Featured Story
After four people were wounded in an October shooting outside a subsidized apartment building in Chicago, residents rallied outside the complex to ask their landlord to provide them with keys to the front door. Currently, tenants have to be buzzed into the building, a situation they say can leave them waiting outside in unsafe conditions when security is not present to let them in. [Block Club Chicago]
Philadelphia
“It wasn’t like this when I was young,” writes The Trace’s Philadelphia engagement reporter Afea Tucker in a recently reported essay on the violence dogging her hometown’s public transport system. Despite an overall decline of gun violence in Philadelphia, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority — referred to as SEPTA — has been host to a litany of recent shootings. Earlier this month, 15 people were shot over a span of four days; three of those people were killed. Just this Monday, another shooting at a SEPTA transportation center left 33-year-old Stephen Young dead.
Tucker started using SEPTA when she was 12, she writes. She remembers taking the 10 Trolley to middle school, and riding the El train with friends to go shopping downtown. For a long time, she wasn’t worried about what she might witness on SEPTA, but today, the thought of using Philly’s public transit system gives her — and many other Philadelphians — feelings of intense anxiety, borne from the statistically unlikely, but hard-hitting reality of, violence.
In her latest piece, she shares the thinking of SEPTA riders she spoke to, and illuminates how public transit in Philly has changed with her personal history. It’s a story that many Americans, regardless of their hometown, can relate to.
What to Know Today
Gunmakers have spent 25 years trying to shut down the city of Gary, Indiana’s groundbreaking lawsuit over illegal gun sales — and manufacturers recently marked a victory with the signing of a state law banning suits like Gary’s. Meanwhile, illicit firearm purchases continue to contribute to violence in Indiana, Chicago, and beyond. [ProPublica]
Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a number of new firearm regulations into law on Tuesday. The new measures include requirements for gun dealers to carry general liability insurance; a shorter window for gun owners to report lost or stolen weapons to police; and a ban on bringing guns to many public places without a concealed carry permit. [The Seattle Times]
Over half of Minnesota public school students have access to free mental health services on campus. A study of Hennepin County found that suicide attempts decreased by 15 percent across 263 schools with these services — and confirms that Black and brown kids, who are particularly vulnerable to gun suicide, are among the biggest beneficiaries. [Sahan Journal]
A North Carolina man who was arrested for having multiple guns at a Walmart is facing an unusual criminal charge: “Going armed to the terror of the people.” What does that mean? [WCNC]
Amid double-digit decreases in most major categories of crime in New York City this year, public officials are battling over how to approach public safety — and particularly deep divisions are emerging between Mayor Eric Adams, a former police officer, and the City Council. Adams, who served in the Police Department for two decades, has focused on violence on public transit, one area where crime is up; the council, meanwhile, has recently put its efforts toward criminal justice reform. [Vital City]
Data Point
Around $143,000 — the amount that the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which conducts political lobbying on behalf of the firearms industry, spent on lobbying efforts in the Indiana Legislature in 2023. That was a huge uptick from previous years. [ProPublica]
