Tag Archives: Gun politics

US

Visa, Mastercard, AmEx to start categorizing gun shop sales

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NEW YORK (AP) — Payment processor Visa Inc. said Saturday that it plans to start separately categorizing sales at gun shops, a major win for gun control advocates who say it will help better track suspicious surges of gun sales that could be a prelude to a mass shooting.

But the decision by Visa, the world’s largest payment processor, will likely provoke the ire of gun rights advocates and gun lobbyists, who have argued that categorizing gun sales would unfairly flag an industry when most sales do not lead to mass shootings. It joins Mastercard and American Express, which also said they plan to move forward with categorizing gun shop sales.

Visa said it would adopt the International Organization for Standardization’s new merchant code for gun sales, which was announced on Friday. Until Friday, gun store sales were considered “general merchandise.”

“Following ISO’s decision to establish a new merchant category code, Visa will proceed with next steps, while ensuring we protect all legal commerce on the Visa network in accordance with our long-standing rules,” the payment processor said in a statement.

Visa’s adoption is significant as the largest payment network, and with Mastercard and AmeEx, will likely put pressure on the banks as the card issuers to adopt the standard as well. Visa acts as a middleman between merchants and banks, and it will be up to banks to decide whether they will allow sales at gun stores to happen on their issued cards.

Gun control advocates had gained significant wins on this front in recent weeks. New York City officials and pension funds had pressured the ISO and banks to adopt this code.

Two of the country’s largest public pension funds, in California and New York, have been pressing the country’s largest credit card firms to establish sales codes specifically for firearm-related sales that could flag suspicious purchases or more easily trace how guns and ammunition are sold.

Merchant category codes now exist for almost every kind of purchase, including those made at supermarkets, clothing stores, coffee shops and many other retailers.

“When you buy an airline ticket or pay for your groceries, your credit card company has a special code for those retailers. It’s just common sense that we have the same policies in place for gun and ammunition stores,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain who blames the proliferation of guns for his city’s deadly violence.

The city’s comptroller, Brad Lander, said it made moral and financial sense as a tool to push back against gun violence.

“Unfortunately, the credit card companies have failed to support this simple, practical, potentially lifesaving tool. The time has come for them to do so,” Lander said recently, before Visa and others had adopted the move.

Lander is a trustee of the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, Teachers’ Retirement System and Board of Education Retirement System — which together own 667,200 shares in American Express valued at approximately $92.49 million; 1.1 million shares in MasterCard valued at approximately $347.59 million; and 1.85 million shares in Visa valued at approximately $363.86 million.

The pension funds and gun control advocates argue that creating a merchant category code for standalone firearm and ammunition stores could aid in the battle against gun violence. A week before the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, where 49 people died after a shooter opened fire in 2016, the assailant used credit cards to buy more than $26,000 worth of guns and ammunition, including purchases at a stand-alone gun retailer.

Gun rights advocates argue that tracking sales at gun stores would unfairly target legal gun purchases, since merchant codes just track the type of merchant where the credit or debit card is used, not the actual items purchased. A sale of a gun safe, worth thousands of dollars and an item considered part of responsible gun ownership, could be seen as a just a large purchase at a gun shop.

“The (industry’s) decision to create a firearm specific code is nothing more than a capitulation to anti-gun politicians and activists bent on eroding the rights of law-abiding Americans one transaction at a time,” said Lars Dalseide, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.

Over the years, public pension funds have used their extensive investment portfolios to influence public policy and the market place.

The California teacher’s fund, the second largest pension fund in the country, has long taken aim on the gun industry. It has divested its holdings from gun manufacturers and has sought to persuade some retailers from selling guns.

Four years ago, the teacher’s fund made guns a key initiative. It called for background checks and called on retailers “monitor irregularities at the point of sale, to record all firearm sales, to audit firearms inventory on a regular basis, and to proactively assist law enforcement.”

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Associated Press writer Bobby Calvan in New York contributed to this report.

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US

New York to restrict gun carrying after Supreme Court ruling

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NEW YORK (AP) — Amid the bright lights and electronic billboards across New York’s Times Square, city authorities are posting new signs proclaiming the bustling crossroads a “Gun Free Zone.”

The sprawling Manhattan tourist attraction is one of scores of “sensitive” places — including parks, churches and theaters — that will be off limits for guns under a sweeping new state law going into effect Thursday. The measure, passed after a U.S. Supreme Court decision in June expanded gun rights, also sets stringent standards for issuing concealed carry permits.

New York is among a half-dozen states that had key provisions of its gun laws invalidated by the high court because of a requirement for applicants to prove they had “proper cause” for a permit. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday that she and her fellow Democrats in the state Legislature took action the next week because the ruling “destroyed the ability for a governor to be able to protect her citizens from people who carry concealed weapons anywhere they choose.”

The quickly adopted law, however, has led to confusion and court challenges from gun owners who say it improperly limits their constitutional rights.

“They seem to be designed less towards addressing gun violence and more towards simply preventing people from getting guns — even if those people are law-abiding, upstanding citizens, who according to the Supreme Court have the rights to have them,” said Jonathan Corbett, a Brooklyn attorney and permit applicant who is one of several people challenging the law in court.

Under the law, applicants for a concealed carry permit will have to complete 16 hours of classroom training and two hours of live-fire exercises. Ordinary citizens would be prohibited from bringing guns to schools, churches, subways, theaters and amusement parks — among other places deemed “sensitive” by authorities.

Applicants also will have to provide a list of social media accounts for the past three years as part of a “character and conduct” review. The requirement was added because shooters have sometimes dropped hints of violence online before they opened fire on people.

Sheriffs in some upstate counties said the additional work for their investigators could add to existing backlogs in processing applications.

In Rochester, Monroe County Sheriff Todd Baxter said it currently takes two to four hours to perform a pistol permit background check on a “clean” candidate. He estimate the new law will add another one to three hours for each permit. The county has about 600 pending pistol permits.

