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General Category => General Discussion => News and Information => Topic started by: droidrage on May 26, 2021, 05:10:58 PM
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Guns Guns Guns | Robocop
The Guess Who - Guns Guns Guns (Running Back Thru Canada)
WIKI: Mass shootings in the United States (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_shootings_in_the_United_States)
Some studies indicate that the rate at which public mass shootings occur has tripled since 2011. Between 1982 and 2011, a mass shooting occurred roughly once every 200 days. However, between 2011 and 2014, that rate has accelerated greatly with at least one mass shooting occurring every 64 days in the United States.
In recent years, the number of public mass shootings has increased substantially, although there has been an approximately 50% decrease in firearm homicides in the nation overall since 1993. The decrease in firearm homicides has been attributed to better policing, a better economy and environmental factors such as the removal of lead from gasoline.
Several possible factors may work together to create a fertile environment for mass murder in the United States. Most commonly suggested include:
Higher accessibility and ownership of guns. The US has the highest per-capita gun ownership in the world with 120.5 firearms per 100 people; the second highest is Yemen with 52.8 firearms per 100 people.
Mental illness and its treatment (or the lack thereof) with psychiatric drugs. This is controversial. Many of the mass shooters in the U.S. suffered from mental illness, but the estimated number of mental illness cases has not increased as significantly as the number of mass shootings.
The desire to seek revenge for a long history of being bullied at school and/or at the workplace. In recent years, citizens calling themselves "targeted individuals" have cited adult bullying campaigns as a reason for their deadly violence.
The widespread chronic gap between people's expectations for themselves and their actual achievement, and individualistic culture. Some analysts and commentators place the blame on contemporary capitalism and neoliberalism.
Desire for fame and notoriety. Also, mass shooters learn from one another through "media contagion," that is, "the mass media coverage of them and the proliferation of social media sites that tend to glorify the shooters and downplay the victims."
The copycat phenomenon.
Failure of government background checks due to incomplete databases and/or staff shortages.
A panel of mental health and law enforcement experts has estimated that roughly one-third of acts of mass violence—defined as crimes in which four or more people were killed—since the 1990s were committed by people with a serious mental illness. However, the study emphasized that people with serious mental illness are responsible for less than 4% of all the violent acts committed in the United States
Several types of guns have been used in mass shootings in the United States. A 2014 study conducted by Dr. James Fox of 142 shootings found that 88 (62%) were committed with handguns of all types; 68 (48%) with semi-automatic handguns, 20 (14%) with revolvers, 35 (25%) with semi-automatic rifles, and 19 (13%) with shotguns. The study was conducted using the Mother Jones database of mass shootings from 1982 to 2018. High capacity magazines were used in approximately half of mass shootings. Semi-automatic rifles have been used in six of the ten deadliest mass shooting events
GVA: GUN VIOLENCE ARCHIVE (https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting)
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I'm so tired of this
(Jessica Jones is too...)
(https://i.ibb.co/bsY9gXp/Smart-Select-Image-2018-05-04-12-48-33.png)
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Gun violence is part of a narrative. It is BY DESIGN.
Take note of the common factors. Shooters are often tied to- US Military or US Intelligence (CHAOS/MK ULTRA/PHOENIX PROGRAM) OR shooters often have a history of psychological problems-pharmaceutical ties. Do the research if you care to. Don't just accept the media narrative.
The WHY? In the US we live in a culture of fear. This is cultivated to feed the war machine. Every year, our defense budget multiplies, this is disproportionate to our actual opposition. We must create fear, we must create the villians. Then chase them down and bring them to justice. Again, do the research if you care to. It will open your eyes and you will no longer enjoy half the stuff you do now.lol. Film, music, and television is RIFE with propaganda. Once you can see it, it's maddening..lol
Lastly, if this all just sounds crazy. Research the Art of Statecraft. Creating opposition, false flag events, the culture of fear, are all techniques a government will employ to control a society.
My advice, don't watch the news, keep an open mind, employ critcal thought to what "officials", tell you, and most importantly, live your life and enjoy your friends and family. Don't talk about politics or religion at all. :D
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STATISTA: Weapon types used in mass shootings in the United States between 1982 and April 2021, by number of weapons and incidents (https://www.statista.com/statistics/476409/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-weapon-types-used/)
Handguns are the most common weapon type used in mass shootings in the United States, with a total of 144 different handguns being used in 96 incidents between 1982 and April 2021. These figures are calculated from a total of 123 reported cases over this period, meaning handguns are involved in about 78 percent of mass shootings.
The involvement of semi-automatic rifles in mass shootings
Owing to their use in several high-profile mass shootings, there has been much public discussion over suitability or necessity of assault weapons for the purpose of self-defense. While any definition of assault weapon is contentious, semi-automatic rifles are generally the main focus of debates around this issue. Since 1985 there has been a known total 47 mass shootings involving rifles, mostly semi-automatics. This figure is underreported though, as it excludes the multiple semi-automatic (and fully automatic) rifles used in the 2017 Las Vegas Strip massacre – the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, killing 58 and wounding 546. In fact, semi-automatic rifles were featured in four of the five deadliest mass shootings, being used in the Orlando nightclub massacre, Sandy Hook Elementary massacre and Texas First Baptist Church massacre.
Mass shootings and gun control
Despite evidence of strict gun control measures reducing the frequency and severity of mass shootings in countries like Australia, citizens in the United States remain deeply divided over the issue. According to a survey about the expected impact of gun laws on the number of mass shootings, a slim majority of Americans believe that gun control measures will have little-to-no effect. Most likely, this opinion is influenced by an underlying commitment among many in the U.S. to the greater importance of protecting gun ownership rights than limiting access to firearms. This sits in sharp contrast to many other developed countries. For example, most Canadians support a ban on civilian owned firearms.
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Federal judge overturns California's ban on assault weapons and likens AR-15 to Swiss Army knife
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/05/us/california-gun-ban-overturned/index.html
Nearly All Mass Shooters Since 1966 Have Had 4 Things in Common
https://www.vice.com/en/article/a35mya/nearly-all-mass-shooters-since-1966-have-had-four-things-in-common
The largest study of mass shooters ever funded by the U.S. government reveals stunning information about perpetrators.
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Cover: Mourners gather at a vigil held for shooting victims on November 17, 2019 in Santa Clarita, California. Nathaniel T. Berhow, a 16 year-old-student, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound after killing two people and injuring three others in the November 14th shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita. (Photo by Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
The stereotype of a mass shooter is a white male with a history of mental illness or domestic violence. While that may be anecdotally true, the largest single study of mass shooters ever funded by the U.S. government has found that nearly all mass shooters have four specific things in common.
A new Department of Justice-funded study of all mass shootings — killings of four or more people in a public place — since 1966 found that the shooters typically have an experience with childhood trauma, a personal crisis or specific grievance, and a “script” or examples that validate their feelings or provide a roadmap. And then there’s the fourth thing: access to a firearm.
The root cause of mass shootings is an intensely partisan debate, with one side blaming mental health and the others blaming guns. Researchers hope that the findings in the study could usher in a more holistic and evidence-based approach to the issue — and provide opportunities for policy action.
“Data is data,” said Jillian Peterson, a psychologist at Hamline University and co-author of the study. “Data isn’t political. Our hope is that it pushes these conversations further.”
The study, compiled by the Violence Project, a nonpartisan think tank dedicated to reducing violence in society, was published Tuesday and is the most comprehensive and detailed database of mass shooters to date, coded to 100 different variables. Its release comes less than a week after a teenage boy killed two students at his high school in Santa Clarita, California, before fatally shooting himself in the head.
The researchers used the FBI’s definition of a “mass murder” — four or more people killed, excluding the perpetrator — and applied it to shootings in one public place. The dataset stretches back to August 1, 1966, when a former Marine opened fire from an observation deck at the University of Texas, killing 15 people. It wasn’t the first mass shooting in the U.S., but researchers chose it as a starting point because it was the first to be substantively covered on radio and TV.
The database delivers a number of arresting findings. Mass shootings are becoming much more frequent and deadly: Of the 167 incidents the researchers logged in that 53-year period, 20% have occurred in the last five years, and half since 2000.
They’re also increasingly motivated by racial, religious, or misogynist hatred, particularly the ones that occurred in the past five years.
And in an era when tightening gun laws, including background checks, is a national political issue, the study found that more than half of all mass shooters in the database obtained their guns legally.
But researchers said they were particularly struck by how many mass shooters displayed symptoms of being in some sort of crisis prior to the shooting. “Those are opportunities for prevention,” said Peterson.
5 profiles of mass shooters
Experts have long cautioned that there is no single profile for a mass shooter. But the Violence Project researchers found some personal characteristics often align with certain types of locations targeted by shooters, and created five general categories:
1. K-12 shooters: White males, typically students or former students of the school, with a history of trauma. Most are suicidal, plan their crime extensively, and make others aware of their plans at some point before the shooting. They use multiple guns that they typically steal from a family member.
2. College and university shooters: Non-white males who are current students of the university, are suicidal, and have a history of violence and childhood trauma. They typically use legally obtained handguns and leave behind some sort of manifesto.
3. Workplace shooters: Fortysomething males without a specific racial profile. Most are employees of their targeted location, often a blue-collar job site, and have some grievance against the workplace. They use legally purchased handguns and assault rifles.
4. Place of worship shooters: White males in their 40s, typically motivated by hate or domestic violence that spills out into public. Their crimes typically involve little planning.
5. Shooters at a commercial location (such as a store or restaurant): White men in their 30s with a violent history and criminal record. They typically have no connection to the targeted location and use a single, legally obtained firearm. About a third show evidence of a “thought disorder,” a term for a mental health condition, like schizophrenia, that results in disorganized thinking, paranoia, or delusions.
Hate on the rise
The study shows that the number of shooters who are motivated by racism, religious hate, and misogyny have increased since the 1960s — most dramatically in the last five years.
Since 2015, hate-fueled shootings targeting black churchgoers in Charleston, Jews at synagogues in Pittsburgh and Poway, women at a yoga studio in Tallahassee, and Latinos at a Walmart in El Paso, have dominated national headlines and added another layer of complexity to the problem of mass violence in America.
Between 1966 and 2000, there were 75 mass shootings. Of those, 9% were motivated by racism, 1% by religious hatred, and 7% by misogyny. Of the 32 mass shootings that have occurred in the U.S. just since 2015, 18% were motivated by racism, 15% by religious hatred, and 21% by misogyny.
The increase in ideologically motivated mass shootings has coincided with the emergence of a newly emboldened far right, who’ve forged national and even international alliances of hate online. The sharp rise in misogyny-inspired shootings also squares with the rise of the “Incels,” short for “involuntarily celibate,” an online subculture comprised of angry young men who deeply resent and blame women for their isolation.
Mental health is a factor — but rarely the cause
Two-thirds of the mass shooters in the database had a documented history of mental health problems. While this seems high, researchers point out that roughly 50% of Americans have experienced some kind of mental health problem at some point in their lives.
Moreover, the percentage of shooters whose crimes were directly motivated by the symptoms of a mental disorder (such as delusions or hallucinations caused by psychosis) is much smaller: roughly 16%. That is a smaller percentage than shooters motivated by hate, a workplace grievance, or an interpersonal conflict.
“If someone has a mental health history, I think we’ve gotten in the habit of blaming that for their actions,” said Peterson. “But someone can have, say, depression, and it’s not like everything they do is driven by that.”
That said, the study found strong links between suicidal motivations and mass shootings. Nearly 70% of shooters were suicidal before or during the shooting, and the numbers are even higher for school shooters.
These findings could have powerful implications for public policy, according to the researchers. “This shows us that there are opportunities for intervention — this doesn’t just happen out of the blue,” Peterson said.
“We know a lot more about suicide prevention than we do about this issue, and we know what works — things like limiting access to weapons, directly asking the question, connecting people with outside resources, not talking about it in the news.”
Seeking out fame
The percentage of shooters driven by a desire for fame has risen substantially in the last five years, the study found. In the first 15 years of the 21st century, some 3% of perpetrators were motivated by the desire to go down in history as a mass shooter.
Between 2015 and 2019, that number jumped to 12%.
One specific motivator for fame-seekers remains strangely persistent through the years: the Columbine High School massacre.
There had been many mass shootings and even school shootings before, but Columbine, which took place in 1999 at a public high school in Littleton, Colorado, redefined the school shooting as a media spectacle. The chaotic scene outside the school was broadcast live for several hours before the perpetrators were found to have died by suicide, the shooters left an extensive record of their plans and motives.
Columbine’s influence is so great that the study even found that fame-seeking as a motive for mass shootings was largely confined to the American West: 70% of fame-seeking shootings took place in the region. (By comparison, the researchers found no mass shootings in the Northeast directly motivated by fame-seeking.)
