In the final years of his tenure as U.S. surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy issued advisories on two separate but interconnected public health issues: gun violence and loneliness. Recent research on the lasting effects of gun violence hints at the link.
In April, the journal Nature Mental Health published a study with fascinating findings on the lasting effects of gun violence. People who survive commonplace gun violence, like shootings stemming from domestic violence or robberies, report longer-term mental health symptoms than people who survive mass shootings. Experts told The Trace’s Alma Beauvais that the findings were surprising, but not unexplainable.
Consider how people respond to natural disasters: In the wake of an earthquake or hurricane, people tend to react with altruism and solidarity. Neighbors help neighbors. If someone’s roof caves in on an otherwise normal day, the response is not nearly as large; that type of personal disaster might not even make the news. Mass shootings are shared experiences that prompt communal social support, which “helps to resolve some of the distress that comes from it,” said study co-author David Pyrooz. Meanwhile, explained clinical psychologist Mayer Bellehsen, survivors of everyday gun violence are often specifically targeted, and there’s greater potential that a shooting will take place in environments they’re regularly exposed to. And when it comes to recovery, survivors of everyday shootings are more likely to be socially isolated — left to try to heal alone.
Overcoming that isolation and creating social support systems is a key part of gun violence intervention and prevention. A new story from The Trace’s Josiah Bates provides an example: Advance Peace, a national violence intervention program, works directly with people who have been engaged in shootings, enrolling them in fellowships that provide concentrated mentoring, daily communication, job opportunities, skills development, and monthly stipends. In Lansing, Michigan, where Advance Peace launched in 2022, activists and law enforcement alike credit the program with helping to drive gun violence down from historic highs.
In other words, there’s a deceptively simple solution to both the gun violence and loneliness epidemics: build community, and care about the people within it.
From The Trace
A Program That Works Directly With Shooters Is Finding Success — And Police Support: Establishing Advance Peace in Lansing, Michigan, was a battle, but its unique approach to community violence intervention has garnered attention, and cooperation, from law enforcement.
A Memorial Day Mass Shooting Has Unnerved Philadelphians. Is It a Harbinger?: Warm weather often brings a spike in gun violence. Officials are hoping to mitigate it through teen programming and increased patrols.
Mass Shootings Take a Psychological Toll. Other Forms of Gun Violence May Be Even Worse: A recent study found that survivors of everyday gun violence endure long-lasting effects.
The Roundup: Catch Up on the Latest Research Illuminating the Effects of Gun Violence: These studies land as leading research institutions face threatening budget cuts.
What We’re Reading
A Tennessee School Expelled a 12-Year-Old for a Social Post. Experts Say It Didn’t Properly Assess If He Made a Threat: A Nashville seventh-grader was arrested and charged with making a threat of mass violence over a concerning Instagram post, then expelled after his school carried out a flawed threat assessment. His case illustrates serious contradictions in two recent Tennessee laws on school threats. [ProPublica]
These mothers fought for their sons killed by police. Now they’re fighting for the country: The Mothers Against Police Brutality are bringing their individual experiences of tragedy together to empower police reform. [The 19th]
They were shot by police at the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. ‘I came home a different person’: Some protesters are still recovering physically and financially from speaking out. [The Guardian]
Street-level violence prevention programs have been decimated by Trump just ahead of summer: A growing body of research has found a correlation between temperature spikes and violent crime. [Stateline]
Judges Weigh Taking Control of Their Own Security Amid Threats: Amid rising tensions between the Trump administration and the judiciary, some federal judges are beginning to discuss the idea of managing their own armed security force. [The Wall Street Journal]
Guns bought in the U.S. and trafficked to Mexican drug cartels fuel violence in Mexico and the migration crisis: A gun trafficking expert and an investigative journalist developed a model to estimate the flow of firearms from the United States to Mexico using trafficking estimates, including leaked data, previous research, firearm manufacturing totals and the ATF trace data. [The Conversation]
In Memoriam
Jordan Neal, 9, was a fighter. Born premature, weighing just over 1 pound, and diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Jordan was never expected to walk, talk, or cry, but he “did all of that,” his grandmother said. Jordan was shot in St. Louis last Saturday — his mother’s birthday — in what loved ones believe was a road rage attack. He died at the hospital, after doctors tried to save him for three hours. His father was also shot in the leg, and his 10-year-old brother, Richard III, was seriously injured by a bullet to the chest, but he is expected to make a full recovery. Jordan was “a ball of light,” his mom said; his father remembered that he always had a smile on his face. He survived multiple major surgeries in his life, per his father, and was set to go to school for the first time this year. He’d already picked out a Spiderman backpack. “He had so much positive energy, even though they counted him out,” his mom said. “God counted him in. They gave him a 1 percent chance to live, and Jordan gave us 9 years.”
Spotlight on Solutions
Six years ago, no state in the country had its own dedicated gun violence prevention office. Today, that number stands at 15, plus the District of Columbia. Three of those states have established or expanded their offices this year alone.
The new efforts come at a pivotal moment. Following the Trump administration’s closure of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, states are increasingly shouldering the responsibility of coordinating efforts against shootings. In the latest edition of The Trajectory newsletter, reporter Chip Brownlee breaks down what these offices do and what they mean for states that have established them.
Pull Quote
“If a shooting occurred this week, nobody’s going to talk to the police, but they’re going to talk to our people.”
— Paul Elam, a criminologist at the Michigan Public Health Institute who helped bring Advance Peace to Lansing, on the violence intervention program’s strategy, to The Trace
