Top Story
The Crow Creek Nation has been struggling for months to counter a string of violence in their community, with little help from the Department of the Interior and numerous barriers to policing their land. After Garrett Hawk was shot and killed in July, the tribe took matters into its own hands, assembling and training a group of Crow Creek members to patrol the reservation at night. [ICT and Rapid City Journal]
From the Chicago Bureau
Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood has a reputation for being dangerous, 14-year-old resident Robert Trejo told The Trace’s Rita Oceguera, but it didn’t feel that way on a cloudy afternoon at a nearby park last month. Trejo was attending a “Light in the Night” event, part of a strategy to foster safe public spaces. Gatherings like that one, he said, make him want to continue living there.
But “Light in the Night” and similar gatherings aren’t available consistently throughout the year. Organizers ramp up youth programming in the summer, when gun violence peaks. When fall arrives and many programs end, their absence leaves a vacuum that young people say makes it harder to find positive environments outside school. Teens and young adults told The Trace they want long-term solutions — because they’re “not just youth in the summertime,” a 23-year-old Englewood resident said. “Life goes on around the year.”
What to Know Today
Americans bought an estimated 1.21 million guns last month, according to an analysis of FBI data, including around 730,000 handguns and 490,000 long guns. That’s down 14 percent from August 2022. [The Trace]
There’s a strong link between 9mm pistol production and gun deaths and injuries among young Americans, according to a new study examining trends in firearm manufacturing and firearm deaths among people age 19 and younger. Researchers did not find a relationship between total firearm production and firearm deaths and injuries, with the exception of suicides. [Preventive Medicine]
A California bill that would require employers to implement a workplace violence prevention plan, developed together with employees, cleared a major hurdle in the Legislature. Violent behavior, including shootings, at work sites has increasingly become a serious concern, especially in industries like retail. [KQED]
What did American gun culture look like in the 18th century? Compared with England, the colonies imposed few legal restrictions on firearms, but constraints on their use and availability created very different conditions than exist today. [Duke Center for Firearms Law]
Body-worn camera footage showing police in Blendon Township, Ohio, shooting and killing a pregnant Black woman ignited local protests and drew new attention to deadly use of force by law enforcement officers in the state. Ohio police have killed at least 14 people this year. [Axios/Mother Jones]
Before he was accused of first-degree murder for the shooting of Keon Wallace, Kenneil Cole’s friends joked that the community leader would someday be elected mayor of Washington, D.C. Prosecutors eventually accepted Cole’s claim of self-defense, but the dropped charges left no one satisfied — Cole says the allegations have derailed his life, and Wallace’s family members are furious that the case was dismissed. [The Washington Post]
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Capitol insurrection, but his organization is just one in a constellation of growing violent threats from white supremacist and far-right extremist groups. Top law enforcement officials say far-right extremist movements pose the biggest domestic terrorism threat facing the U.S. [PBS NewsHour]
Archive
Young People Dream Up a Safer Summer in Chicago: After Mayor Lori Lightfoot expanded the citywide curfew in response to a shooting, teenagers spoke about Chicago’s gun violence crisis and their relationship to the city. (June 2022)
