What To Know Today
Study: More gun dealers, more intimate partner homicide. Researchers from the University of Denver and Rutgers found that cities with more federally licensed firearms dealers had a heightened risk level for intimate partner homicide (IPH). This held true across states with different levels of regulation for gun ownership, though the connection between dealers and intimate partner homicide was more pronounced in states with lower average rates of gun ownership. The researchers found that there was no association between illegal gun ownership and this form of homicide. And using data from The Trace’s “Missing Pieces” investigation on stolen guns and crimes, the researchers also observed that lost and stolen guns don’t tend to be as associated with IPH, but are linked with firearm homicides between strangers, loose acquaintances, or other family members. Overall, the study found that economic disadvantage and being a divorced man were among the other factors that increased the risk for intimate partner homicide. More from The Trace: In 29 states and the District of Columbia, firearms restrictions aren’t automatically included in temporary orders of protection, which, as Ann Givens reports, leaves those asking the legal system for help particularly vulnerable.
Fourth of July weekend again brings hundreds of shootings. The holiday weekend saw more than 500 shootings nationwide, including nearly 200 people killed and over 550 injured in a 72-hour period starting on July 3, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The violence included several high-casualty mass shootings across the country, including 12 people shot, one fatally, in Toledo, Ohio; eight people injured in Fort Worth, Texas; and nine people shot, two fatally, in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Chicago reported that at least 95 people were shot, including two police officers. Oakland’s police chief characterized the holiday as “12 hours of nonstop chaos,” blaming celebratory gunfire for most of the shootings in the city. Alabama lawmaker’s home shot into 23 times. Democratic Senator Vivian Davis Figures’ home was targeted in what a Mobile police spokesperson said “does not appear to be a random act.” Figures was not home at the time of the early morning shooting, and no one was injured.
A weekend of explosive celebrations sparks PTSD for gun violence survivors. As many watched fireworks, the loud banging triggered the trauma of people like Maggie Montoya, who used to love them before she hid under a desk in a King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado, three months ago while a gunman opened fire, killing 10. “After the shooting, I was just afraid all the time,” Montoya told CNN. “It’s just the feeling that it can just happen again and anywhere.” Said one expert on PTSD, “Those triggers are really idiosyncratic, for some people it’ll be a sound, for some it’ll be a smell, for some it’ll be like a voice.”
Standoff in Massachusetts brings arrests, questions about “sovereign citizens” movement. On Saturday, a group of heavily armed, self-described militia members in tactical clothing were refueling their vehicles on the side of I-95 when police approached them asking for registration. A nine-hour standoff ensued as most of the group took refuge in the surrounding woods and officials shut down a busy highway, issuing shelter-in-place orders for towns in the greater Boston area. Police arrested 11 people on multiple charges, including unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition; officers seized eight guns from the group, including three AR-15 rifles. The men are members of the Rise of the Moors, a group of African-Americans who claim allegiance to a sovereign nation and say they are not subject to U.S. laws. A larger phenomenon: The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as part of a loose collection of the ideologically fluid sovereign citizens movement, which includes more than 25 groups unified by a broad rejection of federal and state governing authority.
Data Point
More than 10,000 — the number of fatal shootings in 2021 so far, approximating an average of 55 gun deaths every day and currently pacing higher than last year’s historic spike. [Gun Violence Archive]
