. “The reason why you want a ghost gun is specifically because it’s unserialized and can’t be traced.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Law enforcement personnel continue to investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club after an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Sept. 16, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that the man who allegedly stalked former President Donald Trump for a month before aiming his rifle through a fence at Trump’s private golf course on Sept. 15 was indicted on the charge of an attempted assassination of a political candidate.
The Justice Department said a federal grand jury in Miami late Tuesday returned an indictment charging Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, of attempting to kill the GOP presidential nominee while at Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“Violence targeting public officials endangers everything our country stands for, and the Department of Justice will use every available tool to hold Ryan Routh accountable for the attempted assassination of former President Trump charged in the indictment,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must stop,” Garland said.
The maximum sentence for the attempted assassination charge is a life sentence. Routh remains in pretrial detention.
The case is being handled by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who previously dismissed criminal charges against Trump related to illegally allegedly keeping classified documents after he left the presidency. Cannon was appointed by Trump to the federal bench.
Prosecutors on Monday detailed that Routh stalked Trump for a month, noting events Trump would be at, and wrote a note where he offered $150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job,” according to court filings.
This is now officially the second assassination attempt against Trump, after the first one in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump sustained an injury to his ear. He was not injured at his Florida golf club.
Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe confirmed that Routh did not fire his weapon and that the gunshots heard were from a Secret Service agent who saw part of Routh’s gun poking out from the chain link fence and immediately fired.
Routh has already been charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and with obliterating the serial number on a firearm, according to court records. With those charges, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Former President Donald Trump walks to speak to the media after being found guilty following his hush money trial at Manhattan Criminal Court on May 30, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Seth Wenig-Pool/Getty Images)
This story has been updated
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors Monday said the man accused of trying to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his private golf club in Florida stalked the GOP presidential nominee for a month and in a note offered $150,000 to anyone who could “finish the job,” according to a new court filing.
Federal prosecutors detailed how Ryan Routh left a handwritten note that criticized Trump’s policy in the Middle East, specifically ending U.S. involvement in the Iran nuclear deal.
“This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump but I failed you,” read the note, according to the court filing. “I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
Prosecutors said cell phone records showed Routh was located near “Trump International and the former President’s residence at Mar-a-Lago” from Aug. 18 until Sept. 15 — the day of the attempted assassination.
Law enforcement officers also found in their search of Routh’s car, after he was detained, a “handwritten list of dates in August, September, and October 2024 and venues where the former President had appeared or was expected to be present,” according to the court filing.
The FBI is investigating the incident as an apparent assassination attempt, following the first assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, where Trump sustained an injury to his ear. Trump was not injured at his Florida golf club and the U.S. Secret Service confirmed that Routh did not fire his weapon.
However, Florida’s Republican state Attorney General Ashley Moody is challenging the FBI’s jurisdiction as lead agency in the investigation.
In a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, she argues that because Trump is a Florida resident, the Sunshine State “understandably desires to investigate violations of its own laws, including attempted murder.”
Moody also urged Wray that the FBI and Department of Justice not invoke U.S. code that would suspend state and local jurisdiction in a federal investigation, and instead allow Florida authorities to have access to evidence of the shooting.
“To be clear, I believe it would be a grave mistake for the federal government to invoke this provision, and I urge you to cooperate with the State’s investigation rather than seek to frustrate it,” she wrote.
Moody asked Wray to clarify by Friday if the federal government is invoking that provision, United States Code Section 351 of Title 18, (f).
Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has also argued that Florida should conduct its own investigation. He signed an executive order last week to assign the incident to the Office of Statewide Prosecutor, which Moody will supervise.
Trump issued a lengthy statement late Monday that criticized the Department of Justice and FBI and accused the agencies of “mishandling and downplaying the second assassination attempt on my life since July.”
“If the DOJ and FBI cannot do their job honestly and without bias, and hold the aspiring assassin responsible to the full extent of the Law, Governor Ron DeSantis and the State of Florida have already agreed to take the lead on the investigation and prosecution,” Trump said in a statement. “Florida charges would be much more serious than the ones the FBI has announced.”
The new court filing came in advance of Routh’s Monday court appearance in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Last week, Routh was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and with obliterating the serial number on a firearm, according to court records. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Law enforcement agents stand near the stage of a campaign rally for Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. Secret Service Acting Director Ronald Rowe told reporters on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, that the agency takes responsibility for the failures that resulted in an assassination attempt on Trump there that day. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service has taken responsibility for the failures that resulted in the July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania and is asking for more resources going forward, a top official said Friday.