How they got their guns
Nearly half the mass shooters in the database purchased their gun legally. Thirteen percent obtained their gun via “theft,” which includes borrowing from friends or family members. School shooters — overwhelmingly young — were most likely to acquire their guns in this manner. Researchers said that this particular data point could bolster arguments for legislation requiring safe storage of firearms.
Handguns were by far the most common firearm used in mass shootings, and were used three times the rate of shotguns, rifles, or assault rifles.
Assault rifles were banned in 1994 during the Clinton Administration, but the federal ban expired a decade later and gun manufacturers pounced on the opportunity to re-market military-style firearms to civilians.
Researchers said that there had been a statistically significant increase of assault rifle use in mass shootings in the last five years, which has also coincided with shootings becoming more deadly.
LINK: https://video.vice.com/en_us/video/inside-the-program-that-takes-guns-away-from-dangerous-people/5b576bd4be407702041f9563
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Firearms have cost 12.6 million years of life in just a decade
Gun deaths increased by 0.72 percent every year, rising from 47 percent to nearly 51 percent, researchers found
WAPO: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/06/guns-suicide-homicide-lost-years/
For years, the primary cause of death for younger Americans was automobile accidents.
That’s evolving as firearm deaths mount — and they cost millions of years of potential life.
FAQ: What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus
In an analysis in Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open, researchers found that between 2009 and 2018, the United States lost 12.6 million years of life because of firearms alone.
The team used Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data and death certificates. Over the period studied, they found, firearm deaths increased by 0.72 percent every year, rising from 47 percent of trauma deaths to nearly 51 percent.
2020 was the deadliest gun violence year in decades. So far, 2021 is worse.
When the researchers calculated years lost based on an average life expectancy of 80 years, they found that White males, who constitute the majority of firearm deaths, lost the most years of potential life because of suicide by gun — a total of 4.95 million potential years during the decade-long study period. White males under 45 were 46 percent less likely to die by firearm suicide than their older counterparts.
Black males were more likely to die of homicide, losing 3.2 million potential years. The majority who died by homicide were between the ages of 15 and 24.
Although females were much less likely to die because of a firearm, gun suicide was on the rise among women, too; they lost over 867,000 years of potential life because of suicide.
To reduce suicides, look at guns
The researchers found stark regional differences in the trends, and point out that the South — the region with the highest number of registered firearms — has a higher level of gun-related suicide and homicide than the rest of the nation.
Second Amendment advocates argue that the right to bear arms can prevent deaths, but the researchers write, “the data reveal that the resulting access to firearms has equated to magnitudes of death due to firearm suicides in the same individuals demanding access to firearms.” They call for more tailored suicide prevention programs aimed at those at highest risk, and the restriction of access to “all methods of suicide.”
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6 dead, at least 12 injured in Sacramento shooting, police say
Video posted on Twitter shows people running through the street as the sound of rapid gunfire can be heard in the background
By Graham Womack and Tory Newmyer
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/04/03/sacramento-shooting/
SACRAMENTO — Six people are dead and at least 12 have been hospitalized after a shooting in downtown Sacramento early Sunday, police said, in what authorities are calling another senseless mass shooting.
The violence broke out shortly after 2 a.m. local time, leaving bodies on the ground and sending people running for cover in this popular nightlife destination lined with bars and clubs a block from the state Capitol.
Sacramento police said they are still trying to establish what prompted the shooting, how it unfolded, and who is responsible. They have yet to make an arrest and are asking for the public’s help in identifying potential suspects or motives, Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester said.
Lester said police in the area heard the gunshots and arrived at the corner of 10th and K streets to find a “very large crowd” and several shooting victims. Video posted on Twitter showed people running through the street as the sound of rapid gunfire could be heard in the background.
The site is three blocks from the Golden 1 Center, where the NBA’s Sacramento Kings play basketball, and which had hosted a concert by rap star Tyler, the Creator, on Saturday night. Lester said it was unclear whether the shooting was “associated with any particular club or event.”
There were still bodies on the street as of 10:30 a.m. local time, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Police mustered a large presence at the scene throughout Sunday, closing a swath of downtown two blocks wide and four blocks long. Sgt. Zach Eaton, a police spokesman, told The Washington Post the zone is likely to remain shut down until Monday as the investigation goes on. The crime scene, Lester said, is “very complex and complicated.”
Police are investigating a video posted to social media showing a brawl unfolding on a sidewalk as the shooting erupts. “We can’t confirm if that fight is what caused the shooting, or if there were two things going on at once,” Eaton said. He said police encouraged anyone with relevant video to submit it to the department through a link or the QR code it provided.
Bailey Willis, of Lincoln, Calif., said she and her husband witnessed the aftermath from the third-floor window of the Citizen Hotel, where they were staying.
“We didn’t know what was going on,” Willis said, her voice quavering. “We just saw these people terrified and they were screaming and holding each other and the cops were just barricading.”
Terra Henry ,of Carmichael, Calif., who also was staying at the hotel, said she saw a man running and crying, “My baby’s gone, my baby’s gone.”
Officials have opened City Hall, which will serve as an information center for victims’ families, with city staff and police on hand, Sacramento police announced.
“Thoughts and prayers are not nearly enough,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg (D) said at a news conference. “We must do more as a city, state and as a nation. This senseless epidemic of gun violence must be addressed. How many unending tragedies does it take before we begin to cure the sickness in this country?”
Earlier, Steinberg wrote on Twitter, “The numbers of dead and wounded are difficult to comprehend.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement that his administration is monitoring the situation and working with state and local law enforcement.
“What we do know at this point is that another mass casualty shooting has occurred, leaving families with lost loved ones, multiple individuals injured and a community in grief,” Newsom (D) said. “The scourge of gun violence continues to be a crisis in our country, and we must resolve to bring an end to this carnage.”
The violence in Sacramento unfolded just hours after a mass shooting in Dallas. At least 11 people were shot, with one reported dead, at an outdoor concert, according to Dallas police. Three of the victims were juveniles.
“A preliminary investigation determined that at the event, one individual fired a gun into the air, then another unknown individual fired a gun in the crowd’s direction,” Dallas police said in a statement.
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10 people killed in racially motivated mass shooting at Buffalo grocery store, officials say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/14/buffalo-shooting-grocery-store-tops/
By Aidan Joly, Timothy Bella, Marisa Iati, Meryl Kornfield, Joanna Slater and Devlin Barrett
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BUFFALO — Ten people were killed during a mass shooting Saturday afternoon at a Buffalo grocery store in what law enforcement officials described as a racially motivated hate crime.
Buffalo Police Commissioner Joseph Gramaglia told reporters that a heavily armed 18-year-old White man entered the store in a predominantly Black neighborhood and shot 13 people, including a security guard. He later surrendered to police and remains in custody.
Stephen Belongia, the special agent in charge of the FBI field office, said that law enforcement officials were investigating the shooting as a hate crime and a case of racially motivated violent extremism. Gramaglia said that 11 of the 13 people shot were Black.
Gramaglia said the suspect, who was heavily armed and wearing tactical gear, used a camera to live-stream the attack and shot several victims in the parking lot before entering the store.
The grocery’s longtime security guard — a “hero in our eyes,” said Gramaglia — engaged the shooter but was killed by the encounter. Four of those killed were store employees and six were customers, law enforcement officials said.
Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said the shooter, who has not been identified by officials, was not from the city. Brown said it was “a day of great pain for our community.”
Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) called the event “a terrible tragedy for the city.” He said the shooting was part of a nationwide problem: “When you have assault rifles in the possession of the wrong people, these kinds of things happen.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) wrote that she was “closely monitoring the shooting.
“We have offered assistance to local officials,” she tweeted. “If you are in Buffalo, please avoid the area and follow guidance from law enforcement and local officials.”
The Tops Friendly Markets store, which is located in a lower-income area of Buffalo, is a popular one that serves many people who live in the area. It’s centrally located to several area colleges, including Canisius College and Buffalo State College as well as a number of area churches.
The supermarket is about 10 minutes from the Canalside area of Buffalo, a popular area among locals and visitors.
A dairy frozen worker who identified himself as Will G. told the Buffalo News that he had walked into the cooler to stock milk just minutes before the shooting. As gunfire rang out, he ended up joining others who hid out in the cooler.
“I just heard shots. Shots and shots and shots,” he said to the News. “It sounded like things were falling over.”
He added, “I hid. I just hid. I wasn’t going to leave that room.”
The shooting at the Buffalo grocery store Saturday echoes the March 2021 mass shooting in Boulder, Colo., when 10 people, including a police officer, were killed at a King Soopers grocery store.
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UPDATE: 21 killed in shooting at Uvalde elementary school, SA lawmaker says
https://abc13.com/uvalde-texas-robb-elementary-school-active-shooter-district-lockdown/11889693/
UVALDE, Texas -- At least 14 students were killed and one teacher is dead after an "active shooter" incident at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott said.
Abbott also identified the shooter as an 18-year-old student at Uvalde High School. Multiple sources told ABC News the suspect is dead.
The National Counterterrorism Operations Center believes, at the moment, there is "no known terrorism nexus," according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by ABC News.
This is a breaking news update. A previous version of this report is below.
Multiple people are dead, including several children, after an "active shooter" incident at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Uvalde Memorial Hospital has confirmed to ABC News that two children died from presumed gunshot injuries in the incident.
Additionally, 13 students were being treated in the hospital's emergency department in the wake of the incident, the hospital said. Two patients were transferred to San Antonio for treatment, while a third was pending transfer, the hospital said. A 45-year-old was also hospitalized after getting grazed by a bullet, the hospital said.
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Emergency personnel gather near Robb Elementary School following a shooting, Tuesday, May 24, 2022, in Uvalde, Texas.
AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills
University Health in San Antonio said it had two patients from the shooting incident -- a child and an adult. The hospital said the adult -- a 66-year-old woman -- is in critical condition. It did not have an update yet on the condition of the child.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin did not confirm casualties, but told ABC News in a text message that "this is a very bad situation." He said the office is trying to contact parents before releasing any information.
Earlier, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had said a shooter was located at Robb Elementary School and asked people to stay away from the area.
"There is an active shooter at Robb Elementary," the school district said on Twitter. "Law enforcement is on site. Your cooperation is needed at this time by not visiting the campus. As soon as more information is gathered it will be shared."
A school official initially clarified to ABC News that the shooting took place off campus, and that Robb Elementary School was under lockdown.
The school informed parents shortly after 2 p.m. local time that students had been transported to the Sgt. Willie Deleon Civic Center, the reunification site, and could be picked up.
US saw 312 gun violence incidents this weekend
https://abc30.com/gun-violence-buffalo-mass-shooting-church-hate-crime/11856319/
The Buffalo and California shootings were two of 312 incidents of gun violence in the U.S. this weekend. Nearly 130 were killed.
Uvalde, Texas, is located about 90 minutes west of San Antonio.
The Bexar County Sheriff's Office and San Antonio Police Department are sending aid.
The Houston Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives also said it is assisting in the investigation of a school shooting.
TEXAS Governor Greg Abbott holding his beloved gun showing you what he loves most.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyJCAluW8AAYi6Q.jpg)
GO TEXAS - GUN CAPITAL OF THE WORLD AND THE PLACE WHERE YOU CAN CARRY GUNS EVERYWHERE!!! YEEE HAW!!!
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Opinion How the AR-15 conquered America, as revealed by an industry insider
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/31/uvalde-shooting-ar-15-interview-ryan-busse/
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As the country continues to absorb the horror of the murder of 19 children in Texas, public attention has refocused on the role that AR-15-style weapons have played in such mass-shooting massacres.
In addition to the Uvalde killer, the young man who allegedly slaughtered 10 people in Buffalo used one. So did Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two protesters in Wisconsin, for which he got acquitted.
But behind all these specific horrors lies an even bigger story. How did AR-15 variants come to occupy such a position of dominance in our culture — and, increasingly, in our everyday lives — in the first place?
The rise of AR-15-style weaponry, which is a semiautomatic civilian version of a military weapon, reflects a growing zeal, at least amid a determined minority in some parts of the country, for the introduction of overtly military-style equipment into civil society.
In that regard, Daniel Defense, the company that manufactured the weapon used in Uvalde, has really pushed the envelope. But this reflects a larger trend of “radicalization” in the industry, argues Ryan Busse, a former firearms executive.
Busse has carved out a niche arguing from inside knowledge that none of this was an accident. He says it was the result of specific choices made by the industry, combined with cultural shifts that created fertile conditions for this transformation.
The gun violence problem goes far beyond mass shootings and assault-style rifles. Right now senators are negotiating reforms that would hopefully address both mass shootings and day-to-day gun murders and suicides.
Yet those reforms will be modest and incremental at best. And given that there are hundreds of millions of guns in circulation in the United States, it’s extremely sobering to consider how vast and intractable the gun violence problem will likely remain for the foreseeable future.
I talked to Busse about all these matters. An edited and condensed version of our conversation follows.
