President Donald Trump says he'll send the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee, to address crime concerns there. The president told Fox News on Friday that "the mayor is happy" and "the governor is happy" about the pending deployment. Democratic Mayor Paul Young pushed back on Trump's assertion, saying "I did not ask for the National Guard and I don't think it's the way to drive down crime." Tennessee's Republican Gov. Bill Lee confirmed the deployment was coming and said he planned to speak with the president Friday to work out details of the mission. Trump has also mused about sending troops to New Orleans, another majority-Black city in a Republican-leaning state.
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, SOPHIA TAREEN and OBED LAMY Associated Press
President Donald Trump's threats to deploy National Guard troops to Chicago sent ripples through America's third-largest city as residents defended their home against Trump's escalating rhetoric toward violent crime, including claims Chicago is a "killing field." In a city on edge awaiting news of a potential National Guard deployment, the threat of federal troops stirred a mix of fear, frustration and defiance for residents as they pointed to historic drops in violent crime in the city. Some said it could make things worse with military personnel not being trained in de-escalating violence the way community activists and police are.
By CHRISTINE FERNANDO, JOHN O'CONNOR and MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press
President Donald Trump says Chicago will likely be the next target of his efforts to address crime, homelessness and illegal immigration. On Friday, Trump mentioned that Chicago could receive similar treatment to Washington where 2,000 troops have been deployed. He also indicated plans to assist New York. Trump has often described some of the nation's largest cities as dangerous. On Friday, he singled out Chicago, calling it a "mess" and claiming residents are "screaming for us to come." City officials and advocates, meanwhile, slammed Trump's threats and emphasized drops in violent crime in Chicago.
A federal appeals court says a California law requiring background checks to buy bullets is unconstitutional. Voters passed the law in 2016 and it took effect in 2019. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling on Thursday upheld a 2024 decision by a lower court that found that the state law violates the Second Amendment. Last year, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez decided that the law was unconstitutional because if people can't buy bullets, they can't use their guns for self-defense. Many states, including California, make people pass a background check before they can buy a gun. California went a step further by requiring a background check every time people buy bullets.
Officials in Birmingham, Alabama, are pleading with members of the public for information leading to arrests in a weekend mass shooting that killed four people and injured more than a dozen others. Officials are offering rewards totaling $100,000 for information after Saturday's shooting. Police have described it as a targeted "hit" by multiple shooters who opened fire outside a nightspot in Birmingham's Five Points South district. The shooting is Birmingham's third quadruple homicide of the year and has put a spotlight on a city once best known for its role in the civil rights movement but more recently plagued by gun violence.
Gun control advocates and many Democrats see fresh openings created by hard-line positions of the gun lobby. President Joe Biden's campaign says gun control could be a motivating issue for suburban college-educated women who may be decisive in several key battlegrounds this fall. The Biden campaign and its allies have already circulated clips of Republican former President Donald Trump saying after an Iowa school shooting in January that "we have to get over it." Trump has also promised he would impose no new restrictions on guns if elected again. Biden himself praised cheering gun-control advocates at a conference on Tuesday.
