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 recently reported on the youth gun homicide trend through the lens of Memphis, a ground zero for gun policy under the Trump administration. Federal funding cuts to gun violence prevention programs have hit Memphis hard, and the federal government has occupied the city for a year.
“What you’re describing is an authoritarian program in authoritarian political culture,” said Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland. That “always breeds violence and chaos,” and it’s “by design,” he added. “Young people see the affronts to their dignity of all these things.”
Raskin joined The Trace at the 2026 Safer Together forum. In a wide-ranging conversation with Editor in Chief Tali Woodward, Raskin discussed the legislative blocks that stop bills designed to reduce youth gun deaths, the links between preventing violence and protecting democracy, his admiration for nonviolent civil movements like that in Minneapolis this year, and what the Supreme Court majority gets wrong about the Second Amendment.