The chant started somewhere in the crowd. A hoarse voice screaming, then joined by a chorus: “Not one more.”
The chant began in response to a segment of the Democratic National Convention dedicated to gun violence. The focus wasn’t on policy. It was on five people standing on a darkened stage, placed under a spotlight one by one as they spoke about the shootings that changed their lives. Abbey Clements, a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Edgar Vilchez, a Chicagoan who witnessed a classmate get shot near their school two years ago. Melody McFadden, of Charleston, South Carolina, who lost her mother and her niece to gun violence. Kimberly Mata-Rubio, a Uvalde, Texas, mother who lost her daughter Lexi two years ago at Robb Elementary School. And U.S. Representative Lucy McBath of Georgia, whose story was shared prior to the comments onstage, a mother who lost her son to a shooting in 2012.
Speakers had made little more than passing mention of gun violence since delegates passed the 2024 Democratic Party platform on Monday — until last night, when the issue came into focus in a big way. The emotional testimonies were immediately followed by remarks from former U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who became a prominent gun violence prevention advocate after surviving a gunshot wound to the head in 2011. In her speech, Giffords recounted the attempt on her life — a mass shooting that killed six people — and left the stage to chants of “Gabby, Gabby.”
The final night of the DNC squarely positioned gun reform as a major plank heading into the November election. But the issue is still, as a writer for The Hill put it, broadly “flying under the radar” this election season. There was some attention after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last month, but firearm policy was quickly replaced in the public eye by questions about the Secret Service’s failure to stop the shooter. At the Republican National Convention, which began two days after the Trump shooting, speakers largely snubbed the issue. The GOP’s party platform was also bereft of Second Amendment positions: Gun rights were acknowledged only in the document’s preamble, which promises to defend “our fundamental freedoms,” including the right to keep and bear arms.
There was one recent — and very different type of — convention that was focused entirely on guns. Last week, The Trace’s Will Van Sant attended the first-ever Gun Owners Advocacy and Leadership Summit in Knoxville, Tennessee. The event was put on by Gun Owners of America, a self-styled no-compromise group that bills itself as an extreme alternative to the National Rifle Association. The event, Van Sant reports, was an amalgam of pro-gun absolutism, religiosity, and commerce. Trump was there, appearing not only as a virtual speaker, to encourage attendees to vote, but also as something of an action figure, via a large poster illustrating him with a crown of rifle rounds and a muscular arm tattooed with a likeness of Benjamin Franklin. In his latest story, Van Sant documents the eccentric exhibition floor, speaks with firearm owners both pleased and cautious about the summit’s far-right rhetoric, and explores what the inaugural meeting of gun hard-liners indicates about the hierarchy among today’s gun rights groups.
From The Trace
Hard-Line Gun Owners Convention Features Trump, NRA Jokes, and John Wick’s Car
Gun Owners of America’s first summit was an amalgam of pro-gun absolutism, religiosity, and commerce — and a campaign stop for Donald Trump.
Philly Moves to Crack Down on Repeat Gun Offenders Before They Fire Their Weapons
District Attorney Larry Krasner launched the Prolific Gun Offenders Unit to focus on winning convictions and stiffer sentences for armed robbers, straw purchasers, and ghost gun distributors.
ICYMI: Red Flag Gun Laws Under Fire
Laws meant to keep firearms away from unstable people are under attack by Second Amendment radicals. Our investigation exposes the ugly campaign to undermine a bipartisan compromise to stop mass shootings.
How Community Groups in Philadelphia Use Horses to Keep Young People Safe
Teaching kids equestrianism, program directors say, builds empathy — and other skills that can help them avoid violence in the long run.
What to Know This Week
A new study on extreme risk protection orders — which, in case you missed it, a Trace and Rolling Stone investigation found are under attack by Second Amendment radicals — found that for every 17 times that an order removed guns from people who presented a risk of harming themselves or others, one potential suicide death was prevented. When orders involved someone with a known suicide risk, the effect was even stronger. [The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law]
Tenants of dilapidated housing face conditions that contribute to poor health outcomes and violence — risks that are made a reality for people living in America’s many public housing units in need of repair. For Detraya Gilliard, that issue was made painfully clear when her teenage daughter, Desaray, was shot and killed while living in a public housing complex in Savannah, Georgia, where some areas lacked working streetlights and many apartments were filled with mold. Desaray is among a number of Savannah public housing tenants who have lost their lives to gun violence in recent years. [KFF Health News]
Meredith Elizalde built her entire life in Philadelphia. It’s where she was born and raised, where she launched her teaching career, and where she gave birth to her only son, Nicolas. But it’s also where Nicolas was shot and killed while leaving his high school football game two years ago. Last week, Elizalde left Philly to start anew in Montana, after coming to terms with the fact that her life in the city died with her son. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
In June, YouTube announced that it was toughening its policies around videos featuring firearms. At the time, critics questioned if the rules would be effectively enforced, but the platform appears to have followed through — and cracked down on violations of an older policy banning creators from linking to websites where viewers can purchase guns, ammunition, or certain accessories. [The Reload]
In Memoriam
Donny Calabaza, 45, was a protector to those around him, his sister wrote on a GoFundMe page. He was shot and killed on Sunday in Portland, Oregon, where he lived with his girlfriend and his dog, according to his sister. He leaves behind a 17-year-old son. Calabaza was an active part of Portland’s Indigenous community, said a close friend who often attended events with him: “From powwows to ceremonies, sweat lodge circles, and Sundance. Whatever Native organization, we just usually show up and support or participate.” His loved ones hope to give him a traditional burial on Mount Hood. Calabaza had a “solid brotherhood in Portland,” his sister wrote. “Overall, he was a kind hearted spirit.”
We Recommend
“The threat from domestic terrorism is rising, but, with Republicans decrying the ‘deep state,’ the F.B.I. is cautious about investigating far-right groups. Vigilantes are leaping into the fray.” [The New Yorker]
Pull Quote
“No gun policy is going to work if we don’t fix social infrastructure. We need investments to make sure communities feel safe. This is not just a public health problem. This is a race problem. This is a democracy problem.”
— Jonathan Metzl, director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University, on gun violence in public housing, to KFF Health News
