Latest news with #Everytown
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Health
- The Guardian
‘These deaths are not inevitable': state gun control laws reduce children's firearm deaths, study shows
Guns have been the leading cause of death among US children since 2020. A new study shows a clear path to addressing this scourge and saving kids' lives: state gun control laws. The study, published this month in Jama Pediatrics, reveals that states which enacted stricter gun control measures following the 2010 McDonald v Chicago supreme court ruling – a landmark decision that struck down Chicago's ban on handguns and, in effect, expanded the second amendment nationwide – have seen a relative decrease in firearm deaths among children aged up to 17. By contrast, states that expanded gun freedoms have seen a notable increase in kids' deaths from gun violence, including by homicide, by suicide and from accidents. This means that commonsense gun policies make a difference when it comes to keeping kids safe, said Nick Suplina, senior vice-president for law and policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. 'This study sends a message that lawmakers that refuse to take action or who further loosen gun laws are putting kids' lives in peril,' he said. 'That's a very powerful outcome for an academic study.' To conduct their study, researchers divided states into three categories – least permissive, more permissive and most permissive – based on the strength of their gun control laws. They then used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to look into individual states' rates of pediatric firearm deaths (deaths from gun violence among children ages 0-17) over a 12-year span. What they found was a striking degree of overlap among states based on legislation enacted. In more permissive states, such as Mississippi and New Hampshire, pediatric death rates rose substantially more than expected, especially among children of color. '[We saw] so many excess deaths over and above what would have been expected,' said Jeremy Faust, an emergency room physician and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard University, and the study's lead author. But in states that passed stricter laws – such as background checks, permitting and safe-storage requirements – rates either stayed stagnant or fell. That finding surprised Faust, who anticipated that every state would see at least some increase since the number of kids killed by guns in the US has risen so sharply over the past decade. California, New York and Maryland, all of which have assault weapon bans and safe-storage laws, saw decreased rates of pediatric firearm mortality. And Rhode Island, which requires would-be gun owners to pass a firearm safety course to buy a handgun, saw a 60% drop in gun-related deaths among children. 'These deaths are not inevitable,' said Shriya Bhat, a second-year molecular biology student at Harvard and an author of the study. 'Policy choices matter, and we can learn from the places that have kept kids safer.' Gun policy experts say that research like this, which treats gun violence as a public health concern and considers the impact of on-the-books legislation from a scientific perspective, is desperately needed. 'The insights of the medical community are vital to educating policymakers and the public about the need to address the public health crisis fueled by unregulated access to firearms,' said Nick Wilson, senior director for gun violence prevention at the Center for American Progress. (The White House recently removed former surgeon general Vivek Murthy's advisory on gun violence as a public health issue, and has also slashed funding for gun violence research.) Experts also stress the need for lawmakers to translate knowledge into action. That means prioritizing measures that keep all of society safe from gun violence, such as universal background checks, as well as laws that protect kids specifically, such as safe-storage regulations. 'We really need policymakers to step up,' said Kelly Drane, research director at the Giffords Law Center. Suplina added that moving the needle on policy would require dampening the influence of the country's for-profit gun lobby, which perpetuates the narrative that guns make a society safer – a myth he hopes this study can help dispel. 'Literally the exact opposite is true,' he said. 'If more guns made us safer, the US would be the safest country in the world by far. Instead, we have a homicide rate that's 25 times that of our peer nations.' Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion But a lack of gun control legislation doesn't mean individuals can't change their own behaviors to keep kids safe. Parents who own guns can safely store their firearms and ask other parents whether there are guns in the house before permitting a playdate, said Drane, much like a parent might ask if another family has a fence around their pool. 'It doesn't have to be a conversation about whether or not it's OK to own firearms, but just knowing that there's a plan in place to keep kids safe in the home is really important.' Nonetheless, researchers and experts are hopeful that political gulfs can be crossed by focusing on how policies can save the lives of children. 'We've seen a lot of public health successes that have been bridged by focusing on the impact of public health threats on children,' said Drane. 'I'm hopeful that research like this can help change minds.' For Faust, who witnessed children die from gunshot wounds first-hand while training in a Queens, New York, trauma center, addressing the epidemic of gun violence is deeply tied to his work as a physician. 'I am interested in how choices we make as a society can have a massive impact on the way we live and die,' he said. 'When you save the life of a kid, think about the decades of life you are giving back.'