Greg Sargent: Salvador Ramos was reportedly an enthusiast of the “Call of Duty” video game. Can you explain how the gun industry has used video games and other similar tactics to try to boost sales of guns like AR-15-style rifles?
Ryan Busse: Twenty years ago, everybody believed the industry was dying. Every marketing person in the industry looked around with some worry about how to reach new market shares.
Probably in the mid-to-late 2000s, you start to see the rise of first-person shooter games, following the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
There was lots of discussion in marketing-planning meetings about how you could get your gun model placed in a movie or a video game. That represented a solution to the problem, which was: How do we attract a new market segment away from this graying, older market segment that’s not growing?
There was a young demographic associated with first-person video games and action movies.
Sargent: It’s interesting that you mention the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as galvanizing this new groundswell of interest in this type of weaponry. How important were the wars — the imagery of the wars coming home, the war on terror, and the Islamophobia coursing through all of this — to this cultural groundswell?
Busse: Very important. I think it seeded everything.
Prior to about 2010 or 2012 there was never a gun sold in the United States commercial market that was desert tan color. Now a significant percentage of guns are sold in desert tan color. Why? Iraq and Afghanistan.
Sargent: The company that manufactured the shooter’s weapon, Daniel Defense, is at the leading edge of this kind of aggressive marketing. How widespread is what they do in the overall industry?
Busse: The story of Daniel Defense bursting on to the market is a case study in how the gun industry has radicalized and changed. All of the AR-15s built are pretty much the same gun. About 500 companies now build them. Twenty years ago there were one or two, and they were on the fringe of the commercial market.
About 1999, in the Columbine shooting, the NRA set its political course: We’re in the culture war business.
Then you have wars happening, AR-15s, patriotism, Islamophobia — all of that happening in the culture at the same time.
The gun industry became like a badly gerrymandered congressional district. It only had incentive to go one way. Everything pulls it to the right.
Sargent: What’s intriguing to me is the intense symbolic importance these AR-15-type guns have taken on. Throughout blue America the feeling has intensified that assault-style weapons have no place in civil society.
Yet in pro-gun America that very fact — that it arouses such intense opposition — has itself become almost a point of prideful defiance.
Busse: It’s a middle finger.
Sargent: For the right, living in a society that refrains from acting collectively to limit easy accessibility of such firepower has taken on a kind of higher meaning.
Busse: I live in red America. If I drive through the streets where I am, almost all the vehicles that have the Trump message somewhere on them also have some kind of AR-15 sticker on the back.
The people who marched into the Michigan Capitol had AR-15s. On Jan. 6, there were the Trump political flags — and then there were come-and-take-it AR-15 flags.
Sargent: This weapon has become a kind of symbolic test indicating the type of society we want. What this middle finger says is, “You can take your civil society and shove it.”
Busse: Nothing conveys dominance and intimidation like a loaded AR-15. It was designed to be offensive in war. It was designed to take people’s lives.
Sargent: You’re positioning the cultural mania around the AR-15 as an aberration or a malignancy, relative to what surely are millions upon millions of gun owners who have a much healthier attitude toward their hobby.
Busse: It’s how people are using the rifle. It’s what the rifle has become.
I think the authoritarian forces in this country view the AR-15 as a central organizing symbol.
Sargent: You often see advocacy for the AR-15 from the same right wing influencers — Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump Jr., Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), etc. — who regularly traffic in versions of the “great replacement theory” or relentlessly fearmonger about leftist terrorism driving the country into civil collapse.
Why is it that those who traffic in apocalyptic fantasies about demographic doom also tend to treat the AR-15 as something with almost mythical symbolic importance?
Busse: The idea of civil war/race war with heavily-armed citizen-patriots as your warriors is hardly under the surface anymore.
I won’t go so far as to say they actually want people to die in a race war. It’s a political tool for them. They think they can use it to motivate — and make people angry and fearful and hateful.
Sargent: Let’s talk about the assault weapons ban of 1994, which lapsed in 2004. What fundamentally changed after the ban lapsed?
Busse: The social stigma of AR-15s was removed. Then, 13 months after, George W. Bush signed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. It essentially says no firearms company or retailer can be sued for the unlawful actions of a consumer using the product, even if they market it irresponsibly.
Now the Daniel Defenses of the world stand back and basically say: “We’ve got 500 competitors, so we need to be really edgy in marketing. They just passed this law where we’re not even held to account if we market in ways that seem egregious.” Then the course was set.
Sargent: Gun manufacturers could market this stuff directly to a whole generation of people who were living in a society transformed by the Iraq and Afghan wars.
Busse: Then, as it got ever more competitive, they’d get the guns into video games. Get the guns into movies. Call the guns ever-more-offensive names. There’s an AR-15 called the “Urban Super Sniper.” How much more suggestive can you get than that?
Sargent: What does an actual policy response commensurate with the problem look like? Are we doomed to being a heavily armed society for the foreseeable future?
Busse: Rittenhouse, Buffalo, Uvalde — these things are warnings of what’s to come. You can’t put 450 million guns in a complex society — with lots of mental illness and covid-19 shutdowns and angst and Donald Trump and insurrections — and not think you’re going to have this.
I don’t believe there’s a way to solve the crisis. We have to start making decisions that make it marginally better instead of marginally worse.
That kid in Uvalde — if we’d had a 21-year-old buying requirement for rifles in Texas, might the kid have gotten a rifle? He could have. But it would have been harder.
Why don’t we have policies that make that more difficult, instead of continuing to make it easier?
We still have cigarettes. We still have lung cancer. We still have chain-smoking. But we have less now. We made decisions to make things marginally better. We could do that with guns.
Sargent: It sounds like our best hope is to incrementally mitigate a situation that appears to be headed for absolute catastrophe.
Busse: Yes. And I think we are headed for absolute catastrophe.
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Is an AR-15 an assault rifle? What you need to know about America's most popular rifle
https://www.news-press.com/story/news/local/2022/06/01/ar-15-what-is-what-can-do-and-why-so-many-mass-shooters-like-them/7467147001/
Days after his 18th birthday, a man bought two AR-15 rifles and used one to kill 21 people, including 19 children, at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school in May 2022.
Two weeks before that, an 18-year-old man used a modified AR-15 to kill 10 people and injure three more in a Buffalo, New York grocery store.
The same type of gun has also been used in at least 11 other mass shootings since 2012, according to USA Today. It's also used by thousands of Americans every day for hunting and target shooting.
What is an AR-15 rifle, and why is it so popular?
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What is an AR-15 rifle?
An AR-15 is a semi-automatic, or self-loading rifle that has been called "America's rifle" by the NRA with well over 15 million sold by 2019. "Semi-automatic," as opposed to "automatic," means that the weapon's operator must pull the trigger to fire each shot. The rifle then automatically reloads. An automatic weapon continues to fire as long as you hold down the trigger, and is (mostly) banned in the U.S.
"AR-15s are the most commonly used rifles in marksmanship competitions, training, and home defense," according to the NRA.
An AR-15 is not a specific model, but a style. It's the civilian variation of the ArmaLite AR-15, a variant of the AR-10 designed by Eugene Stoner in the 1950s, that was extremely lightweight, easy to care for and highly adaptable. ArmaLite sold the patent to Colt in the 1960s and they developed an automatic-fire version for the military called the M16. After Colt's patent ran out, other manufacturers began making their own versions.
What does AR-15 stand for?
AR stands for ArmaLite Rifle, named after the company that developed it. AR does not stand for "assault rifle" or "automatic rifle."
Is an AR-15 an assault rifle? What is an assault weapon?
That is a very contentious question.
According to the federal government as described in the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (known as the Assault Weapons Ban), the definition of assault weapon included some specific semi-automatic models by name and listed other firearms that included some specific features. For semi-automatic rifles, that meant being able to accept detachable magazines and two or more of the following: a folding or telescopic stock, pistol grip, bayonet mount, a flash suppressor and/or a grenade launcher.
More generally since then, the federal government has usually used the term to refer to a military-style weapon, either semi-automatic or fully automatic, capable of firing multiple rounds.
But pro-gun advocates and the gun industry say that "assault rifle" should only apply to military weapons that are either fully automatic or have the capability of switching between semi-automatic and fully automatic, and that the features listed in the federal Assault Weapons Ban were simply cosmetic.
According to the NSSF, the Firearm Industry Trade Association, "AR-15-style rifles can look like military rifles, such as the M-16, but by law they function like other semiautomatic civilian sporting firearms, as they fire only one round with each pull of the trigger." Instead, they refer to the AR-15 as a "modern sporting rifle" or MSR.
Is an AR-15 a machine gun? What is a bump stock?
The AR-15 rifle is not a machine gun (which is not quite the same thing as an automatic rifle), but it can be modified to function like an automatic rifle when a "bump stock" is used.
In October 2017, a Las Vegas gunman used 23 different weapons to murder 58 people. Of the 23 guns, several AR-15 rifles were found in his hotel room with a bump stock attached. Following this shooting, President Donald Trump banned bump stocks.
New FBI active shooter data:Incidents up 52% in 2021, more lethal than 2020 by 171%
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Why is the AR-15 so popular?
It's lightweight. It's rugged. It's accurate and has relatively little recoil. It's easy to modify, with plenty of accessories to make it more accurate, more comfortable, and more personal. Some gun owners enjoy a weapon that can be made to look like military hardware.
The NRA said "the AR-15 has soared in popularity" because it's "customizable, adaptable, reliable and accurate." It is also versatile and can be used for "sport shooting, hunting and self-defense situations," the NRA said, adding the ability to "personalize" so many of the rifle's components "is one of the things that makes it so unique."
"Like the Swiss Army knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment," said U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez when he overturned California's assault weapons ban in 2021. "Good for both home and battle."
But a big reason for the AR-15's popularity is its cost.
How much does an AR-15 cost?
New AR-15 rifles can sell for $400 to $2,000 and nearly every major gun manufacturer produces one. Ammunition is inexpensive and can be bought in bulk online, and magazines are interchangeable between manufacturers.
Why is the AR-15 so dangerous?
The AR-15 was designed to inflict what one of its designers called "maximum wound effect." AR-15s have a higher muzzle velocity than some other rifles and bullets leaving them at such a fast speed — nearly three times the speed of sound — cause more damage to bones and organs. They're also more likely to break apart inside a body, causing even more damage.
K-12 School Shooting Database:What a Florida man's school shooting database can tell us about gun violence on campuses
Weapon of choice:The AR-15 rifle, the gun used to kill 21 people in Uvalde, often used in mass shootings
How many rounds can an AR-15 fire in a minute?
Without modifications such as a bump stock, an AR-15 can fire about 60 rounds a minute. A 30-round magazine is fairly standard with MSRs but ammunition magazines ("drums") holding up to 100 rounds can be changed in just a few seconds. Some states currently cap the capacity to 10 or 15 rounds.
Large magazines, or those containing more than 10 rounds, played a role in at least 86 mass shootings since 1980, according to a report from the Violence Policy Center, a national nonprofit that advocates for gun control.
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Was an AR-15 used in the Pulse nightclub mass shooting?
Close, but not quite. A 29-year-old man, used a Sig Sauer MCX and a 9mm Glock semi-automatic pistol to kill 49 people and injure 50 at an Orlando nightclub before he was killed.
The Sig Sauer MCX is marketed as an MSR and is very similar to the AR-15. However, as explained in a Slate analysis, it is not considered an AR-15 because it uses a gas piston system to propel bullets from within the gun instead of a direct impingement system.
Was an AR-15 used in the Parkland, Florida high school mass shooting?
Yes. Police say a 19-year-old man used a Smith and Wesson M&P15, that manufacturer's version of the AR-15, to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
How many mass shootings have involved an AR-15?
May 24, 2022: Uvalde, Texas (Robb Elementary School, 21 killed, several wounded)
May 17, 2022: Buffalo, New York (Tops Friendly Market, 10 killed, 3 wounded)
March 10, 2021: Boulder, Colorado (King Soopers grocery store, 10 people killed, 3 wounded
Aug. 31, 2019: Midland/Odessa (West Texas cities, 7 killed, 25 wounded)
Apr. 27, 2019: Poway synagogue (near San Diego, 1 killed, 3 wounded)
Oct. 27, 2018: Tree of Life Synagogue (Pittsburgh, 11 killed, 6 wounded)
April 22, 2018: Waffle House (Nashville, Tennessee, 4 killed, 3 injured)
Feb. 14, 2018: Parkland, Florida (Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 17 killed, 17 wounded)
Nov. 5, 2017: Sutherland Springs (rural Texas church service, 26 people killed)
Oct. 1, 2017: Las Vegas (music festival, 58 killed, hundreds wounded)
June 12, 2016: Orlando, Florida (Pulse nightclub [not an AR-15 but very similar], 49 killed, 50 wounded)
Dec. 2, 2015: San Bernadino, California (holiday office party at Inland Regional Center, 14 killed, 21 wounded)
Dec. 14, 2012: Sandy Hook Elementary School (Newtown, Connecticut, 27 people killed)
June 20, 2012: Aurora, Colorado (Century 16 movie theater, 12 killed, 58 wounded)
Oct. 7, 2007: Crandon, Wisconsin (apartment, 6 killed, 1 wounded)
Feb. 24, 1984: Los Angeles (49th Street Elementary School, 2 killed, 12 wounded)
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3 killed in shooting inside Tulsa hospital; gunman also dead, police say
Police say a man armed with a rifle at St. Francis Hospital was also dead after Wednesday's shooting.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/multiple-victims-shooting-tulsa-hospital-gunman-police-say-rcna31551
June 1, 2022, 4:00 PM MST / Updated June 1, 2022, 4:36 PM MST
By Tim Stelloh and Lindsey Pipia
Three people were killed after a gunman opened fire inside an Oklahoma hospital Wednesday, authorities said.
