In Chicago, most people who have lost a loved one to gun violence never find out who pulled the trigger. Four years ago, Illinois state Representative Kam Buckner introduced a bill meant to provide families with closure, or at least a thorough investigation for the many cold cases that go unsolved, by allowing families of homicide victims to petition police departments to reopen unresolved cases.
The measure stalled that year, but Buckner kept at it, The Trace’s Rita Oceguera reported, continuing to reintroduce and update it each session. He added a companion bill last year to the original effort to outline clear reporting requirements for Illinois law enforcement agencies. Now, the bills are in front of the Legislature once again.
The first measure, the Homicide Victims’ Families’ Rights Act, would create a pathway for families to petition law enforcement agencies to review unsolved cases that are more than three years old.
The latter, the Homicide Data Transparency Act, would establish a statewide standard for law enforcement agencies to track and publish monthly reports on homicides, with a template for communicating exactly how many cases have been closed.
“If we’re serious about making our communities safer, you’ve got to arrest the perpetrators,” said Valerie Burgest, a gun violence prevention advocate who supports the acts. Learn more about the bills in Oceguera’s latest story.
From The Trace
El Paso Mass Shooter Believed He Was Fulfilling Trump’s Wishes, His Attorney Says: The man who killed 23 people at a Walmart in 2019 told his lawyer that he was motivated by the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Ahead of Potential Funding Cuts, Philadelphia’s Gun Violence Prevention Sector Prepares to Pivot: Even with a city budget proposal that pays for community-driven intervention work, organizers are worried about President Donald Trump’s promises to slash federal grants.
This Lawmaker Wants to Give the Families of Illinois Homicide Victims a Way to Reopen Cold Cases: After four years of rejection, Kam Buckner is advancing legislation that would help survivors of gun violence get information about their loved ones’ cases and work toward closure.
What to Know Today
The Trump administration cut funding for the Terrorism and Targeted Violence Database, a project that compiled the first-ever dataset that overlapped school-based targeted violence with terror events as part of a larger effort to track domestic terror. From 2023 to 2024, it found that 400 out of 1,800 incidents targeted schools, with 81 attacks that resulted in harm to children. [K-12 Drive]
At least half of U.S. states have laws that ban Glock switches. Also known as auto sears, “switches” were specifically designed to slot into the back of Glock handguns, effectively turning them into machine guns. New Mexico and Alabama were the latest states to pass laws making the devices illegal. [Associated Press]
Four officers with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Houston died by suicide in a short time span, with three of the deaths occuring within the same week. Their deaths illustrate an underreported phenomenon: Law enforcement officers are 54 percent more likely to die by suicide than workers in other professions, according to an analysis by Dr. John Violanti, a University at Buffalo professor who studies police stress. The study named frequent exposure to trauma and ready access to firearms as risk factors. [CNN]
In 2022, Jeri Persley launched a firearm training business, Be Empowered Tactical, to teach responsible gun ownership across the Kansas City, Missouri, area and provide a safe space for Black gun owners. She bought her first handgun in 2015 for protection; in her courses she’s noticed that a lot of Black women have purchased a firearm for similar reasons. “Many classes are taught by white males,” she said. “To have someone who really looks like you and that you can relate to makes it a much more comfortable environment.” [KSHB]
In November, a Lubbock County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed Erskin Charles Jenkins, a 20-year-old psychology major at nearby Texas Tech University. Initial police statements and news reports made it appear that Jenkins had taken hostages before the shooting, but after seeing a heavily edited montage of body- and dash-camera videos that contradicted the police report, Jenkins’ mother opened and funded an independent investigation into her son’s killing. The officer who killed Jenkins is on paid leave. [Capital B]
Jennifer Langston was shot in the chest by her boyfriend on April 1, 2014. She survived, and like the tens of thousands of Americans who experience a gunshot wound, then had to figure out how to move on with her life. More than a decade after the attack, her story of recovery sheds light on the aftermath of a nonfatal shooting. [OPB]
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty against the man accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. It marks the first time that the Justice Department will pursue capital punishment in President Donald Trump’s second term. [NBC]
On Tuesday, thousands of CDC workers received early morning emails asking for their resignations, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ plan for mass layoffs. Among those affected were workers focused on processing data around injuries, including fatal and nonfatal gunshot wounds, and on intimate partner violence. [Mother Jones]
Data Point
55 percent — the proportion of suicides that involved a firearm in 2023. Suicides have long accounted for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. [Pew Research Center]
Non Sequitur
Thyme for some healing soup recipes from around the world
A dozen photographers from the Everyday Projects were asked to photograph their favorite under-the-weather remedies from their homelands. [NPR]
