Top Story
As southern Wisconsin prepared for potential tornadoes on Friday, conservative state Supreme Court candidate Dan Kelly and the Wisconsin GOP issued an emergency text message: A video emulating official safety alerts warning voters that “our Second Amendment rights are under attack by Judge Janet Protasiewicz,” Kelly’s opponent. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
From The Trace
In September, five gunmen opened fire on teenage football players leaving a scrimmage at Philadelphia’s Roxborough High School, killing 14-year-old Nicolas Elizalde and wounding four others. The incident illustrates a troubling trend: Overall shootings in Philly declined over the past year, but the number of gunshot victims under the age of 18 rose. And fatalities among young victims almost doubled between 2018 and last year. What’s driving the violence? Read more →
Hospitals nationwide saw a dramatic uptick in emergency department visits for gunshot injuries since the onset of the pandemic, particularly among children, according to a new CDC report. Read more →
What to Know Today
Even as murders and nonfatal shootings have dropped, the Chicago Police Department faces a 45 percent increase in crime over the same point last year, and arrests are at historic lows. When they head to the polls for tomorrow’s runoff election, Chicagoans will have to decide between candidates with vastly different plans to address public safety. [Chicago Sun-Times]
Safe Streets, Baltimore’s flagship gun violence intervention program, appears to have led to significant decreases in shootings in areas where it has outposts, a new study found. [The Baltimore Banner]
The gunman who killed 60 people during the 2017 Harvest Music Festival in Las Vegas was a high-stakes gambler who was allegedly “very upset” at his treatment in several casinos, according to recently released FBI documents. The FBI and Las Vegas Police concluded they couldn’t determine a motive when they ended their investigations years ago. [Associated Press]
Do 90 percent of mass shootings take place in “gun-free zones,” as John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Center asserts? Experts say the center’s claims misrepresent the facts. [Associated Press]
Some staff members at Nashville’s Covenant School, the site of a mass shooting last week, may have been armed during the attack, according to a 911 call. Police haven’t confirmed if any staffers were carrying a gun or if they fired at the shooter. [The Tennessean]
Law enforcement agencies across California train officers to quickly question family members after police kill a loved one — before telling them about the killing, or omitting it entirely. [Los Angeles Times]
Archive
The Human Toll of Keeping Baltimore Safe: Safe Streets sends staffers into potentially dangerous situations in the hopes of halting violence. But after a third Baltimore worker was killed on the job, some question whether the approach makes sense. (March 3, 2022)
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