The gunman, described only as a man armed with a rifle, was also killed, Tulsa Police said in a statement.
Multiple people were injured in the gunfire that erupted about 5 p.m. at St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Police Capt. Richard Meulenberg said. In a statement, the police department said the man entered a building on the hospital's campus on Wednesday afternoon.
"This turned into active shooter situation," the department said.
It wasn't clear how the gunman died, and a motive hasn't been identified.
Authorities said he went to the building's second floor and opened fire. Police were carrying out a room-by-room search to search for other threats, the department said.
The deadly shooting came a little more than a week after an 18-year-old killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
And over the Memorial Day weekend, nine people were killed and more than 60 injured in shootings with more than four victims across the United States, according to an organization that tracks shootings.
On Tuesday in New Orleans, a woman was killed and two men were injured in a shooting in New Orleans that occurred near a high school graduation venue that was taking place on the campus of Xavier University, police said.
PANDEMIC OFFICIALLY OVER I GUESS - LET THE SHOOTINGS BEGIN???
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There have been over 200 mass shootings so far in 2022
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-in-2022/
Before a man killed at least four people Wednesday at a hospital in Tulsa, there had already been 231 mass shootings this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. It is the twentieth since last week’s shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex., left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Mass shootings, where four or more people — not including the shooter — are injured or killed, have averaged more than one per day so far this year. Not a single week in 2022 has passed without at least four mass shootings.
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/ai2html/calendar-shootings-v9/PKY2ZIPXCZC4FN6Q6AZLPIX3PI/calendar-xxlarge.jpg?v=9)
Mass shootings have been on the rise in recent years. In 2021, almost 700 such incidents occurred, a jump from the 611 in 2020 and 417 in 2019. Before that, incidents had not topped 400 annually since the Gun Violence Archive started tracking in 2014.
From Sandy Hook to Buffalo and Uvalde: Ten years of failure on gun control
This year is on pace with last year’s high when comparing the same time period.
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The toll is immense. Mass shootings have killed 256 people and injured 1,010 more through the end of May.
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6 dead, many injured after shootings in Philadelphia and Chattanooga
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/05/philadelphia-shooting-south-street/
Shootings overnight left six people dead in Philadelphia and Chattanooga, Tenn., continuing a spate of deadly gun attacks as Congress prepares to take up gun-control legislation.
Shortly before midnight Saturday, police officers on patrol in a popular nightlife area in Philadelphia heard gunfire and saw “several active shooters” firing into a crowd, Inspector D.F. Pace of the Philadelphia Police Department said at a news conference early Sunday.
Three fatalities have been confirmed, two related to gunshot wounds and one related to injuries sustained after a person was struck by a vehicle. Several victims remain in critical condition after what police described as a chaotic and harrowing situation, as hundreds of people were out on a pleasant summer evening.
An officer fired several shots at one of the gunmen as he was shooting, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said during a news conference Sunday afternoon. The man dropped his weapon and fled when he was fired upon, the commissioner added.
About three hours later, at 2:42 a.m., police in Chattanooga responded to reports of shots fired near a nightclub. They found 14 gunshot victims and three people who had been hit by vehicles that “were attempting to flee the scene,” Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy said in a briefing Sunday.
Murphy said three people were killed, two by gunshots and one after being struck by a vehicle. She said the investigation was ongoing. “Multiple shooters” were involved, she said, but police did not have anyone in custody.
In Philadelphia, police were on the hunt for the shooters, Pace said.
The incident began at 11:31 p.m. after two officers heard gunfire, Outlaw said. When they arrived at the scene, they saw several people with gunshot wounds and began administering first aid.
Police believe there was some sort of physical altercation between two men who started shooting at each other. Both were hit and one was killed, Outlaw said. In all, five different guns were fired, police said, not including the one discharged by the police officer on the scene.
Outlaw said the two other people who were killed and several of the wounded were “uninvolved in the initial altercation and were innocent bystanders.”
Of the 14 people who were injured and brought to hospitals, three — two men, ages 22 and 34, and a woman, 27 — were pronounced dead on arrival, police told reporters. The 11 wounded ranged in age from 17 to 69 years old, Outlaw said, and their conditions ranged from stable to critical.
“We’re absolutely devastated, devastated by this incident,” she said.
About 35 to 40 minutes before the shooting on South Street, police responded to another report of shots fired nearby. No one was injured in that shooting, and police said it was unclear if the two shootings were related.
Officials at Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University Hospital told The Washington Post that it received 10 patients. Three died, six were in a “stable condition” and one had been discharged as of Sunday morning.
Police will look at video surveillance footage from the bustling area, Pace said.
“There were hundreds of individuals just enjoying South Street as they do every single weekend when this shooting broke out,” he added. “This investigation is fluid.”
Of the five weapons used in the shooting, two, both semiautomatic handguns, were recovered, police said. One of them had an extended magazine. “Multiple casings” of ammunition were strewn about the South Street area, Pace added.
The local 6ABC news outlet showed video of glass debris on the street and police tape cordoning off a busy shopping area.
The shootings come amid fresh outrage across the country from police chiefs and elected officials over gun violence. President Biden has renewed a push for Congress to act on gun restrictions.
The Philadelphia shooting follows another one nearby early on Tuesday, according to a report from WPHL-TV. Surveillance video showed a woman firing multiple shots at the intersection of 4th and South streets. One man was shot in the shoulder. He was treated at a hospital, police told the station. It was not clear whether the shootings are related.
In a statement Sunday morning, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney (D) called the latest shooting “beyond devastating” in what he said was “yet another horrendous, brazen and despicable act of gun violence” that “has shaken many people in our community.”
He also decried the rise in gun violence.
“We’ve spent these years grappling with this rising epidemic and doing everything in our power not only to stop it but to try to understand why the violence continues — it’s senseless, needless and deeply troubling,” Kenney said.
Chattanooga’s nonpartisan mayor, Tim Kelly, also called for stronger gun laws during a news conference Sunday afternoon. “There are families whose lives have been shattered forever because once again, we have people deciding to resolve their issues with firearms,” he said. “I’m tired of standing in front of you talking about guns and bodies. Chattanooga will not tolerate this in our community.”
The shootings come as Congress is expected to take up gun-control legislation this week. Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said he was “more confident than ever” that Congress would act. “But I’m also more anxious about failure this time around.”
He called the legislation “frankly a test of democracy. It’s a test of the federal government as to whether we can deliver at a moment of just fierce anxiety amongst the American public. So we’re closer than ever before. Let’s see if we land it.”
Quinton Lucas, the nonpartisan mayor of Kansas City, said his city has filed lawsuits against gun manufacturers and “fortified” many of its schools, but that action from Congress was needed.
“More than anything, we need stronger and tougher laws that protect our children, protect our grocery stores, protect our police officers,” Lucas said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Lucas said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“Red-flag laws permitting background checks are very clear solutions,” he added. “And I think the United States Congress has an opportunity to act and make us all safer so we’re not reading about a new mass shooting every few days, which has been the story of the past month in the United States.”
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Chris Rock -- Bullet Control (HD)
Chris Rock - Gun Control
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3 people killed in shooting at Maryland business, governor says
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/09/us/maryland-shooting-columbia-machine/index.html
(https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220609142511-02-columbia-machine-smithsburg-shooting-exlarge-169.jpg)
Police are seen at the scene of a shooting in Smithsburg, Maryland.
(CNN)Three people were killed Thursday in a shooting at a manufacturing plant in Smithsburg, Maryland, and a state trooper was shot in the shoulder, according to Gov. Larry Hogan.
"The State Police responded, pursued the suspect, suspect fired and shot the state trooper in the shoulder, who then returned fire and shot him back," Hogan said at a news conference on Covid-19.
A news release from the Washington County Sheriff's Office on Facebook said responding deputies found four victims at the company, three of whom were dead and one who was critically injured. The suspect had left the scene but was tracked down by a Maryland State Police trooper.
"Gunshots were exchanged between the suspect and the Trooper. Both were injured and transported for medical treatment," the release says.
The deadly incident is the 254th mass shooting this year, as the country is on pace to match or surpass last year's total, according to the Gun Violence Archive. It comes as the US House of Representatives have passed several bills aimed at gun reform but the measures have little chance of passing in the Senate.
Washington County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Carly Hose said the suspect was a man, but she didn't yet know other details about the shooting, like whether the shooter was an employee of Columbia Machine.
The shooting happened around 2:30 p.m. ET, authorities said.
Columbia Machine is a manufacturer of concrete products equipment, according to their website.
Smithsburg is about 75 miles west of Baltimore.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office in Baltimore and the FBI each said agents are assisting the sheriff's office with the incident.
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Opinion: Here's the reason people tell me they want to buy an AR-15. And it's simply ludicrous
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/opinions/guns-ar-15-uvalde-school-shooting-fanone/index.html
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(CNN)No weapon has been more in the public eye in America of late than the AR-15, in large part because of its tragic role in some of this country's deadliest shootings.
The AR-15 has the dubious distinction of being America's most popular semi-automatic rifle. I'm more familiar with the gun than most people: I own one. And one thing I know for sure is that this weapon doesn't belong in the hands of the average civilian.
I've owned multiple firearms for most of my life. I spent two decades in the Washington Metropolitan Police Department in a number of different roles, as a street cop walking the beat and on various special mission units.
I'm also a card-carrying member of the National Rifle Association. And when I wasn't at my job doing police work, I worked part-time for several years in firearm sales as well as training law enforcement officers, members of the military and civilians.
I purchased my different guns over the years for the same reason that you might purchase a flathead screwdriver along with a Phillips screwdriver: Each one serves a different purpose. As an avid hunter, I've got a gun that I use for turkey hunting, one that I use for waterfowl and one I use to hunt deer and larger game like elk.
I purchased my AR-15 because I was assigned one as part of my police duties. But officers weren't allowed to take our department-issued weapons home. I felt it was my responsibility to become proficient with any weapon I'd been assigned, so I bought one. And I've spent hundreds of hours training so that I could properly use it.
I've sold guns at big box retailers and I've also sold firearms at a small retail gun store. Some gun buyers have been misled into thinking that the AR-15 is somehow practical for self-defense. But frankly, it's the last gun that I would recommend for that purpose.
Usually, the motivation for purchasing the AR-15 is simple: People want one because they want one. Most times, the person who buys an AR-15 comes into the store already knowing that they intend to purchase one.
I've pressed some customers about why they want an AR-15, but no one could ever come up with a legitimate justification for needing that particular weapon.
Some members of the tinfoil hat brigade have come up with the reply, "We need these weapons because we want to be effective against the government if it becomes tyrannical. That's part of our Second Amendment right." Personally, I think that's ludicrous, but it has become an increasingly popular justification for purchasing a semi-automatic rifle.
The AR-15 was given to law enforcement because more and more frequently police officers were encountering these types of weapons on the street and finding that they were outgunned. One example that springs to mind is the famous 1997 North Hollywood, California, shootout at the Bank of America.
In that incident, two individuals clad in body armor held up a bank in the Los Angeles neighborhood. Police who responded at the scene literally had to run to a nearby gun store to purchase more powerful weapons, because they were using 9 mm pistols, while the bad guys were armed with semi-automatic rifles.
The standoff was one of the most infamous gun battles in American history, with 11 officers wounded -- luckily, none fatally -- and both robbery suspects shot dead. While it's an extreme example, it is in many ways the situation encountered by officers all across this country: Police simply are outgunned against semi- and fully automatic firearms.
The bullet that comes out of the barrel of an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle can easily penetrate the target -- the intruder or whatever person you are using deadly force to defend yourself or others from.
But it also will go through the wall behind that person, and potentially through that room and into the next wall. That power and accuracy are useful for military purposes, which is obviously what they were designed for. But it's far more power than should ever be in the hands of the average civilian.