Acting Director Ronald Rowe briefed reporters on the agency’s findings following an investigation into how a gunman was able to scale a nearby roof and fire multiple shots at Trump during a July 13 campaign rally in Butler. Trump sustained an injury to his right ear, and one spectator was killed while two others were seriously injured.
“It’s important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” Rowe said.
The investigation revealed communication “deficiencies” between law enforcement personnel and an “overreliance on mobile devices, resulting in information being siloed,” Rowe said, highlighting that vital information about the shooter was transmitted via phone instead of over the Secret Service radio network.
The investigation also uncovered “complacency” among some staff members who visited the site ahead of time but did not escalate to supervisors their concerns over “line of sight issues,” Rowe said.
“The findings of the Mission Assurance review have prompted the Secret Service to move into the accountability phase of this process,” he said, referring to the agency’s title of its investigation.
“What has become clear to me is we need a shift in paradigm in how we conduct our protective operations. As was demonstrated on Sunday in West Palm Beach, the threat level is evolving,” Rowe said.
“This increased operational tempo requires additional resources to not only account for costs being incurred today, but ensure that we have the tools, technology and personnel needed to meet these new requirements and execute our mission going forward,” he said.
The investigation’s conclusions were revealed less than a week after a second attempt on Trump’s life. On Sunday the Secret Service thwarted a gunman’s attempt to aim a high-powered rifle at the former president while he was playing golf on his West Palm Beach, Florida, property.
The incidents prompted unanimous U.S. House support for a measure to grant presidential and vice presidential candidates the same security level as the officeholders. The proposal sailed through the lower chamber Friday in a 405-0 vote.
On Monday a bipartisan congressional task force investigating the July attempted assassination in Pennsylvania announced an expansion of its purview to also probe Sunday’s attempt in Florida. The task force will hold its first hearing Thursday.
Rowe said the agency has been providing the “highest levels” of protections for presidential candidates since the July 13 assassination attempt.
That increased level of protection is working, Rowe told reporters, recounting how an agent swept the area ahead of Trump and “took steps to neutralize that threat.”
“No shot was fired at the former president. The former president was not exposed to where he was on the golf course,” he said.
Extending that level of protection means the agency is “burning through a lot of assets and resources.”
“This isn’t pie in the sky, trying to say ‘Hey, we want this now.’ We are not capitalizing on a crisis,” Rowe said.
Rowe would not disclose an additional dollar amount the agency is seeking and said conversations with congressional appropriators are “ongoing.”
“The threat is not going to evaporate anytime soon, and so we have to be prepared for this. And that is the argument that we have been making. We have certainly made some inroads, and we’re having these productive conversations with the Hill,” he said.
Rowe was appointed as the agency’s acting director after former Director Kimberly Cheatle heeded loud cries for her resignation, stepping down 10 days after the attempt on Trump’s life in July.
Rowe would not detail who or how many in the agency will face discipline, citing federal regulations preventing him from discussing it further.
“What I will tell you is that I have not asked for anybody to retire. I know some of that was reported. That is false,” Rowe said. Rowe said the agency’s offices of Integrity and Professional Responsibility will together decide any discipline in accordance with the agency’s “table of penalties.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Law enforcement personnel continued to investigate the area around Trump International Golf Club on Monday after an apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump a day earlier. The FBI is leading the investigation and has said the incident “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump” while he was golfing at his West Palm Beach, Florida, club. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Ryan Wesley Routh appeared in federal court Monday on two firearm charges after being apprehended by local law enforcement Sunday in what the FBI is investigating as a possible assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
Authorities found a rifle in an area Routh was seen fleeing on Sunday, but acting Secret Service Director Ron Rowe said Monday that Routh did not fire his weapon. Trump was unharmed, his campaign confirmed shortly after Sunday’s incident.
The Secret Service agent who spotted someone holding a rifle near the treeline of Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, fired toward the suspect. Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, was golfing at the time.
The incident is being investigated as the second assassination attempt against Trump in two months. He sustained an injury to his ear during a shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July.
The Trump campaign Monday blamed Democrats and the media for the shooting.
“Democrats and the Fake News must immediately cease their inflammatory, violent rhetoric against President Trump — which was mimicked by yesterday’s would-be assassin,” the campaign said in a statement.
