TITLE: ‘Everybody in This Community Has a Gun’: How Oakland Lost Its Grip on Gun Violence
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/gun-violence-oakland-shootings-interrupters-crime/
EXCERPT: The red-tipped bullet pierces skin and melts into it, Javier Velasquez Lopez explains. The green-tipped bullet penetrates armored vests. And the hollow-tipped bullet expands as it tears through bodies.
At 19, Velasquez Lopez knows a lot about ammunition because many of his friends own guns, he said. They carry to defend themselves in East Oakland, where metal bars protect shop windows and churches stand behind tall, chain-link fences.
Some people even hide AR-15-style assault weapons down their pants legs, he said.
“It doesn’t feel safe. Wherever you’re at, you’re always anxious,” said Velasquez Lopez, who dreams of leaving the city where he was born. “You’re always wondering what’s going to happen.”
Last year, two gunmen in ski masks stormed his high school, killing a school district carpenter and injuring five other adults, including two students.
Oakland won acclaim just a few years ago as a national model for gun violence prevention, in part by bringing police and community groups together to target the small number of people suspected of driving the gun violence.
Then, in 2020, the covid-19 pandemic shut down schools, businesses, and critical social services nationwide, leaving many low-income people isolated and desperate — facing the loss of their jobs, homes, or both. The same year, police murdered George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, which released pent-up fury over racial discrimination by law enforcement, education, and other institutions — sparking nationwide protests and calls to cut police funding.
In the midst of this racial reckoning and facing the threats of an unknown and deadly virus, Americans bought even more guns, forcing some cities, such as Raleigh, North Carolina; Chicago; New York City; and Oakland, to confront a new wave of violent crime.
“There was emotional damage. There was physical damage,” said James Jackson, CEO of Alameda Health System, whose Wilma Chan Highland Hospital Campus, a regional trauma center in Oakland, treated 502 gunshot victims last year, compared with 283 in 2019. “And I think some of this violence that we’re seeing is a manifestation of the damage that people experienced.”
Jackson is among a growing chorus of health experts who describe gun violence as a public health crisis that disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic residents in poor neighborhoods, the very people who disproportionately struggle with Type 2 diabetes and other preventable health conditions. Covid further eviscerated these communities, Jackson added.
While the pandemic has retreated, gun violence has not. Oaklanders, many of whom take pride in the ethnic diversity of their city, are overwhelmingly upset about the rise in violent crime — the shootings, thefts, and other street crimes. At town halls, City Council meetings, and protests, a broad cross-section of residents say they no longer feel safe.
Programs that worked a few years ago don’t seem to be making a dent now. City leaders are spending millions to hire more police officers and fund dozens of community initiatives, such as placing violence prevention teams at high schools to steer kids away from guns and crime.
Yet gun ownership in America is at a historic high, even in California, which gun control advocates say has the strictest gun laws in the country. More than 1 million Californians bought a gun during the first year of the pandemic, according to the latest data from the state attorney general.
TITLE: Report: Roadway violence surges in Tennessee
https://www.wsmv.com/2023/11/29/report-roadway-violence-surges-tennessee/
EXCERPT: Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit advocating for gun control and against gun violence, released the report earlier this year, claiming road rage shootings have continued to surge across the country. Though no region was immune, some states, including Tennessee, showed higher rates of road rage-related shooting victims.
New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Wisconsin ranked in the top five states with the highest rate of people shot in road rage incidents, according to the report. Tennessee ranked fourth among all 50 states.
The report says per one million residents, Tennessee saw 3.64 people shot in road rage shootings recorded in 2022.
The southern region of the United States sees the highest rate of victimization from road rage shootings, according to the report, which states weaker gun laws could be a potential factor. In Everytown’s 2023 Gun Law rankings, Tennessee takes 29th in the order of strongest to weakest.
In 2022, someone was injured or killed in a road rage shooting, on average, every 16 hours, according to the report.
“We do not definitively know what is driving this persistent increase in road rage shootings,” the report says. “The pandemic and its continuing effects have brought all kinds of new stressors into people’s lives. In addition, the record increases in gun sales that started in 2020 could be a factor.”
The report also added that the strength of carry permit laws impacts road rage.
“Looking in particular at one important gun policy—rules for carrying a concealed gun in public—the association between loosening those rules and road rage is clear,” Everytown said. “Concealed carry firearms permit requirements—which may involve passing a background check, completing safety training and live-fire instruction, and other criteria—fall along a spectrum of protection: in 2022, eight states required would-be gun carriers to provide a specific reason for needing a gun in public, 18 states required a carry permit but did not require this type of “good cause” justification, and 24 states did not require a permit at all.”
TITLE: How are teens getting guns in New Mexico
https://www.koat.com/article/how-teens-getting-guns-new-mexico/45979833
EXCERPT: “Some are kept for self-defense, some are kept because they are just kept, and they have always been there. So that's the primary place kids get guns. From mom and dad,” Kyle Hartsock, Albuquerque Police Department commander, said.
Hartsock says one of the biggest ways teens get guns is because there are so many guns stolen, especially from cars.
“They look for hunting stickers, stickers that support police because they see that guy that supports police carries guns and they just look around for those cars to just break windows and roll the dice that they are going to find a gun inside,” Hartsock said.
He says these guns end up on the black market and easily sold on social media.
“You can buy these on FB messenger, Snapchat or know someone that can sell a gun and you can see that a good number of homicides originate from black market gun sales,” Hartsock said.
Hartsock said there are a few things to keep in mind, “Look for changed behavior which can be hard with teenagers cause they can be kind of weirdos but are they being more protective of certain objects like their backpacks or their room,” Hartsock said.
He added to look at the specific language and emojis being used, like receiving an innocent-looking water gun.
“We see the use of the water gun to show actual guns, and we see it in homicide investigations, and so it might be cartoonish and funny. It doesn't mean let's go have fun on a hot day, it means actual firearms,” Hartsock said.
According to APD, every month, around 70-80 guns are stolen in Albuquerque, and only about four or five are found.