“It’s going to slow everything down just a bit more,” he said.

In the Mohawk Valley, Fulton County Sheriff Richard C. Giardino had questions on how the digital sleuthing would proceed.

“It says three years worth of your social media. We’re not going to print out three years of social media posts by everybody. If you look at my Facebook, I send out six or 10 things a day,” said the sheriff, a former district attorney and judge.

The list of prohibited spaces for carrying guns has drawn criticism from advocates who say it’s so extensive it will make it difficult for people with permits to move about in public. People carrying a gun could go into private business only with permission, such as a sign posted on the window.

Giardino has already started giving out signs to local businesses saying people can carry legal firearms on the premises. Jennifer Elson, who owns the Let’s Twist Again Diner in Amsterdam, said she put up the sheriff’s sign, along with one of her own reading in part “per our governor, we have to post this nonsense. If you are a law abiding citizen who obtained a legal permit to carry, you are welcome here.”

“I feel pretty strongly that everybody’s constitutional rights should be protected,” she said.

But in Times Square, visited by about 50 million tourists annually, and many less crowded places carrying a gun will be illegal starting Thursday.

New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams said Tuesday she looked forward to seeing authorities move to “protect New Yorkers and visitors who frequent Times Square.”

One lawsuit challenging provisions of the law argued the rules make it hard for license holders to leave home without violating the law. A federal judge is expected to rule soon on a motion challenging multiple provisions of the law, which was filed on behalf of a Schenectady resident who holds a license to carry.

The Supreme Court ruling also led to a flurry of legislation in California to tighten rules on gun ownership, including a new law that could hold gun dealers and manufacturers responsible for any harm caused by anyone they have “reasonable cause to believe is at substantial risk” of using a gun illegally.

Earlier this month, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law a measure that would require gun permit applicants to undergo personal interviews with a licensing authority.

New Jersey required people to get training before receiving a permit and would require new residents to register guns brought in from out of state.

Hawaii, which has the nation’s lowest number of gun deaths, is still weighing its options. Since the Supreme Court’s ruling, the state has only granted one new gun permit.

While New York does not keep statewide data on pistol permit applications, there are reports of long lines at county clerks’ office and other evidence of a surge in applications before the law takes effect.

In the Mohawk Valley, Pine Tree Rifle Club President Paul Catucci said interest in the club’s volunteer-run safety courses “blew right up” late this summer.

“I had to turn hundreds of them away,” he said.

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Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on Twitter.

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Hill and Khan contributed from Albany, New York.



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US

Alex Jones ordered to pay $45.2M more over Sandy Hook lies

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AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Texas jury on Friday ordered conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $45.2 million in punitive damages to the parents of a child who was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, adding to the $4.1 million he must pay for the suffering he put them through by claiming for years that the nation’s deadliest school shooting was a hoax.

The total — $49.3 million — is less than the $150 million sought by Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse Lewis was among the 20 children and six educators killed in the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut. But the trial marks the first time Jones has been held financially liable for peddling lies about the massacre, claiming it was orchestrated by the government to tighten gun laws.

Afterward, Lewis said that Jones — who wasn’t in the courtroom to hear the verdict — has been held accountable. She said when she took the stand and looked Jones in the eye, she thought of her son, who was credited with saving lives by yelling “run” when the killer paused in his rampage.

“He stood up to the bully Adam Lanza and saved nine of his classmates’ lives,” Lewis said. “I hope that I did that incredible courage justice when I was able to confront Alex Jones, who is also a bully. I hope that inspires other people to do the same.”

It could be a while before the plaintiffs collect anything. Jones’ lead attorney, Andino Reynal, told the judge he will appeal and ask the courts to drastically reduce the size of the verdict.

After the hearing, Reynal said he thinks the punitive amount will be reduced to as little as $1.5 million.

’We think the verdict was too high. … Alex Jones will be on the air today, he’ll be on the air tomorrow, he’ll be on the air next week. He’s going to keep doing his job holding the power structure accountable.”

Jones’ companies and personal wealth could also get carved up by other lawsuits and bankruptcy. Another defamation lawsuit against Jones by a Sandy Hook family is set to start pretrial hearings in the same Austin court on Sept. 14. He faces yet another defamation lawsuit in Connecticut.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Mark Bankston said he believes he can challenge any attempt to reduce the damages. But he said even if the award is drastically cut, it’s just as important to take the big verdict into the bankruptcy court for the family to claim against Jones’ estate and company.

Jones testified this week that any award over $2 million would “sink us.” His company Free Speech Systems, which is Infowars’ Austin-based parent company, filed for bankruptcy protection during the first week of the trial.

Punitive damages are meant to punish defendants for particularly egregious conduct, beyond monetary compensation awarded to the individuals they hurt. A high punitive award is also seen as a chance for jurors to send a wider societal message and a way to deter others from the same abhorrent conduct in the future.

Barry Covert, a Buffalo, New York, First Amendment lawyer with no connection to the Jones case, said the total damages awarded amount to “a stunning loss for Jones.”

“With $50 million in all, the jury has sent a huge, loud message that this behavior will not be tolerated,” Covert said. “Everyone with a show like this who knowingly tells lies — juries will not tolerate it.”

Future jurors in other pending Sandy Hook trials could see the damages amounts in this case as a benchmark, Covert said. If other juries do, Covert said, “it could very well put Jones out of business.”

Attorneys for the family had urged jurors to hand down a financial punishment that would force Infowars to shut down.

“You have the ability to stop this man from ever doing it again,” Wesley Ball, an attorney for the parents, told the jury Friday. “Send the message to those who desire to do the same: Speech is free. Lies, you pay for.”

An economist testified that Jones and the company are worth up to $270 million.

Bernard Pettingill, who was hired by the plaintiffs to study Jones’ net worth, said records show that Jones withdrew $62 million for himself in 2021, when default judgments were issued in lawsuits against him.

“That number represents, in my opinion, a value of a net worth,” Pettingill said. “He’s got money put in a bank account somewhere.”

