From Our Team
The Trace’s Jennifer Mascia has been on the gun violence beat for a decade. She started out working on “The Gun Report,” a compilation of the circumstances of individual shootings in the news. For 16 months, she and her New York Times colleague Joe Nocera presented a line or two about every shooting they could find, a snapshot of who gets shot in America.
“When The Gun Report launched,” Mascia writes, “simply stating that gun violence was a problem in America was seen as a political statement.” That’s changed — but it’s about the only thing that has. In an essay for The Trace, Mascia chronicles her 10 years on a tough and unrelenting beat.
What to Know Today
The conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a federal law preventing people subject to domestic violence restraining orders from having guns is unconstitutional. If the decision is challenged, the case could go to the Supreme Court. [CNN] Context: Perpetrators of some of the country’s deadliest shootings have a history of engaging in domestic violence.
An expansive ATF report, the first of its kind in more than 20 years, shows that the use of ghost guns in crimes in the U.S. has increased more than 1,000 percent since 2017. [CBS News]
The father of a man killed by Kyle Rittenhouse will be able to pursue conspiracy claims against Rittenhouse and local law enforcement for his son’s death. [Courthouse News]
A group of Democratic senators, led by Ed Markey of Massachusetts, introduced legislation directing the Federal Trade Commission to create rules banning the marketing guns to children. And eight Senate Democrats formed the Gun Violence Prevention Caucus last week. [Reuters/The Hill]
Some Chicago neighborhoods are more dangerous for young military-age men than what U.S. troops faced in war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a new study. [Chicago Sun-Times]
The family of Amir Locke, a young Black man killed by police in a no-knock raid last year, is suing the city of Minneapolis over his death. An officer shot him nine seconds after entering the apartment where Locke was staying. [MPR News]
A city councilwoman in Sayreville, New Jersey, was shot multiple times and killed in her car last week. Authorities do not yet know the motive of the shooter, and the FBI said it is prepared to assist in the case. [NJ.com/NBC 4 New York]
The House Natural Resources Committee dropped a rule against carrying firearms in meetings, following a partisan debate in which Representative Lauren Boebert referred to the ban as an “anti-member safety amendment.” [Roll Call]
Data Point
1,277 — the annual rate of firearm homicide per 100,000 in the most dangerous Chicago ZIP code in 2021 and 2022, almost twice the annual death rate for U.S. troops in a heavily engaged armed combat brigade in Iraq. [JAMA Network Open via Chicago Sun-Times]
