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Pittsburgh Urges Pennsylvania Supreme Court to Throw Out NRA Lawsuit
The City of Pittsburgh yesterday urged the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to
throw out the National Rifle Association's lawsuit which challenges the
city's ordinance helping to prevent gun trafficking by requiring the reporting of lost or stolen guns. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence represents Pittsburgh pro bono.
WASHINGTON
The City of Pittsburgh yesterday urged the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to
throw out the National Rifle Association's lawsuit which challenges the
city's ordinance helping to prevent gun trafficking by requiring the reporting of lost or stolen guns. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence represents Pittsburgh pro bono.
Paul
Helmke, President of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, stated,
"We hope the courts will yet again reject the NRA's efforts to block
this important law which can help police stop gun traffickers. Telling
police when guns have been stolen and may be in the hands of a dangerous
criminal is a common sense step to help make communities in Pittsburgh
safer."
Last July, Judge R. Stanton Wettick of the Court of
Common Pleas of Allegheny County threw out the NRA's case, agreeing with
the Brady Center's arguments that the NRA and individual gun owners
lacked standing to bring the case. On June 25, 2010, the Commonwealth Court affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the NRA's case. The NRA is now asking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to hear the case.
The
NRA lawsuit challenged Pittsburgh's ordinance requiring that gun owners
notify police when their gun is lost or stolen, a measure that aids
police and law-abiding gun owners by enabling police to quickly
investigate and retrieve stolen guns. The ordinance also prevents gun
traffickers from falsely claiming that their guns were "stolen" after
guns they illegally sold are recovered at crime scenes and traced back
to them.
A similar NRA lawsuit filed against Philadelphia's lost
or stolen gun reporting ordinance was also rejected by the Court of
Common Pleas of Philadelphia County. The Commonwealth Court affirmed
the dismissal of the NRA's case against Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the NRA's petition for review of that ruling.
Stolen
guns represent a significant source of trafficked guns, with 500,000
guns stolen from private citizens each year. About one of every six
trafficked guns are stolen from residences. Guns are stolen in
Pennsylvania at a rate of 12 guns per 1,000 households.
Brady United formerly known as The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and its legislative and grassroots affiliate, the Brady Campaign and its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, is the nation's largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence. We are devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.
LATEST NEWS
Watch Live: Naomi Klein, Bernie Sanders, and Ro Khanna Roundtable Explores Future of AI and Robotics
"AI is the most far-reaching and pivotal technological revolution in the history of humanity," notes the Sanders Institute. "The choices we make now will determine whether those changes make the world better or worse."
Apr 14, 2026
The Sanders Institute is hosting Sen. Bernie Sanders, Congressman Ro Khanna, and author and filmmaker Naomi Klein on Tuesday afternoon for a livestreamed discussion designed to explore "the progressive vision for artificial intelligence and robotics, and where we go from here."
Khanna (D-Calif.) and Klein are both fellows at the institute, cofounded by Sanders' (I-Vt.) wife and son, Jane O'Meara Sanders and David Driscoll. The Sanders Institute over recent years has convened an array of conferences and events focused on bringing together the best minds, top experts, and policy advocates on a host of issues.
Tuesday's event on AI, scheduled to kick off at 3:00 pm ET, can be viewed at the stream below:
"AI is the most far-reaching and pivotal technological revolution in the history of humanity. It will impact every man, woman, and child in this country and around the globe. It has the potential to reshape the world," notes the Sanders Institute. "The future is not inevitable—and the choices we make now will determine whether those changes make the world better or worse."
"The US Congress is totally unprepared to deal with the consequences," the institute warns. "It is vitally important that we have a serious discussion of how we protect workers, how we protect our privacy, how we protect the health of our children, how we preserve our planet, and how we address the real possibility that AI can become smarter than humans and escape from human control."
Khanna, a potential 2028 presidential candidate who authored the book Progressive Capitalism: How to Make Tech Work for All of Us, has been a leading voice in the US House of Representatives on the issue of AI. In a 2024 New York Times op-ed, Khanna argued that it's vital to ensure that the future of AI and other evolving technologies "center the dignity and economic security of working-class Americans."
Meanwhile, Sanders, who recently introduced the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), highlighted in a Wall Street Journal op-ed earlier this month that billionaires are already "investing enormous sums in AI and robotics not to improve life for working families but to expand their own wealth and power."
Klein has similarly sounded the alarm about far-right tech oligarchs, including in a "must-read" essay with Astra Taylor about the fight against "end times fascism" published by The Guardian last year. The pair plans to release a related book in September.
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Rights Groups Warn Against Meta's 'Dystopian' Plan to Add Facial Recognition Tech to AI-Powered Eyeglasses
"Meta’s reported plans to introduce this technology into broadly available consumer products is a red line society must not cross."
Apr 14, 2026
The ACLU and a coalition of 75 other rights organizations on Tuesday issued a warning to tech giant Meta about its plan to install facial recognition technology onto its artificial intelligence-powered eyeglasses.
In a letter organized by the ACLU, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), the groups said adding facial recognition technology to Meta's Ray-Ban and Oakley glasses would pose a grave threat to Americans' privacy.
