Featured Story
New Orleans experienced a dramatic decline in shootings last year — and while the drop was promising, community leaders and public health officials told The Trace’s Chip Brownlee last fall that they were determined to get the numbers down further.
Their efforts appear to be paying off: Violent crime is plummeting in New Orleans so far in 2024. [NOLA]
Public Health
There have been at least 394 school shootings in the past 25 years — and for teachers, the constant concern that violence may reach their classrooms is taking a toll. A new survey by the Pew Research Center found that 59 percent of teachers worry about a school shooting, and about 25 percent said they had experienced a gun-related lockdown in the last school year.
The new survey found stark partisan differences among respondents, and answers also differed among teachers in urban, suburban, and rural areas. In her latest story, The Trace’s Fairriona Magee shares more on the findings.
Philadelphia
One day before Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker and Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel announced a sweeping public safety plan, gunfire erupted and hit two people during a large Eid al-Fitr celebration in West Philly, near one of the city’s largest mosques. The shooting underscored how unpredictable and explosive Philadelphia’s gun violence can be, even as shootings are trending downward.
It was in that context that Parker released her plan, which focuses on upping the number of officers engaged in community policing, relying more on data-driven policing, and strengthening partnerships between police and community members. The Trace’s Mensah M. Dean has the story.
What to Know Today
A survey of nearly 13,000 Americans found that gun owners are only moderately more likely to support political violence than those who do not own guns. But researchers found striking differences among subsets of gun owners: People who had purchased their firearms over the past four years or regularly carry their weapon in public were more supportive of and willing to engage in political violence than other gun owners. [JAMA Network Open/The Guardian]
Police in several Chicago suburbs issued community warnings about “Senior Assassin,” a popular game among young people nationwide that involves water guns, after some “concerning incidents.” Among them: When a group of high school students entered a restaurant with their water guns, a concealed carry holder “mistook the situation for a genuine threat,” per one alert; while no one was hurt, “the situation could have escalated quickly.” [NBC Chicago]
It’s been a year since Missouri teen Ralph Yarl survived being shot in the head after ringing the wrong doorbell. He’s just now coming to terms with how the shooting changed his life, still fighting to recover physically and emotionally while charting a path forward. [NBC]
Data Point
31 percent — the reduction in homicides in New Orleans from the start of 2024 through April 6, compared with the same period in 2023. [NOLA]
