Hello, readers. Today we bring you news of a project long in the works, one that for The Trace also marks a foray into a new medium for us.
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Introducing Aftermath, a new podcast from The Trace and the Cincinnati Enquirer
More than 80,000 people each year survive a gunshot wound. That’s 80,000 stories. In a new podcast from The Trace and the Cincinnati Enquirer, nine survivors share theirs.
The interviews featured in the podcast were reported by The Trace’s Elizabeth Van Brocklin and the Enquirer‘s Amber Hunt. Every Tuesday, starting May 22, you’ll hear from someone whose life was fundamentally changed by a gunshot, including:
- A man shot in the head at the age of 14 in a prayer circle at school who went on to become a lawyer
- A young man in Oakland, California, who joined a gang for protection, and retaliation, after he was shot and paralyzed
- A woman who unknowingly buzzed a gunman in to her office
Learn more about the podcast here. You can subscribe to Aftermath on Apple Podcasts and other podcast sites.
WHAT TO KNOW TODAY
Remington emerges from bankruptcy. “It is morning in Remington country,” the company’s CEO said. The gunmaker announced Thursday that its restructuring had converted more than $775 million of debt into equity. Remington announced in February that it would enter Chapter 11 after accumulating nearly a billion dollars in debt.
Americans generally agree on gun policy, whether or not they own guns themselves. That’s the takeaway from new survey data from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Researchers measured support for 24 gun policies, including temporary gun violence restraining orders and universal background checks, and found that the majority of respondents supported gun restrictions. Related: We asked current and former National Rifle Association members about the policies they can get behind.
Police released new documents about the Las Vegas shooting. The records describe the panic and compassion among survivors during and immediately following the shooting. They also offer a glimpse into the ideologies that may have influenced the gunman.
A Colorado city that passed an assault weapons ban on Tuesday is already facing a legal challenge. In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, a local gun group claims the ban is unconstitutional and names virtually the entire municipal government of Boulder, Colorado, as defendants.
At least 10 transgender people have been killed this year. Nino Forston, 36, was fatally shot in Atlanta on Sunday during an argument. Police are still searching for a suspect. In 2017, at least 28 transgender and non-binary people were murdered. More than half of those deaths were the result of gun violence.
“After that day, I never messed with him again.” In a three-hour interview with the Miami Herald, the brother of the Parkland gunman described how Nikolas Cruz once pointed a loaded gun at him and threatened to shoot.
A 7-year-old unintentionally shot himself with a gun he found in an open box. Keyaris Samuels, of Plymouth, Minnesota, died on Wednesday afternoon of a gunshot to the head after accidentally firing a weapon he found in a bedroom, officials say. Police are still investigating the source of the weapon.
A gun dealer in Atlanta who sold weapons to people with felony convictions was sentenced for making false entries in sales records. From June to December of 2016, a gun seller in Atlanta, Georgia, made weapons available to at least three people with felonies by selling the guns to their “female companions,” a statement from the Department of Justices notes. Women commonly serve as straw purchasers, a 2015 report found. The analysis detailed four factors that drive women to buy guns for prohibited persons.
NEW FROM THE TRACE
Mass shootings tend to fade quickly from the news. Data shows Parkland was different. The school shooting that claimed 17 lives at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in February has been called a turning point in the national gun debate. It sparked a student-led movement for tighter gun restrictions and led to a measurable change in public sentiment. Compared to other mass shootings, it also generated substantially more media coverage over a longer period of time, an analysis by The Trace’s Daniel Nass found.
Daniel collaborated with Quid, a firm that specializes in text analysis, to examine millions of news articles. Among his findings: In the three months after the shooting, gun control-related terms showed up 2.5 times more often than after previous high-profile gun rampages. Dig deeper into the data in the full post.
