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The Year That Was: Guns & School Safety — 10 Years After Sandy Hook

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

Ten years ago today, on Dec. 14 2012, a then 20-year-old gunman fired 154 rounds in under five minutes using various types of firearms, and killed 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. It was labeled the second deadliest mass shooting in the United States, next only to the deadly Virginia Tech massacre of 2007 that left more than 30 people dead.

How far have we come today, as a nation, in ensuring we’re doing the best to protect our children and make schools as safe as possible? In the rest of this piece, we review where things stand in 2022 by way of overall gun violence, how the year fared in terms of school safety, and how far gun safety laws have come since Sandy Hook.

2022: Worst Year For Gun Violence Since 2013

Has a lot changed over the past decade since the Sandy Hook massacre? The answer to that, as we will discover through the rest of this piece, is yes, although not entirely for the better. Take the number of incidents of gun violence overall in 2022, for instance.

There have been 628 mass shooting incidents just this year, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive (GVA). That makes 2022 the second worst year since the GVA started tracking gun violence data in 2013, according to a Forbes report.

The absolute worst year on record since 2013 for gun violence was 2021 with 690 mass shooting incidents, per Forbes. Over 900 children (aged 0-11) have become victims of gun violence this year, i.e. have been shot at, according to latest GVA data. Of those, 302 children were killed due to gun violence in 2022.

When it comes to teens, those numbers are significantly higher. More than 4,000 teenagers (aged 12-17) fell prey to gun violence in 2022, with 1,281 losing their lives to the epidemic.

Source: GVA’s Twitter account

The number of people injured in gun-related incidents this year is the third highest, so far, since the GVA began recording data, according to the Forbes report.

News headlines through 2022 were peppered with various major shootings, including Chesapeake, Colorado Springs, Charlottesville, Highland Park, Uvalde and Buffalo.

159,698. That’s the total number of people killed and injured since the Sandy Hook massacre (between Dec. 14 2012 and Dec. 13 2022), according to latest GVA data. The number of people injured during the same period exceeds 400,000, and the number of gun-related suicides since Sandy Hook stood at 235,986, it added via a tweet.

Gun violence in the United States “far exceeds levels in other rich nations,” Bloomberg had reported in mid-2022. When the Sandy Hook massacre took place in 2012, it was considered a rarity. But today, incidents of gun violence have become far more commonplace, experts say.

Uvalde & School Safety In 2022

In 2022, there were 298 gun violence-related incidents at K-12 schools, according to Riedman, David (2022), K-12 School Shooting Database. That number is at its highest since 1970, per the database. There were 327 people shot (fatal and wounded) on K-12 school property, which is the highest in the last five years.

The database counts “all shootings at schools includes when a gun is brandished, is fired, or a bullet hits school property for any reason, regardless of the number of victims, time, or day of the week.”

In over 43% of the incidents the database analyzed, the shooter was found to be a student at the school. However, in a significant number of incidents (21.7%), the shooter had no relation to the school. The parking lot has been the most popular location for shooters to carry out their deadly firing, followed by classrooms.

Meanwhile, the narrative around school safety in 2022 was, undoubtedly, shaped by the horrific massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in May. An 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults in the incident, which was the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook. The Uvalde shooting itself came only ten days after the rampage at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

School safety was severely scrutinized after the Uvalde massacre. Proposals were made to add panic buttons, locks, and bulletproof windows. All aspects of school security technology were discussed and debated. For some schools, the shooting reinforced safety plans, while some said the Uvalde shooting showed that there were limits to school safety plans. On the other hand, false calls about active shooters soared after Uvalde.

The Many Facets Of School Safety

In the years since Sandy Hook, the school safety debate has developed various facets. Human-focused approaches have gained importance as a way to go to the source of the issue and prevent school shootings from taking place at all. Those methods include providing mental health support to students, offering students ways to communicate and to identify their emotions.

Scarlett Lewis, founder of the Choose Love Movement and a mother who lost her son in the Sandy Hook massacre, has been working on direct efforts to understand the shooters, according to an EducationWeek article. Over the past decade, Lewis has met with several others who have either plotted or carried out shootings similar to Sandy Hook. Her goal is to look for commonalities that could be the key to preventing future shootings.

However, school safety still remains a contentious issue and one that many believe has no singular solution. In May, after the Uvalde massacre, a coalition of experts published a call for action to prevent gun violence in the country. They advocated a combination of gun laws, mental health support, crisis intervention programs, and efforts to build supportive school climates.

Source: Former Rep. Gabby Giffords‘ Twitter account

Gun Safety Laws: How Far Have We Come?

The most significant gun safety event of 2022 was the passing of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) in June, the first major federal gun safety bill to be passed in nearly 30 years. It focused on tightening background checks and offering “red flag” grants for states that allow families and police to try to keep guns out of the hands of potentially dangerous people before they commit violence, NBC said.

On the other hand, in the same month, a Supreme Court decision expanded gun rights by striking down New York’s concealed-carry law. The state law required New Yorkers who want to carry a handgun in public to show a special need to defend themselves.

After the Supreme Court’s decision, there was a spike in demand for concealed gun permits in Maryland, for instance. However, some states (including New York) began tightening other requirements to obtain a concealed gun permit after the Supreme Court decision, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

In 2022, 21 states and Washington DC passed 90 strong bills, bringing the total number of significant laws passed since the massacre in Parkland in 2018 to 278, Giffords says in a report. The key takeaway over the decade since Sandy Hook, according to the report, is that nearly every state in the nation has passed at least one significant gun safety law. States have collectively passed more than 525 significant gun safety laws in the last ten years.

However, it’s not consistent across states and this inconsistency leaves “all Americans vulnerable, as guns are often trafficked from states with weak laws to those with strong ones,” the Giffords report added. From 2012 to 2020, gun deaths rose 46% in the five states with the weakest gun laws, the report continued.

In contrast, gun deaths rose only seven percent in the five states with the strongest gun laws. “Many states that had weak laws in 2012 further weakened them in the past 10 years, passing dangerous laws like permitless carry and Stand Your Ground,” the report adds.

Where should we go from here, as a nation? The Giffords report says President Joe Biden’s administration should now focus on making the implementation of the BSCA as effective as possible. Congress should “pass more legislation, including to enact universal background checks, increase funding for community violence intervention, address the deadly nexus of guns and domestic violence, and invest in research into gun violence,” it adds.

That must be backed by continuing to focus on human-centric approaches, including mental health support, in order to build a truly multi-dimensional strategy to battle the gun epidemic that has gripped the United States and claimed far too many lives.

