Good morning, Bulletin readers. In a new audio partnership with our friends at Slate, we hear from 20 students across the country about what it’s like to be growing up in the age of the school shooter drill. More on that project, and other news of the day, below.
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WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
NEW from THE TRACE and SLATE: What school shooter drills do to kids, according to kids themselves. For our new audio feature, contributor Elizabeth Van Brocklin spoke with students ranging in age from 6 to 18 to learn what they see, hear, and feel during the school shooter drills that have become a routine part of American childhood. Each school performs the exercises in a different way, and every child experiences them alone. But as their voices betray, even the younger students know better than we might expect what the drills are for.
Higher social mobility is associated with lower gun violence rates, a new study found. A Northeastern University researcher studied firearm homicide data in 2015 and compared it to four neighborhood-level social determinants of health: income inequality; trust in institutions; public welfare spending; and social mobility. The study found that rises in public mobility — along with greater trust in institutions and higher welfare spending – were associated with lower gun homicide rates, while increasing inequality was associated with a slight rise. The findings were published in PLOS Medicine.
Gerrymandering is hampering state gun reform efforts, liberal group reports. The Center for American Progress looked at five states — North Carolina, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia — where Democrats won a majority of statewide votes but Republicans retained majorities in the legislature because of district boundaries that kept seats in GOP control. The paper concludes that gun laws would have passed were it not for partisan gerrymandering.
Virginia governor’s new budget allocates $2.85 million to reduce community gun violence. Democrat Ralph Northam is proposing funding for evidence-based gun violence intervention and prevention initiatives in five cities, as well as $150,000 for five localities to conduct community assessments for youth and gang violence prevention programs.
Local officials in St. Louis found a novel way to ban guns in parks. Missouri residents can legally carry guns in public, openly or concealed, without a permit. So the St. Louis Board of Aldermen voted to reclassify the city’s 110 parks and recreation areas as child-care facilities, which restrict gun carrying under state law. Democratic alderman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that they are prepared for gun rights groups to challenge the change in the courts.
Baltimore is getting $750K to beef up its crime gun-tracing technology. The money is part of $4.6 million in federal funds allocated by the Department of Justice to fight crime in Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
A mural at the University of Virginia decrying anti-trans violence was defaced with pro-gun phrases. The original message read “protect black trans women.” On Sunday, it was tagged with the words “guns” and “2A.” According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 17 trans people have been fatally shot across the United States in 2019, all of them black trans women.
DATA POINT
166 extreme risk protection order petitions were filed in Oregon from January 1, 2018, when the state’s red flag law took effect, through October of this year. Two-thirds sought to disarm people deemed a suicide risk. — Guns & America