BBC News
2 days ago
- Business
- BBC News
Print and shoot: how 3D-printed guns are spreading online
3D-printed guns could become "the weapon of choice" for criminals and violent extremists around the world, an expert has told the BBC. These DIY, untraceable firearms have been recovered in several recent criminal cases, including the alleged use of a partially 3D-printed gun in the killing of United Healthcare CEO Brian Trending has investigated the global spread of 3D-printed guns across social media platforms including Telegram, Facebook and Instagram, as well as websites offering how-to guides. 3D-printed guns, often described as a type of "ghost" gun, are untraceable firearms that can be assembled using a 3D printer, downloadable blueprints and some basic materials. Designed to evade gun-control laws, the technology has advanced rapidly in the last decade, with the latest models capable of firing multiple rounds without their plastic components to Nick Suplina of Everytown, a US-based gun control organisation, 3D-printed guns could become the "weapon of choice" for people planning acts of violence: "The materials have gotten better, the cost has gone down, and the ease of access of these blueprints is at a high," he said. BBC Trending's investigation began with advertisements for guns on Instagram and Facebook. In October 2024, the Tech Transparency Project, a non-profit that monitors technology companies, found hundreds of gun ads - including for 3D-printed and other ghost guns - appearing on Meta's platforms, in violation of its declined to comment on the findings at the time. Several months later, BBC Trending found similar gun adverts still showing as active in Meta's ad database. Many of these gun adverts directed potential customers to Telegram or WhatsApp channels. On Telegram, we found channels displaying a variety of guns for sale. Some of these appeared to be 3D-printed. One Telegram account with over 1,000 subscribers claimed to ship weapons Trending contacted the account, which called itself "Jessy", to confirm whether it would be willing to break the law by shipping 3D-printed guns to the UK. Within an hour, Jessy offered us a Liberator or a Glock switch. A glock switch (also known as an auto sear) is a small, sometimes 3D-printed part that converts a pistol into an automatic Liberator, designed in 2013 by "crypto-anarchist" Cody Wilson, is the world's first widely available 3D-printed gun, capable of firing a single claimed he could smuggle the weapon through UK customs, asked for payment of £160 in bitcoin, then suggested a bank transfer to a UK account we couldn't we later contacted Jessy, identifying ourselves as the BBC, he acknowledged that selling weapons in the UK is illegal but sounded unapologetic."I run my business, sell some straps [slang for weapons] online," he said. We did not proceed with the transaction to test Jessy's claims. While his casual attitude suggested he might have been a scammer, his ability to advertise on Meta and operate on Telegram highlights apparent loopholes that real gun dealers could contacted, Meta told the BBC that the adverts we highlighted had been "automatically disabled in line with our policies", and that inclusion in its ad library "doesn't necessarily mean the ad is still live or visible".Telegram said that Jessy's account had been proactively removed for breaching its policies. A spokesperson added: "The sale of weapons is explicitly forbidden by Telegram's terms of service and is removed whenever discovered. Moderators empowered with custom AI and machine learning tools proactively monitor public parts of the platform and accept reports in order to remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day, including the sale of weapons."Concerningly though, people seeking 3D-printed guns don't need to buy readymade ones through social media. They can assemble their own. Models like the FGC-9 are designed using only 3D-printed plastic and repurposed metal components, with no commercially available gun parts required."You are essentially becoming a DIY gunsmith," says Dr Rajan Basra, a researcher at King's College London. However, "It's not as easy as printing off a sheet of A4 paper in your office printer."As the BBC has previously reported, there are websites offering free step-by-step guides and downloadable blueprints for building 3D-printed such guide was written by Matthew Larosiere, a gun rights attorney in Florida. He's associated with the global pro-3D-printed gun community, which has many members in the USA who see the Second Amendment right to bear arms as a human Trending challenged him about why he is sharing information to help people build a lethal replied: "It's just information. It's ones and zeros. The fact that the information has a use case that makes you uncomfortable, I understand and I sympathise with that, but that doesn't make it correct to say it's anything more than information."Asked about the risk of this "information" being used in a school