But Jones’ lawyers said their client had already learned his lesson. They argued for a punitive amount of less than $300,000.

“You’ve already sent a message. A message for the first time to a talk show host, to all talk show hosts, that their standard of care has to change,” Reynal said.

Friday’s damages drew praise from the American Federation of Teachers union, which represented the teachers at Sandy Hook.

“Nothing will ever fix the pain of losing a child, or of watching that tragedy denied for political reasons. But I’m glad the parents of Sandy Hook have gotten some justice,” union President Randi Weingarten said in a tweet.

Lawyers for the Sandy Hook families suing Jones contend he has tried to hide evidence of his true wealth in various shell companies.

During his testimony, Jones was confronted with a memo from one of his business managers outlining a single day’s gross revenue of $800,000 from selling vitamin supplements and other products through his website, which would approach nearly $300 million in a year. Jones called it a record sales day.

Jones, who has portrayed the lawsuit as an attack on his First Amendment rights, conceded during the trial that the attack was “100% real” and that he was wrong to have lied about it. But Heslin and Lewis told jurors that an apology wouldn’t suffice and called on them to make Jones pay for the years of suffering he has put them and other Sandy Hook families through.

The parents told jurors they’ve endured a decade of trauma, inflicted first by the murder of their son and what followed: gunshots fired at a home, online and phone threats, and harassment on the street by strangers. They said the threats and harassment were all fueled by Jones and his conspiracy theory spread to his followers via Infowars.

A forensic psychiatrist testified that the parents suffer from “complex post-traumatic stress disorder” inflicted by ongoing trauma, similar to what might be experienced by a soldier at war or a child abuse victim.

Throughout the trial, Jones was his typically bombastic self, talking about conspiracies on the witness stand, during impromptu news conferences and on his show. His erratic behavior is unusual by courtroom standards, and the judge scolded him, telling him at one point: “This is not your show.”

The trial drew attention from outside Austin as well.

Bankston told the court Thursday that the U.S. House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has requested records from Jones’ phone that Jones’ attorneys had mistakenly turned over to the plaintiffs. Bankston later said he planned to comply with the committee’s request.

By Friday, Bankston said, he had “a subpoena sitting on my desk’ from the Jan. 6 committee. But he said he needed to “tamp down expectations” that it might reveal texts about the insurrection since it appears to have been scraped for data in mid-2020.

Bankston said he’s also had “law enforcement” interest in the phone data, but he declined to elaborate.

Last month, the House committee showed graphic and violent text messages and played videos of right-wing figures, including Jones, and others vowing that Jan. 6 would be the day they would fight for Trump.

The committee first subpoenaed Jones in November, demanding a deposition and documents related to his efforts to spread misinformation about the 2020 election and a rally on the day of the attack.

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Associated Press writer Michael Tarm in Chicago and Susan Haigh in Norwich, Connecticut, contributed to this report.

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Find AP’s full coverage of the Alex Jones trial at: https://apnews.com/hub/alex-jones

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World

Live Updates: Shinzo Abe, Japan’s former prime minister, critically wounded after shooting

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TOKYO (AP) — Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday on a street in western Japan by a gunman who opened fire on him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech — an attack that stunned a nation with some of the strictest gun control laws anywhere.

The 67-year-old Abe, who was Japan’s longest-serving leader when he resigned in 2020, collapsed bleeding and was airlifted to a nearby hospital in Nara, although he was not breathing and his heart had stopped. He was later pronounced dead after receiving massive blood transfusions, officials said.

A hearse carrying Abe’s body left the hospital early Saturday to head back to his home in Tokyo. Abe’s wife Akie lowered her head as the vehicle passed before a crowd of journalists.

Nara Medical University emergency department chief Hidetada Fukushima said Abe suffered major damage to his heart, along with two neck wounds that damaged an artery. He never regained his vital signs, Fukushima said.

Police at the shooting scene arrested Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, a former member of Japan’s navy, on suspicion of murder. Police said he used a gun that was obviously homemade — about 15 inches (40 centimeters) long — and they confiscated similar weapons and his personal computer when they raided his nearby one-room apartment.

Police said Yamagami was responding calmly to questions and had admitted to attacking Abe, telling investigators he had plotted to kill him because he believed rumors about the former leader’s connection to a certain organization that police did not identify.

Dramatic video from broadcaster NHK showed Abe standing and giving a speech outside a train station ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election. As he raised his fist to make a point, two gunshots rang out, and he collapsed holding his chest, his shirt smeared with blood as security guards ran toward him. Guards then leapt onto the gunman, who was face down on the pavement, and a double-barreled weapon was seen nearby.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his Cabinet ministers hastily returned to Tokyo from campaign events elsewhere after the shooting, which he called “dastardly and barbaric.” He pledged that the election, which chooses members for Japan’s less-powerful upper house of parliament, would go on as planned.

“I use the harshest words to condemn (the act),” Kishida said, struggling to control his emotions. He said the government would review the security situation, but added that Abe had the highest protection.

Even though he was out of office, Abe was still highly influential in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and headed its largest faction, Seiwakai, but his ultra-nationalist views made him a divisive figure to many.

Opposition leaders condemned the attack as a challenge to Japan’s democracy. Kenta Izumi, head of the top opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, called it “an act of terrorism” and said it “tried to quash the freedom of speech … actually causing a situation where (Abe’s) speech can never be heard again.”

In Tokyo, people stopped to buy extra editions of newspapers or watch TV coverage of the shooting. Flowers were placed at the shooting scene in Nara.

When he resigned as prime minister, Abe blamed a recurrence of the ulcerative colitis he’d had since he was a teenager. He said then it was difficult to leave many of his goals unfinished, especially his failure to resolve the issue of Japanese abducted years ago by North Korea, a territorial dispute with Russia, and a revision of Japan’s war-renouncing constitution.

That ultra-nationalism riled the Koreas and China, and his push to create what he saw as a more normal defense posture angered many Japanese. Abe failed to achieve his cherished goal of formally rewriting the U.S.-drafted pacifist constitution because of poor public support.

