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There’s a national crisis in the family court system: Nearly every six days in the U.S., a recent report found, a child is killed amid a custody dispute, family court lapse, or other mishaps. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for these kids. [USA TODAY]
Context: Most parents worry that a shooting could happen at their children’s school. But a Trace analysis found that three times as many kids were shot in domestic violence incidents between 2018 and 2022.
From Our Team
The massacres last year at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York — two of the deadliest mass shootings in recent history — were both carried out by 18-year-olds armed with semiautomatic rifles. They’re among many young people who have perpetrated mass shootings, a trend experts attribute to lenient gun laws. Advocates say the solution is to pass stricter regulations, like raising the minimum age to own semiautomatic firearms to 21.
Raise-the-age legislation is a tall ask in the current political climate, especially on the federal level. Last year, though, lawmakers in Congress reached a compromise: They created an enhanced background check process for people under 21 who are looking to buy firearms from licensed dealers. And so far, Chip Brownlee reports in the latest edition of The Trajectory, the results look promising.
What to Know Today
Homicides have started to fall in New Orleans, but the city is experiencing an alarming trend: Even as killings decrease, the number of women victims continues to rise. The victims are oftentimes Black mothers, and they almost always die by gun. [The 19th]
After the Parkland massacre in 2018, then-President Donald Trump publicly urged lawmakers to pass gun safety legislation. Privately, however, his administration effectively handed the NRA “veto power” over its response to the shooting, according to a former Homeland Security official who worked under Trump. [Vanity Fair]
Can a one-minute gun safety video change how children behave around real guns? [CNN/JAMA Pediatrics]
A federal judge ruled that San Jose, California’s law requiring gun owners to carry liability insurance is “consistent with the Nation’s historical traditions” and doesn’t violate the Second Amendment, dealing a major blow to pro-gun advocacy groups. [The Mercury News] Context: San Jose was the first city in the country to mandate gun liability policies.
A number of country music stars — including Jason Isbell, Julie Williams, Devon Gilfillian, and The Kentucky Gentlemen — will perform at Together in Action, a benefit concert for gun violence prevention efforts in Tennessee. The singer-songwriters, along with event organizer and Black Opry founder Holly G, are part of a group of Nashville musicians challenging the Tennessee government’s hard-right turn. [Billboard/The New Yorker]
The suspect in the Gilgo Beach serial killings kept a cache of more than 200 guns in a vault inside his home in Long Island, New York, according to police. [NBC]
Data Point
944 — the number of children killed by a divorcing or separating parent or another parental figure since 2008. [USA TODAY]
