Aaron Mendelson

Today, we're debuting a new feature on @thetrace.org called 92 Days in Gun Violence. It's a quarterly update. The big finding thru Q3 is that have been fewer shooting deaths in 2025 than any year in a decade.

Plus more on gun sales, our work, and recent research:
www.thetrace.org/2025/10/shoo...

Passengers look on as a BART train didn’t stop at the Rockridge BART station due to a systemwide closure that affected all BART stations, in Oakland on March 9, 2025. Photo by Ray Chavez, Bay Area News Group Hed: Breaking: Gov. Newsom signs massive California housing overhaul

After weeks of waiting, California's governor signed a bill that will allow mid-rise apartment buildings near major transit stops in California's biggest metro areas. https://cal.news/4n3hzge

📝 @frombenc.bsky.social
📸 Ray Chavez

At different times, gay activists and a far-right group both had plans to take over Alpine County, California (1970 population: 484 people) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_...

Why Are Gun Suicides Soaring Among Older American Men? More and more older Americans are dying by gun suicide--especially white men, whose rates far outpace other groups, a new analysis from The Trace and GQ reveals.

This Mental Illness Awareness Week, we urge everyone to break the silence around mental health & aging.

Too often, suicide among older adults stays hidden. But gun suicides among older Americans are rising. Read more in GQ.

#MIAW #MentalHealth #Aging

Here’s how TikTok ‘power users’ end up scrolling 4 hours a day or more Washington Post reporters analyzed data from over 800 TikTok users to learn how the app turns people into power users, some of whom spend hours per day scrolling.

🤳EXCLUSIVE: We analyzed real data from over 800 U.S. TikTok users to reveal how the app transforms casual users into power users.

Extremely proud of this one, over a year in the making w/ @richardsima.bsky.social Leslie Shapiro @asteckelberg.bsky.social @ence.bsky.social

wapo.st/4obueib

California quiere oír testimonios de los inquilinos de Mike Nijjar y más como parte de demanda judicial en curso Este junio, California demanadó al proprietario Mike Nijjar por discriminación y condiciones de viva antihigiénicas e inseguras adentro de sus viviendas. Ahora, el fiscal general de California, Rob Bo...

el mismo artículo en Español laist.com/news/housing...

California wants to hear from Mike Nijjar’s tenants and more as part of ongoing lawsuit Attorney General Rob Bonta is asking tenants who have experience with Mike Nijjar, one of the state's biggest landlords, to share their complaints with his office.

In an LA press conference, @agrobbonta.oag.ca.gov asked tenants who have experience with mega-landlord Mike Nijjar and his companies to share complaints
laist.com/news/housing...

A Program Backed by the Gun Industry Failed to Reduce Suicide — and Was Secretly Shut Down Early The country’s best-known suicide prevention group teamed up with the gun industry. The effort was good for public relations and raising money, but it never met its goal, and internal records show why.

1/My latest story, part 4 of our series “The Secret Files of the Gun Industry,” begins in in 2016, when the country’s best-known suicide prevention group teamed up with the gun industry to tackle the biggest form of gun death + help reduce suicide 20% by 2025 www.thetrace.org/2025/10/gun-...

Trump Calls Cartel Members “Terrorists.” They’re Armed With Bullets From a U.S. Army Factory. The president blames Mexico for the flow of drugs into the U.S. — while enabling the flow of guns into Mexico by slashing federal regulators.

"This investigation is the first of its kind to document the cartels’ use of ammunition from the U.S. Army-owned factory in enforcing mass displacement in Mexico" theintercept.com/2025/10/02/t...

Powerful story from @wyofile.com on gun suicides in the 70+ population in Wyoming, the state with the highest rate in the entire country.

@andrewgraham88.bsky.social got responses from Gov. Mark Gordon and legislative leaders
wyofile.com/older-wyomin...

Real sign of the times with these two CDC website banners:

- praising the Trump Administration's work to end "the Democrat-led government shutdown"
- noting site is "being modified to comply with President Trump's Executive Orders"

congrats on a great run!

If you're a local journalist interested in reporting on this issue, we've shared a reporting recipe on @thetrace.org's Gun Violence Data Hub
datahub.thetrace.org/resource/how...

Gun Suicides (Age 70+) Data from The Trace’s deep dive into the issue.

