Top Story
New Jersey officials released their plans to reform the Paterson Police Department following the state takeover of it shortly after officers shot and killed anti-violence worker Najee Seabrooks. The effort includes using artificial intelligence to analyze body-camera footage, getting supervisors on the scene when officers respond to crisis calls, and equipping officers with Tasers and pepper spray. [Gothamist]
Ask The Trace
Americans see thousands of advertisements per day, featuring just about any product or service available to consumers. In a single commercial break during an NFL game, for instance, viewers will see ads promoting everything from jobs building nuclear-powered submarines to streaming services to Triple Whopper hamburgers. What you won’t see, however, are advertisements for guns.
Although no federal law prohibits firearm manufacturers from advertising their products, Americans are unlikely to see an ad for a gun on a billboard, on national television, or on social media apps. For the latest Ask The Trace, Champe Barton breaks down why gun ads are so rare, and how gunmakers have shifted their marketing tactics. Read more →
What to Know Today
It takes more than a law enforcement investigation to solve a shooting. “Nuts and Bolts: Solving Gun Cases,” a new issue of Vital City’s journal, examines where cities are falling short, and how they could improve. [Vital City]
Guns are a fact of life in Texas — and few places illustrate the cultural dominance of firearms better than New Braunfels, a Central Texas city sandwiched between Austin and San Antonio that’s home to one of the country’s oldest shooting clubs and one of the state’s top urban ZIP codes for new handgun licenses per capita last year. [The Washington Post]
As of this year, public schools across Florida offer an optional lesson on the 2018 Parkland mass shooting in 11th-grade social studies classes. The new material came as a shock to some victims’ families, who say it’s too soon to reference the tragedy in history books. [South Florida Sun Sentinel]
Teenage boys and young men are increasingly dying by suicide. Experts say easy access to firearms and stigma around mental health and masculinity are driving the trend. [The 19th]
There’s still no trial date for the Texas capital murder case against the mass shooter who killed 23 people in a racist attack on an El Paso Walmart in 2019; the latest delay came this week, after a judge learned that prosecutors had yet to turn over evidence to the defense team. Meanwhile, federal court records show that the gunman agreed to pay over $5 million in restitution to victims of the shooting. [El Paso Times/Associated Press]
Big-name comics including Wanda Sykes, Billy Eichner, and David Cross spent months unsettling audiences by joking about school shootings during their standup routines. But the punchlines weren’t invented for laughs: The comedians incorporated real school shooting threats into their acts for a PSA about the behavioral warning signs that precede attacks. [Mother Jones]
Data Point
80 percent — the proportion of all youth suicide deaths that boys and young men represent. [The 19th]