Routh, 58, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ryon McCabe in West Palm Beach federal court and was charged with possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and for obliterating the serial number on a firearm, according to court records. If convicted, he would face up to 20 years in prison.
Routh is being held in pretrial detention, according to a criminal complaint filed by FBI special agent Mark Thomas.
The FBI is leading the investigation.
Separately, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state will conduct its own investigation into the possible assassination attempt to determine if Routh broke any state laws.
A detention hearing on the federal charges is set for Sept. 23, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
According to an affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint, at 1:31 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, a Secret Service agent walking the perimeter of the golf course spotted a rifle poking out of the tree line. The agent fired toward the rifle.
Rowe said at a Monday press conference that Routh did not have a line of vision at the former president and he did not fire his weapon.
“The agent who was visually sweeping the area … saw the subject armed with what he perceived to be a rifle and immediately discharged his firearm,” Rowe said. “The subject, who did not have line of sight to the former president, fled the scene. He did not fire or get off any shots at our agents.”
Routh fled in a Nissan SUV, according to the charging documents. A witness took photos of the license plate and local law enforcement officers stopped the vehicle in Martin County, which borders Palm Beach County.
West Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the witness was able to identify the driver as “the person that he saw running out of the bushes that jumped into the car.”
Routh was the sole person in the vehicle, according to the complaint.
According to the charging documents, agents found at the site Routh fled a digital camera, two bags, an SKS-style 7.62 x 39 rifle, which is the predecessor to the AK-47 assault rifle that law enforcement initially said they found Sunday, and a scope.
They also found a bag of food and noticed the rifle had the serial number obliterated “to the naked eye,” according to the filing documents.
The weapon also must have crossed state lines, Thomas noted.
“SKS-style 7.62 x 39 caliber rifles are not manufactured in the state of Florida,” Thomas wrote. “Therefore, I submit that there is probable cause to believe that the SKS-style rifle, which was seized from the tree line at Trump International… traveled in interstate or foreign commerce.”
The officers who stopped Routh on Interstate-95 noted that the license plate associated with the Nissan is registered to a 2012 white Ford truck that was reported stolen, according to the complaint.
Law enforcement found a July 10 Facebook post in which Routh directed his followers to contact him on WhatsApp and listed a contact number, according to the complaint.
Phone records associated with that number indicated that the phone “was located in the vicinity of the area along the tree line described from 1:59 a.m. Eastern to 1:31 p.m. Sunday,” according to the complaint.
The incident follows the July 13 assassination attempt of Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, in which the Secret Service was heavily criticized for its response.
Then-Director Kimberly Cheatle resigned and Congress established a bipartisan task force to investigate the July shooting.
The leaders of that task force, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, Republican of Pennsylvania, and U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, a Colorado Democrat, have requested a briefing from the Secret Service on the security response to the shooting in West Palm Beach.
Members of Congress have been more complimentary of the Secret Service’s response to the Florida incident.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, commended the agency’s response during an interview with “Fox and Friends” on Monday.
“What I understand happened is that those agents that were with him yesterday saw that barrel of that gun between the bushes on a golf course. I mean, you know, that’s a difficult thing to spot. Thankfully, they did,” Johnson said. “But unlike in Butler, they did not pause. They immediately pulled their weapons and fired. I think that’s why this guy, the suspect, the shooter, threw the gun in the bushes and ran.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said on the Senate floor Monday that senators are open to giving the Secret Service more funding in legislation this month needed to keep the government open past Sept. 30.
“If the Secret Service is in need of more resources, we are prepared to provide it for them,” he said. “Possibly in the upcoming funding agreement.”
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said Sunday they’d been briefed on the matter and condemned political violence.
In 2002, Routh was convicted in Greensboro, North Carolina, for possession of a weapon of mass destruction, which is a felony in the state. He was arrested after fleeing law enforcement and barricading himself for three hours in a business, according to the Greensboro News & Record.
He was also arrested in North Carolina in 2010 for possession of stolen goods.
Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Miami field office, said during a Monday press conference that the FBI is conducting interviews with family and friends in Honolulu and Charlotte, North Carolina.
He added that in 2019 the FBI received a tip that Routh possessed a firearm, which was illegal because of his felony record. When FBI agents followed up, the tipster “did not verify providing the initial information,” Veltri said.
The agency referred the matter to Honolulu police, he said.
Routh was interviewed by The New York Times last year about his efforts to recruit Afghan soldiers who had fled the Taliban to fight in Ukraine’s war against Russia.
