Shotgun

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced progress on legislation to repeal state laws requiring ATF Form 4 tax stamps for suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and short-barreled shotguns. The move follows an October 9, 2026 ATF policy change, announced by director Robert Cekada, that ended the agency's longstanding NFA registration requirement for these items after a federal district court ruled the process unconstitutional in August 2026. While the ATF's shift applies at the federal level, several states, including Montana, still require their own approval processes. Knudsen credited state Senators Wylie Galt and Carl Glimm and Representative Braxton Mitchell for leading the bill, which will be taken up in the coming legislative session.

Police in Bend, Oregon say the gunman who attacked Silver Rail Elementary School deliberately targeted a special education classroom. Four people were killed, including three young students and 25-year-old teacher Megan Lambert; a 7-year-old and another teacher were critically injured. The shooter, 16-year-old Griffin J. John II, was a former special needs student at the school who used a shotgun registered to his mother to force entry before being shot and killed at the scene. Authorities credited bystander Kaylub Giamanco, a parent of two students, with confronting and fatally wounding the shooter during a struggle with a teacher. Gov. Tina Kotek and President Trump both addressed the tragedy, which the AP counts as the 28th mass killing in the U.S. this year.

Virginia's parole board, reconstituted by Gov. Abigail Spanberger in mid-March, has approved parole at a rate far exceeding that of former Gov. Glenn Youngkin's board. According to a Washington Examiner analysis of state parole data, the board's 13.89% release rate over roughly six months is more than ten times Youngkin's full-year 2025 rate of 1.23%. The panel has granted parole to 38 prisoners, already surpassing Youngkin's year-end total of 32, including six convicted murderers and 11 sex offenders. In more than 49% of parole-violation cases, the board allowed violators, including repeat offenders, to remain on parole rather than revoking their release.

Supporters of the board's approach point to rehabilitation factors such as vocational achievement, faith-based program participation, and age at time of offense. Critics, including the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, argue the trend reflects a shift toward more lenient criminal-justice policy and raises public-safety concerns. The board maintains an overall denial rate above 86%. Spanberger's administration has also expanded prison reentry programs and restored voting rights to tens of thousands of formerly incarcerated Virginians this year.

Florida executed William Frances Silvia, 61, by lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke, pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. He was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife, Patricia Wyatt, and wounding her mother, Betty Woodard, during a September 2006 cookout after Wyatt left him and moved back in with her family. Silvia bought a shotgun and confronted the family after failing to reconcile with Wyatt. Woodard, who survived but lost an eye and part of her hearing and sense of smell, witnessed the execution. Silvia was first sentenced to death in 2008; that sentence was later vacated on appeal before he was resentenced to death in 2018. The U.S. Supreme Court and Florida Supreme Court both rejected last-minute stay requests, including one arguing his state-appointed counsel had a conflict of interest.

Silvia is the 13th person executed in Florida this year and among 22 nationwide, as Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration continues an aggressive pace of executions, including a rare double execution in July. Florida accounts for more than half of U.S. executions in 2026, after leading the nation with a record 19 executions in 2025. Two more Florida executions are scheduled for September: Harold Gene Lucas on Sept. 1 and Daniel Owen Conahan Jr. on Sept. 10.