Gun rights advocates joined with gun violence prevention leaders to create a set of state-level gun policies that both sides could live with.
A rare bit of good news on the gun beat from @bychipbrownlee.com:
What do you think of our gun violence coverage? We’re giving away Trace hats to people who let us know. Take our survey: www.surveymonkey.com/r/YFQQS2C
Image of (very fashionable) Trace hat, plus text: This is one of Chip Brownlee's favorite hats.
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The Trace has fact-checked the president’s baseless claims about violent crime and immigrants during his State of the Union.
www.thetrace.org/2026/02/trum...
“These actions will make Americans less safe and more vulnerable to gun violence,” Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, Maryland Senator Angela Alsobrooks, and six members of Congress wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The White House is touting a new analysis from the @counciloncj.org showing that homicides and crime reached record or near-record lows in 2025.
But violence has been falling at a quick pace since at least 2022, when the U.S. began recovering from the historic spike in violence that began in 2020.
An administration that pushes "law and order" has pulled over $1 billion from gun violence prevention, mental health and public safety programs. More details on the numbers from @bychipbrownlee.com
Police have declared a north Minneapolis protest an "unlawful assembly" as demonstrators remain in the area after a federal agent shot a man in the leg.
We're still at the scene of the protest and will continue to provide updates on law enforcement actions.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, after a second shooting by federal agents in the city in a week:
“It’s certainly not creating safety when a huge percentage of the shootings that have taken place so far this year in Minneapolis have been by ICE.”
She says ICE agents mocked her: “The ICE agent who had pepper sprayed into the vents of my car said ‘you guys gotta stop obstructing us, that’s why that lesbian b—— is dead,’ verbatim, speaking of Renee Good. Which filled me with absolute rage and shock..."
www.mprnews.org/episode/2026...
Breaking WaPo:
The FBI executed a search warrant this morning at a Post reporter's home as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified materials.
It's highly unusual and aggressive for law enforcement to conduct a search on a reporter's home.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani enters office with the city’s lowest gun violence rate on record. But rather than riding that wave, he’s preparing to overhaul the machinery of public safety itself.
Years before federal immigration agents shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis, reporter Lila Hassan began investigating ICE’s history of deadly force. ICE’s January 7 shooting of Good resembles many of the shootings Hassan reviewed.
A violence interrupter in Minneapolis got an alert about a shooting last week.
Then it updated: officer-involved.
“We automatically thought ICE.”
The aftermath illustrates how federal enforcement actions can undermine local public safety.
My latest for @thetrace.org
Federal immigration agents claimed they shot and killed Renee Good because she tried to run them over with her car. A law professor told The Trace about the policies governing use of force with moving vehicles and fleeing suspects. thetr.ac/22sk2
“Everything about these incidents indicates that these are probably shootings that did not need to happen,” Christy Lopez, a former senior civil rights litigator at the Justice Department who now teaches at Georgetown Law, said after examining The Trace’s list in December.
The Trace has been tracking shootings related to Trump's immigration crackdown. With Portland, we're at 16. Please see our tracker for more detail @jenmascia.bsky.social @bychipbrownlee.com
Including yesterday's shooting of two people in Portland, The Trace has identified 44 incidents of use of force by federal immigration agents since January 2025.
That includes 16 shootings, 4 of which were fatal. Seven other people have been wounded.
www.thetrace.org/2025/12/immi...
The number also includes the shootings of five people driving away from traffic stops or evading an enforcement action.
At least four people have been killed and five others have been injured.
ICE agents in Minneapolis shot and killed a motorist, claiming she rammed her car into them. Video showed her backing up and driving away from the agents before they fired. Local officials rejected Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s assertion that the agents fired in self-defense. “The presence of federal immigration enforcement agents is causing chaos in our city,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey subsequently posted on X.
The Trace has identified 14 shootings by federal immigration agents as of January 7.
They include the shootings of three people observing or documenting ICE raids.
www.thetrace.org/2025/12/immi...
BREAKING: At least 16 files from the Epstein release disappeared from DOJ's webpage, including a photo of Trump, with no explanation.
Her son was killed while raking leaves. Juanita Agnew turned an unimaginable loss into a mission to prevent gun violence. Beautiful reporting by @almabeauvais.bsky.social for @thetrace.org
Passing gun laws is only step one. Michigan’s new task force report focuses on the harder question: what it takes to implement them statewide. My last 2025 story for @thetrace.org
29 states require no license to carry concealed guns in public. But what happens when someone from one of those states wants to carry their gun in a state that does require a permit? @bychipbrownlee.com breaks it down:
Trump’s DOJ is diverting money meant for community violence prevention to law enforcement and immigration crackdowns. Important reporting by @bychipbrownlee.com for @thetrace.org
At a gathering of nearly 1,300 anti-violence workers from around the country, advocates sought to reclaim momentum — and hope — as federal support collapses.
This grant used to support things like community violence interrupters, Cure Violence, hospital-based interventions.
Now, the DOJ says it will prioritize applications that directly support law enforcement and coordinate with federal law enforcement agencies, including on immigration.
The Trump administration has reoriented a grant initiative originally meant to fund community-based violence prevention, using it instead to bolster local law enforcement and the president’s immigration crackdown.
Over 1,000 anti-violence workers descended on Kentucky’s biggest city in late October for the Cities United conference. The gathering came at a pivotal moment for a field that proved central to responding to the post-COVID spike in gun violence — but now finds itself facing headwinds.
