Last week, after the presidential election was called for Donald Trump, gun violence prevention workers wondered how a second Trump administration would affect people whose lives have been touched by shootings? In Chicago, The Trace’s Rita Oceguera spoke with three leaders to find out what they were thinking.
They agreed that funding to counter the crisis is integral — violence prevention work is benefiting from the 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which provided more than $13 billion for the cause — but worried that the money could disappear.
Cutting funding, said Tanya Zakrison, a professor and trauma surgeon at the University of Chicago’s Level I Trauma Center, “has the potential to undo everything.”
“If we stop our momentum now,” Zakrison said, “my deep fear and concern is that firearm violence is just going to increase again.”
From The Trace
- How Another Trump Presidency Could Affect Gun Violence Prevention in Chicago: Three Chicago leaders share their thoughts on the election — and how it could shape efforts to make their city safer.
- To Prevent Suicide, States Want to Let People Ban Themselves From Buying Guns: A Trace survey shows how many people have used it to temporarily suspend their own gun rights.
- A Fraternal Group Says It’s Dedicated to Child Welfare. So Why Do Its Local Chapters Raffle Guns?: Guns are the leading cause of death among young Americans. Yet the local temples of Shriners — an organization that supports pediatric hospitals — continue to host gun raffles, revealing the ubiquity and disconnect over firearms in America.
What to Know Today
Tuskegee University, in Alabama, announced that it has fired its security chief and that its campus is no longer open to the public, following a mass shooting that killed one person and injured 16 others on Sunday, during the school’s 100th homecoming weekend. The person who was killed was identified as 18-year-old La’Tavion Johnson, who was not a student; those who knew him called him a “lively soul.” [Montgomery Advertiser/The Guardian/WSFA]
A federal judge declared Illinois’ controversial ban on assault weapons unconstitutional, permanently blocking enforcement pending a one-month stay, during which the state is likely to file an appeal. U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn, a Donald Trump appointee, introduced his 168-page ruling with a discussion of “perils”: “Too often, the perils we face are forced upon us by other people. By people who are negligent, reckless, insane, impaired, or evil. Sometimes it is the proverbial lone wolf; sometimes, it is the whole wolf pack,” McGlynn wrote. “Truly, life comes at you quickly.” [Courthouse News/Chicago Sun-Times]
A New Jersey man was charged with arson and violating firearm regulations in connection with a wildfire that burned nearly 350 acres, state and local officials announced over the weekend. Investigators determined that the fire began at a gun range and was sparked by magnesium shards from a Dragon’s Breath 12-gauge shotgun round, an ammunition designed to produce a pyrotechnic effect. The firing of incendiary or tracer ammunition is prohibited in New Jersey. [Asbury Park Press/The Philadelphia Inquirer]
A citizen campaign to get an extreme risk protection order, or red flag, measure on a future ballot in Maine is nearing the number of signatures necessary to send the initiative to the polls. On Election Day alone, when they began canvassing, volunteers collected 60,000 signatures. [Maine Morning Star]
A Spirit Airlines crew member was injured after gunfire struck a plane attempting to land in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Monday. Separately, JetBlue said a post-flight inspection of one of its planes showed that it too had been hit by a bullet. Both U.S.-based carriers, along with American Airlines, temporarily canceled flights to and from the country, and Haitian authorities “temporarily suspended” air traffic operations at the airport. The U.S. State Department warned of “gang-led efforts” to stop travel to the country, which is still embroiled in violent political turmoil. [CNN/NBC]
Washington state has only one Level 1 trauma center — and many of the gun injuries its medical workers treat are related to suicide. The facility is located in Seattle, yet rural and remote counties are home to some of the state’s highest gun suicide rates. Experts say that one of the key prevention methods is educating gun owners about risk mitigation. [Cascade PBS]
Data Point
66 percent — the proportion of gun deaths that were suicides in Washington state in 2023. [Cascade PBS]
Non Sequitur
Meet Seattle’s Radical Gardeners
“How Black Star Farmers cultivates community.” [High Country News]
