Featured Story
The detrimental outcomes of direct exposure to gun violence — like surviving a shooting, or being close to someone who is shot — are well-known. But a new study exploring other types of exposure found that even witnessing or hearing about neighborhood shootings can significantly hurt quality of life, too. [Journal of Urban Health]
From The Trace
A decade ago, permitless carry was illegal in much of the country. But over the past 10 years, with help from gun rights advocates and the NRA, it’s become the norm.
Proponents argued that removing permit requirements would make people safer. By removing roadblocks for citizens to carry, more would do so, which would deter or stop shootings. But by that metric, permitless carry appears to have failed: Most states endured more fatal shootings after the laws took effect.
The Trace analyzed gun violence data and found that 16 of the 20 states that enacted permitless carry between 2015 and 2022 saw more shooting deaths — excluding suicides — after the laws took effect than during an equivalent time period before. In his latest story, reporter Chip Brownlee breaks down the data, explores existing research, and examines the real-world consequences.
What to Know Today
Friday marked 10 years since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police in Ferguson, Missouri, prompting widespread protests and propelling the Black Lives Matter movement into the spotlight. How has Ferguson changed over the past decade? [NPR]
New body camera footage of the minutes before and after a shooter attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump provides greater context on the security issues at the Pennsylvania campaign rally. The videos show the moment a local police officer saw the shooter on a roof before he opened fire on Trump, and captures local officers’ complaints that they had warned the Secret Service that the warehouse the shooter positioned himself upon needed protection. [The Wall Street Journal]
A new report from the Education Department found that the rate of student firearm possessions in the 2021-2022 school year was higher than any other year in the previous decade. The report shows that gun violence in schools has increased over the past 20 years. [USA TODAY]
The State Fair of Texas announced that it is banning all firearms at this year’s event, following a shooting on the fairgrounds that injured three people last year. The prohibition includes concealed carry. Though the alleged shooter at last year’s event did not have a license to carry a gun, a State Fair official said the new measure is “in place to ensure that we are doing everything in our power to make it not happen again.” [KERA]
Via The Weekly Briefing newsletter: A U.S. district judge dismissed much of a lawsuit by the Mexican government accusing America’s largest gunmakers of aiding and abetting the trafficking of weapons across the border. The Boston-based judge dismissed claims against six of the eight companies named in the suit, saying that their connections to Massachusetts were “gossamer-thin at best”; Smith & Wesson, which is based in Springfield, and a wholesaler remain defendants. Mexico’s foreign ministry said it will continue taking legal action against the companies. [Reuters]
Archive
Just Outside the School Gate, America’s Gun Violence Epidemic Surrounds Its Students
Every day, an average of 57 shootings occur near a school in the United States, according to an analysis by The Trace. (June 2024)