You can find that data for yourself here
datahub.thetrace.org/dataset/gun-...

How Maine's rates of gun suicide compare to national trends More older Mainers died by gun suicide than in car crashes over a 15-year period, data that mirrors a troubling trend across the country.

Sobering story from @themainemonitor.org on the high rates of gun suicides among older Mainers.

They're the first newsroom to use a new Gun Violence Data Hub dataset to localize a story on this subject.
themainemonitor.org/maine-suicid...

well that's not very nice

I wrote about the genesis of this story in the Gun Violence Data Hub newsletter last week

mailchi.mp/thetrace/dat...

The Quiet Crisis: What’s Driving Gun Suicides Among Older Americans? More and more older Americans are dying by firearm suicide, a new analysis from The Trace and GQ reveals. Older white men and those in rural areas experience alarmingly high rates.

Older Americans have the highest rates of gun suicide of any age group. Not by a little — by a lot.

Why? I spent months exploring this question through data, field reporting, and interviews with experts. Our story is up today on @thetrace.org

www.thetrace.org/2025/09/gun-...

The Quiet Crisis: What’s Driving Gun Suicides Among Older Americans? More and more older Americans are dying by firearm suicide, a new analysis from The Trace and GQ reveals. Older white men and those in rural areas experience alarmingly high rates.

An analysis by The Trace and @gqmagazine.bsky.social provides a sobering look at a widespread phenomenon: We found that Americans age 70 and over had the highest suicide rates of any age group, and that their rates of suicide have increased in recent years.

longest light rail line in the world, baby!

The Quiet Crisis: What’s Driving Gun Suicides Among Older Americans? More and more older Americans are dying by firearm suicide, a new analysis from The Trace and GQ reveals. Older white men and those in rural areas experience alarmingly high rates.

More and more older Americans are dying by firearm #suicide. Older white men and those in rural areas experience alarmingly high rates. #gunsense #gunsafety #mentalhealth

The Quiet Crisis: What’s Driving Gun Suicides Among Older Americans? More and more older Americans are dying by firearm suicide, a new analysis from The Trace and GQ reveals. Older white men and those in rural areas experience alarmingly high rates.

"Gun suicide is a greater killer of men over 70 than car crashes, our analysis showed. And if older men are in trouble, older white men are especially in trouble. They die by gun suicide at the highest rate — a rate more than triple that of Black and Latino men of the same age, and 19 times the..."

Reach out if you have questions or would like to collaborate datahub@thetrace.org

We've posted the data behind this story — on the alarming prevalence of gun suicides among older Americans — on the Gun Violence Data Hub.

That includes county- and state-level data that journalists can use to investigate how this issue affects their communities
datahub.thetrace.org/dataset/gun-...

This is an issue that hits white men much harder than other demographics

Why Are Gun Suicides Soaring Among Older American Men? More and more older Americans are dying by gun suicide—especially white men, whose rates far outpace other groups, a new analysis from The Trace and GQ reveals.

We co-published this story with GQ, you can find it on their site here www.gq.com/story/gun-su...

Important, sobering story on something we rarely talk about from @amendelson.bsky.social @thetrace.org @gqmagazine.bsky.social.

From our analysis:
-Americans 70+ had the highest suicide rates
-Gun suicides kill more men 70+ than car crashes
-From 2009-23, 63,836 older Americans died by gun suicide

The Quiet Crisis: What’s Driving Gun Suicides Among Older Americans? More and more older Americans are dying by firearm suicide, a new analysis from The Trace and GQ reveals. Older white men and those in rural areas experience alarmingly high rates.

Startling new reporting from @amendelson.bsky.social at @thetrace.org:

Americans 70+ have the highest suicide rates of any age group. Gun suicide is a greater killer of men over 70 than car crashes

The Quiet Crisis: What’s Driving Gun Suicides Among Older Americans? More and more older Americans are dying by firearm suicide, a new analysis from The Trace and GQ reveals. Older white men and those in rural areas experience alarmingly high rates.

Suicide among older men, particularly white men, is rising. Reporter amendelson.bsky.social goes deep and delivers illuminating details, like a gun store owner catching heat for trying to boost suicide awareness. Check it out:

www.thetrace.org/2025/09/gun-...

Really important work by my colleague @amendelson.bsky.social and @thetrace.org's Data Hub. Give it a read.