Loyalists said his legacy was a stronger U.S.-Japan relationship that was meant to bolster Japan’s defense capability. But Abe made enemies by forcing his defense goals and other contentious issues through parliament, despite strong public opposition.

Abe was groomed to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi. His political rhetoric often focused on making Japan a “normal” and “beautiful” nation with a stronger military and bigger role in international affairs.

Tributes to Abe poured in from world leaders, with many expressing shock and sorrow. U.S. President Joe Biden praised him, saying “his vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific will endure. Above all, he cared deeply about the Japanese people and dedicated his life to their service.“

On Saturday, Biden called Kishida and expressed outrage, sadness and deep condolences on the shooting death of Abe. Biden noted the importance of Abe’s legacy including through the establishment of the Quad meetings of Japan, the U.S., Australia and India. Biden voiced confidence in the strength of Japan’s democracy and the two leaders discussed how Abe’s legacy will live on as the two allies continue to defend peace and democracy, according to the White House.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose tenure from 2005-21 largely overlapped with Abe’s, said she was devastated by the “cowardly and vile assassination.” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared Saturday a day of national mourning for Abe, and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres tweeted that he would remember him for “his collegiality & commitment to multilateralism.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian declined to comment, other than to say Beijing offered sympathies to Abe’s family and that the shooting shouldn’t be linked to bilateral relations. But social media posts from the country were harsh, with some calling the gunman a “hero” — reflecting strong sentiment against right-wing Japanese politicians who question or deny that Japan’s military committed wartime atrocities in China.

Biden, who is dealing with a summer of mass shootings in the U.S., also said “gun violence always leaves a deep scar on the communities that are affected by it.”

Japan is particularly known for its strict gun laws. With a population of 125 million, it had only 10 gun-related criminal cases last year, resulting in one death and four injuries, according to police. Eight of those cases were gang-related. Tokyo had no gun incidents, injuries or deaths in the same year, although 61 guns were seized.

Abe was proud of his work to strengthen Japan’s security alliance with the U.S. and shepherding the first visit by a serving U.S. president, Barack Obama, to the atom-bombed city of Hiroshima. He also helped Tokyo gain the right to host the 2020 Olympics by pledging that a disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant was “under control” when it was not.

He became Japan’s youngest prime minister in 2006, at age 52, but his overly nationalistic first stint abruptly ended a year later, also because of his health.

The end of Abe’s scandal-laden first stint as prime minister was the beginning of six years of annual leadership change, remembered as an era of “revolving door” politics that lacked stability.

When he returned to office in 2012, Abe vowed to revitalize the nation and get its economy out of its deflationary doldrums with his “Abenomics” formula, which combines fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms.

He won six national elections and built a rock-solid grip on power, bolstering Japan’s defense role and capability and its security alliance with the U.S. He also stepped up patriotic education at schools and raised Japan’s international profile.

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Follow AP’s Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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US

Supreme Court gun decision: What to know and what’s next

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has issued its biggest gun rights ruling in more than a decade. Here are some questions and answers about what the Thursday decision does and does not do:

WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE SUPREME COURT RULING ON GUNS?

The Supreme Court said that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. That’s important because about half a dozen states have conditioned getting a license to carry a gun in public on the person demonstrating an actual need — sometimes called “good cause” or “proper cause” — to carry the weapon. That limits who can carry a weapon in those states.

In its decision, the Supreme Court struck down New York’s “proper cause” requirement, but other states’ laws are expected to face quick challenges. About one-quarter of the U.S. population lives in states expected to be affected by the ruling.

The last time the court issued major gun decisions was in 2008 and 2010. In those decisions the justices established a nationwide right to keep a gun for self-defense in a person’s home. The question for the court this time was just about carrying a gun outside the home.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the court’s majority opinion that the right extended outside the home as well: “Nothing in the Second Amendment’s text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms.”

HOW DID THE JUSTICES RULE?

The gun ruling split the court 6-3, with the court’s conservative justices in the majority and its liberals in dissent. In addition to Thomas, the majority opinion was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. The court’s three liberals who dissented are justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

ARE NEW YORKERS NOW FREE TO CARRY A GUN IN PUBLIC?

Not exactly. The justices didn’t touch other parts of New York’s gun law, so other requirements to get a license remain. The court made it clear that the state can continue to make people apply for a license to carry a handgun, and can put limitations on who qualifies for a permit and where a weapon can be carried. In the future, however, New Yorkers will no longer be required to give a specific reason why they want to be able to carry a gun in public.

The decision also doesn’t take effect immediately and state lawmakers said Thursday that they were planning to overhaul the licensing rules this summer. They have yet to detail their plans. Some options under discussion include requiring firearms training and a clean criminal record. The state might also prohibit handguns from being carried in certain places, like near schools or on public transit.

In addition, the decision does not address the law that recently passed in New York in response to the Buffalo grocery store massacre that among things, banned anyone under age 21 from buying or possessing a semi-automatic rifle.

WHAT OTHER STATES ARE LIKELY TO BE IMPACTED?

A handful of states have laws similar to New York’s. The Biden administration has counted California, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island as all having laws similar to New York’s. Connecticut and Delaware are also sometimes mentioned as states with similar laws.

WHAT CAN STATES DO TO REGULATE GUNS AFTER THE DECISION?

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, noted the limits of the decision. States can still require people to get a license to carry a gun, Kavanaugh wrote, and condition that license on “fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check, and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force, among other possible requirements.” Gun control groups said states could revisit and perhaps increase those requirements. States can also say those with a license to carry a gun must not do so openly but must conceal their weapon.

Justice Samuel Alito noted that the decision said “nothing about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun.” States have long prohibited felons and the mentally ill from possessing weapons, for example. The decision also said nothing “about the kinds of weapons that people may possess,” Alito noted, so states might also try to limit the availability of specific weapons.

