What To Know Today
NEW from THE TRACE: Watch: How violence interrupters help Brooklyn heal. Last year, The Trace partnered with Brooklyn-based BRIC TV to produce a series of documentaries exploring the nuances of violence, how individuals and their communities are coping with loss and disruption, and also how they’re catalyzing efforts to make their city safer. Each installment of the series, The Damage Done, approaches gun violence from another angle. BRIC just published the first of these installments, which focuses on trauma care and follows the Kings Against Violence Initiative as they work with shooting survivors. You can watch it here.
Dissident NRA board member accuses Wayne LaPierre of “plundering the NRA” and backs leadership change. Phillip Journey, who has been a critical internal voice against NRA leadership after we reported on self-dealing and financial malfeasance in 2019, released a new video calling for the change. Weeks ahead of the NRA’s annual meeting, Journey is also supporting a long-shot campaign along with two former board members to draft Allen West as LaPierre’s replacement. The campaign comes days after New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an amended complaint in her office’s case against the NRA, asking for an independent monitor to oversee the NRA’s management of its assets. James is also still pushing for the removal of LaPierre even as the judge in the case denied her bid for full NRA dissolution. Journey said his effort was “the last exit ramp before the destruction of the NRA, because I don’t think the attorney general is going to operate the NRA in good faith.”
Despite U.S. ban, Russian ammo is still legally flowing onto the market. After the poisoning of dissident Alexei Navalny last year, the Biden administration banned imports of Russian ammunition. But because the State Department policy only covered new or pending permits, existing U.S. permit holders for Russian ammo imports were unaffected. USA TODAY reports that since the ban went into effect in September ammo shipments from seven Russian munition plants have come in through 13 American importers, amounting to more than 400 million rounds, nearly equal the rate for all of 2021.
Biden’s ATF nominee picks up more endorsements. Former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach, the president’s second pick to lead the agency, received support from more than 140 former federal prosecutors and DOJ officials, including two past attorneys general, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, which represents over 26,000 officials. Dettelbach previously received endorsements from groups including the Major County Sheriffs of America and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.
Data Point
88 percent — the share of New York City homicides in 2021 that were committed with a gun, up from 62 percent from 2017 to 2019, according to an analysis of the biggest 50 American cities. Similar upward trends of homicides with a gun were seen in Chicago (93 percent in 2021), Philadelphia (87 percent), and Milwaukee (93 percent). [Giffords]
