Sunny Sone

Philadelphia

Senior Editor, Audience and Engagement at The Trace

audience @teamtrace. prev @theintercept, @texasobserver.

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Articles

The Lasting Legal Fallout of the Supreme Court’s Bruen Ruling

1 week ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Victoria Clark |Chip Brownlee

The Trace The Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen upended Second Amendment law by mandating that modern gun restrictions align with historical firearms regulations. Since Bruen, reports The Trace’s Chip Brownlee, judges are not so much arbiters of modern safety as reluctant antiquarians, tasked with finding 18th- or 19th-century parallels for today’s gun laws.
Should We Expect a Spike in Gun Violence This Summer?

2 weeks ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Jennifer Mascia

The Trace It’s Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer and the time of year when many begin preparing for a seasonal spike in gun violence. As The Trace’s Fairriona Magee has reported, research has linked high temperatures and shootings. A 2021 study found that abnormally high daily temperatures in U.S. cities were associated with higher levels of shootings.
What to Know About Gun Policy and Violence Prevention This Week

3 weeks ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Jennifer Mascia

The Trace On Thursday, U.S. Representative Andrew Clyde logged a win. The Georgia Republican, who owns a gun shop that sells silencers on its website, took credit for pushing through a provision in President Donald Trump’s tax bill that cut taxes on silencers — one of the most highly regulated gun accessories in the country — and, per Politico, otherwise removes them from being regulated under the National Firearms Act.
What Happens to a Gun That’s Deemed Too Dangerous for Police to Carry?

3 weeks ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Champe Barton

The Trace In 2022, the Milwaukee Police Department moved to replace its SIG Sauer P320 pistol — one of the most popular handguns in America, and one that’s been used by law enforcement agencies across the country — with weapons from another manufacturer, after body camera footage captured an officer’s holstered gun firing a bullet into his partner’s leg. It was at least the third time in three years that a Milwaukee officer’s P320 had allegedly fired without a trigger pull.
Bulletin: Gun Violence Is Still a Crisis — and Communities Are Still Working to Combat It

4 weeks ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Mensah M. Dean

The Trace As gun violence in the United States has declined from the historic heights of the early 2020s, the national conversation about the crisis has faded, too. But that doesn’t mean the epidemic has been solved — a fact people affected by shootings and those tasked with caring for the wounded know well.
Recent Federal Cuts to Gun Violence Prevention Programs Add ‘Insult to Injury After Injury’

1 month ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Chip Brownlee

The Trace More than three dozen Democrats in Congress signed a letter pressing the Trump administration to reverse its sudden cancellation of more than $150 million for community violence prevention programs, The Trace’s Chip Brownlee reported on Friday. The cuts have jeopardized at least 65 community-based programs across 25 states, forcing some organizations to consider laying off employees or closing down entirely.
Under Trump, ‘Highly Unusual’ Actions on Gun Violence Become the Norm

1 month ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Jennifer Mascia

The Trace In late April, hundreds of organizations across the country were notified that the Justice Department was yanking back grant funding they’d been promised during the Biden administration. The cancellation is “highly unusual,” Amy Solomon, former assistant attorney general who oversaw the Office of Justice Programs, told the Associated Press.
What’s Next for the ATF’s Pistol Brace Rule?

1 month ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone

The Trace After years of convoluted legal battles, an ATF rule regulating guns equipped with pistol braces is likely close to an end. In a recent article from the Duke Center for Firearms Law, Second Amendment expert Andrew Willinger writes that the Trump administration’s Justice Department appears likely to stop defending the rule in court. The about-face means that the rule is probably going to quietly fade from view rather than go out with an uproar. Here’s what you need to know.
Some Mass Shooting Survivors Find Themselves at Another Tragedy

1 month ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Jennifer Mascia

The Trace A couple years ago, The Trace’s Jennifer Mascia and I worked on a piece about how mass shootings overlap. It was just after the shooting at Michigan State University, and it was prompted by the startling fact that alumni of Oxford High School — where a mass shooting had taken place just 15 months earlier — were on campus, amid gunfire once again. A Sandy Hook survivor was there, too. They are not the only survivors to have found themselves at the scene of another tragedy.
Why Are Kids in Philadelphia Getting Charged With More Gun Crimes?

2 months ago | thetrace.org | Sunny Sone |Rita Oceguera

The Trace Like many other American cities, Philadelphia experienced a pandemic-era surge of gun violence. But now, even as homicides there plummet, more children and teens are wielding guns. In 2016, only three kids were charged with homicide in Philly. By 2024, The Trace’s Mensah M. Dean reports, that figure had ballooned to 26 — a nearly ninefold increase that marked four straight years of double-digit teen arrests for homicide.