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U.S. NEWS

industry experts, are box-style

magazines, which stack bullets

on top of each other. They are

light, cheap and plentiful: a

30-round magazine for an

AR-15 style rifle sells for

around $15.

Drum magazines, which

pack bullets in a spiral coil,

are heavier and more expen-

sive, with most costing more

than $100.

Still, in the past decade,

drum magazines have become

more reliable and have come

down in price, with more than

a half-dozen manufacturers

now making them, including

Magpul Industries, one of the

largest producers of gun ac-

cessories and maker of drums

used by the military. The same

product is available for both

civilian and military sales.

Magpul, based in Austin,

Texas, didn’t respond to a re-

quest to comment.

“The popularity has defi-

nitely grown,” said James Ma-

larkey, former owner of X Prod-

ucts, which makes drum

magazines and other unusual

firearm accessories, though he

estimates drum magazines still

KCI didn’t respond to a re-

quest to comment.

Now, some lawmakers have

renewed an effort to ban them

and other high-capacity maga-

zines for civilian use.

Rep. Dina Titus (D., Nev.) is

co-sponsoring a bill that

would outlaw magazines capa-

ble of holding more than 10

rounds. Ms. Titus, who repre-

sents Las Vegas, previously co-

sponsored a bill to ban the

magazines in the wake of the

2017 attack at a country-music

festival there, the deadliest

mass shooting in modern U.S.

history.

That legislation also called

for high-capacity magazines to

carry serial numbers so they

could be tracked. The bill

never came to a floor vote.

“High-capacity magazines

make it easier for shooters to

kill large numbers of people in

short periods of time,” Ms. Ti-

tus said in a statement. “No

civilian needs the ability to

fire over 40 shots in less than

30 seconds like the shooter in

Dayton did.”

Gun-control legislation

could pass the Democratic-

controlled House. In the Re-

publican-controlled Senate,

such proposals traditionally

garner less support and could

stall out.

Nine states, including Cali-

fornia and New York, regulate

the capacity of magazines,

with most setting it at 10

rounds. Colorado mandates a

limit of 15.

Between 1994 and 2004,

new magazines over 10 rounds

were prohibited across the

country under the Federal As-

sault Weapons Ban.

The Bureau of Alcohol, To-

bacco, Firearms and Explo-

sives has no reliable statistics

on magazines because they are

an unregulated accessory, an

ATF spokeswoman said.

Far more common than

drum magazines, according to

Recent mass shootings are

drawing attention to drum

magazines, which allow shoot-

ers to fire dozens of rounds

without stopping to reload.

The round magazines, made

famous by the Tommy gun

from the Prohibition era, were

famously unreliable and hard to

use, but have recently benefited

from leaps in manufacturing

and design. Today, they can be

legally purchased at gun stores

and online in most states.

The attacker in the Dayton,

Ohio, massacre this month

used a 100-round drum maga-

zine made by KCI USA to fire

41 shots in less than a minute,

killing nine people and injur-

ing 17 others. The shooter in

the Gilroy Garlic Festival at-

tack in California last month

that left three dead also

owned one, but didn’t use it,

law-enforcement officials said.

BYBENKESLING

ANDZUSHAELINSON

Killings Put Focus

On Drum Magazines

Police in Dayton, Ohio, released this photo of the firearm that was used in the recent massacre.

DAYTON POLICE

The Reach of Mass Shootings in the U.S. Touches Victims and Their Families Far and Wide

Nearly 200 people have

been killed in mass shootings in

the past two years, including

the Las Vegas concert massa-

cre—the worst attack by a gun-

man in U.S. history. Scores

more have been wounded.

The victims leave behind

family and friends, who them-

selves become trauma survivors,

as many reside in the communi-

ties where the attacks occurred.

The Wall Street Journal

looked at shootings in public

places that killed four or more

people, a common definition of a

mass shooting, starting with the

Las Vegas incident in 2017. The

map shows where the victims

were from and where at least

one relative lives.

The Las Vegas shooting in

2017 reached communities

across the U.S., as well as Can-

ada. Many of the victims came

from out of town to attend the

country-music festival.

Most of the victims from

the Virginia Beach, Va., shooting

this year were local, but some

had family ties to western parts

of the country.

