Featured Story
Victims of domestic violence in rural communities face unique barriers to evading unsafe situations; there are fewer resources for support, and police and courts usually lack staff and training. Recognizing these difficulties, Scott County, Tennessee — a rural area in a state with one of the highest rates of women killed by men, most often with a firearm — created a new system to deal with domestic violence cases, with a focus on ensuring that people subject to domestic violence charges or protection orders don’t have access to guns. Available data indicates that domestic violence incidents there have fallen significantly. [ProPublica and WPLN/Nashville Public Radio]
From The Trace
Though gun violence tends to worsen with the summer heat, Philadelphia is experiencing its most peaceful season in nearly a decade. According to city data, shootings are down nearly 40 percent compared to this time last year. That drop includes fewer shootings of teens and children, defying a national trend. Homicides are similarly plummeting — as of August 13, the city had experienced 37 percent fewer killings in 2024 than in 2023.
What do the falling numbers mean? In his latest story, The Trace’s Mensah M. Dean explains what could be driving the drop, and the work the city still has to do.
What to Know Today
The church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, where a shooter killed more than two dozen people in 2017 was torn down on Monday. Not everyone in the small community wanted it demolished. [Associated Press]
When he was first nominated by former President Barack Obama as surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy called gun violence a public health issue. Those comments delayed his confirmation until 2014 and, once in the role, he stayed largely quiet on the issue — until June, when he took the unprecedented step of issuing an advisory on gun violence. What’s informed his position? [Los Angeles Times]
U.S. Representative Mike Kelly, a Republican, was named chair of the congressional task force investigating the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally. Kelly brings personal experience to the task: He represents Butler County, where the shooting took place, and was in the audience with his family when the gunfire began. [The New York Times]
Sikh Americans and Sikh Canadians, including elected officials, say they’ve been targeted with threats, harassment, and “swatting” — a term for falsely reporting an emergency to elicit an armed police response — in the year since a Sikh separatist was shot and killed outside his place of worship in British Columbia. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there is evidence that the Indian government was involved in the killing, and the FBI has broadly warned Sikh Americans about “transnational repression,” efforts by a foreign state to threaten political opponents in another country. [Reuters]
Archive
Gun Laws Can Keep Domestic Violence Victims Safe — But They’re Under Unprecedented Threat
A body of research demonstrates that state gun laws intended to protect victims of domestic violence can work. (March 2024)
