The decade opened with a sea change in the country’s approach to gun violence. The coronavirus pandemic was accompanied by a surge in gun violence that took roughly 18,126 more lives than if shootings had remained at their 2019 level. The racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd by police sparked a newfound wave of momentum for alternative approaches to public safety. A massive influx of federal investment in gun violence prevention and intervention efforts followed. One of the most significant funding sources: the American Rescue Plan Act, the economic stimulus package passed early in the Biden administration.
Now, halfway through the 2020s, all of that has changed again. ARPA aid is over, and Donald Trump has returned to the White House with threats to slash over $1 trillion in federal funding. Gun violence has dropped over the past few years, which has prompted fears that policymakers may be lulled into thinking that funding for prevention and intervention should be reduced.
All of this adds up to the likely loss of crucial violence reduction programs. In Detroit, The Trace’s Josiah Bates reported last month, that could mean the end of the ShotStoppers initiative, which officials have credited for contributing to a historic decline in homicides. In his latest story, The Trace’s Mensah M. Dean examines what the new federal climate could mean in Philadelphia, another city that’s experienced a steep drop in shootings.
From The Trace
Philadelphia Is Experiencing a Remarkable Drop in Bloodshed. Federal Funding Cuts Threaten That Progress: The double punch of the Trump presidency and the end of pandemic relief money leaves a key component of Philly’s success up in the air.
Teens Are More Likely to Arm Themselves in Cluttered, Violence-Plagued Neighborhoods, Research Finds: A recent analysis looks into factors that contribute to perceived community disorder, and the role of mental health treatment in stemming gun violence.
SCOTUS Appears Ready to Sink Mexico’s Lawsuit Against U.S. Gunmakers: During oral arguments on March 4, the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of Mexico’s allegations that American gunmakers had fueled cartel violence. The justices’ decision could doom the case.
What to Know Today
The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, which instructs law enforcement and other public safety officers, has barred recruits from training with the SIG Sauer P320 pistol and permanently banned it from the commission’s campuses. In her order prohibiting the handgun, the commission’s executive director, Monica Alexander, wrote that the decision was made “out of an abundance of caution for the safety of our recruits and staff.” SIG Sauer has been embroiled in controversy regarding the P320, its flagship handgun and one of the most popular firearms in America, as the pistol is tied to an increasing number of unintentional shooting injuries. In April 2023, an investigation by The Trace and The Washington Post revealed that more than 100 people had claimed that their P320s fired without a trigger pull, resulting in at least 80 injuries. The alleged defect is the subject of dozens of lawsuits against the company. SIG Sauer has maintained that the pistol is safe. [The Seattle Times]
A congressional hearing on sanctuary city policies last week seemingly had the opposite effect of what Republican lawmakers intended, as Democratic mayors used the meeting to amplify their own platforms. That included a call for gun reform from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. The hearing occurred amid heightened national tensions around immigration and right-wing rhetoric linking immigrants to crime, a narrative that is not backed by research. [The Guardian]
Texas state Representative Don McLaughlin, the former mayor of Uvalde, filed legislation to improve how schools, law enforcement agencies, and first responders react to active-shooter situations. Among other things, the “Uvalde Strong Act” would require school districts and law enforcement to meet once a year to plan their response to an active-shooter situation and require annual drills on active-shooter responses. The bill is intended to address the failures of the response to the 2022 massacre at Robb Elementary School. [The Texas Tribune]
A panel of the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that qualified immunity does not protect a Jackson, Mississippi, police detective in a case in which she wrongfully arrested a man for a fatal shooting. The decision raises broader questions about qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects government workers from litigation and is frequently used to shield police accused of misconduct from civil lawsuits. [Mississippi Today]
On September 2, 1885, a mob of white men armed with rifles and revolvers invaded a Chinese American community in Rock Springs, Wyoming, killing dozens of people and burning the neighborhood down in one of the deadliest acts of racial terror in U.S. history. As the full story of the atrocity is unearthed, it provides insights into patterns of violence that remain relevant today. [The New Yorker]
The gun homicide rate in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, is more than twice the state average. A new podcast turns to local teens and young adults, for whom gun violence is a leading cause of death, to share their perspectives on the epidemic, and what can be done to solve it — in Cleveland and beyond. [Ideastream Public Media/WOSU]
The First Amendment Coalition honored The Trace and CBS News, in collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, with a 2024 Free Speech and Open Government Award for our investigation into how former police guns end up being used in crimes. Read “Shot by a Civilian Wielding a Police Gun” here.
Data Point
8 in 10 — the proportion of homicides in the U.S. that involved a gun in 2023, according to the latest data from the CDC. During that period, more than half of all suicides — which account for the majority of U.S. gun deaths — also involved a gun, one of the highest percentages of this century. [Pew Research Center]
Non Sequitur
Inside the Herculean Effort to Study and Save the World’s Smallest Sea Turtle
After years of steady gains, a decades-long conservation program dedicated to the Kemp’s ridley hits rough seas. [Smithsonian Magazine]