Routh, who had spent time in Ukraine and does not have any U.S. military experience, said he had planned to illegally obtain documents to move those Afghan fighters from Pakistan and Iran to Ukraine.
“We can probably purchase some passports through Pakistan, since it’s such a corrupt country,” Routh told the Times in the interview.
He wrote an ebook that he published on Amazon Kindle about his time in Ukraine, during which he became disillusioned about the country’s ability to win its war against Russia.
Kathleen Shaffer, who said Routh was her fiancé, set up a GoFundMe in 2022 to help Routh travel to Ukraine for 90 days to fight in the war.
The fundraiser has been deleted, but can be accessed through internet archives.
“Any and all funds will support purchase of additional flags, tactical gear, any supplies needed for incoming volunteers, and hostel lodging,” according to the fundraiser, which raised $1,865 out of its goal of $2,500.
States Newsroom called a number associated with Shaffer, but could not reach her.
Public records show Routh currently lives in Kaaawa on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.
In 2018, Hawaii News Now interviewed Routh about torrential rains in Kaaawa. Routh talked in the interview about a recent home project he finished after buying his home a year prior.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, is safe after gunshots were fired in his vicinity while he played golf Sunday near his Florida home. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — The FBI is investigating a possible assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump after gunshots were fired Sunday near Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the GOP presidential nominee was playing golf.
The FBI said in a statement to States Newsroom the incident “appears to be an attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
A male suspect is in custody, law enforcement officials said.
“President Trump is safe following gunshots in his vicinity. No further details at this time,” Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, said in a statement about 20 minutes after the incident occurred just before 2 p.m. Eastern.
The FBI is taking a lead on investigating, said Jeffrey Veltri, the special agent in charge of the bureau’s Miami field office during a late afternoon press conference by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw told reporters that a Secret Service agent with Trump spotted a rifle coming out of bushes next to the golf course.
“The Secret Service agent that was on the course did a fantastic job,” he said. “What they do is, they have an agent that jumps one hole ahead of time to where the president was at, and he was able to spot this rifle barrel, stickin’ out of the fence, and immediately engage that individual, at which time the individual took off.”
The suspect in the bushes had an AK-47 style rifle with a scope, two backpacks filled with ceramic tile and a GoPro camera, Bradshaw said.
Bradshaw said a witness saw the suspect come out of the bushes and take off in a black Nissan. The witness took a picture of the license plate and local law enforcement officers were able to stop the vehicle in Martin County, which borders Palm Beach County.
“They spotted the vehicle and pulled it over and detained the guy,” Bradshaw said.
Once the driver was detained, Bradshaw said the witness was able to identify the driver as “the person that he saw running out of the bushes that jumped into the car.”
Bradshaw said the suspect was about 300 to 500 yards away from Trump.
“With a rifle and a scope like that, that’s not a long distance,” he said.
Bradshaw did not provide more details about the suspect’s identity.
U.S. Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said on social media prior to the press conference that “a protective incident” involving Trump occurred and that the Secret Service was investigating the incident with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. He also confirmed that Trump was safe.
The private golf club is about 4 miles from Trump’s primary residence at Mar-a-Lago.
The Republican vice presidential nominee, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, wrote on social media that he has spoken to Trump, who is “in good spirits.”
“Still much we don’t know, but I’ll be hugging my kids extra tight tonight and saying a prayer of gratitude,” Vance wrote.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, said on social media that she had been briefed and she is glad Trump is safe.
“Violence has no place in America,” she said.
The White House said that President Joe Biden had also been briefed.
“They are relieved to know that he is safe,” the White House said of Biden and Harris. “They will be kept regularly updated by their team.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said in a statement that he applauded “the Secret Service for their quick response to ensure former President Trump’s safety.”
“There is no place in this country for political violence of any kind,” he said. “The perpetrator must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
The incident follows a July 13 assassination attempt of Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Congress set up a bipartisan task force to investigate that attempted assassination. The chair of the task force, U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, Republican of Pennsylvania and the top Democrat, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado released a joint statement, requesting a briefing from the Secret Service on the shooting in West Palm Beach “and how security responded.”
“We are thankful that the former President was not harmed, but remain deeply concerned about political violence and condemn it in all of its forms,” they wrote. “The Task Force will share updates as we learn more.”
U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce, an Ohio Republican and a member of the task force investigating that incident, said on social media “with continued threats against Trump, it is critical to remain dedicated to our work on the Task Force to Investigate the Attempted Assassination of President Trump.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Login