Misery
• A 10-year-old child was killed in an unintentional shooting last Thursday in Philadelphia – for the second time in less than a week. [CBS3/@PPDCommish]
Virtual update
• Today’s bi-weekly briefing on the city’s response to gun violence promises to focus on employment resources. Listen live on WURD Radio 900 AM / 96.1 FM or watch live online. [Facebook]
History lesson
• Some say the mayor’s new violence prevention plan looks a lot like some past programs the seemed effective but then fell out of favor. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
More funding
• The District Attorney’s Office will announce the next round of grant awards within the next 60 days. The grant money comes from civil asset forfeiture, or revenue from properties seized from criminal suspects. [WHYY]
Q&A
• The Trace published an interview in their Weekly Briefing newsletter over the weekend with the editor of “Up the Block,” their new web site that helps people in Philadelphia find resources when they are impacted by gun violence. [The Trace]
Opinion
• Nonprofit organizations focused on gun violence prevention in Philadelphia need strategic support. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
By the numbers
• City data show 224 people shot in Philadelphia last month, the highest monthly total recorded so far this year and 22 more shooting victims than were recored during June, 2020. More than 50 people were shot during the first five days of this month. [data.phila.gov via @PCGVR/data.phila.gov via @PCGVR]
• Nearly 40 percent of Philadelphia shooting victims this year have suffered multiple gunshot wounds. [data.phila.gov via @PCGVR]
• Police had recorded 285 year-to-date homicides in Philadelphia as of late Monday night, running 36 percent ahead of last year’s pace and 143 percent ahead of the pace recored in 2014. [PhillyPolice.com]
• An estimated 88,522 guns were sold last month in Pennsylvania, down slightly from the previous month and down 43 percent when compared with sales recorded in June, 2020. There has been a similar national decline in sales. [The Trace]
• The holiday weekend saw more than 500 shootings nationwide, including nearly 200 people killed and over 550 injured in a 72-hour period starting on July 3. [The Trace]
They knew
• A Homeland Security memo from last year reveals that federal authorities were anticipating increased violence spurred on by COVID’s hardships — before the pandemic even got into full swing. [ABC News]
Executive Order
N.Y. Gov. Cuomo has declared a gun violence disaster emergency. [governor.ny.gov]
Active shooter panic stampede of the week
• Social media posts say that airline passengers took cover under tables and ran onto runways after erroneous active shooter reports Monday at Newark Airport. [Daily Voice]
Economic cost
• In New Jersey, gun violence costs taxpayers more than $1.8 billion each year, with at least $149.9 million in health care costs and criminal justice expenses.” [Amsterdam News]
Politics
• Republicans are reviving soft-on-crime rhetoric in response to rising US homicides. The threat that public alarm over crime will trigger a punitive turn in policy is real. Anxiety about violent crime is often used to win elections. [The Guardian/NYMag/The Guardian]
Media
• “Too many journalists rely on tired templates when filing from the police beat, blindly parroting what they read in the police blotter and failing to follow the story to its resolution.” [Politico]
Prevention
• Connecticut saw a 40% decrease in firearm homicides and a 15% decrease in firearm suicides after it passed a permit to purchase requirement. And when Missouri repealed its permit to purchase law, firearm violence climbed. [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
• The FBI processed 12.7 million background checks last year but it’s impossible to know how many guns were sold to people who couldn’t legally own them because of 316,000 checks that were never completed. [FiveThirtyEight]
• Some states have maps to help firearm owners find places to temporarily store firearms safely outside of their homes. [@NJGVRC]
Research
• There was an increased risk of firearm injuries in young children and firearm injuries inflicted by young children during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. These increased incidents correlate with an increase in new firearm ownership. [Pediatrics]
• Results indicate that a higher rate of licensed firearm dealers was associated with a higher risk of intimate partner homicide. [Preventive Medicine]
Solution of the Week
• We need more college centers devoted to studying gun violence with the express intention of ending the threat. [The Chronicle of Higher Education]
At the Center
• Please join us in welcoming Dr. Jessica Beard, who last week began her Stoneleigh Foundation Fellowship and her new role as our Director of Research. We have been collaborating for several years, planning this stage for many months and will have more announcements soon. [@jessicahbeard/PCGVR]
In memoriam
• Trevonte Marks was the “man of the house” at 15. [Philadelphia Obituary Project]