Data Point
About 230 Americans are injured by gunfire every day. Most are people of color. The estimate comes from a new report on nonfatal shootings by Everytown For Gun Safety, which analyzed some 40 million hospital discharge records in 2017, the most recent year for which data is available. The topline findings: Nearly 85,000 people were shot and survived in 2017. Black Americans had the highest rate of gun injury at 114 per 100,000 people — about 10 times the rate of their white counterparts. Latino people had a rate twice that of whites. Gun injury rates also varied widely between states: Louisiana led the country (94 per 100,000), while Hawaii had the lowest (five per 100,000). The Everytown data is more comprehensive than the nonfatal injury estimates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which are derived from a small sample of hospitals, as we’ve reported. (Everytown provides grants to The Trace. Here’s our list of major donors and our policy on editorial independence.)
Officials decry armed protest outside Michigan secretary of state’s home. Jocelyn Benson said she was setting up Christmas decorations with her family Saturday night when a noisy crowd of at least two dozen people gathered on her block, yelling obscenities, chanting “Stop the Steal,” and demanding that the state’s election results be overturned. In a statement, Benson blasted the “threats of violence, intimidation and bullying.” The sight of armed protesters using conspiracy theories to pressure the state’s top election official drew rebukes from state leaders. “This mob-like behavior is an affront to basic morality and decency,” read a statement from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. The incident comes as President Trump continues to spread baseless allegations of election fraud and a week after a top Republican election official in Georgia warned that the president’s rhetoric could incite violence.
With a gun friendly SCOTUS, advocacy groups are flooding the zone with Second Amendment suits. The Washington Free Beacon reports that gun rights advocacy groups — including the National Rifle Association, the Second Amendment Foundation, and the Firearms Policy Coalition — have filed dozens of lawsuits against gun restrictions across the country since the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett. The court’s newest justice has an expansive view on the Secondment Amendment and her confirmation makes it more likely that the court will vote to hear gun cases with a solid 6-3 conservative majority. Gun law expert Adam Winkler told the Free Beacon that gun rights groups hoped “not just to strike down one or two laws but to establish a framework that makes it harder to support gun control.” Related: The NRA’s Super PAC said it plans to spend $1.5 million on ads supporting Republicans in Georgia’s two runoffs that will determine which party controls the Senate.
NEW from THE TRACE: She landed her dream job as a cop, but soon realized policing needs more Black women. Marilyn Thompson, 54, was one of just three Black women in her class at the Little Rock Police Academy in 1990. On the force, she faced a challenging dynamic of working with mostly white male colleagues who were skeptical of her. At the same time, her position as a police officer caused some people in her community to treat her like an outsider. Thompson didn’t enjoy her short stint on the city’s force and became a campus police officer on a much more diverse team — where she’s been for 28 years. Her experiences led her to pen an academic paper documenting why policing would be more compassionate — and effective — if police departments reflected their communities. You can read her story here.
Data Point
At least 4,749 — the number of children 17 and under who have been shot this year, the highest level since Gun Violence Archive started tracking in 2014. The previous high of 3,986 was set in 2017. [GVA]