The justices also suggested that states can prohibit the carrying of guns altogether in certain “sensitive places.” A previous Supreme Court decision mentioned schools and government buildings as being places where guns could be off limits. Thomas said that the historical record shows legislative assemblies, polling places and courthouses could also be sensitive places. Thomas said courts can “use analogies to those historical regulations of ‘sensitive places’ to determine that modern regulations prohibiting the carry of firearms in new and analogous sensitive places are constitutionally permissible.”

HOW DO COURTS ASSESS GUN RESTRICTIONS GOING FORWARD?

The court made it harder to justify gun restrictions, although it’s hard to know what the new test the court announced will mean for any specific regulation.

Thomas wrote that the nation’s appeals courts have been applying an incorrect standard for assessing whether such laws are impermissible. Courts have generally taken a two-step approach, first looking at the constitutional text and history to see whether a regulation comes under the Second Amendment and then, if it does, looking at the government’s justification for the restriction.

“Despite the popularity of this two-step approach, it is one step too many,” Thomas wrote.

From now on, Thomas wrote, courts can uphold regulations only if the government can prove that they fall within traditionally accepted limits.

Among state and local restrictions already being challenged in federal court are bans on the sale of certain semi-automatic weapons, called assault rifles by opponents, and large-capacity ammunition magazines, as well as minimum age requirements to buy semi-automatic firearms.

WHAT OTHER BIG RULINGS ARE IN THE WORKS?

The Supreme Court heard arguments in the guns case back in November and a decision had been expected before the court begins its summer recess. The court has nine more opinions to issue before it goes on break and plans to release more Friday. Still waiting is a major abortion decision.

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Associated Press editor David Caruso contributed to this report from New York.

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US

NY governor signs law raising age to own semiautomatic rifle

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ALBANY, N.Y. — New Yorkers under age 21 will be prohibited from buying semiautomatic rifles under a new law signed Monday by Gov. Kathy Hochul, making the state one of the first to enact a major gun control initiative following a wave of deadly mass shootings.

Hochul, a Democrat, signed 10 public safety-related bills, including one that will require microstamping in new firearms, which could help law enforcement solve gun-related crimes.

Another revised the state’s “red flag” law, which allows courts to temporarily take away guns from people who might be a threat to themselves or others.

“In New York, we are taking bold, strong action. We’re tightening red flag laws to keep guns away from dangerous people,” Hochul said at a press conference in the Bronx.

New York’s Legislature passed the bills last week, pushing the changes through after a pair of mass shootings involving 18-year-old gunmen using semiautomatic rifles. Ten Black people died in a racist attack on a Buffalo supermarket May 14. A Texas school shooting took the lives of 19 children and two teachers 10 days later.

Most people under age 21 had already been banned from owning handguns in New York. People age 18 and over will still be allowed to own other types of long guns, including shotguns and bolt-action rifles.

Part of New York’s new law will also require all purchasers of semiautomatic rifles to get a license, something now required only for handguns.

Hochul also signed a bill Monday that will restrict sales of bullet-resistant vests and armor only to people in certain professions.

The governor said New York will continue to invest in prevention of gun-related crimes by partnering with local communities and continuing to strengthen laws by putting pressure on Congress.

“Today is the start, and it’s not the end,” said Hochul. “Thoughts and prayers won’t fix this, but taking strong action will. We will do that in the name of the lives that have been lost, for the parents who will no longer see their children stepping off the school bus.”

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Maysoon Khan is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Maysoon Khan on Twitter.

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House panel swiftly takes up gun bill after mass shootings

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is swiftly working to put its stamp on gun legislation in response to mass shootings in Texas and New York by 18-year-old assailants who used semi-automatic rifles to kill 31 people, including 19 children.

Partisan positions were clear at a Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday on legislation that would raise the age limit for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21. The bill also would make it a federal offense to import, manufacture or possess large-capacity magazines and would create a grant program to buy back such magazines.

It builds on the administration’s executive action banning fast-action “bump-stock” devices and “ghost guns” that are assembled without serial numbers.

The Democratic legislation, called the Protecting Our Kids Act, was quickly added to the legislative docket after last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. A vote by the full House could come as early as next week.

However, with Republicans nearly all in opposition, the House action will mostly be symbolic, merely putting lawmakers on record about gun control ahead of this year’s elections. The Senate is taking a different course, with a bipartisan group striving toward a compromise on gun safety legislation that can win enough GOP support to become law. Those talks are making “rapid progress,” according to Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, one of the Republican negotiators.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the Democratic chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, defended his chamber’s proposals Thursday as popular with most Americans. He dismissed Republican criticism.

“You say that it is too soon to take action? That we are ‘politicizing’ these tragedies to enact new policies?” Nadler said. “It has been 23 years since Columbine. Fifteen years since Virginia Tech. Ten years since Sandy Hook. Seven years since Charleston. Four years since Parkland and Santa Fe and Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.”

“Too soon? My friends, what the hell are you waiting for?”

Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the ranking Republican on the committee, said no one wants another tragedy. But he insisted the House bill would do nothing to stop mass shootings.

“We need to get serious about understanding why this keeps happening. Democrats are always fixated on curtailing the rights of law-abiding citizens rather than trying to understand why this evil happens,” Jordan said. “Until we figure out the why, we will always mourn losses without facing the problem. Our job is to figure out the why.”

A chief feature of the House bill requires those buying semi-automatic weapons to be at least 21. Only six states require someone to be at least 21 years old to buy rifles and shotguns. The shooters in Uvalde and Buffalo, New York, both were 18 and used an AR-15-style weapon.

Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., said that it should be a red flag when an 18-year-old wants to buy “an assault weapon.”

“That’s what they want on their 18th birthday is an assault weapon? They’ve got a problem, which means we’ve got a problem, which means those 19 kids and their parents and those two teachers have a problem, forever,” Cohen said, referring to the victims in Uvalde.

Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C., pointed to a U.S. appeals court ruling last month, however, that found California’s ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons to adults under 21 unconstitutional.