shooting or massacre, he replied: "I thank God that has not happened." He cited Myanmar as a country where, in his view, 3D-printed guns have served a positive cause. Myanmar is currently the only known case of 3D-printed guns being used in active military conflict. The FGC-9's use by resistance fighters against the junta has been widely as BBC Burmese's Hnin Mo discovered, many of these groups have since stopped using 3D-printed guns. This is despite resistance forces producing hundreds of FGC-9s in 2022 and 2023, which cost over ten times less than machine guns on the black rebel leaders Hnin Mo spoke to cited the junta's tight control over imports of essential materials like glue and metal. Additionally, these groups now have more conventional weapons at their disposal, such as RPGs or machine Myanmar example demonstrates the limitations of current 3D-printed guns for military use. But globally, their spread is clear. Several countries are considering laws to criminalise the possession of blueprints. There are also calls for 3D printer manufacturers to block the printing of gun parts, in the same way that conventional printers restrict the printing of currency. But whether such measures can be effective remains to be reporting by Hnin Mo, BBC Burmese For more on this story:BBC World Service goes inside the world of 3D printed Print and Shoot - the global spread of 3D-printed gunsListen to BBC Trending: Print and shoot: The rise of 3D-printed guns
Politico
7 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
The extreme weather survivors taking lessons from gun violence survivors
SURVIVOR STORY: There's a new climate advocacy group in town and it's taking inspiration from an unusual source on how to make disasters personal — the anti-gun violence movement. Extreme Weather Survivors, a network sponsored by the non-profit Tides Center that aims to connect and advocate for people after a natural disaster, kicked off last year and hit its stride following the Los Angeles firestorm. One of its co-founders and co-executive directors is Chris Kocher, the founding director of the survivor network at Everytown and Moms Demand Action, which have advocated for gun control and launched unsparing media campaigns centered on personal accounts from victims. This spring, Extreme Weather Survivors launched a five-figure ad buy with personal testimonies from people who lost homes in the fires appealing to Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, who approved an emergency rate hike for State Farm following the fires. They celebrated a win on Thursday when Lara broadened an investigation into the insurer for what he called a 'troubling pattern' of mishandling claims. In Sacramento, the group co-sponsored SB 222, a bill by Sen. Scott Wiener to let individuals and insurers sue oil companies to recoup the costs of rebuilding after disasters super-charged by global warming, and invited survivors to share their own stories in a press conference and hearing on the bill (which stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee in April). It's also backing a bill by Sen. Ben Allen to require insurance companies pay entire claims after disasters without requiring claimants to submit an itemized account of lost items. Known as 'The List,' the arduous demand is a dreaded aspect to the claims process that creates a major obstacle to receiving compensation. As the group is now gearing up for a summer of extreme heat and wildfires, POLITICO chatted with Kocher about his organizing strategy and the politics of disaster recovery. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. How are you applying organizing principles from the anti-gun violence movement here? What are parallels and differences? People are interested in making purpose of their pain, and they want to help other people who are going to go through it. When you have something like this has happened, and you have the feeling of control that is taken away, and you're choosing to be part of that advocacy effort to make this less likely to happen to someone else, it's a really important part of giving people back that sense of control and that the positive psychology behind that. Some of the differences is that when you have lost your home, which is the vast majority of people who we work with, just the sheer number of things to do, the permits, the dealing with toxicology reports, smoke damage, whether to rebuild or so, there's just a long, long list of things to do, and it means that time is the most valuable source that you have. Whereas with, I would say, at Everytown, the majority of people that we worked with had lost a loved one, and there was a lot of time people had after burying their loved ones. We're, for that reason, really making sure that our programs are as easy to join and be part of as possible. How did you pick the name and how are you thinking of climate change politics these days? We really felt like extreme weather is how people are experiencing it and people