What To Know Today
From 2015 through 2021, shooting risks in NYC were highly concentrated by neighborhood. Researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice aggregated NYPD shooting data to assess which areas were experiencing disproportionate shootings, and which experienced none at all. The research found that of more than 6,200 New York City Census Block Groups — census tracts that generally contain between 600 and 3,000 people — 41 percent (or 2,534) experienced at least one shooting in the seven-year period, but that a much smaller amount had chronic patterns of gun violence that extended into the pandemic. “Communities experiencing high rates of gun violence were predictably those also scoring high on measures of concentrated socioeconomic disadvantage, with a high prevalence of female-headed households, and a large number of households receiving public assistance,” the authors write. Meanwhile, more than half (57 percent) of all New Yorkers live in communities that experienced no shooting incidents at all from 2015 through 2021.
Over half of Philadelphians don’t feel safe in their neighborhoods at night. Nearly two-thirds heard gunshots in the last year. That’s according to a Pew survey, which found that 70 percent of residents see crime, drugs, and public safety issues as the biggest in the city, an increase of 30 percentage points since 2020 and after the city endured historic homicides in 2021. Black and Hispanic residents were far more likely to report being personally affected by gun violence, with more than half saying it had a major impact on their quality of life, compared to just 18 percent of white residents. Check out Up the Block, our resource hub for Philadelphians affected by violence.
Gun control groups petition the Federal Trade Commission. Giffords and March for Our Lives were among the groups asking the body to look into the marketing tactics of the gun industry, which has allegedly led Americans to falsely “believe that gun ownership is a safe way to protect their home and family.” The petition says that the FTC “has effectively given the gun industry a free pass.” The New York Times was the first to report on the petition. While a federal law shields the gun industry from many lawsuits, the FTC can enforce federal consumer protection laws that advocates hope could lead to lawsuits similar to those that have successfully advanced in state courts.
Senate confirms Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as an associate justice on the Supreme Court. President Joe Biden’s nominee to replace outgoing justice Stephen Breyer was approved 53-47, with three Republicans crossing the aisle. Jackson’s record is scant on gun policy, though she has broadly held that she would adhere to precedent that the Supreme Court has established, that the “the individual right to keep and bear arms is a fundamental right.”
Data Point
1,562 — the number of shooting incidents in New York City in 2021, according to NYPD data. While that follows 2020’s biggest one-year jump on record, it is just shy of the year-end total of 1,566 in 2006. [Research and Evaluation Center, John Jay College of Criminal Justice]