“I can tell you this, and let me be clear, you are not going to bully your way to stripping Americans of fundamental rights,” Bishop said.

The hearing featured emotional pleas from Democratic lawmakers for Congress to respond to the mass shootings after years of gridlock on gun issues, one of the most riveting coming from Rep. Lucy McBath of Georgia.

She recalled how her son, Jordan, was shot and killed at a gas station by a man who complained about the loud music he was listening to. She said she dreams of who he would have become. She said racial bias led to his death and those of 10 Black Americans in Buffalo last month and is “being replayed with casual callousness and despicable frequency” in the United States.

“We all understand that the murder of our children cannot continue,” McBath said. “And we have solutions that a majority of American people believe in. They are common-sense compromises that will keep American children alive.”

Any legislative response to the Uvalde and Buffalo shootings will have to get through the evenly divided Senate, where support from at least 10 Republicans would be needed to advance the measure to a final vote. A group of senators has been working privately this week in hopes of finding a consensus.

Ideas under discussion include expanding background checks for gun purchases and incentivizing red-flag laws that allow family members, school officials and others to go into court and secure orders requiring the police to seize guns from people considered threats to themselves or others.

The broader bipartisan group of almost 10 senators talked again Wednesday — “a very productive call,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., in an interview.

“There’s a tenor and tone, as well as real substantive discussion that seems different,” he said.

Blumenthal has been working with a Republican member of the group, Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, on a proposal to send resources to the states for red-flag laws. He said he was “excited and encouraged” by the response from the group.

“It really is time for our Republican colleagues to put up or shut up,” Blumenthal said. “We’ve been down this road before.”

President Joe Biden was asked Wednesday if he was confident Congress would take action on gun legislation.

“I served in Congress for 36 years. I’m never confident, totally,” Biden said. “It depends, and I don’t know. I’ve not been in on the negotiations as they’re going on right now.”

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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro and Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

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O’Rourke bets shooting will shake up Texas governor’s race

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Still mourning a Texas mass shooting, Democrat Beto O’Rourke gave his long-shot campaign a jolt by imploring a national audience that it was finally time for real action to curb the proliferation of high-powered guns in his home state and across America.

That was 2019, and the former congressman was running for president when he declared during a debate, “Hell, yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15,” weeks after a gunman targeting Mexican immigrants killed 23 people at a Wal-Mart in O’Rourke’s native El Paso.

Last week, following the massacre of 19 elementary school students and two teachers by an 18-year-old man with an AR-15-style rifle in Uvalde, Texas, O’Rourke — now campaigning for governor — again briefly seized the national political spotlight. This time, that meant crashing the news conference of the man he wants to unseat, Republican Greg Abbott, and declaring — in a moment subsequently viewed widely online — that the carnage was “on you.”

O’Rourke is betting that the tragedy can reset the governor’s race in America’s largest red state — despite Abbott twice previously winning election by landslides and having begun the campaign with $55 million in the bank and despite gun culture looming larger in Texas than perhaps anywhere else.

It didn’t work in 2019. O’Rourke’s debate declaration won him praise from other Democrats on stage and a fundraising bump. But he dropped out of the race barely six weeks later.

It’s too early to tell what will happen in the governor’s race, but the shooting has already affected both parties. Abbott canceled his planned visit to the annual National Rifle Association meeting to remain in Uvalde. Also skipping it was Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who is among those negotiating with Democratic colleagues on strengthening background checks and “red flag” laws allowing authorities to remove firearms from those determined to be a danger to themselves or others.

“I think it felt cathartic for a lot of people that maybe might have been on the fence,” said Abel Prado, executive director of the Democratic advocacy group Cambio Texas. “It gives you, ‘At least somebody’s trying to stand up and do something, or at least say something.’”

O’Rourke spent two nights in Uvalde after the shooting, then headed to Houston for a rally against gun violence outside Friday’s meeting of the NRA.

“To those men and women in positions of power who care more about your power than using that power to save the lives of those that you are supposed to serve …. we will defeat you and we will overcome you,” O’Rourke told protesters who chanted his name and the phrase “Vote them out!

Supporters hope O’Rourke recaptures the magic that saw him become a national Democratic star and nearly upset Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. But since then, O’Rourke’s White House bid fizzled, former President Donald Trump easily won Texas in 2020 and Democrats who had hoped to flip scores of congressional and legislative seats in the state that year lost nearly every top race.

A Democrat also hasn’t won Texas’ governorship since 1990, and, just last year, the state loosened firearm restrictions enough to allow virtually any resident age 21 and older to carry guns without a license. Abbott signed that law alongside NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and the group’s president, Carolyn Meadows.

Of course, the domination of guns in Texas culture has long predated the law. Abbott once tweeted his embarrassment at his state lagging California in gun sales, and Cruz is fond of saying, “Give me a horse, a gun and an open plain, and we can conquer the world.” Former Republican Gov. Rick Perry cruised to reelection in 2010 after using a laser-sighted handgun to kill a coyote while jogging.

Mass shootings are similarly not new in Texas. Tuesday’s massacre in Uvalde and the El Paso killings followed a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School outside Houston that killed eight students and two teachers in 2018, and a church rampage in Sutherland Springs that left 26 people dead, including an unborn child, the year before.

Former Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a Republican long famous for carrying multiple guns nearly everywhere he went, said O’Rourke’s most ardent supporters will be “even more determined to vote for Beto” after his confrontation with Abbott.

Still Patterson said the clash could backfire, alienating otherwise potentially sympathetic swing voters who might think O’Rourke was putting on a self-serving show.

“Sometimes your method overwhelms your message, and his method gutted whatever benefit he might have accrued,” said Patterson, who, as a state senator, wrote Texas’ original, 1995 concealed handgun law allowing Texans to take firearms more places than nearly anywhere in America at the time. “I think it’s a net loss.”

Abbott hasn’t mentioned O’Rourke much since the shooting but answered questions about possible new state gun limits by slamming high crime rates in cities primarily run by Democrats.