understand that this is a place for anyone who has been impacted to find their soft landing and to begin to rebuild and recover. I think there's a lot just to help more Americans understand this is the reality of climate change and this is how people are experiencing climate change right now, and helping people understand just how long and devastating that road to recovery is is an important part of the work as well. What's been your playbook in California? We really jumped in and within 48 hours had launched our Slack space, where we have more than 1000 folks who have survived LA fires in there with disaster recovery experts and mental health experts and other past fire survivors. We really came into this with the idea of helping people connect to people who have been through this before. It can be a really important part of making that steep climb from rebuilding a little bit less steep and a little bit less awful. The advocacy is something that some people are interested in, and some people aren't, and that's okay, and we support either way. What we're seeing is about half the people that are joining the organization and coming into the Slack space are interested in getting involved and sharing their story for advocacy. What's most surprised you? When we started this, I didn't expect that insurance was going to be the number one or number two thing that we heard from every single person that we talked to. They didn't understand it. They didn't have enough insurance when they needed it. It wasn't what they thought they had. They didn't know how to obtain the proceeds that they were entitled to. This is how they are experiencing this, as a kitchen table economic issue. What's next? Do you see this network getting involved in political races? It's not happening right now, but I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen in the future. I worked at Everytown alongside my team with Lucy McBath, who's now in Congress in Georgia, and Tom Sullivan, who's now run for state and won state office. I'm trying to help support people in reclaiming their power and reclaiming their story, and I think running for office is definitely a natural evolution of that. Legislation is a really important part of recovery, and a part of our work to make sure that we are legislating policy that puts survivors at the center of recovery, and I think that's something that will happen across the country. Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! THE DELTA BETWEEN THEM: The Senate and the Assembly officially passed their budget plan on Friday morning with key differences from the one Gov. Gavin Newsom put forth last month. One big one: Lawmakers rejected — for now at least — Newsom's proposal to fast-track a controversial project to reroute water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farms and cities south. It's a win for elected officials in the Delta region and environmental groups concerned the project will harm the local environment and communities. Instead, lawmakers said they'll consider it later in the legislative session. Backers of the proposal, including business and water interests, construction unions and some Los Angeles-area Democrats, are eyeing upcoming budget negotiations between legislative leaders and Newsom, hopeful that the governor's plan will win out as the two sides look to hammer out a deal by a July 1 deadline. — CvK TARIFF TUMULT: If you're hoping the Trump administration's tariff pause will make back-to-school shopping easier, you're probably out of luck. Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka said at a media briefing Friday that cargo arriving at the country's busiest port dropped 9 percent in May compared to last year. He expects a modest uptick over the next few months, but overall trade flow is expected to be lower than in previous years, as businesses remain skittish because of 30 percent tariffs Trump currently has imposed on Chinese goods and the threat of higher tariffs in the future. 'We'll likely see higher prices and fewer selections for both the back-to-school and Halloween season,' Seroka said. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers Wednesday that the administration is 'highly likely' to push back a July 8 deadline the president set to impose reciprocal tariffs on countries that don't strike new trade deals with the U.S. Seroka cautioned, however, that unspecific assurances like Bessant's only 'adds to the complexity that we're all trying to deal with.' Seroka warned that the global trade upheaval is being acutely felt in the Los Angeles area. Real estate developers have told him that tariffs on Chinese steel, appliances and building materials have caused the prices to rebuild homes and businesses destroyed in the LA wildfires to 'skyrocket.' And he said a study of 25 shifts for dockworkers conducted at the end of May found that 'for every two workers who showed up for work, one went home without a job.' — AN MAKE THEM RAKE AGAIN: The wildfire work of California's