The bullet fired by the AR-15 is capable of defeating the average police officer's body armor, like a knife slicing through butter. SWAT teams and some of the more specialized units typically are equipped with level IV Kevlar or steel-plated armor, which would stop maybe two or three direct hits, but eventually body armor breaks down after being hit with multiple rounds.
A person wielding an AR-15 has a range beyond 300 yards. For an officer armed with a 9 mm pistol, hitting a target beyond 50 yards is going to be difficult, even for the most accomplished marksman. A bullet fired by an AR-15 travels at three times the velocity as one fired by a 9 mm handgun. And magazines that can feed dozens of rounds into the weapon in the space of minutes clearly were meant for use only on the battlefield.
The prevalence of these weapons means police sometimes are overmatched, as we saw with the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last month. In a situation where you have small children near the shooter, you want to remove the threat as quickly as possible.
But we all saw the tragic consequences at that elementary school, where police waited for more than an hour before engaging with the teenage gunman armed with an AR-15 who killed 19 young children and two teachers.
I have no doubt that police in Uvalde wish they had had weapons as powerful as the one carried by the shooter who snuffed out the lives of the victims in that school. But a far better outcome would have been if the shooter didn't have an AR-15 in the first place.
Now that I'm no longer on the police force, my AR-15 collects dust in my gun safe. Rifle ranges that permit the type of training required to use this weapon system effectively are few and far between and the cost of ammunition exceeding a dollar per round is more than this guy can afford. I no longer need it. But neither, to be honest, do most of the people flocking to guns stores to buy one.
Banning these powerful weapons from the civilian marketplace is a no-brainer, as are universal background checks. Neither move is going to solve all the gun problems that we have, but it would be a start.
And outlawing these AR-15s would not require confiscating them from people who already have them. Once you've made these weapons illegal, anyone found with one would be subject to arrest, since possession of these weapons would be a crime. I think it's likely that you would see a lot of people opting to turn them in.
If banning them outright seems like too extreme a solution to be politically palatable, here's another option: Reclassify semi-automatic rifles as Class 3 firearms.
That would mean that someone wanting to purchase an AR-15 would have to go through a background check, fingerprinting and review by an official from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- a process that takes anywhere from 12 to 16 months. And since Class 3 weapons can't be purchased by anyone younger than 21, it would solve the issue of emotionally unstable 18-year-olds buying them.
A Class 3 firearm reclassification would also make those who are approved to purchase these weapons subject to an annual check that they are complying with federal regulations regarding secure storage of the firearm, and to confirm their licensing and other paperwork is up to date. All of these hoops and hurdles are sure to reduce the civilian demand for these weapons.
I can't overstate how dangerous it is to have semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15 in the hands of civilians. Our public officials have it within their power to help make it harder for people who shouldn't have these weapons to get them.
A police officer should never have to worry about being outgunned by the bad guy they're protecting the public against.
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America’s gun exceptionalism, by the numbers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/05/25/american-gun-exceptionalism/
From 2016 to 2020, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) determined that gun manufacturers had produced 24.6 million handguns, 14.3 million rifles and 7.9 million other firearms, including shotguns. That’s up substantially from the period from 2007 to 2011.
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=https://arc-anglerfish-washpost-prod-washpost.s3.amazonaws.com/public/UOCJTCD5BNE7NMXWCRPGHABVJM.png&w=691)
At the same time, more guns are being purchased. The best long-term metric for this is FBI background-check data, tracking purchases by revealing how often gun sellers conduct background checks on buyers. This is not a perfect metric, given that some states require regular background checks for gun owners. But you can see that the number of monthly background checks has steadily risen over time.
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There are a lot of cultural phenomena hinted at in the graph above: The surge in sales at the end of the year as people buy firearms as Christmas gifts. The increase in sales as Barack Obama took office and people feared new gun legislation. The even larger increase starting in 2013 as the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School sparked a similar concern. (In retrospect, there was no need to worry about new gun legislation.) Then the big surge in 2020, a function of the pandemic and, by the middle of the year, national protests over racial justice. That increase carried into 2021, with a Democratic president and the violence at the Capitol that January.
If we adjust both of those metrics for population, you can see the gun industry’s footprint. In 2020, there were 333 guns manufactured and 737 background checks conducted for every 10,000 Americans.
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In the aftermath of the shooting in Texas, the question of legislation again arises. Data from ATF offers one way of thinking about the effectiveness of limits on gun ownership. In states with higher grades from the Giffords Law Center — an advocacy organization for new gun laws — guns recovered at crime scenes and traced by ATF were much less likely to originate in-state.
In other words, states with stricter gun laws are more likely to see guns used for criminal activity originating in states with looser laws.
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As you can see, most states get low grades from the Giffords Center. Guns are readily available in the United States, and there’s a powerful lobby that provides a legislative backstop to the sharply politicized cultural fight over gun ownership. That’s true at both the state and federal levels.
The result is that there are lots of guns in the United States and lots of Americans who have guns. In 2017, data from Pew Research Center determined that, while most Americans own no guns, the 3 in 10 Americans who do often own more than one. About 1 in 11 Americans own at least five guns.
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This is exceptional.
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Opinion Distinguished pol of the week: He called out one of the GOP’s dumbest ideas on guns
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/12/miguel-cardona-calls-out-republican-dumb-ideas-guns-arming-teachers/
If only Republicans could summon the same anger they displayed over the utterly unacceptable attempt to kill Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh for the deaths of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Tex. Or the 10 killed in Buffalo. Or the victims of the more than 200 mass killings committed just this year.
Rather than pass common-sense gun laws — such as raising the age to buy an assault weapon (supported by 74 percent of voters, including 59 percent of Republicans, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll); or universal background checks (supported by 92 percent of Americans); or red-flag laws (supported by 83 percent) — Republicans have tossed out one inane line after another. Perhaps the dopiest line came from House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), who made the point that the United States did not ban planes after 9/11. (Okay, but we wouldn’t we all be safer if gun owners were licensed like pilots?)
It seems the GOP’s favorite dodge is proposing we sell and distribute more guns — to teachers. For the best refutation of that “idea,” turn to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
“Those are some of the stupidest proposals I’ve heard in all my time as an educator,” he said on “The View” on Thursday. “Listen, we need to make sure we’re doing sensible legislation, making sure our schoolhouses are safe as much as possible.” He then mused about how arming grade-school teachers would work in practice. “What happens when a teacher goes out on maternity leave? Are we going to give the substitute of the day a gun?” Hmm.
In fact, a lot of questions come with such a plan. For example:
- Should teachers sport their AR-15s when they have bus duty or lunchtime duty?
- Where do they store these weapons of war? In a locked case?
- Should the gun be loaded and ready to fire?
- How could a civilian teacher access a secured gun quickly enough to take down an armed murderer?
- If you are going to arm teachers, should we outlaw the body armor that many shooters wear?
- Since 18-years-olds should be able to buy AR-15s, according to Republican lawmakers, why shouldn’t they be armed in high schools?
- Trained police officers do not always enter schools to confront gunmen, as we have learned in the Uvalde shooting. But teachers will?
- Should teachers leave their kids unprotected to track the killer through the halls? What if there is more than one assailant?
If you think Republican lawmakers have thought through these questions and dozens of other logical problems with giving teachers weapons of war, you are sadly mistaken. I sincerely doubt Republicans actually want to put firearms in the hands of teachers; after all, these are the same people who they believe are indoctrinating kids on critical race theory and “grooming” them for homosexuality.
Arming teachers, like so many other dimwitted right-wing ideas, is simply an excuse to not do anything meaningful to reduce the number and lethality of gun massacres. Interviewers rarely press Republicans to explain their bad-faith arguments. Instead, the media often treat ridiculous ideas respectfully and move on without follow-up questions. Perhaps TV hosts should start inviting these Republicans to discuss their ideas at length.
Until Republicans are forced to confess that their ideas would be impossible to implement, they’ll keep changing the subject and deflecting demands for gun legislation. For skewering Republican gun fetishizers and demonstrating how we should strip away the pretense that Republicans are engaged in good-faith problem-solving, we can say well done, Secretary Cardona.
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Opinion 6 solutions to gun violence that could work
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/02/gun-control-solutions-that-work/
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This article was originally published in 2018 and has been updated.
For far too long, those who oppose gun reforms have said that nothing can be done to stem the violence.
Those claims are demonstrably wrong. Research on gun violence is notoriously underfunded, but the data we do have shows that well-designed gun laws informed by science can save lives.
Ban weapons of war
The Las Vegas massacre. The killing spree at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. The movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colo. The Virginia Tech slaughter. The massacre at a Walmart in El Paso.
These are the five highest-casualty (deaths and injuries combined) mass shootings in modern American history. And what did they all have in common? Semiautomatic weapons that allowed the shooter to fire rounds into crowds without reloading.
Based on the evidence we have, banning these weapons probably won’t do too much to curb overall gun deaths. We know this because in 1994, Congress passed legislation to outlaw the sale of certain types of semiautomatic guns and large-capacity magazines, and the effect was unimpressive. Gun homicide rates declined during the ban, but they also continued to fall after the ban expired in 2004. One federally funded study of the ban found that the effect on violence was insignificant, partly because it was full of loopholes.
But banning so-called assault weapons was never meant to reduce overall gun deaths. It was meant to make America’s frustratingly common mass shootings less deadly — even if these horrific events represent a small portion of gun violence.
And, in fact, mass shooting casualties dipped during the ban, although a review of studies by the Rand Corporation found the role the ban played in the dip to be inconclusive.
Here’s what is certain from the research: Semiautomatic weapons and weapons with high-capacity magazines are more dangerous than other weapons. One study on handgun attacks in New Jersey in the 1990s showed that gunfire incidents involving semiautomatic weapons wounded 15 percent more people than shootings with other weapons. A more recent study from Minneapolis found that shootings with more than 10 shots fired accounted for between 20 and 28 percent of gun victims in the city.
So how do we keep such dangerous weapons from being used in crimes? A ban on assault weapons might help, as data from a few cities during the 1994 ban suggest:
But experts say focusing on reducing large-capacity magazines might be more effective. Simply put, gunmen are less deadly when they have to reload.
Such a ban might take time to have an effect, as a 2003 Post investigation showed. But it would be worth it. Alarmingly, crime data suggests that crimes committed with high-powered weapons have been on the rise since the 1994 ban ended.
Again, mass shootings account for a small fraction of gun deaths, so any ban on these weapons and magazines would result in marginal improvements, at best. But even if this step reduced shootings by 1 percent — far less than what the Minneapolis study suggests — that would mean 650 fewer people shot a year. Isn’t that worth it?
Keep guns away from kids
Occasionally, gun-reform advocates call for raising the federal age limit for purchasing semiautomatic weapons to 21, as is already required for handguns. But why stop there? Why not raise the age for all guns, including non-automatic rifles and shotguns?
This could make a real difference because young people are far more likely to commit homicide than older cohorts. One survey of prison inmates looked at those convicted of using a legally owned gun to commit a crime and found that a minimum age requirement of 21 would have prohibited gun possession in 17 percent of cases.
Of course, keeping guns out of the hands of young shooters would be difficult, because it’s so easy for people to obtain guns illegally. But age limits in general have proved to be effective in limiting bad behavior, so it’s worth trying.
There’s another reform that could be even more effective at keeping guns from kids: requiring gun owners to securely store firearms in a locked container or with a tamper-resistant mechanical lock.
Nearly 4.6 million minors in the United States live in homes where firearms are loaded and easy to access. One analysis from the federal government shows that 76 percent of school shooters obtain a gun from their homes or the homes of relatives. The same is true for more than 80 percent of teens who take their own lives with a firearm.
Safe-storage laws can help, especially with suicides. In Massachusetts, which has the strictest storage laws in the country, guns are used in just 12 percent of youth suicides, compared with 43 percent nationally. The suicide death rate among youth in the state is nearly half the national average.
In fact, states requiring locks on handguns in at least some circumstances have 25 percent fewer suicides per capita and 48 percent fewer firearm suicides per capita than states without such laws.
Meanwhile, another safety innovation is being developed: smart guns. These are guns that use fingerprint recognition and other means so that only their owners can fire them. The technology is still relatively new, but it’s promising. One small study found that over seven years, 37 percent of gun deaths could have been prevented by smart guns. Lawmakers could encourage their use by incorporating them into laws regulating safe storage.
Stop the flow of guns
A general rule: The more guns there are, the more gun deaths there will be. It holds across countries (note how much the United States stands out):
And across states. One 2013 study from Boston University found that for every percentage point increase in gun ownership at the state level, there was a 0.9 percent rise in the firearm homicide rate.
So how do we reduce the steady flow of guns? Three ideas:
Institute a buyback program
In the 1990s, Australia spent $500 million to buy back almost 600,000 guns. Harvard University researchers found that the gun homicide rate dropped 42 percent in the seven years following the law and the gun suicide rate fell 58 percent.
