Mother Jones Awarded $350,000 to Support Gun Violence Prevention Reporting

Funds Come Almost Exactly 11 Years After News Outlet Created Nation’s First Database to Track Mass Shootings

More than a decade after Mother Jones created the country’s first database tracking mass shootings, the 47-year-old nonprofit news organization was recently awarded $350,000 in grants to deepen Mother Jones’ gun violence prevention reporting in California and across the nation.

“Gun violence is an omnipresent part of daily life in America, yet the causes and impact are still poorly understood—in large part because the gun lobby has been able to stop the federal government from doing essential research on this issue,” said Mother Jones CEO Monika Bauerlein. “Our goal has been to fill that void, and the generous support of the California Wellness Foundation and Fund for a Safer Future will allow us to shine a light on the groundbreaking work that some communities are doing to prevent these tragedies.”

The California Wellness Foundation, which is one of California’s largest public health philanthropies, contributed $300,000 to Mother Jones, and the Fund for a Safer Future, the nation’s only donor collaborative exclusively focused on reducing gun violence in America, donated $50,000.

“We’ve been following Mother Jones’ reporting on gun violence for years, and what always impressed us is how much they focus on analyzing the research and explaining how broader forces at work in our society are contributing to the problem,” said Jamie Schenker, Interim Program Director at the California Wellness Foundation. “We are pleased to support reporting that can help to reset the narrative by identifying solutions around gun violence prevention and community safety in California.”

Mother Jones launched its nationwide database of mass shootings after an attack at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, on July 20, 2012, left 12 people dead and 70 wounded. In the years since, the database has grown to document 146 mass shootings, has been viewed more than 5.2 million times, and has been cited by other news outlets more than 2,000 times. It records key information about each of these events (such as the perpetrator’s age, gender, race, history of mental health issues, type of weapon used, and much more) and is widely used by researchers, policymakers, law enforcement officials, and mental health specialists.

“One of the challenges we face with gun violence is overcoming the public perception that nothing can be done, and yet preventing gun violence is possible if we listen to, and actively support, the communities and individuals at greatest risk,” said Talia Rivera, Executive Director at Fund for a Safer Future. “Mother Jones’ sustained, solutions-based journalism reveals how gun violence intersects with inequities in education, housing, and public health, and by addressing those underlying causes we can move our communities toward a safer future.”