National Guard got a shoutout in the U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer's order seeking to stop their deployment by President Donald Trump to Los Angeles, which later got overturned by a federal appeals court. Trump's deployment has redirected 300 National Guard soldiers from their usual assignment fighting fires to the streets of Los Angeles. Newsom has seized on the firefighting work left behind to criticize Trump for undermining one of his own stated priorities to improve California's forest management. — CvK IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR: Former California Air Resources Board chair Mary Nichols thinks California officials overplayed their hand when negotiating with automakers to keep them on board with the state's electric vehicle mandate, writes California Climate's editor Debra Kahn in her column this week. 'Many people were acting on the assumption that it was going to be the Democrats continuing in power,' Nichols told Debra. 'So the state felt like they had all the cards in their hand, and then after the election, it was pretty hard to reset the conversation.' Read more from their chat about lessons learned in Debra's column this week. — Trump's immigration raids on California farms are threatening the nation's food supply. — The Trump administration wants to make it easier for companies to get autonomous vehicles on the road, a potential boon for Tesla. — California officials closed commercial Dungeness crab fishing along the Northern California coast after a young humpback whale got caught in a fishing line.
CNN
09-06-2025
- Health
- CNN
States that weakened gun laws saw rise in pediatric mortality, study finds
Firearms have risen to become the leading cause of death among children and teens in the United States in recent years, but a new study joins a growing set of evidence that gun laws can make a difference. A landmark Supreme Court case in 2010 – McDonald v. Chicago – ruled that the Second Amendment applies to local governments, leading to a flurry of new laws and a deeper divide in state policy around firearms, with some states tightening restrictions and others weakening gun-related laws. Over the next 13 years, thousands more children died from firearm violence than earlier trends would have predicted – and all of the increase happened in groups of states that had more permissive gun laws, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers grouped states into three categories based on firearm ownership and use policies – most permissive, permissive and strict – using a composite of policy scorecards from nonprofit advocacy groups: Brady, Everytown for Gun Safety and the Giffords Law Center. They found significant increases in the number of children who died from guns in states with looser laws: more than 6,000 additional deaths in states with the most permissive laws between 2011 and 2023, and more than 1,400 additional deaths in states considered to have permissive laws. Half of the states considered to have strict firearm laws – California, Maryland, New York, and Rhode Island – saw a decrease in pediatric firearm mortality in that time. Overall, there was an increase in child deaths from firearm-related homicides and an even greater increase in child deaths from firearm-related suicides, the study found. But pediatric mortality from others causes – including other suicides – did not increase in this time. Experts emphasize that many gun-related injuries and deaths are preventable, especially among children. 'In some ways, suicide can be more preventable than homicide, and a lot of that has to do with what children and youth have access to when they are having suicidal ideation,' said Dr. Lois Lee, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention. 'Means matter,' said Lee, who has researched the topic but was not involved in the new study. If more states had adopted stricter gun laws, many more children would be alive today, said Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, who was the lead author of the new study. 'It's not a pipe dream. The best-case scenario isn't some fictitious place. The best-case scenario is just a bunch of states that we currently live in, or don't,' he said. The new research didn't identify the specific types of gun policy that were the most harmful or most protective, but earlier research has suggested that background checks, secure storage laws and policies that otherwise prevent child access to guns are associated with lower pediatric firearm mortality. Dr. Christopher Rees, a pediatric emergency physician at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and assistant professor at Emory University School of Medicine, was not involved in the new study but has researched the effects that policy can have on pediatric firearm mortality and cared for patients who have been directly affected. 'It's not a political issue at the bedside,' he said. 