The Trace

The Trace We’re back after a staff retreat and the 2026 Safer Together forum. Our annual team meet-up included a lot of planning for the year ahead, and I’m excited for the work that will result from that gathering. We also made sure to spend time with each other outside those formal conversations.

The Trace Every shooting leaves scars — seen and unseen, marking individuals, families, and communities. Every shooting ripples outward across space, and time. It can last years, lifetimes, sometimes for generations. Yet grief and the feelings around survival aren’t linear, said Brandon Wolf, and “they don’t happen the way you expect them to.” Wolf survived the mass killing at Pulse nightclub in 2016. He lost not only his best friend but also a space where he felt he could be himself.

The Trace Many cities have made great strides in their public safety strategies. The dramatic declines in gun violence over the past few years are signs that they’re working. But this progress raises important questions now, as the Trump administration cuts funding and cultivates a political climate hostile to the work of gun violence prevention. What can cities do to sustain progress? What needs to be in place for these reductions in shootings to endure?

The Trace The United States has seen extraordinary reductions in gun homicides since they reached historic highs during the coronavirus pandemic. But not all age groups have benefitted equally — The Trace recently found that the gun homicide rate for teenagers ages 15 to 19 is still roughly the same or higher today than it was before COVID-19. “That’s shocking,” said U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin.

The Trace Suicide is America’s quiet gun violence crisis — and data shows that it’s getting worse. This panel at Safer Together 2026 brought together two veterans who fall on different sides of the gun debate and an architect of extreme risk protection laws to talk about what can be done. Their conversation ranged from debate over ERPO laws and voluntary prohibitors (like Donna’s Law and safeguarding) to whether a cultural shift could be the thing that makes the biggest difference.

The Trace Gun violence research has made great strides in recent years. The key question now is: How do we put those ideas into action? At the 2026 Safer Together forum, a panel of researchers discussed the challenges facing the field, the role of the media in addressing gun violence, and what they’ve learned. They also shared the possibilities those findings open up for what’s next.

The Trace On Friday, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel released an opinion finding that the federal statute that bars licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to people between the ages of 18 and 20 is unconstitutional. The move comes after federal courts have issued divergent opinions on age limits for handguns. Last year, the 5th Circuit struck down the restriction, a decision legal experts said teed up a Supreme Court battle.

The Trace “There’s an African proverb,” said K. Durell Cowan, “that says if children do not feel the love of their village, they will burn it down to feel the warmth.” He continued, gaze steady: “America is burning.” Cowan is the founder of Heal 901, a violence prevention organization in Memphis. Gun violence there has been falling since 2024, but the city faces an acute version of a national crisis: teen gun homicides.

The Trace One Friday afternoon in late July, at Shelby County juvenile court in Memphis, a 14-year-old boy waited to learn whether he would be allowed out of detention before his birthday. The teenager had been accused of assault. His birthday was Monday. If his case was not resolved that afternoon, he would turn 15 in custody. At his side was Alexx Brent, a community public safety specialist at the violence prevention program Heal 901, where the teenager was enrolled.

The Trace Research released today reveals sobering insights into the prevalence of violence in the United States. The nationally representative study, led by researchers from Tulane University’s Newcomb Institute and the University of California, San Diego, found that 14 percent of all U.S. adults — 16 percent of men and 12 percent of women — have reported being harmed or threatened by a gun in their lifetime. That translates to more than 38 million Americans.