Featured Story
In the final days of spring, communities across the country grappled with a rash of violence that included at least four mass shootings in a single weekend. Among them was a shooting at a Juneteenth celebration in a suburb of Austin, Texas, in which two people were killed and 14 were injured, and an attack on a splash pad north of Detroit that left nine people wounded. Experts say that the arrival of warmer weather often brings a seasonal increase in violence; a 2022 study linked abnormally high daily temperatures, like those taking over broad swaths of the U.S., with higher levels of shootings. [Associated Press/Austin American-Statesman/Bridge Michigan]
From The Trace
The ATF has released records detailing the origin of guns smuggled from the United States to Mexico and Central America, marking just the second time in more than 20 years that the agency has disclosed the contents of its firearms tracing database.
The records form the basis of a new report from Stop US Arms to Mexico, a California nonprofit that works to prevent gun trafficking. According to the report, more than 50,000 firearms were smuggled from the United States to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador between 2015 and 2022 — and the weapons traced back to nearly every U.S. ZIP code, meaning that trafficking isn’t as heavily concentrated along the southern border as previously thought. The Trace’s Champe Barton has more on the report, the legal battle that preceded the release of the ATF data, and the precedent that this disclosure could set.
What to Know Today
We’re hiring! The Trace is seeking a reporter to cover gun violence in the Great Lakes region and an editor to lead our Gun Violence Data Hub. View the job postings and learn more here.
Police in San Antonio, Texas, lost a crucial piece of evidence — a bullet — tied to the 2023 shooting death of an 8-month-old baby. City audits show that it wasn’t the first time the department had a problem handling evidence. [Texas Observer]
After more than two decades spent teaching Kentucky and North Carolina kids, Lisa Williams decided that this school year would be her last in the classroom. Why was she ready to go? “This year, I started carrying a bulletproof backpack to work,” Williams writes. “Although school authorities trust me to put myself between a bullet and a student, they don’t trust me to choose books for 18-year-olds in college-level courses.” [The Assembly]
William English, a little-known political economist at Georgetown University, has been cited in scores of lawsuits seeking to overturn gun restrictions, including the Supreme Court’s landmark Bruen decision, the 2022 ruling that upended firearm regulations across the country. At first glance, English’s work appears independent — but it has undisclosed ties to pro-gun interests. [The New York Times]
The lengthy legal battle over whether documents related to a 2023 school shooting in Nashville should be released under Tennessee’s public records law seemed to be coming to an end this week. Then the judge got word that a media outlet had again published stories based on allegedly leaked documents. [The Tennessean/Associated Press]
Archive
Climate Change Is Warming Cities. Could the Trend Affect Gun Violence?: Authors of a study linking high daily temperatures with increased shootings say their findings highlight the importance of climate resiliency in under-resourced areas. (December 2022)
