Four years ago, The Trace published a story about Valerie Martinez-Jordan, a sheriff’s lieutenant who spearheaded an inventive effort to get guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. One of the most remarkable aspects of her success: She did it in Louisiana, where the gun culture is strong and the politics run deep red. 

Martinez-Jordan, a survivor of domestic violence, initially sprang into action in 2009, after she saw a Violence Policy Center report that ranked Louisiana third nationally for domestic violence homicide rates of women killed by men. With the support of her boss, the Lafourche Parish sheriff, she began working with ATF agents to implement her model. 

She compiled a list of residents who had domestic violence restraining orders or convictions and created new tracking systems to flag newly convicted abusers. Then, her unit notified each person on the list that they were prohibited from owning firearms under federal law and offered assistance in relinquishing them with proof-of-transfer forms. Martinez-Jordan helped draft state legislation — adopted in 2018 — that makes the completion of those transfer forms mandatory and requires licensed gun dealers to inform local police of background check denials. 

Today, even as Louisiana contends with further loosening its gun laws, her decade-long effort has become a blueprint for other police departments throughout the state. At least 33 of the state’s 64 sheriff’s offices completed those proof-of-transfer forms in 2023. 

“Because of Lieutenant Martinez, [on] Day One, we were ready to go,” Detective Kelly Downey, who leads the Domestic Violence Unit at the Bossier Parish Sheriff’s Office, told me. Downey was one of many officers who were sent to shadow Martinez-Jordan before implementing relinquishment programs in their respective police departments.

Her model is still spreading. In my latest story, I lay out the latest developments. 

— Alma Beauvais, editorial assistant 

Note: The Trace will be out of the office the next few days for the Thanksgiving holiday. The Bulletin will return on Wednesday, December 4. 

From The Trace

What to Know Today 

A Philadelphia jury last week awarded $11 million to a man who claimed his Sig Sauer P320 pistol fired when he did not pull the trigger, causing a serious leg injury. It’s the one of several dozen lawsuits involving the company’s flagship handgun to go to trial, and the second in which a jury determined that the gun was defectively designed. [Associated Press] 

Voters ousted two of California’s best known “progressive prosecutors,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, in elections this month. The rejections came even as the DAs followed through on promised reforms and as violent crime is trending down, reflecting a shift among voters toward a “tough-on-crime” public safety approach. [CalMatters/The Intercept] 

Guns Down America, a gun reform advocacy group, created a scorecard grading major corporations on their gun safety efforts. The ranks are based on financial ties to the gun industry and lobby, donations to lawmakers, public statements, and gun carry policies. Most of the businesses do not sell firearms. [Gun Safety Scorecard] 

More than two years ago, Megan Reed’s 13-year-old son, Sinzae, was shot and killed near the front door of his home. The white man who shot Sinzae, who was Black, was never charged with homicide, pleading guilty last week only to weapons offenses. For Black residents of Franklin County, Ohio, the case is an example of long-standing inequity in the criminal legal system. Community activists hope the county’s new chief prosecutor, Shayla Favor, the first Black person to lead the office, can help to make the system fairer. [Capital B] 

Gun sellers and trainers who serve marginalized groups say they’ve seen an uptick of interest, particularly among women and LGBTQ+ people, since Donald Trump was elected president earlier this month. Trump’s win has seemingly energized the kind of misogynistic and hateful rhetoric that characterized his campaign; some members of targeted groups say their interest in firearms stems from the threat of violent bigotry: “We all feel the need to make sure that we’re aware of our surroundings and protect ourselves in general, but even more so now.” [The Guardian] 

Christina Parker’s ex had been terrorizing her for over a year — stalking her, cutting off her hair in public, burning down her home — before he shot and killed her boyfriend, Naseem Smith. Parker, Smith, and their loved ones had spent months begging Philadelphia law enforcement for help. Their pleas went nowhere, and Parker’s ex wasn’t charged until he’d killed someone. [The Philadelphia Inquirer] 

Data Point

-3.4 percent — the drop in violent crime in California as of September 2024 compared with the same period last year. [Real-Time Crime Index]  

Non Sequitur

Why Are Urban Turkeys Thriving?

“Whether strutting down sidewalks, stopping traffic or foraging in yards, these once-elusive birds are no longer just creatures of the countryside. Now, they’re making themselves at home in urban environments, turning neighborhoods, parks and golf courses into their new stomping grounds.” [Smithsonian Magazine] 

Senior editor Sunny Sone compiled this newsletter.

Alma Beauvais
As The Trace’s first-ever editorial assistant, Alma helps the team stay organized. Prior to joining the Trace, she worked as a freelance journalist for The Nation and The West Georgian, and fact checked stories for magazine articles and books. She interned at The Miami Herald and The Nation. She has also written about her home country of Haiti as a contributing writer for the Pulitzer Center and The Haitian Times. She holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.