Spotlight: Anti-Crime Bills In The Works

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

This midterm election season, along with the state of the economy, the country’s crime rate has been under the scanner. Forty percent of U.S. registered voters said crime is an extremely important issue when it comes to their vote, according to a Gallup survey. With that, crime ranks third on the list of issues that are extremely important to voters. The economy ranked first (with 49% of voters choosing it in the Gallup survey), followed by abortion (with 42% of voters picking it). There has been some debate on how bad the rate of crime truly is.

The FBI’s recent Crime in the Nation data shows that estimated violent crime volumes were trending down in 2021, while the estimated number of murders increased. But, some say the data is based on low participation rates from law enforcement and doesn’t give an entire picture of the state of crime in the country. Overall, experts agree that crime did spike in 2020 but trends since then have been a mixed bag. Nevertheless, crime rates are definitely on the minds of many Americans at the moment.

Lawmakers, too, appear to be examining the state of crime in the country going by the number of proposed bills in the pipeline. Here’s a brief look at ten pieces of anti-crime legislation and resolutions that were introduced last month.

H. Res.1425 – “National Nonviolence Week”

The bill resolution in brief: To support the goals and ideals of “National Nonviolence Week” to raise awareness of youth violence in the United States.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 4. An identical resolution was also introduced in the House on Oct. 8. For more on that, click here.

As part of the resolution, the House also: “encourages the people of the United States, State and local officials, middle schools and high schools, law enforcement agencies, and other interested groups to observe “National Nonviolence Week” with appropriate programs and activities that promote awareness and prevention of youth violence.”

You can find the full text of the resolution here.

H.R.9125 – Safe Leave for Victims of Domestic Violence Act

The bill in brief: To amend the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 to permit leave for an employee to meet their needs related to being a victim of dating violence, domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, or stalking, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 4. The bill has one, the original, co-sponsor so far.

Among other aspects, the bill seeks to make some amendments to terms including dating violence, domestic violence, sex trafficking, sexual assault, and stalking under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (29 U.S.C. 2612).

You can find the full text of the bill here.

H.R.9133 – FASTER Act of 2022

The bill in brief: Requires financial institutions to freeze the assets of individuals arrested under suspicion of participating in domestic terrorism or providing material support to terrorists, to establish a national clearinghouse for information on incidents of homegrown “lone wolf” terrorism, domestic terrorism, and persons providing material support to terrorists, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 4. The bill has one, the original, co-sponsor so far.

The long title of this bill is the “Freezing Assets of Suspected Terrorists and Enemy Recruits Act of 2022.”

You can find the full text of the bill here.

H.R.9136 – Campus Accountability and Safety Act

The bill in brief: Seeks to amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1092(f)) and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act to combat campus sexual assault, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 4. The bill has 33 co-sponsors so far. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate on Sept. 29. For more on that bill, click here.

Among other amendments, this bill seeks to increase transparency around campus safety. It seeks to allow for the establishment of “a publicly available, searchable, accessible, and user-friendly campus safety website.”

You can find the full text of the bill here.

H.R.9177 – Combating Organized Retail Crime Act of 2022

The bill in brief: Seeks to combat organized crime involving the illegal acquisition of retail goods for the purpose of selling those illegally obtained goods through physical and online retail marketplaces.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 14. The bill has four co-sponsors so far. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate on Sept. 29. For more on that bill, click here.

The reason why this bill is important, per the text of the bill, is because: “organized retail crime, a crime involving groups of individuals specifically targeting retail stores, often by using violence or threats of violence to subdue employees and shoppers while robbing stores of their most valuable and easily diverted merchandise, has been a growing concern to retailers, industry, and law enforcement.”

You can find the full text of the bill here.

H.R.9188 – Auto Theft Prevention Act

The bill in brief: Seeks to provide funding to State and local law enforcement agencies to combat auto theft and stolen automobile trafficking, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 14. The bill has seven co-sponsors so far.

You can find the full text of the bill here.

H.R.9195 – Gang Activity Reporting Act of 2022

The bill in brief: Seeks to amend title 28, United States Code, to require the Attorney General to submit an annual report to Congress on gang activity, reporting, investigation, and prosecution, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 18. The bill has three co-sponsors so far. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate on Sept. 28. For more on that bill, click here.

The text of the bill says: “The United States is experiencing an unprecedented surge in violent crime, including an increase of more than 30 percent in the rate of murders since 2020. The most recent Department of Justice data regarding gangs and criminal activity, published in the 2011 National Gang Threat Assessment, indicated that gangs were responsible for an average of 48 percent of violent crime in the United States.”

“Up-to-date, accurate, and consistent reporting from the relevant Federal agencies relating to gang activity in the United States is a foundational element in enabling policymakers to enact effective, evidence-based policy that protects the people of the United States from gang activity.”

You can find the full text of the bill here.

H.R.9207 – Keep Americans Safe Act

The bill in brief: This bill establishes a new criminal offense for the import, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession of a large capacity ammunition feeding device (LCAFD).

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 21. The bill has 105 co-sponsors so far. Five related bills have been introduced, in both the House and the Senate. For more on those, click here.

The bill does not prohibit certain conduct with respect to an LCAFD, including the following:

  • importation, sale, manufacture, transfer, or possession related to certain law enforcement efforts, or authorized tests or experiments;
  • importation, sale, transfer, or possession related to securing nuclear materials; and
  • possession by a retired law enforcement officer.

The bill permits continued possession of, but prohibits sale or transfer of, a grandfathered LCAFD. It seeks to require that newly manufactured LCAFDs display serial number identification and the date of manufacture.

You can find the full text of the bill here.

H.R.9235 – Supporting Women COPS Act of 2022

The bill in brief: Seeks to establish a Task Force on Women in Law Enforcement to study and develop national hiring standards for law enforcement officers, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 25. The bill has one, the original, co-sponsor so far.

The bill proposes a Task Force composed of 15 members appointed by the Attorney General.

You can find the full text of the bill here.

H.Res.1451 – Original National Domestic Violence Awareness Month Resolution of 2022

The resolution in brief: Seeks to support the goals and ideals of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Further, it expresses the sense of the House of Representatives that Congress should continue to raise awareness of and support programs to end domestic violence.

It was introduced in the House on Oct. 28.

You can find the full text of the resolution here.

