Five years ago, Congress lifted a de facto ban on putting federal dollars toward studying gun violence. It was a watershed moment: For more than two decades, the study of gun violence had largely been at a standstill at the CDC and other federal agencies, courtesy of a National Rifle Association-backed budget rider known as the Dickey Amendment. The 1996 measure barred the use of taxpayer money for research that would “advocate or promote gun control” — and as a result, agency heads effectively halted work on the issue for fear that it could jeopardize their congressional funding.
That changed in 2019. Congress allocated $25 million annually to the CDC and the NIH for gun violence research, and the money started rolling out the following year. Scientists began applying for grants and making up for lost time.
We wanted to know how that money’s been spent — so The Trace’s Jennifer Mascia, Chip Brownlee, and Fairriona Magee conducted an analysis of federal data to figure it out. The data they looked at includes funding awarded by the NIH, CDC, and Department of Veterans Affairs, which account for the vast majority of federal gun violence research funding. Their resulting piece tells the story of how much funding has been doled out, what the studies have focused on, and which institutions are getting the lion’s share of the grants.
From The Trace
In 2019, Congress Finally Funded Gun Violence Research. Here’s How It’s Changed the Field: A Trace analysis of federal data found that the amount of money going to gun violence studies has soared since lawmakers lifted a de facto federal funding ban.
A Pastor Forgave the Young Shooter Who Killed His Son. Now, He Helps Others Do the Same: The Reverend Christobal Kimmenez has joined others in calling for greater services for survivors of crime and the formerly incarcerated, including restorative justice.
Chicago’s Gun Violence Has Gotten Deadlier. Here’s What That Means for Residents: Survivors living with the ripple effects of the city’s gun deaths have ideas about how to help.
Biden Is Deploying a ‘Whole-of-Government’ Approach to Gun Violence Prevention: A slew of federal agencies and departments announced moves to counter gun violence last week, in addition to a new executive order.
Rosemary Miller Joins The Trace as Director of Development: The veteran fundraiser will lead efforts to secure new and sustaining revenues at the nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting on gun violence.
What to Know This Week
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Ohio Senator JD Vance briefly discussed gun violence during the vice presidential debate on Tuesday. The conversation arose from a question about parents being held accountable for a school shooting their child carried out, a reference to the high-profile convictions earlier this year of the Michigan parents whose son killed four students at Oxford High School in 2021. The VP contenders shared diverging visions of countering gun violence: Walz, who said his son had recently witnessed a shooting, advocated for red flag laws and better background checks. Vance agitated for “hardening” schools, including by increasing police presence on campuses, and falsely claimed that there has been a “massive influx in the number of illegal guns run by the Mexican drug cartel”; in reality, illegally trafficked firearms from the U.S. into Mexico have bolstered violent drug cartels across the southern border. [Chalkbeat/Detroit Free Press/Rolling Stone]
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey took executive action on Wednesday to immediately implement a wide-ranging firearm safety law passed over the summer, preempting an effort by gun rights groups to temporarily suspend the measure by state referendum. Healey’s move means that the law will remain in effect for two years; gun rights groups are still gathering signatures to repeal the law, which bans guns in schools and cracks down on ghost guns, via a 2026 ballot initiative. [WBUR]
For the first time, the Justice Department will review the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, the riot in which a mob of white people, many of them armed with guns, destroyed the neighborhood known as “Black Wall Street” and killed scores of people. Federal civil rights investigators will examine the massacre under the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. [The New York Times]
When Louisiana legislators passed a bill lowering the age at which the justice system must treat defendants as adults from 18 to 17, it was ostensibly an effort to counter an epidemic of teen violence. Lawmakers cited crimes like armed robbery and murder when arguing for the legislation. But since the law took effect five months ago, the vast majority of 17-year-olds arrested in the state’s three largest parishes aren’t accused of violent crimes — instead, they’re getting caught in the adult legal system for lesser crimes. [Verite News and ProPublica]
Giffords PAC, the gun safety group’s political arm, launched a “Gun Owners for Harris-Walz” group on Thursday. The effort is intended to mobilize gun owners to support the Democratic presidential ticket. Giffords’ move comes after the National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund jumped into the Ohio race for U.S. Senate with a seven-figure ad buy slamming incumbent Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, as “soft on crime.” [Politico]
Americans bought an estimated 1.31 million guns in September 2024, according to an analysis of FBI data. That’s up 2 percent from September 2023. [The Trace]
Announcement: “In Guns We Trust” — produced by Long Lead and Campside Media in partnership with The Trace — was nominated for Signal Listener’s Choice Awards in three categories: History; Documentary; and Activism, Public Service and Social Impact. Did you like the podcast? Help us win by casting your vote before October 17.
In Memoriam
Mylik Birdsong, 31, loved boxing despite “the busted lips, the stitches, the broken hands,” his mother said — and he was really good at it, too. After starting the sport in ninth grade, Birdsong died with an enviable title: the reigning Welterweight Champion for the World Boxing Foundation. He was shot and killed outside his mom’s house in South Los Angeles last weekend, just after dropping off dinner for his family. Loved ones remember Birdsong for his big heart: His mom said he told her he loved her every time they were together. His aunt described him packing up Thanksgiving dinners to bring to unhoused people, how he’d give his shoes away to people who needed them. “Anything he could do for anyone,” his aunt said, “he was so willing to do it.”
We Recommend
A Pair of Billionaire Preachers Built the Most Powerful Political Machine in Texas. That’s Just the Start: “Over the past decade, [Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks] have built the most powerful political machine in Texas — a network of think tanks, media organizations, political action committees and nonprofits that work in lock step to purge the Legislature of Republicans whose votes they can’t rely on. … Brandon Darby, the editor of Breitbart Texas, is one of several conservatives who has compared Dunn and Wilks to Russian oligarchs. ‘They go into other communities and unseat people unwilling to do their bidding,’ he says. ‘You kiss the ring or you’re out.’” [ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine]
Pull Quote
“Despair.”
— Rachel Gassert, the former policy director for the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, describing her reaction to findings that many 17-year-olds in Louisiana face charges for nonviolent crimes under a law that lowered the age at which the justice system must treat defendants as adults, to Verite News and ProPublica
