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Acoustic Sensors Find Frequent Gunfire on School Walking Routes
A new study used acoustic sensors that detect the sound of gunfire to show how often children in one Chicago neighborhood are exposed to gunshots while walking to and from school. The study documents toll on kids in the community.
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FBI, DHS Warn of Likely Terrorist Attacks
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Homeland Security are warning that a copycat terrorist attack could occur similar to the New Year’s Day New Orleans attack.
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What We Learned from Analyzing 10 Years of Shooting Data
A Trace series challenges what many people might think about gun violence in America. Here is one of the highlights: You’re more likely to be shot in the rural South than in big cities like Chicago.
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How Many People Were Killed by the Pandemic Surge in Shootings?
In a new analysis, The Trace figured out the number of people who might have lived if gun violence had remained at its 2019 level.
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The Militia and the Mole
A wilderness survival trainer spent years undercover, climbing the ranks of right-wing militias. He didn’t tell police or the FBI. He didn’t tell his family or friends. He penetrated a new generation of militia leaders, which included doctors and government attorneys. Experts say that militias could have a renaissance under Donald Trump. He sent ProPublica a massive trove of documents. The conversations that he secretly recorded give a unique, startling window into the militia movement.
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Islamic State Group-Inspired New Orleans Attack Revives Familiar Fears
Even before the shock from the deadly New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans could subside, early indications from the investigation pointed to a scenario U.S. law enforcement and security officials have long feared –a plot at least inspired by the Islamic State terror group.
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Vehicle-Ramming Attacks
Vehicle-ramming attacks have emerged as a significant terrorist tactic in Europe and, to a lesser extent, in the United States. From the perpetrator’s perspective, ramming attacks have several advantages.
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Vehicles as a Terrorist Weapon: History of the Last 20 Years
The last twenty years have seen dozens of terrorist attacks in which the perpetrators used a vehicle as a weapon.
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Cartels Turn to Social Media to Lure Americans into Human Smuggling as Texas Enforces Stricter Laws
Thousands of people have been arrested under Texas’ human smuggling law. Now they face at least a decade in prison under sentencing guidelines that took effect this year.
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Venezuelan Prison Gang Crime, Arrests Confirmed in 22 U.S. States
Over the last two years, an unknown number of violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua prison gang members illegally entered the United States. Police records and official law enforcement statements confirm TdA-linked crime and arrests have occurred in 22 U.S. states.
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Violent Venezuelan Gang Members Expanding Operations in Midwest
Tren de Aragua members arrested in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin. Tren de Aragua gang members are known for violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and human and drug trafficking.
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Climate of Fear Is Driving Local Officials to Quit – New Study from California Finds Threats, Abuse Rampant
Threats and harassment are pushing some politicians out of office, scaring off some would-be candidates and even compelling some elected officials to change their vote.
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We Must Understand Why Youth Are radicalized. It’s Not Just Manipulation
Youth radicalization and its connection to political violence and terrorism is an urgent concern. Despite consistent warnings from intelligence and law enforcement, public discussion around this issue often falls short. We need to understand why it persists and how to disrupt it before it escalates.
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How Should We Look to History to Make Sense of Luigi Mangione’s Alleged Murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson?
When I and most other historians talk about parallels between the Gilded Age and today, the comparisons are structural. They reflect broad conditions affecting millions of people. It’s when pundits pull particular examples from the past to explain the actions of individuals today that trouble arises.
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Dozens of Cities Are Paying for Gunshot Detection Tech They May Not Need
A new analysis by The Trace identified cities across the country that are using ShotSpotter despite averaging fewer than one shooting a month in which someone was killed or injured.
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The long view
An Analysis by The Trace of 150 U.S. Cities Shows One of the Greatest Drops in Gun Violence — Ever
Gun violence is trending downward for more than three quarters of cities with the most shootings, according to a new analysis by The Trace’s Gun Violence Data Hub. The downward trend cuts across red and blue cities and states in every region of the country.
Trump’s National Guard Deployments Raise Worries About State Sovereignty
In two instances – Portland and Chicago – President Trump’s campaign to send the National Guard into Democratic-leaning cities he falsely describes as crime-ridden, has turned to out-of-state National Guard troops. Presidents who have federalized National Guard forces in the past, even against a governor’s will, have done so in response to a crisis in the troops’ home state. But the decision to send one state’s National Guard troops into a different state without the receiving governor’s consent is both extraordinary and unprecedented, experts on national security law.
Correctly Assessing Left-Wing Terrorism and Political Violence in the United States
A recent CSIS report, making sweeping claims about a supposed rise in leftwing terrorism in the United States, risks feeding false narratives about political violence and polarization. Michael Jensen and Amy Cooter write that the evidence used to sound this alarm consists of just five plots and attacks, and that these five events not only “are doing a lot of heavy lifting” in the report, but that they are given “an unwarranted level of causal and predictive power.” This tiny sample “simply does not justify inducing panic with eye-popping headlines.”