The time between when someone is shot and when an ambulance arrives is critical — it’s the moment when stopping or limiting blood loss could make the difference between life and death.
The primary cause of preventable death from traumatic injury is blood loss, and gunshot patients can require 10 times more blood than survivors of other traumas, according to a 2018 study from researchers with Johns Hopkins. Even if they make it to the hospital, there’s no guarantee that blood will be available — there’s a blood shortage in the U.S., which makes early intervention even more important.
In Chicago, this facet of the crisis is clear. Shootings there have gotten deadlier in recent years, and medical emergency response times have been worsening to the point that some gunshot victims are driving themselves to the hospital, rather than risk waiting for an ambulance that may come too late. But as The Trace’s Rita Oceguera reports, the city has a program that could help bridge the gap: In 2021, Chicago launched a counterterrorism initiative to teach city employees to respond to life-threatening injuries. As part of that, the city installed more than 1,000 blood control kits in over 500 municipal buildings.
That program has since expanded, training community members to respond to everyday threats and distributing “Stop the Bleed” kits in neighborhoods where gun violence is common. But nonprofit workers told Oceguera that the city is still missing out on a key opportunity: installing the kits at violence prevention headquarters, where more people would be aware of their existence and more lives could be saved. Oceguera has more in her latest story.
From The Trace
Chicago’s ‘Stop the Bleed’ Kits Could Help Shooting Victims. Why Don’t More People Know About Them?: Violence prevention leaders say a city program that could help bystanders save lives is missing a key opportunity.
Philadelphia Moves to Bolster Violence Prevention as Federal Funds Evaporate: Mayor Cherelle Parker’s budget would maintain programs that she says helped drive down shootings. Still, uncertainty persists under President Donald Trump.
GOP Budget Could Divert Millions From Gun Violence Prevention, Democrats Say: Congressional Democrats have accused Republicans of crafting a spending plan that would allow the Trump administration to shift funding away from reducing gun violence.
What to Know Today
In the Four Corners section of Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, a shooting at a barbershop illustrated the cascading effects of gun violence — how it ripples throughout a community, turning sacred spaces into reminders of trauma. The situation in Four Corners, whose residents are predominantly Black and Puerto Rican, is an example of the kind of systemic disinvestment that’s linked to gun violence: There are no major supermarkets or hospitals, and it’s home to few businesses. [KFF Health News]
Massachusetts’ highest court ruled that the state’s gun laws apply to out-of-state residents who carry firearms without permits. The decision stemmed from cases involving two gun owners from New Hampshire, which allows permitless open or concealed carry, who were charged for possessing firearms in Massachusetts without a permit. Unlike many states, Massachusetts does not recognize other states’ gun licenses. [The Boston Globe]
Back in 2022, when he was new to office, New York City Mayor Eric Adams unveiled a gun violence reduction plan that revived controversial anti-gun police units, dubbed Neighborhood Safety Teams, and promised that officers working on them would be subject to more oversight. A few months later, another unit, the Community Response Team, quietly launched to the surprise of even top Police Department officials. More than half of the team’s staff were found to have engaged in misconduct at least once in their careers. Adams has continued to embrace the unit even as NYPD officials have raised concerns about aggressive policing. [ProPublica]
Last week, Oregon’s second-highest court affirmed the constitutionality of Measure 114, a law banning the sale of some ammunition magazines and requiring a permit to purchase a firearm, sending it one step closer to taking effect. Voters narrowly approved the measure in November 2022; it was immediately subject to legal challenges and put on hold pending the state lawsuit. In 2023, a U.S. district judge ruled in favor of Measure 114 in a federal case. [Oregon Capital Chronicle]
Anne Marie Hochhalter, one of 22 people wounded in the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School, died in her Colorado home last month. A coroner’s report found that her gunshot injuries were a “significant contributing factor” in her death, officially ruling her death a homicide. Hochhalter, who was paralyzed from the waist down after the massacre, is one of many victims whose deaths are caused by shooting injuries from years earlier — what law enforcement refer to as a “delayed death.” [NBC]
Under a law signed by Governor Brad Little last week, Idaho became the only state to make the firing squad the primary mode of carrying out the death penalty. The law comes after a man incarcerated on South Carolina’s death row chose to be executed by gunfire, marking the first use of a firing squad in the U.S. since 2010. [Idaho Capital Sun/The Atlantic]
A Tennessee man was shot and wounded by his young dog while lying in bed with an unsecured firearm. The gun fired, grazing the man’s leg, after the dog jumped on the bed and caught its paw in the trigger guard. It is not the first accidental shooting involving a pet pulling the trigger. [The Guardian]
Long-standing policy requires the Chicago Police Department to clear all felony charges, except for drug cases, with the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office before they’re filed, a review that provides prosecutors some oversight over how officers justify their allegations. A new initiative being tested in parts of the city’s South Side rolls that process back, allowing police to file felony gun possession charges without approval from a prosecutor — doing away with a process that checks misconduct. [Bolts]
Data Point
Less than 3 percent — the proportion of Americans eligible to donate blood who regularly do. [The New Yorker]
Non Sequitur
The California Railroad’s Surprising Impact on Food and Civil Rights
“The railroad really revolutionizes just about every part of California’s politics, society and economy.” [KQED]