"People should be able to move through their daily lives," the letter states, "without fear that stalkers, scammers, abusers, federal agents, and activists across the political spectrum are silently and invisibly verifying their identities and potentially matching their names to a wealth of readily available data about their habits, hobbies, relationships, health, and behaviors."
When it comes to specific dangers posed by embedding this technology into the company's products, the letter points to the potential for scammers to use it to "find out, quickly and in complete stealth, not just the name of the person sitting next to them on the subway—but their address, marital status, social media profiles, workplace, income, hobbies, health information, and habits."
Because of this, the letter says that "Meta’s reported plans to introduce this technology into broadly available consumer products is a red line society must not cross."
Blocking facial recognization technology from Meta glasses "is a prerequisite for a free and safe society," reads the letter.
The letter concludes with a series of demands, including that Meta stop any plans to attach facial recognition technology to its products; publicly disclose any past instances of Meta glasses being used for stalking and harassment; and reveal any "past or ongoing" discussions with law enforcement agencies such as US Immigration and Customs Enforcement about deploying the technology.
Cody Venzke, senior staff attorney working on surveillance, privacy, and technology issues for the ACLU, described facial recognition technology as "inherently invasive and unethical," and said adding it to a widely available consumer product "would vastly increase the risk of harm to individuals, families, and our democracy itself."
Kade Crockford, director of technology and justice programs at the ACLU of Massachusetts, argued that "the American people have not consented to this massive invasion of privacy," which is why Meta must abandon plans to deploy it.
"Stalkers and scammers would have a field day with this technology," Crockford said. "Federal agents could use it to harass and intimidate their critics. It’s dangerous and dystopian, and Meta must disavow it."
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Iran Says YouTube Is Trying to ‘Suppress the Truth’ By Banning AI Lego-Style Videos Mocking US-Israeli War
One expert said the videos have gone viral by "hitting on points of disaffection in the United States."
Apr 14, 2026
Iran's foreign ministry is accusing YouTube of trying to "suppress the truth" by banning the account responsible for a series of viral Lego-style animations mocking the US-Israeli war.
The small team known as Explosive Media has racked up tens of millions of views across several platforms, with slickly produced music videos mercilessly lampooning the Trump administration and glorifying Iran's struggle against the US and Israel's attacks that began at the end of February.
Last week, Explosive Media had its channel suspended from YouTube for "violent content," which its owners disputed. "Are our LEGO-style animations actually violent?” the group asked on social media.
On Monday, Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, joined the criticism of the ban.
"In a land that proudly hosts Pixar, DreamWorks Animation, and The Walt Disney Company, an independent animated YouTube channel—which had organically grown by depicting US aggression and warmongering, and garnered millions of viewers—was abruptly shut down!!" he wrote on social media.
"Why?!" Baghaei said. “Simply to suppress the truth about their ‘illegal war’ on Iran and shield the American administration’s false narrative from any competing voice.”
While Explosive Media's content can no longer be viewed on YouTube—which is owned by Google—it appears unaffected on other major platforms like Instagram, X, and TikTok, where it has garnered millions of views.
The videos appear aimed at a US audience, often leaning into jokes and memes about the personal foibles of those leading the war.
They frequently reference the familiar accusation that President Donald Trump launched the war to distract from the growing scrutiny of his connections to the late multimillionaire sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. Another video takes aim at Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's history of alcoholism and accusations of serial adultery and sexual misconduct.
The videos also portray a strident pro-Iran message. Following the announcement of a ceasefire last week, a video declared that “Iran won” the war. Others have shown Iranian missiles hitting the White House or heading toward Tel Aviv.
The videos also seize on growing domestic outrage over the US government's devotion to Israel, which it implies is controlling Trump and dragging the US into a war against its interests. One video, uploaded last week, portrays Trump being literally walked like a dog by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“Your government is run by pedophiles. They ordered you to die for Israel," repeats one video's chorus.
A spokesperson for the team, who identified himself as "Mr. Explosive" in an interview with the BBC, has described his group as "totally independent." But he did say that the Iranian government is a “customer,” implying possible collaboration.
Explosive Media has denied any links with the Iranian government. Responding to a journalist at The Associated Press who said the sophistication of the videos suggests government involvement, the group's official X account replied, "We’ve told you—and other journalists—multiple times that we are independent. Yet you keep repeating the same false claim, insisting that we are connected to the government."
It added: "Western media shows no real commitment to truth—they simply repeat their own baseless claims until they start to sound like facts."
While the Trump administration often portrays the war as a clash of civilizations, the videos posted by Explosive show the American people in a sympathetic light.
Though the videos pull no punches toward their leaders, ordinary Americans are portrayed protesting the Trump administration or fearful about being sent to fight in a foreign war by an administration that promised to end such conflicts.
Polls show that the majority of Americans disapprove of the war and fear it escalating. Moustafa Ayad, a researcher with the Institute of Strategic Dialogue, told WIRED that the videos have likely gotten so much attention because they tap into this discontent.
"People are disengaging from some of the real conflict content and looking for something that can distill what's happening quickly and in a language and tone that they understand, and that's what those Lego videos are doing,” he said. "They're making it easily accessible to understand the conflict from Iran's point of view, and it's hitting on points of disaffection in the United States at the same time. It's working on two fronts.”
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