An Australian study found that for every 3,500 guns withdrawn per 100,000 people, the country saw a 74 percent drop in gun suicides and a reduction in mass shootings. That doesn’t prove causation. But the likelihood the drop in mass shootings was due to chance? Roughly 1 in 20,000, according to a 2018 paper.
Of course, the United States is different from Australia. The Australian buyback was mandatory, which would probably run into constitutional problems here. Plus, we have way more guns per capita, so the United States would have to spend exponentially more to make a significant difference.
Still, given Australia’s experience, it’s worth at least experimentation. Perhaps the government can use buyback programs to target specific kinds of weapons, such as semiautomatic firearms and large-capacity magazines.
Limit the number of guns people can buy at one time
Federal gun enforcers have long warned that state laws allowing bulk purchases of guns enable crime. Older studies from what is now called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives show that as many as 1 in 5 handguns recovered in a crime were originally purchased as part of a sale in which multiple guns were purchased.
To combat this behavior, some states have instituted “one handgun a month” policies, as Virginia did in 1993. At the time, Virginia was the top supplier of guns seized in the Northeast; three years later, the state dropped to eighth place. The law also led to a 35 percent reduction in guns recovered anywhere in the United States that were traced back to Virginia.
Such a policy isn’t going to solve gun trafficking. The Virginia law didn’t prevent “straw purchases” in which traffickers pay people to buy guns legally so they can be sold elsewhere. But experts say one-gun-a-month laws make it more costly for criminals to traffic guns. And given the success in the past, such policies are worth promoting.
Hold gun dealers accountable
Research has shown that in some cities, guns used to commit crimes often come from a small set of gun dealers. So how do we stop the flow of those guns? Hold dealers accountable.
In 1999, the federal government published a report identifying gun shops connected with crime guns, including a single dealer in Milwaukee that was linked to a majority of the guns used in the city’s crimes. In response to negative publicity, that dealer changed its sales practices. Afterward, the city saw a 76 percent reduction in the flow of new guns from that shop to criminals and a 44 percent reduction in new crime guns overall. But in 2003, Congress passed a law prohibiting the government from publishing such data, after which the rate of new gun sales from that dealer to criminals shot up 200 percent.
Studies show that regulation of licensed dealers — such as record-keeping requirements or inspection mandates — can also reduce interstate trafficking. So can litigation against gun dealers that allow their guns to enter criminal markets. One sting operation conducted by New York City reduced the probability of guns from the targeted dealers ending up in the hands of criminals by 84 percent.
Strengthen background checks
Federal law requires background checks to obtain a gun, but those checks are extremely porous.
Under federal law, only licensed gun dealers have to perform these checks; private individuals and many online retailers don’t. It’s hard to pin down exactly how many guns are legally acquired without a background check, but some surveys put it upward of 22 percent.
Some states go beyond federal law and require background checks for all gun sales. But since it’s so easy for guns to travel across state lines, it’s hard to judge the effectiveness of these policies on gun deaths.
Still, there’s evidence that such expanded background checks can help limit the flow of guns into illegal markets. We also know that most gun offenders obtain their weapons through unlicensed sellers. One survey of state prison inmates convicted of offenses committed with guns in 13 states found that only 13 percent obtained their guns from a seller that had to conduct a background check. Nearly all those who were supposed to be prohibited from possessing a firearm got theirs from suppliers that didn’t have to conduct a background check. Closing that loophole federally might help.
What else can we do to strengthen background checks? Four possibilities:
Close the “Charleston Loophole”
Most gun background checks are instant. But some — around 9 percent — take more time, and federal law says if a check takes more than three business days, the sale can proceed. As a result, thousands of people who are not supposed have access to guns ended up getting them, as the Government Accountability Office reported.
Among the people who benefited from this loophole? Dylann Roof, who killed nine people in Charleston, S.C., in 2015. Ending this practice would save lives.
Close the “Boyfriend Gap”
An estimated 70 women each month are killed with guns by spouses or dating partners, according to a 2019 analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by Everytown for Gun Safety.
Federal law prevents anyone with domestic violence misdemeanors from having a gun, but that law is defined narrowly and doesn’t include all domestic violence perpetrators — for example, boyfriends. More specifically, the law doesn’t keep guns from abusers who are not married, do not live with their partner or do not share a child with them.
Some states have expanded on federal law — and it works. One study found that rates of domestic-violence-related homicide decline 7 percent after a state passes such laws.
Implement waiting periods
The evidence that waiting periods to acquire guns reduce violent crime is limited. But there’s more evidence that they prevent suicides.
Research shows that people who buy handguns are at higher risk of suicide within a week of the purchase, and that waiting periods can keep them from using guns to harm themselves. In fact, one study found that when South Dakota repealed its 48-hour waiting period in 2012, suicides jumped 7.6 percent in the following year.
Improve reporting on mental health
Mental illness is associated with a relatively small portion (around 5 percent) of gun homicides. Federal law already prohibits anyone committed to a mental-health facility or deemed dangerous or lacking all mental capacities through a legal proceeding from having a gun.
But mental-health records are notoriously spotty. There’s limited evidence that improved reporting at the state level might reduce violent crimes. Connecticut started reporting mental-health data to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in 2007, and one study found that violent crimes committed by people with mental illness there significantly decreased.
We can also make it easier for family members to seek court orders to disarm relatives who might do harm to themselves. In Connecticut, which has allowed this since 1999, one study estimated that the law averted 72 suicide attempts through 2013 from being fatal.
Strengthen red-flag laws
As much as strengthened background checks might prevent someone from purchasing new firearms, the problem remains that many guns are already in the hands of people who pose a threat to themselves or others.
How to address that? One solution: red-flag laws.
Such laws, which have repeatedly been held constitutional, allow people to petition a court to temporarily confiscate firearms from people who pose a threat to themselves or others. And they work.
California has one of the most expansive red-flag laws in the country, allowing anyone to petition for a court order to take guns from a high-risk individual. There is concrete data to show it is effective: One case study from 2019 found that the law averted at least 21 potential mass shootings, based on credible threats.
And it’s not just mass shootings. Studies have consistently found that these laws help avert suicides. One study from Indiana found that for every 10 to 20 gun-removal orders, one suicide was averted. Another study found Indiana saw a 7.5 percent reduction in its firearm suicides rate in the 10 years after its red-flag law became took effect. Connecticut, in the same study, saw its rate fall 14 percent.
These laws won’t catch every mass shooter or prevent every suicide. They are fundamentally limited by how many people know to use them. But implemented properly, they could do some real good. A 2019 analysis from the U.S. Secret Service found that in 77 percent of school shootings, at least one person knew of the perpetrator’s troubling behavior before the attack.
Treat guns like we treat cars
Consider two data points: first in Connecticut, then in Missouri.
In Connecticut, state lawmakers required people to get a license and safety training for a gun, just as we do for cars. In the decade after, it saw a drop in both gun homicides and suicides — at faster rates than other states without similar laws. And at the same time, Connecticut saw no significant drop in homicides not related to guns.
In Missouri, the state legislature repealed its licensing requirements in 2007.
A study found that the law change was associated with an additional 55 to 63 homicides in each of the five years following the repeal — even as homicides committed without guns dropped.
In both cases, it’s hard to prove a connection. But these experiences do strongly suggest something we learned in our decades-long efforts to reduce vehicle-related deaths: Regulation saves lives.
It can also deter crime. Research from the advocacy group Mayors Against Illegal Guns has found that guns sold in states with licensing laws — which are sometimes paired with mandatory registration of guns with local police — end up being exported for criminal activity at one-third the rate of states without the laws.
Why? Because it’s much harder to feed guns into illegal markets if police can trace them to their legal gun owners. After Missouri repealed its licensing laws, police in Iowa and Illinois started reporting an increase in Missouri guns showing up at crime scenes.
None of these reforms alone will stop our gun epidemic. But together, they can make a serious impact that will save lives. The only thing stopping that from happening is a lack of political will.
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Gunman at large after killing at least six in July 4 parade
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/04/highland-park-parade-shooting/
HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — At least six people were dead, 31 were hospitalized and a gunman was at large Monday afternoon after shooting Fourth of July paradegoers from a roof in this Chicago suburb, authorities said.
Video from the scene appeared to show blood pooled on the sidewalk and police talking to people in downtown Highland Park. Others showed the chaos while loud bangs could be heard on the downtown street where chairs, toys and blankets were strewn.
Authorities at a news conference said at least six were confirmed dead. Police are searching for the gunman, and the city advised residents to shelter in place as it remains an “active incident,” the website said. An area medical system said it was treating 31 people at two hospitals.
Highland Park is an affluent Chicago suburb about 25 miles north of the city’s downtown, along the shore of Lake Michigan.
Here’s what else you need to know
Police are searching for a White man, about 18 to 20 years old with a small build, long black hair and a white or blue T-shirt. Police recovered a firearm at the scene. The FBI has asked people to send tips and videos of the shooting to 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Authorities in Highland Park and other area cities canceled their Fourth of July events in response to the shooting.
Shots ‘sounded like a howitzer,’ witness says
David Baum, an OB/GYN at Northwestern Memorial in Chicago, was at the Highland Park parade with his three children and grandson, who had walked in the children’s parade about 30 minutes before the main event started.
He said the shooting appeared to come from the top of an apartment building on 2nd Street. The bangs “sounded like a howitzer” aimed at “sitting targets,” he said.
Baum said it appeared people on the sidewalk were targeted, as opposed to those marching in the parade.
After shooting stopped, Baum said, people “ran for their lives.”
There were bodies down and people screaming. Those who could help, many of them nurses and doctors, were applying pressure and tourniquets to the wounded. Paramedics, Baum said, evaluated some of the injured and quickly determined that they were dead.
“Those bullets eviscerated people,” Baum said, adding there “was blood everywhere.”
Baum said the shooter appeared to be using an automatic weapon.
“I am an OB/GYN, not an ER doctor. … The injuries were horrific,” he said.
Baum said that if he had been 200 feet down the block, he probably would have been shot.
After everyone scattered, there were no bodies or injured people on the street — only on the sidewalk in front of the storefronts.
Government leaders express sadness and condolences
As local, state and federal law enforcement officers continue a manhunt for the gunman who fatally shot at least six people and wounded more than two dozen in Highland Park, elected officials are expressing their sorrow and offering assistance.
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) called the mass shooting “absolutely terrifying.”
“Families from all over seek out this time-honored tradition on Fourth of July — and today, many found themselves running for their lives,” she said. “Every community deserves to be safe from senseless gun violence.”
Fellow Sen. Dick Durban (D-Ill.) said his office is closely monitoring unfolding events after the act of “senseless violence.”
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) said she has been in touch with Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering (D) and has offered support. Lightfoot encouraged the public to report any information they know about the shooting to authorities.
U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D), who represents Illinois’s 10th district that includes Highland Park, was at the parade with his campaign team when gunshots erupted.
Americans should be free to attend parades without threat of gun violence, according to U.S. Rep. Robin L. Kelly (D-Ill.).
“In Highland Park, gun violence struck and traumatized a community,” she said, sending condolences to those affected.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) offered a more somber and direct depiction of the tragedy in a statement, asking citizens to pray for the families and law enforcement officials trying to help.
“There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families with children celebrating a holiday with their community,” he said, pledging to end gun violence in Illinois. “But grief will not bring the victims back, and prayers alone will not put a stop to the terror of rampant gun violence in our country.”
Hundreds of officers search Highland Park area for gunman
Hundreds of police officers from dozens of agencies — state, federal, county and municipal — are flooding the area around Highland Park searching for a shooter who killed at least six people and injured more than two dozen at the city’s Independence Day parade Monday morning,
SWAT teams are going door to door, and the FBI is assisting at the shooting scene, Christopher Covelli, spokesman for the Lake County Major Crimes Task Force, said at a news conference.
More than 100 police departments in the Chicago suburbs, including Highland Park’s, are part of a mutual aid coalition called the Northern Illinois Police Alarm System, which provides SWAT services to the cities.
The Highland Park Police Department, which has 56 officers, is leading the investigation and apprehension efforts, Covelli said.
The Chicago Police Department said on Twitter that its helicopter is assisting in the search for the shooter.
Highland Park, a quiet Chicago suburb, struck by gunfire
Highland Park, an affluent suburb about 25 miles north of downtown Chicago, was rocked Monday by gunfire, unusual for the quiet neighborhood, according to residents.
The suburb along Lake Michigan is home to just 30,000 people, including a sizable Jewish, non-Orthodox population.
“It’s a very low-crime, very affluent area,” said Larry Bloom, a 54-year-old resident. Bloom, who is Jewish, recalled a few incidents of antisemitism, but no attack like this.
The suburb’s Americana look has made it the scene of several major movies, including “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Risky Business” and “Home Alone.”
But on Monday, chairs and personal belongings were strewn along the ground, reminiscent of the aftermath of last year’s Christmas parade attack in Waukesha, Wis., in which a driver killed six people.