“There are more people shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas,” the governor said hyperbolically. Speaking of arguments that new firearms restrictions could make Americans safer, “Chicago and LA and New York disprove that thesis.”

Abbott’s campaign has also previously chided O’Rourke for his previous stand on guns, producing an online ad last year showing a cartoon of O’Rourke speeding the wrong direction down a one-way street, then off a cliff while the radio plays clips of his “Hell yes” comment and other strongly progressive positions he took as a presidential candidate.

O’Rourke’s campaign insists he’s not using the massacre for political gain. It transformed its fundraising apparatus into one accepting donations for relatives of those killed in Uvalde, and says O’Rourke attended the Abbott news conference at the urging of one of the victims’ families.

He sat quietly in the audience for 10-plus minutes, intending only to listen, the campaign said. But, when Abbott said “there was no meaningful forewarning of this crime” other than the gunman posting about the shooting just moments before he began doing so, O’Rourke got angry — especially given that, after the El Paso shooting, the state’s chief response was to loosen gun laws. He approached the stage and accused Abbott of “doing nothing” when the the Uvalde violence had been “totally predictable.”

Also on stage was Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who responded with an obscenity and called O’Rourke “sick” for trying to make the shooing “a political issue.”

But it nonetheless helped one Texan change her mind. Nicole Armijo, who works in her family’s HVAC business in the border city of McAllen and has three kids, ages 10, 9 and 6, attending public school. She didn’t vote for O’Rourke when he ran for Senate but plans to now because “the way we’re doing things is not working.”

“Maybe, Texas, it’s not just about having a gun,” said Armijo, who said she loves guns and hunting but would support expanded background checks. “Beto’s kind of portrayed those thoughts: It’s not about me or you. It’s about everyone as a whole.”

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More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings.

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This story has been corrected to show Abbott twice won election, not reelection, by landslides.

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Arrest made in connection with Sacramento mass shooting

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sacramento police arrested a man Monday connected to the shooting that killed six people and wounded a dozen others in the heart of California’s capital as multiple shooters fired more than 100 rapid-fire rounds and people ran for their lives.

Police said they booked Dandrae Martin, 26, as a “related suspect” on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and being a convict carrying a loaded gun. Detectives and SWAT team members found one handgun during searches of three area homes.

The arrest came as the three women and three men killed were identified in the shooting that occurred at about 2 a.m. Sunday as bars were closing and patrons filled the streets near the state Capitol.

The fallen included a father of four, a young woman who wanted to be a social worker, a man described as the life of the party, and a woman who lived on the streets nearby and was looking for housing.

The Sacramento County coroner identified the women killed as Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; and Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21. The three men were Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and De’vazia Turner, 29.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg read their names during a vigil Monday evening attended by grieving relatives, friends and community members.

“So we gather here to remember the victims and to commit ourselves to doing all we can to ending the stain of violence, not only in our community but throughout the state, throughout the country, and throughout the world,” Steinberg said.

Turner, who had three daughters and a son, was a “protector” who worked as the night manager at an inventory company, his mother, Penelope Scott, told The Associated Press. He rarely went out, and she had no reason to believe he would be in harm’s way when he left her house after he visited Saturday night.

“My son was walking down the street and somebody started shooting, and he got shot. Why is that to happen?” Scott said. “I feel like I’ve got a hole in my heart.”

The burst of gunshots sent people running in terror in the neighborhood just a few blocks from the arena where the NBA’s Sacramento Kings play.

Detectives were trying to determine if a stolen handgun found at the crime scene was connected to the shooting, Police Chief Kathy Lester said. Witnesses answered her plea for help by providing more than 100 videos and photos of evidence.

District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert noted Martin was not arrested on suspicion of homicide, but suggested investigators were making progress.

“The investigation is highly complex involving many witnesses, videos of numerous types and significant physical evidence,” Schubert said in a statement. “This is an ongoing investigation and we anticipate more arrests in this case.”

Martin was held without bail and was scheduled to appear in Sacramento County Superior Court on Tuesday, according to jail records.

Martin was freed from an Arizona prison in 2020 after serving just over 1 1/2 years for violating probation in separate cases involving a felony conviction for aggravated assault in 2016 and a conviction on a marijuana charge in 2018.

Court records show he pleaded guilty to punching, kicking and choking a woman in a hotel room when she refused to work for him as a prostitute.

He was also wanted on a misdemeanor warrant by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California.

It was not immediately clear whether Martin had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Of the 12 wounded, at least four suffered critical injuries, the Sacramento Fire Department said. At least seven of the victims had been released from hospitals by Monday.

At the scene where the chaos erupted, streets were reopened Monday and police tape had been removed.

Memorials with candles and flowers began to grow on sidewalks where video showed people screaming and running for shelter as gunshots rang out and others laying on the ground writhing in pain. One balloon had a message on it saying in part: “You will forever be in our hearts and thoughts. Nothing will ever be the same.”

A small bouquet of purple roses was dedicated to Davis, who lived on the streets for years, with a note saying “Melinda Rest In Peace.”

Harris was regular at the London nightclub, near the shooting scene.

“My son was a very vivacious young man,” his mother, Pamela Harris, told KCRA-TV. “Fun to be around, liked to party, smiling all the time. Don’t bother people. For this to happen is crazy. … I don’t even feel like this is real. I feel like this is a dream.”

Alexander was a doting aunt who wanted to work with children as a social worker.

“She was just beginning her life,” her father, John Alexander, told the Los Angeles Times, sobbing. “Stop all this senseless shooting.”

Politicians decried the violence, and some Democrats, including President Joe Biden, called for tougher action against gun violence.

California has some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on firearms, requiring background checks to buy guns and ammunition, limiting magazines to 10 bullets, and banning firearms that fall into its definition of assault weapons.

But state lawmakers plan to go further. A bill getting its first hearing Tuesday would allow citizens to sue those who possess illegal weapons, a measure patterned after a controversial Texas bill aimed at abortions.