Spotlight: Native American Heritage Month

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

Nov. 1 marks the start of Native American Heritage Month, an annual celebration to honor the traditions, culture, history, and contributions of American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) to the country. It’s a celebration, dating back to 1916, and one that’s close to our hearts here at Biometrica. In fact, Biometrica, Native Search Solutions (NSS) and Native American Fatherhood & Families Association (NAFFA) are working together to help end the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) through our Fusion Center in Mesa, Arizona.

In the rest of this piece, we trace a brief history of the celebration, look at a few ways we can explore observing Native American Heritage Month this year, and give you an overview of current events that are of critical importance to the wellbeing of the community, including the MMIP crisis and violent crime.

The Roots Of The Celebration

The history of Native American Heritage Month can be traced back to 1915. Dr. Arthur Caswell Parker, a Cattaraugus Seneca Indian was an early proponent of setting aside a day for the “First Americans,” according to the U.S. Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Dr. Parker was a historian, anthropologist, and author from New York state and founded many American Indian rights organizations such as the Society of American Indians and the National Congress of American Indians, says Native News Online.

He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to designate a day to celebrate the “First Americans” from 1912-1915. It was in 1915 that the plan was formally approved at the annual Congress of the American Indian Association, held at Lawrence, Kansas. After the annual Congress, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapaho Indian minister and the president of the association, declared the second Saturday of each May as an “American Indian Day.”

But, there’s another key event that must be mentioned while talking about the history of Native American Heritage Month. A year before Rev. Coolidge’s declaration, Rev. Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Tribe citizen, rode from state to state on his horse seeking approval for the celebration of a day in honor of indigenous people. He presented the endorsements of 24 governors to the White House in 1915.

The first American Indian Day was observed on the second Saturday in May 1916. In 1976, Jerry C. Elliott (Osage-Cherokee) authored the Congressional legislation for the first Native American Awareness Week, per Native News Online. In 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a joint congressional resolution designating the month of November “National American Indian Heritage Month.”  Proclamations have been issued each year since 1994, Native News Online adds.

“Congress ultimately chose November as the month to honor Native Americans since the month concludes their traditional harvest season and generally is a time of celebration and giving thanks,” according to a SAMHSA blog from the Public Health Advisor Office of Tribal Affairs.

What’s Happening This Year

As of 2021, there were 574 federally recognized Tribes in the United States. Per Native News Online, the nation’s American Indian and Alaskan Native population in 2020 was 3.7 million. This population group identifies as AI/AN only and does not identify with any other race.

The SAMHSA blog post said Tribal citizens constitute about 2.5% of the total U.S. population. There were also 120,994 single-race American Indian and Alaska Native veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces in 2021.

Native American Heritage Month, as we mentioned earlier, is a time to reflect, recognize, and learn about indigenous people and their history. One of the ways to do it is to take part in various events being organized around the country.

For instance, the Smithsonian Institution (National Museum of the American Indian) has a Native Cinema Showcase, Procession and Dedication Ceremony to celebrate Native Veterans, events honoring Native arts, culture, food, online exhibitions, and weekend celebrations.

The National Park Service is conducting cultural demonstrations, speeches, walking tours, pop-up programs, and holding indigenous games. The Library of Congress has a couple of Native storytelling events.

Another to take part in the month-long celebration online could be by visiting websites like Native Land Digital’s. It’s an indigenous-led nonprofit based in Canada that has put together a searchable map of Native territories, languages and treaties, an NPR article says. A user can click on labels across the map to see which indigenous peoples lived where.

Violent Crime & MMIP

While Native American Heritage Month is a time for celebration, it’s equally important to pause and take stock of challenges that the community faces. Two of the biggest, and grave, challenges indigenous persons face in the United States is the higher rate of violent crimes committed against them, and the MMIP crisis.

As the BIA website puts it: “For decades, Native American and Alaska Native communities have struggled with high rates of assault, abduction, and murder of women.” Victimization rates of indigenous people are much higher for rape, murder and violent crime.

According to the BIA, approximately 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) throughout the U.S. and around 2,700 cases of Murder and Nonnegligent Homicide Offenses have been reported to the Federal Government’s Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program. In total, there are about 4,200 missing and murdered cases that have gone unsolved, per BIA estimates.

Even just a few months ago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Deputy Director reiterated this by saying indigenous people face some of the “country’s highest rates of violence and combating that is among the most important and highest priority work we do together with you, in the Bureau.”

This month last year, we at Biometrica wrote about the other serious challenge the indigenous communities face: MMIP. It was last November that President Joe Biden’s administration acknowledged through an executive order that the MMIP crisis is a public safety epidemic demanding urgent action. In March, the Biden administration also announced $562.1 million for Public Safety and Justice operations as part of the 2023 budget.

These twin challenges of MMIP and high rates of violent crime make Native Americans, who already carry the trauma and scars of past injustice done to them, even more vulnerable to exploitation. It further underscores the importance of celebrations like the Native American Heritage Month, which, in turn, creates an opportunity to take much-needed steps towards correcting historic crimes committed against indigenous communities.

At Biometrica, we’ve written several pieces that attempt to get to the heart of public safety and other challenges that indigenous communities face. Here are a few select ones that we believe are worth re-reading as we observe Native American Heritage Month:

Addressing The Epidemic Of Missing And Murdered Indigenous Persons: What’s In The President’s Executive Order
How Native Americans Used The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act To Empower Their People And Improve Their Communities
Wrestling With The Shrouded Legacy Of America’s Boarding Schools For Indigenous Children
The Repatriation Of Native American Artifacts And Human Remains
How The Federal Government Hopes To Understand And Evaluate The Extent Of The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Crisis
Firearm Used In Nearly Half Of All Indigenous Persons Homicides: CDC Report

Spotlight: The Worrying Spike In School Shootings Across America

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

No matter what database you look at, the stats on school shootings in the United States in recent times should be cause for worry for anyone with any interest in child safety and child protection. After the latest school shooting this week, at a St. Louis, Missouri school, a few social media users wondered if the country has grown numb to such incidents. There’s an ocean of fear, worry, and sadness behind questions like that. After all, major headlines over the past year have been peppered by incidents of gunfire at schools in Michigan, Texas, and California, not to mention the latest one in Missouri this week.

On Oct. 24, an armed former student broke into a St. Louis high school in the morning hours. He is said to have warned, “You are all going to die!” before fatally shooting a teacher and a teenage girl, and wounding seven others before police killed him in an exchange of gunfire, according to an Associated Press report. The attack forced students to barricade doors, huddle in classroom corners, jump from windows and run out of the building to seek safety, the report adds.

