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Cherelle Parker Promised to Make Philadelphia Safe. Her First Budget Proposal Increases Police Spending.
Four days of terror that left a teen and two adults dead and 12 others injured on and near city buses this March underscore the need for restoring order to the streets of Philadelphia, Mayor Cherelle Parker said March 14 during her first budget address to the City Council. “I...
Illinois Made It Easier for Gun Violence Survivors to Apply for Compensation. Why Aren’t More Chicagoans Finding the Program?
In July 2005, 22-year-old Nicolas Hernandez went to a block party in Logan Square with his older brother. Around midnight, they saw a few men who had been kicked out earlier. They realized the strangers had guns and started running. Hernandez noticed a little girl crying and helped her find safety in a nearby home.
Congress Renews Ban on Undetectable Firearms
Congress has reauthorized the Undetectable Firearms Act, a decades-old law aimed at preventing people from sneaking guns through security checkpoints at schools, airports, concerts, and other public spaces. The act will remain in force until 2031 under a provision passed as part of a bipartisan spending package signed by President...
New York’s Imperfect Attempt to Unlock Resources for Survivors of Mass Shootings
Before voting last June in favor of a bill to spell out what constitutes a mass shooting under state law, New York Assemblymember Monique Chandler-Waterman delivered an impassioned speech about how the lack of a definition had resulted in survivors being routinely overlooked. “Mass shootings happen a lot in districts...
An Emerging Group of Researchers Is Changing Our Understanding of Gun Violence
It was a warm summer day in 2021 when graduate student Nazsa Baker got a phone call from a family member that would change her trajectory in urban health. Her older cousin had been shot twice as he left the local corner store, only a few houses down from their grandmother’s home in East Orange, New Jersey. Baker was familiar with this kind of shocking news; she grew up in a community riddled with shootings, which had been her inspiration for pursuing violence prevention work. But her relative’s shooting focused her on the other side of that field: what life is like in the aftermath.
U.S. Agents Are Seizing More Guns Headed to Mexico
United States border agents are cracking down on gun trafficking across the southern border as part of a broader bilateral effort against Mexican drug cartels. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported intercepting 1,171 guns before they crossed into Mexico in 2023. That is nearly seven times as many as in 2019, when CBP intercepted 173 guns.
Gun Laws Can Keep Domestic Violence Victims Safe — But They’re Under Unprecedented Threat
In November, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could have dangerous implications for survivors of domestic violence. The case, U.S. v. Rahimi, challenges a federal law that bans people under final domestic violence protection orders from possessing guns. Throughout the hour-and-a-half Q&A from the...
In Philadelphia, a Program Offers Some People Arrested for Unlicensed Guns a Second Chance
The bullets that pierced J.J.’s body on a Philadelphia sidewalk didn’t kill him, but the near-death attack in 2013 convinced him that he needed to carry a gun at all times. After recovering from being shot in the stomach, hip, and leg, he did just that until June 2020 — when police stopped him near a shooting scene.
Seven States Move to Tax Guns and Ammo
On February 18, a 22-year-old man arrived at the University of Maryland’s Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore with a dozen gunshot wounds to his chest. Dr. Thomas Scalea, in an effort to save his life, opened his sternum, closed two holes in his heart, and repaired a blood vessel in his chest.
A Reagan-Era Ban on Undetectable Firearms Is About to Expire. Will Congress Save It?
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other lawmakers are pushing to reauthorize the 1988 Undetectable Firearms Act, a congressional law meant to ban firearms invisible to X-rays and metal detectors, that is set to expire on March 8. The act targets plastic weapons and requires that every gun include enough...
Gary, Indiana, Begins to See Fewer Homicides as Community Leaders Band Together
This story was published in partnership with Capital B Gary. Michelle Pratchet can’t remember the last time she heard gunshots. The newfound quiet is a welcome change for the 54-year-old, who was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, a city often stigmatized for its history of violence. “I just...
Three Decades After the Brady Bill, Some Gun Buyers Still Don’t Undergo Background Checks
On February 28, 1994, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act took effect, implementing a nationwide system for background checks on gun sales. Known as the Brady Bill, the legislation standardized what had been a state-by-state patchwork of vetting for prospective gun owners, and introduced background check systems to 32 states that didn’t have one.
Jury Finds the NRA, Wayne LaPierre Liable in Corruption Case
A jury has found the National Rifle Association and its recently departed CEO, Wayne LaPierre, liable in a civil corruption case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Jurors ordered LaPierre to pay the gun group more than $4.3 million in damages. Although LaPierre announced his resignation three days...
The Unmasking of Wayne LaPierre
This story was published in partnership with The New Yorker. In early January, Wayne LaPierre, the longtime head of the National Rifle Association, and Donald Trump were one floor apart in the civil branch of the New York State Supreme Court, each on trial for a range of financial misdeeds. There was an uncanny symmetry to the occasion. LaPierre had, for more than 30 years, positioned himself as the leader of a warrior tribe in a fight against imminent cultural extinction. He invoked violent imagery, inflamed partisan tensions, stoked outrage, and exploited fear and paranoia. He channelled those emotions in the service of profit and power, tapping into the country’s darkest impulses at the expense of civil society. Before Trump, he was the warmup act that primed the audience. “Do you trust this government to protect you?” he once asked in a speech, and then answered, “We are on our own.”
Brandon Johnson Is Making Progress on Gun Violence. But Some Chicagoans Still Feel Forgotten.
Brandon Johnson won Chicago’s tight mayoral race last year against tough-on-crime candidate Paul Vallas with the message that he would prioritize long-term solutions to gun violence. But while Johnson pursues that pledge, the neighborhoods facing the brunt of the crisis are waiting for relief that can make their streets safer now.
Stray Bullets Are Killing Kids Across the U.S.
In August 2022, I arrived in Minneapolis on a reporting trip. The murder of George Floyd and the resulting chaos still hung in the air like acrid smoke. I sat in a lofty food court in a desolate downtown mall, and hurriedly prepared for an interview, the picture of the city’s gun violence problem coming into focus on my phone as I searched the internet. As it had in most places, gun purchasing in the state had surged during the pandemic. So had homicides, 80 percent of which took place within the metro area. I was there to report on a suicide, and learned that statewide they were twice as common outside the Twin Cities as within.
Jury Weighs Thorny NRA Corruption Charges
A jury in a Manhattan courthouse began deliberating February 16 in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case against the National Rifle Association and its former boss, Wayne LaPierre. The morning began with some attorneys for the defense angrily denouncing the opposing side for, they argued, having gone...
How American Gun Culture Fuels Anti-Immigrant Politics
Immigration has long been a source of division in American politics, but the issue has reached a crescendo in recent months. In February, a feud over immigration policy between Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the White House prompted hundreds of Trump supporters, Christian nationalists, and conspiracy theorists to converge on the U.S. border with Mexico for “Take Our Border Back” rallies. And in Congress, Republicans blocked a bipartisan immigration deal and impeached President Joe Biden’s top immigration official, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Gun Violence Affects Suicide Risk Among Black People, Study Finds
Black adults exposed to various forms of gun violence may be at significant risk of suicidal ideation at some point during their lifetime, according to the results of a new study correlating gun violence and personal well-being. The suicide rate among Black Americans increased by 58 percent between 2011 and...
The Osteen Church Shooter Doesn’t Fit a Neat Profile
On February 11, a woman opened fire in Joel Osteen’s megachurch in Houston. She had a “Palestine” sticker affixed to her AR-15. She’d been engaged in a contentious custody battle with her ex-husband and his family, some of whom are Jewish. She had a criminal history, served a short jail sentence, and was detained for a mental health emergency.
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