It started on April Fool’s Day: Onetime presidential candidate and current U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has promoted baseless theories about health, announced that his agency would eliminate more than 10,000 jobs and close several divisions following President Donald Trump’s directives to slash the federal government. The layoffs have been wide-ranging, but as The Trace’s Chip Brownlee reports, teams responsible for gun violence research and prevention at the CDC — which is overseen by the HHS — have been gutted.
Experts warned that the losses could undermine the federal government’s already limited ability to combat gun violence and mar federal gun violence research funding, which resumed only in 2019 after a decades-long freeze. David Hemenway, a longtime injury prevention researcher at Harvard University, told Brownlee that the current situation could be worse than the period when the government restricted funding.
He also hinted at another, related issue: the White House’s power creep. “I’m appalled that Congress’s power of the purse seems to be taken away from them,” Hemenway said, “and they don’t seem to do anything.”
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From The Trace
What Generation Is Most Affected by Gun Violence?: Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that one age group is bearing a disproportionate share of our national gun violence crisis.
CDC Teams That Study Gun Violence and Collect Data Are Decimated by Layoffs: The Trump’s administration’s cuts come after the field of gun violence research saw renewed federal support during the Biden era.
They Served Their Time. Now They Want to Be Released From Illinois’ ‘Murderer’ Database: An effort to shutter a violent offender registry raises questions about how Illinois should treat people who’ve completed prison sentences for gun violence.
Maternal Homicide Is Very Common — Particularly in These States: Experts say these deaths are largely preventable. A new study looks into the connections between policy and outcome.
What to Know Today
Dr. Mehmet Oz was confirmed to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The former talk show host became a household name while dispensing questionable medical advice. Now, he’ll preside over the program that pays most shooting victims’ hospitals bills. [Associated Press]
Pennsylvania state lawmakers are considering legislation to ban balloon releases — a ceremony that, in Philadelphia, is a key tradition for memorializing people lost to gun violence. Proponents cite the harmful effects of balloon debris on ecosystems. Philly Pastor Aaron Campbell, who organizes balloon releases, calls them a space for healing from grief, and says that balloon releases are more frequent than anyone would like. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
The Chicago Police Department has used gun buybacks to get thousands of firearms off the street. At least two firearms handed in at buybacks have subsequently turned up at crime scenes, raising questions about the integrity and logistics of Chicago’s program. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said he would not enforce a state law — enacted after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — banning gun sales to people under 21, even after the measure was upheld by a federal appeals court. Uthmeier also said he would not defend the age restriction law if that challenge, brought by the National Rifle Association, is sent to the Supreme Court. [Florida Politics]
Senator John Cornyn, of Texas, appears to have won over his state’s Republican Party chair, after being booed and censored for his leading role in passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. That could help Cornyn navigate a tough reelection campaign: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is openly mulling a challenge to the senior senator in the primary. [The Texas Tribune]
The Justice Department will restore actor Mel Gibson’s gun rights, according to people familiar with the situation. Gibson, a prominent supporter of President Donald Trump, was barred from having firearms because of a domestic violence conviction. Nine others will reportedly also see their gun rights restored. [The New York Times]
Police in Nashville, Tennessee, closed the investigation into the shooting at the Covenant School, shortly after the two-year marker of the attack passed. The department’s 44-page report shows that the shooter obtained several firearms via licensed retailers and lists details about the perpetrator’s motive. Six people were killed in the attack: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Michael Hill, William Kinney, Hallie Scruggs, Katherine Koonce, and Cynthia Peak. [WPLN]
There’s growing evidence that far-right “manfluencers” like Nick Fuentes and Andrew Tate are contributing to a rise in violence by laying the groundwork for young men to enter extremist online spaces. “We have proof that a number of mass casualty events, gun violence events in the U.S. were carried out by men who have frequented far-right chat rooms,” said Gretchen Baldwin, a senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. [Uncloseted Media]
Social media has intensified and transformed the dynamics of gang violence in the U.S. and beyond, writes Laurence Ralph, an anthropologist at Princeton University who studies gang violence. In an essay, Ralph reckons with the changes, showing the deadly consequences through the story of 19-year-old Luis Alberto Quiñonez’s fatal shooting in San Francisco. [Sapiens]
Data Point
11,368 — the number of people in Gen Z who were killed by firearms in 2023, the most recent year with available data. [The Trace]
Non Sequitur
Philly Fan Hecklers Thwarted By Doors
“The old days are not entirely gone. Phillies fans are absolutely Still Like That, and pitchers still have to step outside when they’re throwing warm-up tosses. With less time to heckle, fans will have time to come up with better insults than simply booing for 13 straight minutes this season. Let’s hope, at least.” [Defector]