The 19-year-old gunman, who was identified as Orlando Harris, was able to buy the AR-15-style rifle from a private seller after an FBI background check stopped him from buying a weapon from a licensed dealer, another Associated Press article says. Missouri does not have a red-flag law aimed at keeping firearms away from people who may be a danger to themselves or others.

Anyone who is 19 and older can legally conceal and/or open carry a gun in Missouri without a permit, according to the law, and the state also recognizes concealed weapon permits issued by other states, per an ABC News report. Tragically, in this case, Harris’ family had removed the weapon from their home, but Harris managed to gain access to it again.

News of the St. Louis school shooting came even as 16-year-old Ethan Crumbley pled guilty to terrorism and first-degree murder in a Michigan school shooting that killed four students last year.

Worst Year For School Shootings?

It’s little wonder then that the numbers are also showing a spike in incidents of gunfire at campuses. Let’s start by looking at data from The Conversation, a not-for-profit media outlet whose criminologists have built a database to log all school shootings in the U.S. Their numbers show that 2022 is the worst year on record for school shootings. “As of Oct. 24, there have been 257 shootings on school campuses,” per The Conversation.

That compares with 250 shooting incidents in 2021, which itself was a record number and more than double the total for the years 2018-2020, the media outlet adds. With over two months left to the end of this year, 2022’s record so far is worrisome. There have been shootings at schools in the country nearly every single year since 1966, per the media outlet. But the number of incidents have been rising steadily since 2010, with significant spikes in 2018 and 2021, it continues.

Since the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, over 700 people have been shot at U.S. schools on football fields and in classrooms, hallways, cafeterias and parking lots, The Conversation adds.

However, it is important to pause here to explain what The Conversation takes into account when it uses the term ‘school shooting.’ Shooting incidents, per its website, include “any occurrence of a firearm being discharged, be it related to suicides, accidental shootings, gang-related violence or incidents at after-hours school events.”

Image source: The Conversation

Journalists at Education Week also began tracking shootings on K-12 school property that led to firearm-related injuries or deaths in 2018. Their records show that there have been 40 school shootings this year that resulted in injuries or deaths. While that number may be very different from what The Conversation’s data shows, there’s one crucial factor linking the two: Education Week’s journalists also say that the 40 school shootings this year that led to injuries or deaths is the most in a single year since they began tracking such incidents.

Per their data, there were 132 such gun violence incidents at schools since 2018. Before 2022, the year with the highest number of such incidents was 2021 with 34 such shootings. There were 10 in 2020, and 24 each in 2019 and 2018, Education Week data shows.

Data from the advocacy, not-for-profit group Everytown for Gun Safety, however, shows that there have been fewer incidents of gunfire on school grounds so far this year than last. It says there were at least 141 incidents of gunfire on school grounds in 2022 as of Oct. 27, resulting in 48 deaths and 115 injuries nationally. That compares with at least 202 incidents of gunfire on school grounds in 2021, resulting in 49 deaths and 126 injuries nationally.

In 2020, according to the anti-gun violence group, there were at least 96 incidents of gunfire on school grounds, while there were at least 130 incidents in 2019 and 105 in 2018. However, according to their data too, the number of such incidents rose sharply in 2021, even when compared with the pre-pandemic years.

Ultimately, whether it is the worst year on record or not for school shootings, even a single incident of firearm-related violence at campuses should not be ignored. It can leaves students, parents, teachers and entire communities battling with the emotional scars for years.

Human Trafficking: The State Of Forced Labor — An Introduction

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic struck, all manner of criminal activity also increasingly shifted to the virtual world. That included human traffickers, who began to use online channels more and more to conduct their activities. They used digital platforms to groom victims of all ages and genders for sex trafficking, recruit unsuspecting employment seekers into their illegal activities, and lure migrants, refugees and minors into involuntary servitude.

In this piece, we take a quick dive into one particular aspect of human trafficking: forced labor, or labor trafficking. We examine the definition of forced labor, the forms it normally assumes, the current state of forced labor, and the kind of labor trafficking trends seen over the last few years.

What Is Labor Trafficking?

Before we take a detailed look at labor trafficking, it’s important to define what it is, per experts and policymakers. In the United States, there are two main types of trafficking in persons that have been officially defined. Those are forced labor and sex trafficking.

The broader term, trafficking, is used to refer to a crime that involves the exploitation and profiting of a trafficker at the expense of adults or children by “compelling them to perform labor or engage in commercial sex,” according to a definition by the U.S. Department of State.

In cases where the victim is younger than 18 and is used to perform a commercial sex act, it is considered a crime regardless of whether there is any force, fraud or coercion involved.

According to the department, forced labor covers the “range of activities involved when a person uses force, fraud, or coercion to exploit the labor or services of another person.” It goes on to add that there are three main elements that constitute the crime of forced labor: the act, the means, and the purpose.

The ‘act’ is when a trafficker recruits, harbors, transports, provides, or obtains a person for labor or services. The ‘means’ includes a trafficker’s use of force, fraud, or coercion. And the ‘purpose’ focuses on the perpetrator’s goal to exploit a person’s labor or services. 

Separately, the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ (BJS) in its Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities, 2021 report defines involuntary servitude as “obtaining of a person(s) through recruitment, harboring, transportation, or provision, and subjecting such persons by force, fraud, or coercion into involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery (not to include commercial sex acts).

Types Of Forced Labor

Per the Department of State, there are two main types of forced labor that are frequently identified. Here’s a brief look at them:

  • Domestic servitude: This is a form of forced labor where the victim is required to work in a private residence. When this happens, certain unique vulnerabilities arise. For one, it ensures that the domestic worker is, most often, in isolation. Their employers control all aspects of their lives from food to housing and transportation. What happens inside a private residence is also hidden from the outside world and, often, makes it tough for law enforcement to identify victims. Foreign domestic workers are most vulnerable to this form of forced labor or labor trafficking due to language barriers and the lack of community support.
  • Forced child labor: This term is used to describe any scheme in which traffickers target children with the intention of compelling them to work. Why? As with foreign domestic workers, or migrants, or women, children are a vulnerable target group for all manner of criminals. It’s important to note here that children can work legally in certain kinds of work. But forcing or coercing children to work is illegal. Even so, slavery-like practices of selling children, forcing them to work, debt bondage and serfdom of children continue to exist.