Other proposed California legislation this year would make it easier for people to sue gun companies and target unregistered “ghost guns.”

The California Assembly held a moment of silence Monday in honor of the victims.

Assemblymember Kevin McCarty, a Democrat who represents Sacramento, noted lawmakers could see the crime scene from the building’s balcony.

“Tragic is too small of a word to describe what occurred just two nights ago as a devastating loss for our city,” McCarty said.

Police were investigating whether the shooting was connected with a street fight that broke out just before gunfire erupted. Several people could be seen in videos scrapping on a street lined with an upscale hotel, nightclubs and bars when gunshots sent people scattering.

Scott, a hospice social worker who deals with death for a living, said she was not prepared for this kind of grief.

“I know the process of bereavement but, you know, this is my kid,” she said. “It’s tragic and sudden. I’d just seen him, just had him in my house. He’s got children. He’s got a wife.”

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This story has corrected the spelling of the suspect’s first name to Dandrae, not Dandre,

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Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio, Brian Melley and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Don Thompson in Sacramento, Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix and News Researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this story.

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Arrest made in connection with Sacramento mass shooting

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Sacramento police arrested a man Monday connected to the shooting that killed six people and wounded a dozen others in the heart of California’s capital as at least two shooters fired more than 100 rapid-fire rounds and people ran for their lives.

Police said they booked Dandrae Martin, 26, as a “related suspect” on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and being a convict carrying a loaded gun. Detectives and SWAT team members found one handgun during searches of three homes in the area.

The arrest came as the six victims killed were identified in the shooting that occurred Sunday at about 2 a.m. as bars were closing and patrons filled the streets near the state Capitol.

The Sacramento County coroner identified the three women killed as Johntaya Alexander, 21; Melinda Davis, 57; and Yamile Martinez-Andrade, 21. The three men killed were Sergio Harris, 38; Joshua Hoye-Lucchesi, 32; and De’vazia Turner, 29.

The burst of gunshots sent people running in terror in the neighborhood just a few blocks from Golden One Arena, where the NBA’s Sacramento Kings held a moment of silence for the victims before their game Sunday night.

Detectives were trying to determine if a stolen handgun found at the crime scene was connected to the shooting, Police Chief Kathy Lester said. Witnesses answered her plea for help by providing more than 100 videos and photos of evidence.

“The scale of violence that just happened in our city is unprecedented during my 27 years here,” Lester told reporters. “We are shocked and heartbroken by this tragedy.”

Martin was not arrested for any homicide-related charge, District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert said.

“The investigation is highly complex involving many witnesses, videos of numerous types and significant physical evidence,” Schubert said in a statement. “This is an ongoing investigation and we anticipate more arrests in this case.”

Martin was held without bail and was scheduled to appear in Sacramento County Superior Court on Tuesday, according to jail records.

Martin was freed from an Arizona prison in 2020 after serving just over 1 1/2 years for violating probation in separate cases involving a felony conviction for aggravated assault in 2016 and a conviction on a marijuana charge in 2018.

He was also wanted on a misdemeanor warrant by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in Southern California.

It was not immediately clear whether Martin had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

Of the 12 wounded, at least four suffered critical injuries, the Sacramento Fire Department said. At least seven of the victims had been released from hospitals by Monday.

At the scene where the chaos erupted, streets were reopened Monday and police tape had been removed.

On sidewalks where video had shown victims writhing in pain, memorials began to grow with candles, balloons, flowers and stuffed animals paying tribute to the lives lost. One balloon had a message on it saying in part: “You will forever be in our hearts and thoughts. Nothing will ever be the same.”

Politicians decried the violence, and some Democrats, including President Joe Biden, called for tougher action against gun violence.

California has some of the nation’s toughest restrictions on firearms, requiring background checks to buy guns and ammunition, limiting magazines to 10 bullets, and banning firearms that fall into its definition of assault weapons.

But state lawmakers plan to go further. A bill getting its first hearing Tuesday would allow citizens to sue those who possess illegal weapons, a measure patterned after a controversial Texas bill aimed at abortions.

Other proposed California legislation this year would make it easier for people to sue gun companies and target unregistered “ghost guns.”

The gunfire erupted just after a fight broke out on a street lined with an upscale hotel, nightclubs and bars. Police said they were investigating whether the altercation was connected to the shooting. Video from witnesses posted on social media showed rapid gunfire for at least 45 seconds as people screamed and ran for cover.

The shots startled sleeping guests at the Citizen Hotel, which included a wedding party and fans of the rapper Tyler the Creator, who performed at a concert hours earlier.

From her window on the fourth floor of the hotel, 18-year-old Kelsey Schar said she saw a man running while firing a gun. She could see flashes from the weapon in the darkness as people ran for cover.

Schar’s friend, Madalyn Woodward, said she saw a girl who appeared to have been shot in the arm lying on the ground. Security guards from a nearby nightclub rushed to help the girl with what looked like napkins to try to stanch the bleeding.

Sunday’s violence was the third time in the U.S. this year that at least six people have been killed in a mass shooting, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. And it was the second mass shooting in Sacramento in the last five weeks.

On Feb. 28, a father killed his three daughters, a chaperone and himself in a Sacramento church during a weekly supervised visitation. David Mora, 39, was armed with a homemade semiautomatic rifle-style weapon, even though he was under a restraining order that prohibited him from possessing a firearm.

The crime scene Sunday sprawled across two city blocks, closing off a large swath of the city’s downtown. Bodies remained on the pavement throughout the day as Lester said investigators worked to process a “really complex and complicated scene” to make sure investigators gathered all the evidence they could to “see the perpetrators of this crime brought to justice.”

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This story has corrected the spelling of suspects’ first names to Dandrae, not Dandre; and De’vazia , not Devazia.

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Associated Press writers Stefanie Dazio and Brian Melley in Los Angeles, Don Thompson in Sacramento, Jacques Billeaud in Phoenix and News Researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this story.

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