Availability and quality of U.S. gun violence data ebbs and flows with political tides and the whims of charitable foundations, but there are some constants: Every shooting is a tragedy, and the less we know about the problem, the harder it is to solve it.

This week, with the launch of a data library, The Trace took a major step toward stabilizing the ebbs and flows of reliable, accessible data. The library is set up to be an ever-expanding compendium of figures and facts about guns and gun violence in the U.S., regardless of outside factors. With smart choices about data governance and tooling, we’ve positioned ourselves to enable collaboration with both news organizations and major academic research institutions.

We’re providing nine initial datasets, many of which you’ve seen referenced time and again in pages across The Trace. For the future, the Gun Violence Data Hub — the Trace initiative for which I am the editor — strives to be the single most reliable and expansive resource for gun violence information in the U.S.

Here are those first nine: 

We’ll be working hard on nine more, and then some, in the coming weeks and months. Next up: a comprehensive database of shootings that occurred within 500 yards of public or private school.

— George LeVines, Gun Violence Data Hub editor

From The Trace

GOP Budget Could Divert Millions From Gun Violence Prevention, Democrats Say: Congressional Democrats have accused Republicans of crafting a spending plan that would allow the Trump administration to shift funding away from reducing gun violence.

Chicago’s ‘Stop the Bleed’ Kits Could Help Shooting Victims. Why Don’t More People Know About Them?: Violence prevention leaders say a city program that could help bystanders save lives is missing a key opportunity.

The Trace Expands Gun Violence Data Hub With New Data Library: The Hub’s new tool launches with nine datasets.

What We’re Reading  

Schools are surveilling kids to prevent gun violence or suicide. The lack of privacy comes at a cost: In some cases, the technology has outed LGBTQ+ children and eroded trust between students and school staff. [The Hechinger Report] 

My brother was shot dead – and then my nephew. Now I’m trying to make our city a safer place: As mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, Randall Woodfin is trying to tackle a murder epidemic. He’s all too familiar with the pain of losing a loved one to violence. [The Guardian] 

Trump Is Backing Away From Police Reform. Here’s What That Means for 12 Places: The administration appears set to end federal oversight of police, including agencies that have committed systemic civil rights violations. [The Marshall Project] 

DOJ official says she was fired after opposing the restoration of Mel Gibson’s gun rights: Actor Mel Gibson, a supporter of President Donald Trump, lost his gun rights after a 2011 domestic violence misdemeanor conviction. [NBC] 

Breonna Taylor’s mother remembers: “I don’t want to have to prove that she deserves justice.” [The 19th]

News Tip

A former outside counsel to the National Rifle Association, Noah Peters, is among Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) personnel and aiding a purge of federal workers, according to multiple reports. Peters, who has employment law expertise, was part of the legal teams that unsuccessfully defended the NRA against New York Attorney General Letitia James and won a First Amendment victory for the group at the Supreme Court. — Will Van Sant, staff writer 

In Memoriam 

Octavian Estrada, 39, had been cutting hair since he was 12, his nephew said — but for the town of Floresville, Texas, Estrada was more than a neighborhood barber. Sitting in his chair meant gaining a lifelong friend, someone who would make you laugh or be a mentor to your kids. Estrada, called “Tave” by those who knew him, was killed in an apparent road rage shooting last week on his way to nearby San Antonio. He went out of his way for people: His niece and nephew remembered how, if a community member’s loved one passed away, he’d go to the morgue to cut their hair before a funeral. Outside of work, per his obituary, he was also “well known in the Bully and Frenchie community.” Barbering “wasn’t just a job for him,” many of Estrada’s loved ones said at a vigil. “He was touching lives.” 

Spotlight on Solutions 

For years, studies have found that, in the majority of American homes, an unsecured firearm is more likely to result in an accidental death or suicide than be used in defense against a home invasion. Yet many firearms owners don’t necessarily see safe storage as a means to prevent suicide or shootings. As The Trace has reported, physicians, mental health practitioners, and other medical providers have been at the center of efforts to change that.

Dr. James Bigham, a family medicine doctor and clinical professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, is part of that movement — and he’s taking his work beyond a clinical setting. Isthmus reports that Bigham has teamed up with the owner of a local firearms retailer and shooting range to host monthly training sessions with health professionals at the gun shop, helping providers learn more about guns and how to talk to patients about secure storage. The store’s owner, Steve D’Orazio, similarly prioritizes gun safety, and speaks with customers about the dangers insecurely stored guns pose to children. 

“There’s an imaginary line, a cultural line that’s been drawn,” Bigham told Isthmus. “I want people to recognize that just because something is politicized, doesn’t mean it’s something we shouldn’t talk about in the clinic.”

Pull Quote

“Going through the training and actually visualizing someone being in that situation, and the stress that comes with it, can also be a deterrent for someone to pick up a gun.”

— Trevon Bosley, a member of a youth-led violence prevention group in Chicago, on how “Stop the Bleed” training could prevent violence, to The Trace

George LeVines
George is the editor of The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub, planning and managing the bits, bytes and resources that make it possible. George most recently worked at the Los Angeles Times where he helped lead a data and graphics team that anchored several awards, including a Pulitzer Finalist nod for its coverage of the 2023 Lunar New Year shooting in Monterey Park, California. He previously worked with several NPR member stations in California, winning a national Edward R. Murrow award for work holding the U.S. Forest Service accountable for its failures in tracking and executing wildfire prevention measures. George wore several hats over a five year run with the politics and policy wonks at CQ Roll Call in Washington, D.C. His first byline appeared on a photo in the Badger Herald, University of Wisconsin-Madison’s independent student newspaper. He is an avid motorcyclist, handyman, and ailing Boston Red Sox fanatic.