What To Know Today
A Parkland survivor’s long path to recovery. In 2018, Eden Hebron witnessed a gunman killing 17 people and injuring 17 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. In the more than four years since, Hebron has worked to overcome the trauma she experienced, including fighting stigma for getting mental health support. Hebron is frank that her family’s decision to temporarily relocate her from Florida to a mental health intervention facility in California likely saved her life. But as much as she wants to advocate for others processing shooting trauma to receive the same support, she’s also attuned to the fragility of her own recovery. “As much as I want to go and help people and save people,” she tells The Associated Press in a feature, “I need to focus on me because I know how it can get for me.”
The last decade saw a big rise in vehicular gun thefts — especially in 2020. That’s according to an Everytown for Gun Safety analysis of FBI data first reported on by NBC News. At least 180 cities saw a rise in gun thefts from cars from 2019 to 2020. In 149 cities that reported data from 2011 through 2020, the share of reported gun thefts coming from cars rose from less than a quarter of cases in 2011 to more than half in 2020. Thieves most commonly targeted cars parked outside of residences. (Through its nonpolitical arm, Everytown provides grants to The Trace. You can find our donor transparency policy here, and our editorial independence policy here.)
People with far-right ties are training police officers by the hundreds. Richard Whitehead has trained more than 500 police officers and public safety workers in the last four years. He is also is one of five people identified in a new Reuters investigation who have ties to far-right figures or a history of online extremism and also work for one of the scores of firms in the unregulated police training industry. Related from The Trace: In 2020, Alain Stephens dove into the toxic “warrior” mentality that is part of a lucrative for-profit police training field preaching deadly force.
Judge gives six-month sentences to militia men linked to fatal boogaloo plot. Jessie Rush, Kenny Miksch, and Simon Sage Ybarra recently admitted to conspiracy to destroy evidence related to the 2020 fatal shooting of a federal security guard in Oakland. (An ex-Air Force sergeant has already pleaded guilty to the murder.) In February, U.S. District Judge James Donato rejected plea agreements for the three men that proposed 10–12 months in federal prison, calling the punishment too lenient. But in an apparent reversal, Donato is now giving them less than the eight to 14 months laid out in sentencing guidelines.
Don’t miss: Chip Brownlee appeared on WNYC’s Morning Edition. He was there to discuss his new story revealing the existence of a secret NYPD gun violence database. Advocates are worried it could include innocent people. Listen here.
Data Point
32 percent — the share of armed demonstrations in 2021 who were held outside state legislative buildings, according to an analysis by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. That’s up from 15 percent in 2020. ACLED previously found that demonstrations with weapons present were six times more likely than unarmed events to be violent or destructive. [ACLED]
