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The Tennessee Legislature’s special session on public safety, held in the shadow of the state’s deadliest school shooting, ended Tuesday with no significant changes to the state’s gun laws and only a narrow slate of bills sending more money toward public safety issues. The session adjourned just a day after Republicans prohibited Representative Justin Jones, one of the so-called Tennessee Three, from speaking under controversial new House rules. Families close to The Covenant School shooting have increasingly lamented the legislative process. [Tennessean]
From Our Team
On August 26, hours after an avowed white supremacist killed three Black people in Jacksonville, Florida, the National Rifle Association tweeted that “millions of law-abiding citizens own and use AR-15s to defend themselves and their families.”
While it’s true that more gun owners are buying AR-style rifles for protection, other gun owners say they’re not practical for self-defense. In our latest Ask the Trace, Jennifer Mascia examines the question of how many documented cases exist, and what the data tells us about their use for self-defense.
As across the country, North Carolina saw a surge of gun violence in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Public outcry for a plan to blunt the surge soon followed, leading to the idea for the first Office of VIolence Prevention in the state.
Now, the Mecklenburg Office of Violence Prevention is a centerpiece of a growing public health effort to combat gun violence in and around North Carolina’s largest city. The office uses data and community input to lead, coordinate, and fund programs and partnerships, with the overarching goal of reducing violence in Mecklenburg County by 10 percent over five years.
What To Know Today
Nicholas Anthony Donofrio, a 20-year-old college student at the University of South Carolina, was fatally shot Saturday after trying to enter the wrong house on the street where he lived, police said. South Carolina has a “stand your ground” law and does not require gun owners to obtain a license. [The Washington Post]
A judge ruled Monday that the case against the father of the Highland Park, Illinois, shooter can continue, overriding his attorneys’ arguments that he can’t be held culpable for his son killing seven people and injuring a dozen more at a July Fourth parade last year. [NBC News]
A Mexican man was shot and wounded in Ciudad Juárez on Saturday night after an on-duty National Guard member at the Texas-Mexico border in El Paso fired across the Rio Grande, according to the Texas Military Department and Mexican news outlets. [Texas Tribune]
More than a year and a half after she was shot outside a pharmacy in the Bronx, 2-year-old Catherine Arias still requires five days of therapy every week to improve her ability to eat, talk, and move. She was one of 56 children shot in the Bronx last year, the highest tally of any part of the city, according to New York Police Department data. [New York Times]
A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that young Black men in St. Louis are particularly at risk of recurring gun injuries. Along with the physical and emotional effects, survivors of firearm injury carry a “distressingly high” risk of being shot again, the study’s authors wrote. [CNN]
Data Point
500,000 — the dollars Austin City Council members decided to allocate to community violence intervention programs. [CBS]
