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A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 8 augusT 2023

Illinois to ban advertising for guns allegedly marketed to kids and militants

Continued from Front Tactical, said the gun has Connecticut has no ex-
safety features found on no emption from the federal
The maker says it is delib- other gun. law, but courts decided
erately made smaller, with “The JR-15 .22 youth train- the state’s statutes were
added safety features, ing rifle is for adults who written broadly enough to
to fit younger shooters as wish to supervise the safe allow a $73 million lawsuit
they learn from adults how introduction of hunting and settlement with Remington
to safely maneuver such shooting sports to the next early last year for families of
a weapon. Raoul says it’s generation of responsible the victims of a 2012 mass
marketed to children and gun owners,” the state- shooting at Sandy Hook El-
potentially entices them to ment said. “Parents and ementary School in New-
skip the adult supervision guardians wanting to pass town.
and start firing. on this American tradition Other campaigns Raoul
Opening the door to court have been purchasing has tracked see manufac-
challenges is part of ongo- small caliber, lighter youth turers linking themselves to
ing efforts by Democratic Illinois Senate President Don Harmon, D-Oak Park, speaks during training rifles for decades.” the military or law enforce-
lawmakers who control the a news conference, Nov. 29, 2022, in Springfield, Ill. Raoul said he doesn’t have ment, claiming they are
Statehouse to eliminate (AP Photo/John O'Connor, File) any gun-makers “in the the Pentagon’s top choice
gun violence, made more those products that are It sprang from mayors in so-called crosshairs. ... It’s for a sidearm or long gun —
complicated by the U.S. harmful to them,” Raoul the late 1990s who sued not our interest to go fish- regardless of whether they
Supreme Court’s expansion said. “The firearms industry gun-makers for creating a ing.” A violation of the law are or not. This, he said, sug-
of gun rights a year ago. shouldn’t be immune to public nuisance, such as could draw a $50,000 fine, gests such claims attract
Pritzker also signed a ban the standards that we put Chicago Mayor Richard M. but more important to the those with ideas about
on semi-automatic weap- on other industries.” Daley’s $433 million action attorney general is the pos- forming illegal private mili-
ons this year, a law that Except that other industries in 1998, which the Illinois Su- sibility of a court-ordered tias.
gun-rights advocates con- don’t produce constitu- preme Court tossed out in injunction. Still, Raoul hopes That notion — and the
tinue to challenge in fed- tionally protected prod- 2004. the law deters question- question of advertising to-
eral court. ucts, counters the National But the federal law does able practices and no le- ward children — were in-
Illinois would be the eighth Shooting Sports Founda- allow legal action if a gal action is necessary. cluded in an executive
state to approve legisla- tion, an industry trade as- state explicitly names fire- New York, New Jersey, order from President Joe
tion that allows such law- sociation that has filed fed- arms and conduct by their Delaware, Washington, Biden in March to stop vio-
suits against firearms man- eral lawsuits in nearly every manufacturers in state law, California, Hawaii and lence. It included expand-
ufacturers or distributors. state that has approved a which is what Raoul’s plan Colorado have adopted ed background checks
The legislation comes after similar law. would do. He won over similar plans. The shooting and use of red-flag laws.
the deadliest six months of “They’re infringing on your lawmakers by showing sports group has filed fed- Biden also encouraged the
mass killings recorded since Second Amendment rights them advertising they de- eral lawsuits in all but Colo- independent Federal Trade
at least 2006 — all but one by taking away your First cided was over the line. rado and none has been Commission to produce an
of which involved guns. Amendment rights,” foun- “Some of the ads I’ve seen settled. Despite the court analysis of how gun-makers
Raoul finds precedent in dation spokesperson Mark are just stomach-turning,” action, the laws are in ef- “market firearms to minors
the 25-year-old settlement Oliva said. Don Harmon, of Oak Park, fect everywhere but New and ... to all civilians, in-
with large tobacco com- Without specific legislation, who sponsored the legisla- Jersey, which has barred cluding through the use of
panies and more recently states are largely barred tion. implementation for mem- military imagery.”
with advertising for vaping. from legal action by a 2005 The ad for the JR-15, a bers of the shooting sports The White House referred
“We’ve gone after the federal law that prohibits smaller, lighter .22-caliber group, according to the questions about the study
marketing that has histori- lawsuits blaming manufac- rifle, was among them. An Brady Campaign, which to the FTC, where spokes-
cally driven up the con- turers for the later criminal emailed statement from has intervened on behalf of person Douglas Farrar de-
sumption by minors for use of a purchased gun. the manufacturer, Wee 1 defendants in each case. clined to comment.q

Racist abuse by Mississippi officers reveals

a culture of misconduct, residents say

her parents’ home, where list of federal civil rights Five deputies from the
a former Mississippi sheriff’s charges. Lee believes for- Rankin County Sheriff’s Of-
deputy pummeled her son, mer Rankin County Deputy fice, some of whom called
who died hours later in the Hunter Elward is respon- themselves “the Goon
hospital. It was a sweltering sible for the 2021 death of Squad,” and an officer
afternoon in Braxton — the her son, Damien Cameron, from the Richland Police
same town where, in a sep- who was accused of van- Department admitted to
Monica Lee sits outside her Braxton, Miss., home, Friday, Aug. 4, arate episode, six white law dalizing a neighbor’s home taking part in a racist as-
2023, and expresses her feelings about the investigation that led enforcement officers tor- while living with his grand- sault against Michael Co-
to six white former Mississippi law enforcement officers pleading tured two other Black men parents. A grand jury de- rey Jenkins and Eddie Ter-
guilty Thursday to federal civil rights offenses against two Black in January, shaking sea- clined to indict Elward and rel Parker. The men never
men who were brutalized during a home raid that ended when soned federal prosecutors, he was never convicted of thought their abusers would
an officer shot one of the men in the mouth. Lee’s youngest son,
Damien Cameron, 29, who had a history of mental illness, died elected officials and ordi- a crime. The brazen acts of pay for their crimes.
in July 2021 after being violently arrested by two Rankin County nary people to their core. violence to which he would “It’s really a shock, but I en-
deputies, including Hunter Elward, one of the former officers The officers, one of whom plead guilty two years later joyed every moment of it,”
who pleaded guilty Thursday. also was involved in the were made possible be- Parker said, recounting the
(AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) violent episode with Lee’s cause of a police culture former officers being led
By Michael Goldberg JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — son two years prior, plead- that has festered for years, out of a federal courtroom
Associated Press Monica Lee sat outside ed guilty Thursday to a long Lee said. in shackles.q