In some of America’s highest-crime cities, young Black men often feel compelled to carry guns to survive. That’s according to a study published by the Delaware Journal of Public Health, who asked more than 350 Black men between 15 and 24 years old about their perceptions of their homes and their thoughts on violence. The findings, researchers said, underscore the urgent need to tailor strategies and have more effective conversations around gun violence prevention.

All study participants either owned a gun at the time of the study or had owned one recently. They lived in Wilmington, Delaware; Jackson, Mississippi; Baltimore; and Houston — four cities known to have high levels of violence. More than two-thirds of those surveyed described their home cities with negative terms, like “violent,” “dangerous,” or “crazy,” citing personal safety as their primary reason for possessing guns.

Howard Henderson, a Texas Southern University professor and co-author of the study, emphasized the importance of understanding the perspectives of those most affected by violence to develop meaningful interventions. “Unless you actually have conversations with individuals who are intimately associated with the problem,” he told me, “you may not understand the nuances involved in the issues.”

The young men’s responses corroborate a common misconception among Americans who believe that purchasing a gun enhances their safety, despite decades of evidence showing that firearm ownership actually raises the risk of harm. Henderson’s insights also echo concerns raised by many community violence prevention groups. They say that easy access to guns contributes to community violence, and see violence as a symptom of deeply rooted environmental and social conditions in under-resourced neighborhoods.

— Alma Beauvais, editorial assistant

From The Trace

What to Know Today

A man was arrested for allegedly shooting at a Democratic National Committee office three times — once with a BB gun and twice with a firearm — in suburban Phoenix. An Arizona prosecutor said authorities seized more than 120 guns, over 250,000 rounds of ammunition, scopes, body armor, and silencers after he was taken into custody, leading them to believe that he was planning a mass-casualty event. [CNN/The Guardian] 

It’s been a year since 18 people were killed in a gun rampage in Lewiston, Maine, the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history. As community members continue to reckon with their grief, some survivors, advocates, and lawmakers wish that efforts to reform Maine’s gun laws had made more progress. [FRONTLINE/The Boston Globe] 

A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit upheld large portions of the expansive gun safety law New York adopted after the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision. The appeals court said the state can enforce restrictions barring people from carrying weapons in “sensitive places” like schools, bars, and Times Square, but held that the state’s ban on having guns on private properties that are normally open to the public, like gas stations, is unconstitutional. [Reuters] 

Threat assessment and law enforcement officials are highly concerned about Donald Trump’s hateful and inciting campaign rhetoric, which can be interpreted by some people as permission to commit violence, per one expert. History is instructive: The former president’s rhetoric has been linked to one of his supporters attacking an FBI field office with an AR-15 and threats to kill an FBI agent over Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was “stolen.” [Mother Jones] 

Earlier this month, police officers armed with handguns and rifles and dressed in full tactical gear stormed a West Philadelphia home where several University of Pennsylvania students live, training guns on them as they stepped out of their rooms, according to one student present during the raid. The apparent reason for the raid? A warrant for a month-old vandalism case linked to pro-Palestinian activism. A state lawmaker expressed concern about the level of force: “I’m pretty concerned that the university is using extreme tactics to try and suppress student movements.” [The Intercept] 

A man reportedly known as the “AK Guru” was arrested last week after agents with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force raided his home in rural North Carolina and found dozens of machine guns and homemade suppressors. The man was allegedly making and selling homemade machine guns at scale, as well as teaching others to build machine guns and suppressors. [Court Watch]  

Amid a wave of concern about teenagers’ mental health, some artificial intelligence companies have proposed that AI companionship apps could help. For Sewell Setzer III, a 14 year old who killed himself using his step-father’s gun, the opposite may have been true. After spending months talking to a chatbot — and developing an emotional attachment — Sewell told it that he was having thoughts of suicide. His mother blames the AI for his death. [The New York Times] 

How can the gun safety movement make progress in the current divisive political climate? One gun violence researcher says to look to the local level, where communities are taking meaningful action to counter the crisis. [LitHub]

Data Point

29 percent — the proportion of children who died by gun suicide in 2023, out of all child gun deaths. [The Trace]

Non Sequitur

In A Game Of Risk, The Frustration Is The Point: “As much as I loathe risk, the concept, I love Risk, the board game. I have found that this is not a popular opinion, and I get it.” [Defector]

Alma Beauvais
As The Trace’s first-ever editorial assistant, Alma helps the team stay organized. Prior to joining the Trace, she worked as a freelance journalist for The Nation and The West Georgian, and fact checked stories for magazine articles and books. She interned at The Miami Herald and The Nation. She has also written about her home country of Haiti as a contributing writer for the Pulitzer Center and The Haitian Times. She holds a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
Sunny Sone
Sunny is The Trace’s senior editor for audience and engagement. Sunny previously worked as a copy editor at The Intercept and as digital editor for the Texas Observer, and has covered topics ranging from the Texas funeral industry to the life of visionary composer Pauline Oliveros. Sunny holds a degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Austin.