Featured Story
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has claimed that the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, a “focused deterrence” program centered on gun violence, was an integral contributor to the steep decline in homicides the city has seen in 2024. Scott and other proponents view the strategy as an alternative to sending people to prison — but some who have seen the program in action view it as mass incarceration by another name. What does the data say? [Baltimore Brew and The Garrison Project]
The Trajectory
Telehealth, or the delivery of health care at a distance, has arguably been around as long as people have been able to call up a doctor for advice. In the United States, the model has been studied since the 1960s, when NASA used telecommunications to monitor the health of astronauts in space, and use of remote care grew precipitously after the coronavirus pandemic. Researchers have found that telehealth can successfully treat a bevy of health issues — and now, they’re looking at its potential for gun violence prevention, too.
As gun violence surges in rural communities, where hospital infrastructure is sparse, and the country’s traditional health care system remains out of reach for many vulnerable communities, virtual care options provide an opportunity to reach areas with limited resources. In the latest edition of The Trajectory, The Trace’s Fairriona Magee explores the opportunities for — and barriers to — telehealth violence prevention, and how public health experts are approaching it now.
What to Know Today
The family of Sonya Massey, whom an Illinois sheriff’s deputy shot and killed in her Springfield home after she called 911, said at a news conference this week that police initially tried to cover up the killing, alleging that loved ones were told Massey had either died by suicide or was shot by an intruder. Police audio reveals that someone on the scene the night of Massey’s death told a dispatcher that her fatal wound was “self-inflicted.” The Justice Department is “assessing the circumstances surrounding” the killing. Body camera footage of the shooting was released on Monday. [The Guardian/The 19th]
Gun violence and homicides have been trending down in Washington, D.C., this year, but that hasn’t stopped former President Donald Trump from calling it a “nightmare of murder and crime” and pledging to “take over” the city during campaign stops. The rhetoric follows two years of Republican attacks on the district’s crime and policing policies — and for some, the pattern suggests that another Trump presidency could have disastrous consequences for D.C.’s ability to self-govern. [The Washington Post]
March For Our Lives, a youth-led group founded by survivors of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid for the White House in the 2024 election. Harris is the organization’s first-ever political endorsement. [The Trace/Rolling Stone]
Homicides in King County, Washington, where Seattle is located, have slightly declined this year — with one exception. So far, the number of homicide victims under the age of 18 is more than double what the county saw in all of 2023. Local prosecutors couldn’t point to an exact cause for the uptick in young victims, but said that easy access to firearms, the proliferation of ghost guns and conversion devices, and gun content on social media appear to be fueling the violence. [The Seattle Times]
Archive
How America’s War on Crime Built a Militarized Police Force
The fifth episode of The Gun Machine explores how police departments became some of the biggest customers of private gun manufacturers. (October 2023)