Current State & Trends In Labor Trafficking

Image Source: Screengrab from the Human Trafficking Hotline website

There were 10,583 human trafficking cases in total reported in 2020, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. In 2019, there were 11,494 cases reported, while that number was 10,906 in 2018, per the Hotline statistics.

The number of human trafficking cases filed has been on the rise since 2016 (it was 8,775 in 2017, and 7,742 in 2016) but dipped in 2020, when a major portion of the world was locked down due to the pandemic.

The number of calls that the Hotline receives each year, however, continued to increase even in 2020. That number went from 5,275 calls from victims & survivors in 2016 to 8,257 in 2018 and 13,594 in 2020. In 2019, 10,575 calls were made by victims & survivors to the Hotline.

The number of criminal forced labor cases filed in 2021 increased 22% when compared with 2020, according to the Human Trafficking Institute’s Federal Human Trafficking report. The report adds that victims of forced labor were mostly recruited through:

  • fraudulent job offers
  • visa promises
  • promise of essential resources
  • promise of shelter
  • or, through pre-existing relationships with the recruiter

The institute’s report further adds that 93% of identified victims in new forced labor cases were foreign nationals. That trend resonates with what the Polaris Project says in a separate report about labor trafficking.

Between 2018 and 2020, 15,886 victims of labor trafficking were identified through the Hotline, according to a Polaris Project report. During that time, more than half the victims of labor trafficking reported to the Trafficking Hotline whose immigration status was identified were foreign nationals holding legal visas of some kind, including temporary work visas, the report adds.

Meanwhile, the BJS’ Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities, 2021 report shows that involuntary servitude was on the rise between 2017 and 2019. It dipped in the year 2020, per BJS data. Information for the year 2021 is not yet available on the BJS website.

Image Source: BJS’ Human Trafficking Data Collection Activities, 2021 report

It’s important to note here that the way labor trafficking is measured differs from one report to another. Nevertheless, by examining various datasets, we can arrive at a high level view of the current state of labor trafficking.

From these various reports, it appears that cases of labor trafficking or forced labor are still, largely, on the rise, particularly under certain circumstances (i.e. when it comes to foreign nationals or immigrants). Some fear that trafficking and abuse has become far too commonplace in the lives of many guest workers to the country.

As trafficking of all kinds becomes more widespread, it is equally important to battle it. Like the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, says in the 2022 Trafficking in Persons report: “Everyone should be free. And yet, through force, fraud, and coercion, human traffickers violate this most basic right.”

Fraud Accounted For Nearly One-Third Of All Corporate Offenses Over 30 Years

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

Fraud accounted for 30.1% of all organizational offenses during the near-30 year period between fiscal 1992 and 2021. Environmental offenses was the second largest offense category at 24%, according to a report published late last month by the United States Sentencing Commission (USSC).

Together, fraud and environmental offenses were the biggest types of misdeeds committed by organizations during the timeframe. Other common corporate criminal offenses types included: antitrust (at 8.4%), food and drug (6.6%), money laundering (6.1%), and import and export crimes (5.2%).

The USSC report captures broad strokes of how the corporate crime landscape has shifted over the last three decades. However, before we proceed further, it’s important to pause here to note that what the report shows should not be considered a “full measure” of corporate crime in the country.

Why? Criminal prosecutions resulting in a sentencing are only one of many methods by which an organization’s violations of the law can be addressed by the authorities. Therefore, USSC sentencing data cannot fully measure the prevalence of corporate crime.

Still, the data gives us a good sense of the state of corporate crime and trends in sentencing. In the rest of this piece, the first of a mini series, we will examine some key highlights of the report titled: The Organizational Sentencing Guidelines: Thirty Years Of Innovation And Influence.

By Offense Type

There were six major offense types that accounted for more than 80% of all organizational offenses between fiscal years 1992 and 2021. But, the USSC report says that there have been notable changes when it comes to the type of offense committed by corporates over the years.

During the first two years of data collection, for example, there were only a few organizational offenders sentenced and antitrust was the most common offense type. Then in 1994, the Commission observed a change in offense type: Fraud overtook antitrust as the most common offense.

Between fiscal years 1994 and 2010, fraud continued to remain the most common offense type. But from 2005, a new offense caught up with fraud: environmental offenses (it equaled fraud offenses in the year 2005). Although fraud still outnumbers environmental offenses on an overall basis over the past three decades, there have been some fiscal years over the past decade where it has been the other way around (i.e. with environmental offenses outnumbering fraud).

Image Source: Screengrab from USSC report

From fiscal year 2000, the Commission also started to collect data on the industry in which organizational offenders were doing business. Here’s what it discovered based on that:

  • Between fiscal years 2000 and 2021, a majority of organizational offenders were doing business in the manufacturing industry (at 19.6%)
  • Healthcare services (14%), retail trade (13.5%), transportation (11.9%) and services (11.1%) rounded out the top five industry categories of organizational offenders during that timeframe
  • Around 6.2% of organizational offenders during the 21-year period belonged to the finance industry

Number Of Organizational Offenders

4,946 — That’s the number of organizational offenders sentenced in the 94 federal judicial districts during the 30-year period since promulgation of the organizational guidelines. In comparison, nearly two million individual federal offenders were sentenced within the same period.

Between fiscal years 1992 and 2000, the Commission noted a fairly steady increase in the number of organizational offenders, it says in the report. However, since 2000, the number of organizational offenders has gradually declined to below 100 in the most recent two fiscal years.

Image Source: Screengrab from USSC report

Also in fiscal year 2000, the Commission expanded its data collection to record whether an organization was a domestic or foreign organization. It discovered that a majority of the offenders (88.1%) were domestic organizations. The highest percentage of domestic organizational offenders was reported in fiscal year 2001 at 96.2%. Since then, though, the proportion of domestic to foreign organizational offenders has been treading down.

By Ownership Structure & Size

Data collected by the Commission based on ownership structures of offenders can be divided into five broad organization categories:

  • Private
  • Public
  • Non-profit
  • Governmental
  • Other

An overwhelming majority of organizational offenders fall under the private category (at 92.2%). That is followed by public organizations (4.8%), other organizations (1.6%), non-profit (0.8%) and government organizations (0.6%).

Another important factor to note is that a majority of organizational offenders who were sentenced are smaller companies with fewer than 50 employees (at 70.4%). Only 10% of organizations with over 500 employees were sentenced for organizational offenses during the three decade timeframe.

Image Source: Screengrab from USSC report

Financial Status Of Offenders

Criminal prosecution and sentencing of a company may impact its financial status, the USSC report says. A criminal conviction could drive away existing or potential customer base, and put the company’s ability to survive at risk. Sentences also typically include monetary sanctions, which could put additional stress on an already vulnerable organization.