'We should approach this as a way of protecting children and keeping children out of the emergency department.' In his own experience, he has noticed a difference between practicing in Massachusetts, a state which the new study considers to have strict firearm policy, and Georgia, which is considered to be among the most permissive. 'When I was a fellow in Boston at Boston Children's Hospital, I saw zero firearm-related injuries or fatalities,' Rees said. 'Since I have moved to Atlanta, I can't count how many children I have taken care of who have been involved in firearm-related injuries.' Firearms surpassed car accidents to become the leading cause of death among children and teens in the US in 2020, and Rees said that the philosophy behind seatbelts can serve as a guide of sorts for gun policy. 'We wear our seat belts all the time because you don't know when you're going to get in a car accident,' he said, and it can be difficult to predict with firearms, too. 'So, in my mind, the way to avoid unpredictable events is to have smart, preventive pieces in place before those unpredictable moments may come up.' In 2023, about 3,500 children and teens died in gun-related incidents, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – accounting for nearly 1 in 5 deaths among those ages 1 to 18. Research dollars to understand how to best prevent gun injuries and protect children has been lagging for years, and experts warn that recent cuts to federal health programs under the current Trump administration raise risks. The new study came from unfunded research, Faust said, and relied on data from the CDC's Injury and Violence Prevention Center – which was recently gutted by staff cuts. 'We do it because we care about it. But that's not sustainable,' Faust said. 'Our system really does function well based on a synergy between public resources and extramural research, and I'm really worried that the cuts to the CDC will make it harder for us to track this and every other epidemic.' Last month, hundreds of leading national, state, and local medical, public health, and research organizations sent a letter urging federal lawmakers to fund federal firearm violence prevention research. 'Across this country, communities are suffering from preventable firearm-related injuries and deaths,' they wrote. 'The freedom of individuals to own firearms can and should be balanced with protecting children and their families from serious harm, and ensuring the health, security, and well-being of all people.'
Yahoo
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Strong gun laws in California yield lowest gun deaths rates, Newsom says
( — Gov. Gavin Newsom released a statement stating that California leads the nation in strong gun safety laws, correlating with many lives that were saved. Newsom stated that year after year, California has been ranked as the number one state in the country for its strong gun safety laws, along with some of the lowest rates of gun deaths, according to information from Giffords Law Center and Everytown for Gun Safety. In other states, where officials have passed gun safety laws, fewer people have died from gun violence, Newsom said. Texas and Florida, which have been ranked 32nd and 21st, respectively, in gun law strength, had firearm mortality rates more than 50% higher than California. Newsom said that according to the California Department of Justice Office of Gun Violence Prevention, if the gun death rate in the rest of the U.S. matched the state's over the past decade, there would have been almost 140,000 lives saved, and potentially hundreds of thousands of people would sustain gunshot injuries. California gun control bill that could ban popular Glock pistol sales moves forward 'Strong gun laws save lives,' said Newsom. 'California has reduced its gun violence rate because of its leading gun safety laws.' California was the first state in the nation to have a 'Red Flag Law' in 2016, according to Newsom. The law builds on a bedrock of available protection orders – nine in total – that would prohibit firearm possession for people subject to orders ranging from domestic violence and workplace harassment. In the first three years of the law, the protection order was used to prevent 58 cases of threatened mass shooting, according to Newsom. Newsom said, 'There have been significant increases in utilization of GVROs – increasing by 118% – from 2020 to 2023.' Newsom stated that he signed a bipartisan legislative package to further reinforce California's nation-leading gun laws and prevent incidents of mass violence. 'California won't wait until the next school shooting or mass shooting to act. In the absence of congressional action, our state is once again leading the way by strengthening our nation-leading gun laws. Data shows that California's gun safety laws are effective in preventing gun-related deaths, which makes the ongoing inaction and obstruction by politicians in the pocket of the gun lobby even more reprehensible.' Gov. Gavin Newsom Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
