Tens of thousands of lives are lost every year to gun suicide. In Wyoming, the crisis is particularly acute: Last year, 75 percent of suicides involved guns, and it had the highest gun suicide rate in the country. Yet in March, the Republicans in power there banned red flag laws, which studies have found to be a useful preventative measure.
Not that long ago, red flag laws were widely touted as a bipartisan solution to gun violence. Then the laws became a centerpiece of reform for the Biden administration, and backlash from pro-gun groups and the far right ensued. Today, opponents have embraced banning or fighting the statutes as a righteous cause.
Published in partnership with Rolling Stone, in the final installment of our three-part series on the campaign to dismantle red flag gun laws, Trace senior staff writer Mike Spies examines an emerging trend: GOP-controlled states that are among those with the highest gun suicide rates in the country are banning red flag laws.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, help is available 24 hours a day: Call 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or text 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line. Find more resources here.
From The Trace
- In the Land of Firearm Suicide, Republicans Ban a Policy That Might Help: Wyoming has the highest rate of gun suicide in the country. Lawmakers there, and in similarly afflicted states, have blocked red flag laws, which studies have found to be a useful preventative measure.
- Three Gun Laws Are Stuck in Pennsylvania’s Senate. Could the Election Change Their Fate?: Proposals for a red flag law, expanded background checks, and ghost gun restrictions are stuck in the GOP-led upper chamber.
- A Teen’s Killing Sparked a Gun Reform Movement in Rural South Carolina. Here’s How It Fared.: Markayla Roberts was shot six months ago. Her community has rallied for change, but they’ve met barriers at each turn.
- The White House’s Medicaid Plan Could Be ‘Transformational’ for Gun Violence Prevention: The agency that oversees the insurance program is crafting a plan to reimburse providers for firearm safety counseling. Dr. Chethan Sathya, who developed a blueprint for this type of care, explains why that matters.
What to Know Today
Young Chicago police officers are being fired, arrested, or killed at alarming rates: 64 recruits and officers hired since 2016 have been fired, and 21 young officers have died, including two who were shot. The phenomenon comes as the department faces a staffing crisis that experts say means the city can’t afford to be as picky in screening candidates. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Since purchasing their home in Minneapolis last year, 34-year-old Davis Moturi, who is Black, and his wife contacted authorities at least 19 times to report racist harassment from their white neighbor, John Herbert Sawchak. Last week, Sawchak was charged with shooting Moturi in the neck, wounding him. Minneapolis’s police chief — whose force the U.S. Justice Department last year found had a “pattern or practice” of discrimination against Black Americans — apologized for failing to address Moturi’s complaints, saying the department “failed this victim 100 percent.” [The Guardian]
Despite a company ban against groups it’s labeled dangerous extremists, anti-government paramilitaries continue to use Facebook to recruit, coordinate training, and promote ballot box stakeouts, including with guns. In some cases, Facebook has auto-generated some group pages for militias. [Wired]
It’s been six years since a shooter killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, the deadliest attack against Jewish people in U.S. history. Residents of Squirrel Hill, the heavily Jewish neighborhood where the attack took place, are still grappling with the massacre — an experience that’s become more complicated amid Israel’s war, a pivotal election season, and rising concerns about antisemitism. [NBC]
This fall, millions of young teenagers entered their first years of high school, one of the most formative times of their lives. But for these freshmen, the stepping stone was marred by the mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Georgia last month, carried out by a kid their age. Though today’s 14 year olds grew up with active-shooter drills and headlines about school shootings, they say Apalachee felt personal — and particularly unnerving. [The Washington Post]
Workers with the largest union for SEPTA, the transit authority for the Philadelphia area, voted to authorize a strike for the second straight year, citing safety issues as a major concern. The union has previously pointed to the issue of workplace safety, highlighting two shootings on buses this month. As The Trace’s Mensah M. Dean has reported, gun violence and threats against SEPTA employees spiked from 2021 through 2023. [WHYY]
Announcement: “In Guns We Trust” — produced by Long Lead and Campside Media in partnership with The Trace — won three Signal Awards: The podcast was awarded gold in the History category; silver in the Activism, Public Service and Social Impact category; and bronze in the Documentary category. Thanks to all who voted!
Data Point
27,300 — the estimated number of suicides in the United States in 2023, per CDC provisional data. That’s a record high, and represents a 29 percent increase from a decade earlier. [The Trace]
Non Sequitur
Making a Snickers Bar Is a Complex Science: A candy engineer explains how to build the airy nougat and chewy caramel of this Halloween favorite. [The Conversation]