Even so, a majority of organizations (64.5%) sentenced during the 30-year period were solvent and operational at the time of sentencing. About 30% were either defunct (17.6%) or in financial stress (13%) at the time of sentencing.

In the next part of this mini series, we will continue to look at findings from the USSC report on organizational offenses, focusing on individual charges, prior instances of misconduct, and sentencing outcomes.

Inmate Population In Indian Country Jails Increased 8% At Mid-2021

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

The inmate population at Indian country jails increased 8% at midyear 2021 to a total of 2,180 inmates held in 80 jails, from the 2,020 inmates held in 82 facilities at midyear 2020, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) said in a report this week. The midyear 2021 inmate population was 25% lower than the midyear 2019 population, when 2,890 inmates were confined in Indian country jails.

A comparison with midyear 2019, along with midyear 2020, is necessary to provide a more accurate picture. Why? Because the midyear 2020 numbers were a 30% decline when compared with the previous year (i.e. midyear 2019 to midyear 2020), and the lowest since 2004, mostly due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic across all spheres of life in that year.

The Pandemic Effect

The lingering impact of Covid-19, and the administrative measures taken in response to it, was the reason behind the decline in the midyear 2021 number when compared with the midyear 2019 one too, the BJS report says.

Image source: Screengrab from the BJS Jails in Indian Country, 2021 report

The pandemic’s impact on Indian country jails began in March 2020, with a one-month drop of 870 inmates between the end of February to the end of March, the report adds. By the last weekday in December 2020, the number of jail inmates (1,760) had dropped by 1,180 since the end of February 2020. The declines in the inmate population since midyear 2019 resulted from both a reduction in admissions to Indian country jails and expedited releases.

From midyear 2020 to midyear 2021, the inmate population in facilities rated to hold 50 or more inmates saw the largest increase (up 10% or 130 inmates), followed by facilities rated to hold 25 to 49 inmates (up 5% or 30 inmates), the report says. The inmate population in facilities rated to hold fewer than 25 inmates remained relatively stable.

Although there was an increase in the overall inmate population, the rated capacity of Indian country jails remained relatively stable. Hence, the jail occupancy rate went up to 52% at midyear 2021 from 48% at midyear 2020.

Decline In Jail Staff

At midyear 2021, jails in Indian country employed around 1,580 persons, down 8% from midyear 2020 (1,710) and 16% from midyear 2019 (1,880). Nearly one in five jail staff tested positive for Covid-19 between July and December 2020.

During the two-year period between midyear 2019 to 2021, the number of jail operations staff (correctional officers, guards, and other staff who spent more than half of their time supervising inmates) declined 18% (down 240).

Since midyear 2020, jail operations staff had the largest decline, i.e. down 13% or by 160 staff, per the report. Jails held 2.0 inmates per jail operations staff at midyear 2021, up from the ratio of 1.6 to 1 at midyear 2020, due to an increase in inmates and a corresponding decline in jail operations staff.

Image source: Screengrab from the BJS Jails in Indian Country, 2021 report

Key Highlights

Here are some other key highlights from the BJS report:

  • Admissions to Indian country jails were 8% higher in June 2021 than in the same period on a year-ago basis, but 40% lower than in June 2019.
  • More inmates were held for violent (up 6%) and non-violent offenses (up 10%) at midyear 2021 than at midyear 2020. The number of inmates held for domestic violence increased by 40, while those held for other unspecified offenses increased by 30.
  • At midyear 2021, inmates held for violent offenses accounted for 41% of all inmates held in Indian country jails, similar to 2020 (42%), but well above the 2010–2019 midyear average of about 30% of all inmates held.
  • One inmate died and 27 attempted suicide in Indian country jails during the 12 months ending on June 30, 2021, based on reports from facilities holding about 95% of the midyear inmate population. Altogether, jails reported 21 deaths in custody from midyear 2010 to midyear 2021.
  • Around 10,680 Covid-19 tests were conducted on persons held in Indian country jails between July and December 2020. About 6% of those tests were positive for the virus.
  • Of the 31,020 persons admitted to Indian country jails between July and December 2020, about 22% received expedited release in response to the pandemic.
  • The average length of stay (the time in custody from admission to release) for inmates remained stable (11 days) from June 2020 to June 2021. However, the average length of stay was longer at larger facilities.
  • At midyear 2021, about 36% of beds in facilities rated to hold fewer than 25 inmates were occupied, and more than half (53%) were occupied in facilities rated to hold 25 or more inmates.
  • Six facilities were operating above their rated capacity at midyear 2021, an increase from a comparable 4 facilities at midyear 2020 but a decrease from 10 facilities at midyear 2019. Eleven facilities were operating above their rated capacity on the most crowded day in June 2021, down from 13 facilities in June 2020 and 28 facilities in June 2019.
  • Adult inmates accounted for 94% of all inmates held in Indian country jails at midyear 2021. The number of female inmates (up 100) increased more than the number of male inmates (up 60) from midyear 2020 to midyear 2021.

129 Law Enforcement Officers Lost Their Lives In The Line-Of-Duty In 2021: FBI

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

On Thursday, Aug. 11, an armed man clad in body armor tried to breach the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Cincinnati office. The confrontation that ensued between him and law enforcement officers (LEOs) came as officials warned of an increase in threats against federal agents in the days following a search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the Associated Press reported.

After an hourslong standoff, the man who tried to breach the FBI’s Cincinnati office was shot and killed by police. “Unfounded attacks on the integrity of the FBI erode respect for the rule of law and are a grave disservice to the men and women who sacrifice so much to protect others. Violence and threats against law enforcement, including the FBI, are dangerous and should be deeply concerning to all Americans,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement on Thursday.

Only on Monday, Aug. 8, people familiar with the matter told the press that the FBI searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate as part of an investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence.

The political impact and debates aside, at this juncture we wanted to highlight a crucial statistic: the number of LEO deaths that occur in the line of duty.

In 2021, 129 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents, according to the FBI’s most recent data, which was published in May. This number includes the number of officers who died in the line of duty as a result of a) felonious acts b) accidents. Last year, 73 officers died as a result of felonious acts, and 56 officers died in accidents, per the FBI data.