The Sutherland Springs,

Texas, church shooting deeply

shook the close-knit rural com-

munity. Many of those affected

were from the area. Some of the

victims had relatives on the West

Coast, and one was survived by a

son living in Okinawa, Japan.

The shooting at Santa Fe

High School in Santa Fe, Texas,

took the lives of teachers and

students, including Sabika

Sheikh, a 17-year-old exchange

student from Karachi, Pakistan.

The El Paso, Texas, shooting

this month occurred on a Satur-

day morning at a Walmart just

miles from the U.S. border with

Mexico. The suspected shooter

told investigators he had tar-

geted Mexicans, according to

court documents. Among the

dead were at least seven Mexi-

can citizens and one German.

—Vivien Ngo,

Jim Oberman and Elisa Cho

Note: Mass shootings are defined as those that killed four or more people. Relatives are defined as children, parents, siblings and spouses.

Source: News reports Vivien Ngo/THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Mass shootings, since the Las Vegas shooting in 2017

Site of shooting Where victims were from Where at least one relative lives

CANADA

ALASKA

Las VegasLas VegasLas Vegas

DaytonDaytonDayton

El PasoEl PasoEl Paso

SantaFeSantaFe

Thousand

Oaks

Thousand

Oaks

Thousand

Oaks

Parkland

VirginiaBeach

PittsburghPittsburgh

AuroraAuroraAurora

Annapolis,Md.Annapolis,Md.Annapolis,Md.

GERMANY

FRANCE

HAWAII

JAPAN

PAKISTAN

MEXICO

Sutherland

Springs

Sutherland

Springs

Sutherland

Springs

Greenland, according to peo-

ple familiar with the discus-

sions. Some of his advisers ex-

pressed interest in the idea

while others dismissed it. The

White House hasn’t com-

mented publicly on the mat-

ter.

Greenland is a self-ruling

part of the Kingdom of Den-

mark, and while its govern-

ment decides on most domes-

tic matters, foreign and

security policy is handled by

Copenhagen.

“Of course, Greenland is

not for sale,” Steve

Sandgreen, secretary to

Greenlandic Premier Kim

Kielsen, said Friday in an

email.

“We have a good coopera-

tion with USA, and we see it

as an expression of greater in-

terest in investing in our

country and the possibilities

we offer,” Mr. Sandgreen said.

Aaja Larsen, one of two

members of the Danish parlia-

ment representing Greenland,

tweeted: “No thanks to Trump

buying Greenland! On the con-

trary, a better and more equal

partnership with Denmark

should be the way forward for

a stronger and longer-term

free Greenland.”

Søren Espersen, foreign-af-

fairs spokesman for the Dan-

ish People’s Party, told public

broadcaster DR, “If it is true

that he works with those

thoughts, then it is definitive

proof that he has gone crazy.

I must say it as it is: The idea

that Denmark should sell

50,000 citizens to the United

States is completely insane.”

Former Danish politicians

also appeared stunned by the

president’s discussions about

buying Greenland.

“It must be an April Fool’s

Day joke,” tweeted Lars Løkke

Rasmussen, who served as

prime minister of Denmark

until June.

“Trump buy Greenland?!

Hopefully it’s a joke, but oth-

erwise it is a terrible thought,

with the risk of the militarisa-

tion of Greenland and less in-

dependence for the Greenlan-

dic people—besides being a

great loss to Denmark,”

tweeted Martin Lidegaard,

Denmark’s foreign minister

until 2015.

Greenland is too strategi-

cally important for Denmark

to give up, some analysts say.

“It is thanks to Greenland

and, more broadly now, the

Arctic that Denmark has a

voice in Washington, D.C., but

also in Beijing,” said Damien

Degeorges, a Reykjavík, Ice-

land-based consultant special-

izing in Greenlandic affairs,

adding that Denmark has been

a key player in the North At-

lantic Treaty Organization in

part because of its links to

Greenland.

“Some in Greenland aimed

at attracting Chinese invest-

ments to the island, most

likely also in an attempt to

raise the attention of the U.S.

notably,” Mr. Degeorges said.

