When the Supreme Court handed down a landmark decision in June expanding gun rights in the U.S., law enforcement and legal affairs reporters Alanna Durkin Richer and Lindsay Whitehurst knew immediately its impact would be far reaching.
They started digging — compiling a database and tracking challenges to a host of gun laws across the country.
When the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this month struck down a law that prohibits people with domestic violence restraining orders against them from possessing guns, Durkin Richer and Whitehurst used their work to show how the June decision is reshaping the legal landscape around gun laws. They relied on their own data and tapped several sources in different parts of the country. In the end, they were able to show how judges looking at the same laws have come down on opposite sides on whether they are constitutional as they struggle to figure out how to apply the Supreme Court’s framework.
Their deep dive received 45,649 clicks from AP’s mobile push alert — the most clicks from any AP push alert sent so far this year — even with the push sent at nearly 10 p.m. on a Saturday of a holiday weekend. The piece was also the fourth-most clicked story on AP News during a remarkably busy news week, gaining more than 280,000 clicks, and held an engagement score of 96.
The story was shared widely on social media, including hundreds of tweets, and the story was widely used by member newspaper and broadcast customers.
For a deeply reported, data-driven story that resonated widely, Durkin Richer and Whitehurst win this week’s Best of the Week — Second Winner honors.
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