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U.S. Mass Shootings Hover Near Record-Breaking Levels
https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/07/04/us-mass-shootings-hover-near-record-breaking-levels/?sh=3e6d9e135f62
TOPLINE Six months into this year—and on a day when gunfire killed at least six attending a Chicago area holiday parade—mass shootings and gun deaths in the United States rival 2021’s record-breaking figures, as a wave of gun violence that began at the start of the pandemic continues to rage—though a Covid-era jump in firearm sales finally began leveling off.
KEY FACTS
The United States logged 306 mass shootings with at least four injuries or deaths from the start of this year to Sunday, compared to 327 mass shootings over the same period in 2021 and 256 in 2020, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
Mass shootings this year are on track to approach the 692 recorded in 2021, which was the highest figure since the Gun Violence Archive started tracking shootings in 2014.
Some 10,072 people nationwide have died due to firearms—including intentional and accidental killings but not suicides—so far in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive, meaning this year’s overall figure could near 2021’s 20,944 deaths (a seven-year high) and exceed 2020’s 19,518 deaths if the current pace continues.
Meanwhile, gun sales have begun easing: U.S. dealers sold about 8.8 million guns in the first six months of this year, a 16% drop from the same period in 2021 and a 21% drop from 2020, when a public health crisis and an election helped push sales to record levels, according to Small Arms Analytics & Forecasting.
Firearm sales are still well above pre-pandemic levels: Purchases in the first half of this year are up 33% from 2019 and up 27% from 2018, according to figures from Small Arms Analytics, which estimates gun sales using FBI background check data.
NEWS PEG
On Monday, six people were killed and two dozen were brought to hospitals in a shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, the latest U.S. mass shooting.
KEY BACKGROUND
Gun violence soared after Covid-19 reached the United States in early 2020. In the first year of the pandemic, the nationwide gun violence rate jumped 30% compared to the prior 12 months, one peer-reviewed study found last year. In the nation’s largest cities, homicides and other types of violent crime also jumped in 2020 and continued to rise last year, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association. Some researchers have blamed this jarring trend partly on the economic and psychological stresses wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Similarly, gun industry experts think firearm sales initially jumped in early 2020 because the pandemic caused many people to fear for their safety, and remained high through a summer of tense protests and a dramatic presidential race (gun sales often spike around elections, especially if gun enthusiasts think pro-gun control politicians will win).
WHAT WE DON’T KNOW
The exact relationship between violence and gun sales is unclear, though some research suggests places with more firearms tend to have more gun violence. Some gun control advocates warn spiking sales could mean more firearms are owned by inexperienced people who are unfamiliar with the risks. However, gun control opponents think the rise in violence has led to a jump in firearm sales, not the other way around, often pointing to statistics showing many crimes are committed with illegal guns that were initially sold years earlier.
TANGENT
A wave of high-profile mass shootings this year—including a supermarket shooting that killed 10 in Buffalo and a school shooting that killed 21 in Texas—spurred lawmakers to pass one of the most significant federal gun laws in decades last month. Signed by President Joe Biden, the bipartisan law boosts background checks for people ages 18 to 20, prevents convicted domestic abusers from buying firearms and encourages states to pass red-flag laws that let judges take away guns from people deemed a risk to themselves or others. The package falls well short of Democrats’ goals: It doesn’t ban assault weapons or high-capacity magazines, mandate background checks or raise the age to buy a semiautomatic rifle.
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The staggering scope of U.S. gun deaths goes far beyond mass shootings
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2022/gun-deaths-per-year-usa/?itid=hp-top-table-main
The spate of shooting attacks in communities such as Highland Park, Ill.; Uvalde, Tex.; and Buffalo has riveted attention on America’s staggering number of public mass killings. But the rising number of gun deaths in the United States extends beyond such high-profile episodes, emerging nearly every day inside homes, outside bars and on the streets of many cities, according to federal data.
The surge in gun violence comes as firearm purchases rose to record levels in 2020 and 2021, with more than 43 million guns estimated to have been purchased during that period, according to a Washington Post analysis of federal data on gun background checks. At the same time, the rate of gun deaths in those years hit the highest level since 1995, with more than 45,000 fatalities each year.
Guns account for most suicides and are almost entirely responsible for an overall rise in homicides across the country from 2018 to 2021, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Over the long holiday weekend, when seven people were killed and dozens wounded at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, numerous other fatal shootings played out across the country. In nearby Chicago, 10 people were killed and more than 60 wounded in a string of shootings over the weekend. One person was killed and four wounded in a shooting outside a Sacramento nightclub. Two people were shot to death at a home in Haltom City, Tex., and a neighbor and three police officers were injured. A man was fatally shot in Clinton, N.C.; hours later, six people, including two children, were injured in a separate shooting there.
There is not one clear answer as to what is driving the rise in bloodshed, experts said, but possible factors include the stress of the coronavirus pandemic, fraying ties between the police and the public, mounting anger, worsening mental strain and the sheer number of guns in America.
“You put all that into a pressure cooker,” said Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Miami, “and you let the pressure cooker blow up.”
Local leaders, law enforcement officials and anti-violence workers say they have seen a worrisome trend recently, in which disputes that would have previously led to fistfights instead escalated rapidly to gunfire.
“What we’re seeing is a different type of violence here in Pittsburgh,” said the Rev. Eileen Smith, executive director of the South Pittsburgh Coalition for Peace, a nonprofit that includes violence interrupters. “They’re not fighting, at least not outside of school. They’re killing.”
The ample access to guns plays a significant role, experts said. Americans are arming themselves in the face of deepening fears and divisions, frightening public incidents involving gunfire or violence, or simply because they know others may also have guns.
Data shows that gun sales increase in the wake of violence, political events and uncertainty. Large spikes occurred after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting; amid coronavirus shutdowns, racial justice protests and the presidential election in 2020; and after the Jan. 6, 2021, siege of the U.S. Capitol.
With an estimated 400 million guns in the country, a figure that eclipses the U.S. population, “there is a self-fulfilling prophecy of, ‘I need a gun because everyone else around me has a gun,’” said Sasha Cotton, director of the Minneapolis Office of Violence Prevention.
The agonizing frequency of nonfatal shootings and firearm deaths, experts said, has become a uniquely American phenomenon.
“Many other countries have disadvantaged folks who are angry and alienated,” said Richard Berk, a professor emeritus of criminology and statistics at the University of Pennsylvania. “But guns aren’t there.”
The massive toll of gun deaths
Mass killings, particularly those in which a gunman opens fire in a crowded public space, tend to draw much more attention than daily violence. But these shootings represent a fraction of gun violence overall, said Jillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University and co-founder of the Violence Project, which studies mass killers.
Defining a mass shooting as four or more people killed, Peterson said, such cases account for fewer than 1 percent of all people killed by firearms. They are “very rare, still, even though they’re increasing,” she said. But, Peterson said, it’s not an accident that they receive so much more attention.
“Mass shootings, by design, [are] meant to go viral in that sense. That’s the goal of them, is fame, is notoriety,” she said. And these public mass shootings have a “psychological impact” on people, instilling fear of going to the movies or a grocery store, she said.
Monday’s rampage in Illinois marked the 15th time this year that four or more people were killed in a shooting, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that maintains a database of incidents of gun violence.
The vast majority of gun deaths in America are either suicides or homicides, according to federal data, with accidental or undetermined gun deaths representing a small fraction of the overall share.
Two different demographic groups bear the brunt of escalating gun violence and are most likely to die of a gunshot wound in America: young Black men and older White men.
White men are six times as likely to die by suicide as other Americans. Black men are 17 times as likely to be killed with a gun fired by someone else.
About 60 percent of the gun deaths in the United States each year are suicides, according to CDC data spanning the past 20 years.
Firearms accounted for about 8 percent of suicide attempts but slightly more than 50 percent of the 47,511 suicide deaths in 2019, according to the American Association of Suicidology. Men are nearly four times as likely as women to succeed in a suicide attempt, mainly because they are much more likely to use a gun.
Of the 90,498 gun deaths in 2020 and 2021, 38,796 were homicides. Nearly 21,000 of those victims were Black men.
Cotton, in Minneapolis, said the higher homicide toll among Black people brought to mind the saying: When America gets a cold, Black America gets the flu.
“Of course it’s worse,” she said. “Covid was worse for us. Gun violence is worse for us. And the trickle-down effect will continue to be worse for us, until there’s equity in our systems and in our society.”
Data show gun deaths surged almost everywhere in America in 2020, “a very broad phenomenon” and one that “was almost as intense outside of metro areas as it was inside of metropolitan areas,” said Philip J. Cook, a Duke University professor emeritus of public policy and economics.
In 2020, while the overall crime rate nationwide fell, “that was not true for shootings,” Cook said. That year, he said, there was an “unparalleled” surge in people killed by firearms compared with 2019.
Some states, including New Jersey, have tightened gun laws in recent weeks, in response to recent shootings and a Supreme Court decision that expanded gun-carry rights outside the home. At the federal level, Congress last month approved, and President Biden signed, gun-control legislation that provides funding for mental health services and school security initiatives and expands criminal background checks for some gun buyers.
The surge is clear, but the reasons less so
Determining the precise number of guns sold in America each year is difficult. The data does not capture weapon sales from private sellers at gun shows or online marketplaces because the law does not require them to submit background checks. Firearm sales estimates are based on methodology applied to FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System data surveying handgun, long-gun and multiple-gun background checks leading to purchases.
There is little consensus as to why gun sales and deaths have jumped so much over the past two years. The only clear thing, Cook said, is that “the increase in homicide was almost entirely an increase in gun homicide.” Beyond that, it is difficult to parse all the things happening at once. Even the theories that have been floated about the rise in violence have weaknesses, experts said, adding that there is a lack of good research about what is driving the increase.
Some experts theorize that the pandemic helped drive the surge in killings. But gun deaths started rising in 2015 before spiking five years later, said Andrew Morral, a behavioral scientist at the Rand Corp. and leader of its Gun Policy in America initiative.
The rise in gun sales, he said, might also play a role. “But the real question in my mind is, is that the key driver? Does that explain a lot of the jump or a little of the jump?” he said. “And I don’t know.”
Homicide rates remained low for more than two decades before 2015, “even as the number of guns in circulation was increasing,” Morral said. If the gun sales drove the spike, why did that not happen over those decades?
Morral said one theory — claiming that police pulled back in response to racial justice protests and calls to cut funding in 2020 — has problems because the surge in violence happened across the board, in urban areas and rural ones, in blue cities and red. American policing is decentralized, with some 15,000 local departments and sheriff’s offices, most of them employing no more than two dozen officers.
Morral said there is some evidence of police pulling back, but that “making the link from de-policing to homicides is a big jump.” To grow “beyond anecdote,” he said, more research is needed.
“There’s certainly people who will claim it’s not mysterious and point at one thing or another,” said Berk, the University of Pennsylvania professor emeritus. “But I haven’t heard a coherent narrative which integrates all the pieces. And I’m not sure we’ll ever have one.”
Cook, the Duke University professor emeritus, said increased efforts to solve shootings could help get a handle on the surge in violence, even if its precise drivers are unknown. Police nationwide in 2020 “cleared” about half of all homicides, according to the FBI, which usually means that someone was arrested and charged or the case was closed another way, including the death of the attacker.
Solving more shootings, particularly nonfatal ones, “would interrupt the cycle of retaliation,” Cook said, and might improve local trust in the police. “That would be a productive use of money,” he said.
It is also difficult to determine exactly who will commit gun violence, though research shows that politicians and others may be focusing too much attention on one factor, particularly when it comes to mass shootings.
A persistent refrain
In the wake of mass shootings, politicians are often quick to invoke mental health.
“Anybody who shoots somebody else has a mental health challenge. Period,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said shortly after the Uvalde shooting in May.
But three decades of research has established that people with mental illness are responsible for just a small percentage of interpersonal and gun violence.
Numerous studies have reached the same conclusion: While people with illnesses such as schizophrenia have a somewhat greater risk of committing violent acts than other members of the public, and substance use increases that risk, the vast majority of people with mental illness never perpetrate violence. In fact, they are more likely to be victims of violence.
There is one major, well-established connection between mental illness and gun violence: suicide. A Rand report summarizing other studies found higher rates of suicide among people with mental health issues that included depression and schizophrenia.
It’s clear that many other factors are more closely associated with gun violence than mental illness. They include experiencing trauma and violence during childhood, being young and male, living in neighborhoods where violence is more prevalent, poor impulse control, poor anger control, and perhaps most of all, easy access to a firearm.
“To think we’re going to lower population-level violence rates by better treatment of mental illness, we’re not going to get there doing that,” said Daniel Webster, who studies gun violence policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Instead, he said, officials must help create environments where there is less trauma in the home, support families and strengthen services for children in schools.