Though it has vast natural

resources, Greenland relies on

$591 million of subsidies from

Denmark annually, which

make up about 60% of its bud-

get, according to U.S. and

Danish government statistics.

—Rebecca Ballhaus

and Dominic Chopping

contributed to this article.

WASHINGTON—Politi-

cians from Denmark and

Greenland responded with

skepticism and scorn after

The Wall Street Journal re-

ported that President Trump

had privately expressed inter-

est in acquiring Greenland.

“#Greenland is rich in valu-

able resources such as miner-

als, the purest water and ice,

fish stocks, seafood, renew-

able energy and is a new fron-

tier for adventure tourism.

We’re open for business, not

for sale,” Greenland’s Ministry

of Foreign Affairs wrote Fri-

day on Twitter.

Mr. Trump had repeatedly

asked his advisers—with vary-

ing degrees of seriousness—

about the prospect of buying

BYVIVIANSALAMA

ANDANDREWRESTUCCIA

Greenland Isn’t for Sale, Island Tells Trump

make up less than 1% of the

magazine market and appeal

mostly to more affluent buyers

who want something unique.

“The guys who are real avid

collectors, the guy who’s got

multiple guns,” he said.

Older models were more

prone to jamming, said Sean

Curtis, a Colorado firearms in-

structor, who often writes

about guns for specialty web-

sites.“They’vegottentobe

more popular lately because

they’ve become more reliable,”

he said.

Drum magazines date to be-

fore World War I, said N.R.

Jenzen-Jones, the director of

Armament Research Services,

a weapons-analyst organiza-

tion. They were cemented in

pop culture with the Tommy

guns used by gangsters during

Prohibition.

Militaries mostly aban-

doned them over the years be-

cause of reliability issues, but

they have recently made a

comeback, Mr. Jenzen-Jones

said. He also said they have

become more popular in civil-

ian tactical-shooting competi-

tions, where reloading cuts

into a competitor’s time and

score.

That speed also makes

them attractive to mass shoot-

ers.

“Anytime you’re adding

more rounds to a magazine,

and preventing that brief time

you have for a magazine ex-

change, you are increasing le-

thality,” said T. Christian

Heyne, vice president of policy

at the Brady Campaign to Pre-

vent Gun Violence, an advo-

cacy group that supports ef-

forts to limit magazines to 10

to 15 rounds.

Summer unemployment

among young Americans is the

lowest it has been since the

1960s.

The unemployment rate for

Americans between ages 16

and 24 ticked down to 9.1% in

July from 9.2% a year earlier,

the lowest such rate since July

1966, when youth unemploy-

ment was 8.8%, the Labor De-

partment said.

Fewer young Americans

have sought summer work in

recent decades, but the share

of those working or seeking

work also ticked upward in

July to the highest level in a

decade in a wider labor mar-

ket hungry for workers.

The labor-force-participa-

tion rate among those age 16

to 24 logged in at 61.8% in

July, which the Labor Depart-

ment described as “notably

higher” than the previous nine

summers. Still, the rate is well

below a peak of 77.5% in July

1989.

Economists have offered

many potential explanations

for why fewer young Ameri-

cans are hunting for work

than in decades past. More

students are taking summer

courses or building their résu-

més with unpaid internships,

underscoring a shift to a

knowledge-based economy.

Further, wages from jobs are

unlikely to make a dent in tu-

ition costs, deterring some

would-be summer workers.

A steady decline in summer

youth unemployment since

shortly after the 2007-09 re-

cession aligns with broader la-

bor-force trends. The overall

labor force boasted a 3.7% sea-

sonally adjusted unemploy-

ment rate in July, near a 50-

year low.

—Likhitha Butchireddygari

contributed to this article.

BYSARAHCHANEY

Jobless

Rate for

U.S. Youth

Hits Low

Plane Crash Involving Nascar Great Dale Earnhardt Jr. Is Investigated

WRECKAGE: A member of the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday examined a plane that Dale Earnhardt Jr., his wife, daughter and two pilots were on

when it crash landed Thursday afternoon in Tennessee. All five passengers are doing well, said the retired driver’s sister, Kelley Earnhardt Miller.

DAVID CRIGGER//BRISTOL HERALD COURIER/ASSOCIATED PRESS