Felony Deaths Spiked Near-60% In 2021

The 73 officers who were killed feloniously is a near 60% spike from the number of officers who lost their lives in a similar manner in 2020. These felonious deaths of LEOs occurred in 28 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The average age of the officers who were feloniously killed was 39 years old. The victim officers had served in law enforcement for an average of 12 years at the times of the fatal incidents. Law enforcement agencies identified 66 alleged assailants in connection with the felonious line-of-duty deaths.

Of those 73 officers, 24 were killed in unprovoked attacks. Offenders used firearms to kill 61 of the 73 victim officers. When it comes to the type of firearm used to kill these 61 officers, 15 were slain using handguns, 11 with rifles, and 2 with shotguns. In the remaining 33 (of 61) cases, the type of firearm used was either unknown or not reported. These 61 officers aside, of the 73 totally killed feloniously in 2021, 6 officers were killed with vehicles used as weapons. Four officers were killed by the offender’s use of personal weapons (hand, fists, feet, etc.).

Accidental Deaths In 2021

Fifty-six law enforcement officers were killed accidentally while performing their duties in 2021, an increase of 10 when compared with the 46 officers accidentally killed in 2020, per the FBI.

The majority (32 officers) were killed in motor vehicle crashes. Of the 30 officers killed in motor vehicle crashes (not including ATVs and motorcycles), 7 were wearing seatbelts, and 5 were not. Data about seatbelt usage was not reported for 18 of the officers.

The average age of officers who were accidentally killed in the line of duty in 2021 was 40 years old; the average number of years the victim officers had served in law enforcement was 10. 

Other portions of the FBI’s LEOKA datasets will be released in the fall.

NLEOMF Data

Meanwhile, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) compiles its own set of data on LEO line-of-duty deaths. Each year prior to National Police Week, the names of the fallen are engraved on the walls of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

When the Memorial was dedicated in 1991, it honored 12,561 officers who died in the line of duty. An average of almost 350 recent and historical fallen officers have been added to the sacred walls of the Memorial every year since, the NLEOMF 2021 annual report says.

With the addition of 394 names in 2021 and an additional 619 added on the date of the publication of this report, the Memorial now contains the names of 23,229 officers who have died in the line of duty.

Those names include officers who have given their lives as a result of shootings, traffic crashes, or deaths as a result of a medical condition contracted while on the job, such as Covid-19 and rare cancers contracted from helping with rescue and recovery operations in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.

There were 472 officers killed in the line of duty (under one of the various circumstances mentioned in the previous para) in 2021, according to the NLEOMF 2021 annual report. Of those, 319 were due to Covid-19, 59 were firearms related, 54 were traffic related, and another 40 were classified as others.

School Shootings With Casualties Spiked In 2020-21: Report

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

There were 93 school shootings with casualties at public and private elementary and secondary schools in 2020–21— the highest number since 2000–01, according to a new joint report published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in the Department of Education. Those include shootings that happened on school property during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic when remote learning was the norm. However, from a broader perspective, the Report on Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2021 finds that several crime and safety issues have become less prevalent at elementary and secondary schools throughout the last decade.

For instance, between 2009 and 2020, the rate of nonfatal criminal victimization (including theft and violent victimization) decreased for students ages 12–18, from 51 to 11 victimizations per 1,000 students, the report finds. The report provides official estimates of school crime and safety from a variety of data sources, including national surveys of students, teachers, principals, and post-secondary institutions. In the rest of this piece, we’ll delve into some key findings from the report. We will explore findings from the report on incidents/discipline problems, gangs and hate-related speech, fights, weapons and illegal substances in a separate piece.

Violent Deaths & School Shootings

The report says violent deaths and school shootings are still rare events, although, undoubtedly tragic ones that have far-reaching effects on the school population and the surrounding community. It adds that:

  • There were a total of 39 school-associated violent deaths in the country in the 2018–19 school year, based on the most recent NCES School-Associated Violent Death Surveillance System (SAVD-SS) data. That includes 29 homicides and 10 suicides. Of the 39 school-associated violent deaths, 10 homicides and 3 suicides were of school-age youth (ages 5–18).
  • Between 2000–01 and 2020–21, the number of school shootings with casualties per year at public and private elementary and secondary schools ranged from 11 to 93. The 93 school shootings in 2020-21, which we mentioned at the beginning of this piece, includes 43 school shootings with deaths and 50 school shootings with injuries only.
  • In addition, there were 53 reported school shootings with no casualties in 2020-21. During the year, 59 elementary schools and 57 high schools had shootings (including those with and without casualties). An additional 21 middle or junior high schools and 8 schools of other types also had school shootings.
  • 2020-21 was the first year since data collection began in which fewer than half of schools that had shootings were high schools.
Image Source: Screengrab from the BJS-NCES report.

Criminal Victimization

As we mentioned earlier in the piece, school shootings aside, other metrics suggest there may be a downward trend in terms of overall crime and safety issues across schools in the U.S. Take nonfatal criminal victimization, which includes theft and violent victimization (including rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault).

  • During year one of the Covid-19 pandemic (2020), students aged 12–18 experienced 285,400 victimizations at school and 380,900 victimizations away from school.
  • That translates to a rate of 11 victimizations per 1,000 students at school and a rate of 15 victimizations per 1,000 students away from school.
  • The total victimization rate at school first decreased from 51 to 30 victimizations per 1,000 students between 2009 and 2019. From 2019 to 2020, the total victimization rate at school continued to decline to 11 victimizations per 1,000 students in 2020 — an annual decrease of over 60%.
  • The total victimization rate away from school also decreased; from 33 to 20 victimizations per 1,000 students between 2009 and 2019. The number for 2020 (i.e. 15 victimizations per 1,000 students) was not statistically different from the rate in 2019, per the report, citing data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

Bullying Victimization

When it comes to studies of school safety, it’s also important to examine bullying victimization. Per the report, research shows that students who are bullied are more likely to experience depression and anxiety, have more health complaints, and skip or drop out of school. “The involvement of young bullying victims in recent suicides and school shootings has also heightened concerns regarding the public health implications of bullying (Hornor 2018),” the report adds. Here are a few other key statistics about bullying victimization that the report highlights:

  • During the school year in 2019, about 22% of students ages 12–18 reported being bullied at school, according to data from the School Crime Supplement (SCS), the report says. That compares with 28% of students in the same age group who reported being bullied at school in 2008.
  • But, reports of being bullied varied based on student and school characteristics in 2019. For example, a higher percentage of female students reported being bullied at school during the school year than male students (i.e. 25% vs 19%).
  • Race played a role too; higher percentages were reported by students of Two or more races (37%) than of White students (25%), Black students (22%) or Asian students (13%) in 2019.
  • A higher percentage of 6-8th graders reported being bullied at school during the 2019 school year when compared with 9-10th and 12th graders. Similarly, a higher percentage of students enrolled at schools in rural areas reported being bullied than those in other locales.
  • About 16% of students in grades 9-12 reported being electronically bullied during the 2019 school year, the report says, citing data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS).
  • According to the YRBSS data, the percentage of students who reported being electronically bullied was higher for gay, lesbian, or bisexual students, than for students who were not sure about their sexual identity, while both percentages were higher than the percentage for heterosexual students.

