📧 Murder Appears to be Plunging Again in 2026
Plus, we take gun policy questions from Reload Members on the podcast!
We have good news this week. We may be living through one of the safest periods in American history.
That’s the implication of a new report from a leading crime data analyst. The murder rate likely hit an all-time low in 2025, and now it’s declined further in 2026.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice announced new gun-rights restorations. But, as I explain for Reload Members, they aren’t the restorations activists are waiting for.
New York added to two recent gun policy trends we’ve seen picking up steam in deep blue states by passing a digital gun file ban and a Glock ban. The state took the former a step further by banning not just the distribution of digital gun designs, but even their possession. And it set in motion a ban on the sale of 3D printers that don’t have yet-to-be-created hardware or software blocks on processing gun files.
In Minnesota, a Second Amendment challenge to the state’s refusal to recognize a Georgia long-haul trucker’s concealed-carry permit was tossed by the Eighth Circuit. In Colorado, the state government unveiled its first draft of guns that will fall under last year’s “assault weapons” purchase permit requirement, and it looks a lot like what Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman predicted it would.
Plus, we take gun policy questions from Reload Members on the podcast! And we have a lot of stories in the links below, including a Slate writer’s look at discrimination in New Jersey’s gun-permitting process.
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Report: America On Track for Lowest Murder Rate Ever
By Stephen Gutowski
Murder in America has been plummeting for years and is now on pace to reach an all-time low, according to a leading crime data analyst.
On Monday, AH Datalytics Founder Jeff Asher reported the murder rate appears to again be in significant decline through the first half of 2026. He noted that his company’s real-time crime data tracker has identified a drop in murders across the nation’s largest police departments. He said last year’s rate was already low, but this year could improve on that.
“The US likely set a record for the lowest murder rate ever recorded in 2025,” Asher wrote in his report, “but even if it didn’t then a record low feels like a foregone conclusion sitting here in the first half of 2026.”
Analysis: Where is DOJ’s Gun-Rights Restoration Plan? [Member Exclusive]
By Stephen Gutowski
There’s news on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) rights restoration efforts, but not the kind most activists are waiting to hear.
On Thursday, the DOJ announced a new batch of rights restorations. However, it was limited to just four people, and the DOJ backdated it to the tenure of former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“The former Attorney General had reviewed all the relevant facts for each individual listed below, including the materials that each individual submitted seeking either a pardon or relief from Federal firearms disabilities, and it was established to her satisfaction that each individual will not be likely to act in a manner dangerous to public safety and that the granting of the relief to each individual would not be contrary to the public interest,” Trent McCotter, Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General, wrote in the announcement. “Accordingly, on March 30, 2026, the former Attorney General granted relief from Federal firearms disabilities to these individuals pursuant to section 925(c).”
The announcement didn’t provide any updates on the DOJ’s plan to standardize the rights restoration process. DOJ did not respond to The Reload‘s questions about the announced restorations or the broader proposed process. So, seven months after the comment period ended, what is going on with DOJ’s plan?
If you’re a Reload Member, click here to read the rest. If not, buy a membership today for exclusive access!
New York Bans Digital Gun Files, Aims at 3D-Printers Capable of Using Them
By Shiv Parihar
Empire State lawmakers have moved to criminalize digital blueprints used to 3D-print firearm parts and the printers that can read them as part of a gun-control package that also targeted popular Glock pistols.
Governor Kathy Hochul (D.) signed the measure into law on Wednesday as part of the state’s budget bill. It sets up a ban on the sale of 3D printers that aren’t equipped with yet-to-be-developed software or hardware that blocks the printing of firearms frames or receivers, unless the buyer has state and federal firearms industry licenses. It bans the distribution or sale of digital gun design files and pistols that feature a “cruciform trigger bar,” such as the popular Glock handgun lineup. It further bans the mere possession of those gun design files by anyone who intends to use them to make firearms or other items, like machinegun conversion devices commonly called “Glock switches,” without a gun manufacturer’s license.
“When I took office, I made a promise to New Yorkers to attack the gun violence epidemic head-on, and as gun technology continues to evolve, so do our strongest-in-the-nation gun laws,” Hochul said in a statement about the proposals earlier this year.
Eighth Circuit Dismisses Challenge to Minnesota Gun Carry Reciprocity Restrictions
By Jake Fogleman
Minnesota can ignore certain gun-carry permits without violating the Second Amendment, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A unanimous three-judge panel for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled against Jeffrey Johnson Sr., a Georgia resident who sued Minnesota over its refusal to recognize out-of-state gun-carry permits. The panel determined that rules governing the interstate recognition of carry permits do not even implicate the plain text of the Second Amendment–a key metric under the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
“Johnson’s Second Amendment challenge fails at Bruen step one because Minnesota’s reciprocity statute, standing alone, does not regulate arms-bearing conduct,” Judge L. Steven Grasz wrote in Johnson v. Jacobson. “We affirm the district court’s dismissal of Johnson’s Second Amendment claim.”
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Podcast: We Answer Your Gun Politics Questions
By Stephen Gutowski
This week, we’re taking gun policy and politics questions from our members.
It’s been a while since we’ve done a Q&A, and quite a lot has happened. So, we’re answering everything we can fit into an hour-long podcast. Turns out that’s a lot!
Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman and I tackle all sorts of topics. We cover everything from the latest on the Department of Justice lawsuits against Colorado and Denver’s magazine and AR-15 bans to the Supreme Court’s appetite for new Second Amendment cases to the future of the National Firearms Act. We also discuss the ATF rule changing record-keeping requirements for background checks.
You can listen to the show on your favorite podcasting app or by clicking here. Video of the episode is also available on our YouTube channel.
Plus, Contributing Writer Jake Fogleman and I cover the Second Circuit striking down New York’s default ban on licensed carry in publicly accessible private property. We also discuss the absence of gun policy in public opinion polls, the ATF’s assurances to trans gun owners regarding its proposed gender rule, and the rise in Virginia prosecutors pledging not to enforce the state’s “assault firearm” ban.
Analysis: An Early Look at Colorado’s Semi-Auto Restriction Regime [Member Exclusive]
By Jake Fogleman
Colorado’s novel approach to regulating AR-15s and other semi-automatic firearms shed the “assault weapon” ban, raising questions about how many guns will be swept into its net as its effective date draws nearer. Now, the state has offered its first answer.
Earlier this month, the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Firearms Dealer Division quietly published draft guidance identifying which firearms will be classified as “Specified Semiautomatic Firearms” as defined under a piece of legislation signed into law by Governor Jared Polis (D.) last spring. The result is a sprawling 152-page document listing hundreds of different makes and models of various rifles, shotguns, and pistols—including several weapons platforms not captured by most other “assault weapon” bans.
The weapons identified matter because, beginning August 1, 2026, it will be a crime for anyone in Colorado to transfer or purchase any of them without first undergoing an extensive new permitting and training process—the first of its kind for firearm purchases in the state.
If you’re a Reload Member, click here to read the rest. If not, buy a membership for exclusive access to this and hundreds of other stories!
Outside The Reload
Gun shops see surge in sales as Maryland limits Glocks | Baltimore Sun | By Lily Carey
Leading Colorado gun control advocate wants more | Axios | By John Frank and Robert Sanchez
That’s it for this week in guns.
I’ll see you all next week.
Thanks,
Stephen Gutowski
Founder
The Reload