The next piece in this two-part series will explore highlights from the report on incidents/discipline problems, gangs and hate-related speech, fights, weapons and illegal substances.

Gun Violence Prevention Bills: A Legislation Round-Up

Posted on by kmurali@biometrica.com

By a Biometrica staffer

By now, most of us have probably read that on Tuesday, June 21, Senate bargainers reached agreement on an incremental yet necessary bipartisan gun violence bill. The bill is in response to recent deadly mass shootings in Texas and New York and aims at curbing gun violence. While some critics of the bill have pointed out that it does not have any “game changing” steps, it does make it tougher to buy firearms for some young buyers and those considered a threat to themselves or others. The bill also tries to address concerns of school safety, which is still firmly on the minds of citizens across the nation after the horrific shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde last month.

In this piece, we examine a few other bills dealing with the subject of gun violence that are in the works, and could further strengthen laws to rein in this tragic epidemic, if passed.

But before we move on, here’s a quick recap of what’s in the bipartisan bill Senate bargainers reached agreement over on Tuesday. To begin with, the bill gives more time for authorities to conduct background checks of those between the ages of 18-20, and requires the check to include their juvenile crime data and mental health records. However, once the process’ newly proposed ten-day maximum period lapses, a buyer can acquire a weapon even if the background check isn’t complete.

The bill also calls for grants to help states enforce or enact “red flag” laws that allow authorities to get court orders that let them temporarily take guns from people deemed dangerous. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have such statutes, but some lack funds to enforce them robustly, the Associated Press report says. The bill proposes $750 million that could go towards helping states with red flag laws, PBS’ Lisa Desjardins said in a series of tweets.

It also proposes measures to further tackle straw purchases — i.e. the act of buying a gun for someone who is ineligible to do so themselves — through tougher penalties. An increased number of current or former romantic partners convicted of domestic abuse or with restraining orders filed against them by their victims will be barred from buying guns. In effect, the bill proposes up to 15 years in prison for illegally buying a gun for someone else, upping that to 25 years if the gun is used in a felony, trafficking, or terrorism related charge.

Support for curbing gun violence hits the highest point in a decade, a recent poll by NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist found. The 59%-to-35% margin is the widest in favor of controlling gun violence recorded in a decade in the Marist poll, though the numbers are similar to what Marist has found over the last four years since the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, NPR said in an article. There are, indeed, several bills in the works in the House and the Senate that aim to further tackle the nation’s gun violence epidemic. We’ll examine a few that were proposed over the past two months in the following section, including a couple of resolutions.

In The Pipeline

H.Res.1144 — Expressing support for the designation of June 3, 2022, as “National Gun Violence Awareness Day” and June 2022 as “National Gun Violence Awareness Month”

The resolution in brief: It supports the designation of National Gun Violence Awareness Month and the designation of National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

It was introduced in the House on May 27, just a few days after the Uvalde shooting and has 41 cosponsors currently.

The resolution calls on the people of the country to:

  • promote greater awareness of gun violence and gun safety
  • wear orange, the color that hunters wear to show that they are not targets, on “National Gun Violence Awareness Day”
  • concentrate heightened attention on gun violence during the summer months, when gun violence typically increases
  • bring community members and leaders together to discuss ways to make communities safer

Related bills include: H.Res.437, S.Res.242, and S.Res.651.

You can find the full text of the act here.

H.Res.1165 — Declaring gun violence a public health crisis

The resolution in brief: It declares gun violence a public health crisis in the United States, and supports the resolutions drafted, introduced, and adopted by cities, localities, and states across the nation declaring gun violence a public health crisis or emergency.

It was introduced in the House on June 9 and has 46 cosponsors currently.

The resolution urges a coordinated whole-of-government effort to addressing the gun violence public health crisis and ensuring the safety of all children. It also urges the Surgeon General to issue a report on firearm injuries and violence prevention.

You can find the full text of the act here.

H.R.7859 — PREP for All Students Act of 2022

The bill in brief: As the short title states, it aims to promote responsible emergency protocols for all students. In broader terms, the aim of the bill is to create a Council on Emergency Response Protocols to ensure the establishment of accessible, developmentally appropriate, culturally aware, and trauma-informed emergency response protocols in public schools, early child care and education settings, and institutions of higher education, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the House on May 19. Related bills include S.4259.

You can find the full text of the act here.

H.R.8009 — Student and Teacher Safety Act of 2022

The bill in brief: Like the previous one, this also aims at improving school safety.

It was introduced in the House on June 9.

You can find the full text of the act here.

H.R.7819 — Accountability for Online Firearms Marketplaces Act of 2022

The bill in brief: Aims to amend the Communications Decency Act to remove immunity for online firearms marketplaces, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the House on May 18. The reason why this bill is important, in its own words, is because online marketplaces make it easier for those who are prohibited from purchasing guns to do so. “Online firearms marketplaces facilitate such sales because while Federal law requires licensed gun dealers to perform background checks on prospective buyers, it does not require unlicensed sellers to do so,” the bill continues.

You can find the full text of the act here.

S.4238 — Hadiya Pendleton and Nyasia Pryear-Yard Gun Trafficking and Crime Prevention Act of 2022

The bill in brief: To put it simply, the purpose of this bill is, as the name suggests, to prevent gun trafficking.

It was introduced in the Senate on May 17. This bill seeks to amend Chapter 44 of title 18, United States Code. For instance, it seeks to review the penalty structure that the Federal sentencing guidelines currently provide based on the number of firearms involved in the offense.

You can find the full text of the act here.

S.4402 — Violent Incident Clearance and Technological Investigative Methods Act of 2022

The bill in brief: To direct the Attorney General to establish a grant program to establish, implement, and administer the violent incident clearance and technology investigative method, and for other purposes.

It was introduced in the Senate on June 6. The short title of the bill is “VICTIM Act of 2022.”

You can find the full text of the act here.