In 1994, Duke University gun violence researcher Jeffrey W. Swanson calculated that if all active psychotic and mood disorders were eliminated overnight, interpersonal violence would be reduced by just 4 percent. In many other countries, guns are tightly restricted, but the United States has taken a different route, he said.
“We don’t have gun control as much as we have people control,” he said. “We try to figure out the people who are so dangerous that we have to limit their access to guns.”
The 1998 MacArthur Violence Risk Assessment Study, which followed 951 people who had been released from three psychiatric facilities, found that 23 committed 67 acts of interpersonal gun violence — a rate of 2 percent — in the next year. Just 19 of those acts, committed by nine people, were against strangers.
Research conducted in 2020 by a team led by Swanson found that among people in Florida with serious mental illnesses, including some who were committed to a psychiatric facility involuntarily or for a short-term emergency hold, 0.9 percent were arrested for a violent crime involving a gun within seven years — about the same rate as the general population.
Recent years have been brutal for Americans’ mental health, with the CDC finding that rates of anxiety and depression tripled nationwide. But there is no reason to believe that is responsible for rising gun violence over the past two years, said Jennifer Skeem, a clinical psychologist and professor of public policy and social welfare at the University of California at Berkeley.
The consistent invocations of mental health after massacres such as those in Buffalo, Uvalde and Highland Park are ways for officials to distance themselves from the horror of the event, to explain the unfathomable, Skeem said.
“It’s a tragedy that demands explanation, and the stigma of mental illness is something that fuels pseudo-explanations,” she said. “It’s a fake explanation. Why has this man done this terrible thing? The answer is because he’s mentally ill. How do you know he’s mentally ill? Because he’s done this terrible thing.”
The most common mass killings, Peterson said, are those that typically get the least public attention: household killings, in which someone kills their relatives and then themselves.
In that sense, those mass killings have something in common with most other gun violence in America — people tend to know their killers, according to FBI data.
“Commonly, the victim and the perpetrator know each other or know about each other,” Berk said. “They’re not total strangers. It makes it even more sad.”
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Pat Benatar won’t sing ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot’ after mass shootings
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/07/22/pat-benatar-mass-shootings-song/
The lyrics to Pat Benatar’s most famous song have taken on troubling new meaning to the rock star in the wake of unrelenting gun violence across the country — and she says she doesn’t care if fans are disappointed that she won’t be performing it.
“I’m not going to sing it. Tough,” Benatar told USA Today in an interview published Thursday.
Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” has become a staple in karaoke bars, sports stadiums and movies since it hit the airwaves in 1980. From there, the song about daring “a real tough cookie with a long history of breaking little hearts” to fire away has become synonymous with the decade known for its neon colors, glam metal bands and aerobics classes.
At its core, “it’s a song saying ‘no matter what you throw at me, I can handle it, I can play in your league,’ ” the song’s writer, Eddie Schwartz, has said. But even if the reference to guns is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, Benatar said, “you have to draw the line” — amid the spate of deadly shootings that have thrust the nation into collective grief.
Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot (1980)
“I can’t say those words out loud with a smile on my face, I just can’t,” Benatar told USA Today.
So far this year, there hasn’t been a single week in the United States without a mass shooting. In fact, as of July 4, there hadn’t been a week without at least four mass shootings.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines mass shootings as killing or injuring at least four victims, the country has been rocked by 357 in 2022 — including those in Uvalde, Tex., one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, and in Highland Park, Ill., where Fourth of July parade spectators were attacked.
At this rate, the pace is comparable to last year’s, which was marked by nearly 700 mass shootings — a significant uptick from the 611 in 2020 and the 417 in 2019. At least 371 people have been killed so far this year in those mass shootings, and 1,557 more have been injured, according to Gun Violence Archive data.
For Benatar, it’s thinking of those victims’ families that has stopped her from singing “Hit Me With Your Best Shot,” she told USA Today. But it’s also “my small contribution to protesting,” she told the outlet.
The soon-to-be Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee isn’t the only celebrity bringing awareness to the epidemic of gun violence. Hours after the Uvalde shooting, Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr implored senators to put “the lives of our children, our elderly and our churchgoers” ahead of their own desire for power. Days later, actor Matthew McConaughey made an impassioned plea for action from the White House briefing room, at one point showing a pair of green Converse sneakers that belonged to a 10-year-old victim.
And Florida Gators quarterback Anthony Richardson announced this week that he will no longer use the nickname “AR-15” — based on his initials and jersey number — because of its association to the semiautomatic rifle used in a slew of shootings.
Fans, however, don’t seem too pleased with Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” boycott. They “are having a heart attack” that it won’t be included in set lists with her other power ballads, like “We Belong” and “Heartbreaker,” the singer told USA Today.
Schwartz, the songwriter, first recorded “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” on a four-track demo when he was in his mid-20s. The music publishing company “hated it” and ended up erasing the recordings, Schwartz told Songfacts. However, one engineer saved a copy of the demo for Schwartz, who sent it to another producer.
“And sure enough, he liked it, and he kept playing it over and over again,” Schwartz told Songfacts. “And the story I heard — I wasn’t there — was Pat Benatar took a meeting in the office next door and heard it through the wall, got excited about it.”
A year later, Benatar’s version of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was her first top-10 hit.
Since then, the song has cemented its status as a classic, and fans expect to hear it at her shows. But Benatar is giving them something different on this tour — she’s playing the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter,” which, curiously enough, is also associated with a violent episode in American history: the Charles Manson murders of 1969.
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Companies made more than $1B selling powerful guns to civilians, report says
House oversight committee accused gun manufacturers of “manipulative marketing campaigns” and profiting off violence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/07/27/companies-made-more-than-1b-selling-powerful-guns-civilians-report-says/
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Five gun companies made more than $1 billion over the last decade selling powerful “military-style assault weapons to civilians,” with their revenue surging amid an increase in firearm violence nationwide, a House committee reported on Wednesday.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform assailed the gun companies, saying they deployed “manipulative marketing campaigns” that sought to connect masculinity with purchasing rifles. Some of the gun manufacturers have seen revenue more than double or triple in recent years, the committee said.
“The gun industry has flooded our neighborhoods, our schools and even our churches and synagogues with these deadly weapons, and has gotten rich doing it,” House Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said during a hearing on the issue Wednesday.
The committee, which said it had studied manufacturers that sold AR-15-style weapons used in mass killings, released its findings after a string of such shootings, including this year in Highland Park, Ill.; Uvalde, Tex.; and Buffalo. Mass killings account for a small share of overall gun violence in the United States; both have increased in recent years.
Appearing before the committee on Capitol Hill, chief executives from two of the companies defended their products as well as ownership of such powerful rifles. The core issue, they said, was not the guns themselves, but the people who might use them to inflict mass carnage.
“Mass shootings were all but unheard of just a few decades ago,” said Marty Daniel, chief executive of Daniel Defense, the gunmaker that produced the weapons used in the Uvalde elementary school massacre, which killed 19 children and two teachers, and a deadly attack in Las Vegas in 2017 that killed 60 people. “So what changed? Not the firearms.”
“I believe our nation’s response needs to focus not on the type of gun, but on the type of persons who are likely to commit mass shootings,” Daniel said. He called the massacres in Uvalde, Buffalo and Highland Park “pure evil” and “unfathomable.”
The other companies named in the report were Bushmaster, Sig Sauer, Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. Christopher Killoy, president and chief executive of Ruger, also appeared at the hearing Wednesday, and he acknowledged “tension between our constitutional right to own firearms and the harm inflicted by criminals who acquire them.”
But, he said, the latter should not prevent people from exercising the former.
“We firmly believe that it is wrong to deprive citizens of their constitutional right to purchase the lawful firearm they desire because of the criminal acts of wicked people,” Killoy said. “A firearm, any firearm, can be used for good or for evil. The difference is in the intent of the individual possessing it, which we respectfully submit should be the focus of any investigation into the root causes of criminal violence involving firearms.”
Deadly gun violence has surged across the country, with fatal shootings nationwide spiking in 2020 and 2021 to the highest levels in a quarter-century. At the same time, Americans have bought a flood of new guns, with more than 43 million firearms purchased over those years, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Even as the testimony was unfolding in Washington, communities across the country were still confronting the aftermath of recent mass shootings. The gunman accused of opening fire in Highland Park earlier this month, killing seven people during an Independence Day parade, was indicted Wednesday on 117 counts by a grand jury, including charges of first-degree murder, attempted murder and aggravated battery.
And in South Florida, a jury continued to hear testimony in a trial meant to determine whether a gunman who killed 17 people in a Parkland, Fla., high school in 2018 should be sentenced to death.
The House committee launched its investigation into gun manufacturers in May, following the back-to-back killings in Uvalde and Buffalo, which galvanized enough public response to fuel the passage of modest gun-control legislation for the first time in decades.
Maloney pointed to the committee’s findings in criticizing the gun companies for how they promoted guns, which she said “includes marketing to children, preying on young men’s insecurities and even appealing to violent white supremacists.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the committee’s ranking Republican, spoke skeptically of laws that limit firearms ownership and pushed back on criticism of the gun companies.
“Gun manufacturers do not cause violent crime,” he said. “Criminals cause violent crime.”
Gun companies, he said, sell firearms to people “allowed to exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms for their protection and other lawful purposes.”
But others have tried. In 2018, a group of investors in Ruger pushed the company to report on the violence associated with its guns. The board of directors objected. But a majority of shareholders — led by a group of nuns, and supported by Ruger’s largest investor at the time, the asset firm Blackrock — passed the proposal. The vote occurred just a few months after the Parkland massacre.
The following year, Ruger grudgingly produced the report, which was criticized by activists for failing to produce adequate details. The company said monitoring the criminal use of its products “is not feasible.” In June, a majority of shareholders approved a new resolution asking the company to study the deadliness of its products and impact on human rights.
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Gunman kills 5 at LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs before patrons confront and stop him, police say
https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/20/us/colorado-springs-shooting-gay-nightclub
A 22-year-old gunman entered an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, just before midnight Saturday and immediately opened fire, killing at least five people and injuring 25 others, before patrons confronted and stopped him, police said Sunday.
The suspect in the shooting at Club Q was identified as Anderson Lee Aldrich, according to Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez. He used a long rifle in the shooting, and two firearms were found at the scene, Vasquez said.
At least two people inside the club confronted and fought the gunman and prevented further violence, Vasquez said. “We owe them a great debt of thanks,” he said.
Police said they were investigating whether the attack was a hate crime and noted Club Q’s relationship with the LGBTQ community.
“Club Q is a safe haven for our LGBTQ citizens,” Vasquez said. “Every citizen has a right to feel safe and secure in our city, to go about our beautiful city without fear of being harmed or treated poorly.”
In a statement on social media, Club Q said it was “devastated by the senseless attack on our community” and thanked “the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.”
Club Q posted earlier in the day that its Saturday night lineup would feature a punk and alternative show at 9 p.m. followed by a dance party at 11. The club also planned to hold a drag brunch and a drag show on Sunday for Transgender Day of Remembrance. The club’s website now says it will be closed until further notice.
Gov. Jared Polis ordered flags lowered to half-staff at all public buildings statewide to honor the victims of the mass shooting beginning Monday until Saturday, according to a news release from his office.
“Flags will be lowered for 5 days to remember each of the 5 individuals who lost their lives in this senseless tragedy,” the release read. “To further honor and remember the victims and those injured in this tragedy, the Polis-Primavera administration will also be flying the Pride flag at the Colorado state capitol for the next five days.”
The shooting came as the calendar turned to Transgender Day of Remembrance on Sunday and is reminiscent of the 2016 attack at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in which a gunman who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State killed 49 people and wounded at least 53.
Colorado has been the site of some of the most heinous mass shootings in US history, including the 1999 shooting in Columbine High School and the 2012 movie theater shooting in Aurora. Colorado Springs was the site of mass shootings at a Planned Parenthood in November 2015 that left three dead and at a birthday party last year that left six dead.
According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 600 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, defined as an incident in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
Joshua Thurman told CNN affiliate KOAA he was inside the club dancing when he heard gunshots and saw a muzzle flash.
“I thought it was the music, so I kept dancing,” he said. “Then I heard another set of shots, and then me and a customer ran to the dressing room, got on the ground and locked the doors and called the police immediately.”
Thurman said he heard the sounds of more gunshots, people crying and windows being shattered. When he came out, he saw bodies lying on the ground, broken glass and blood, he said.
The violence lasted just minutes. Police received numerous 911 calls starting at 11:56 p.m., officers were dispatched at 11:57 p.m., an officer arrived at midnight and the suspect was detained at 12:02 a.m., police said. A total of 39 patrol officers responded, police said, and Fire Department Captain Mike Smaldino said 11 ambulances went to the scene.
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Authorities initially said 18 people were injured but later adjusted that total up to 25. Nineteen of the 25 injured had gunshot wounds, Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers told CNN’s Jim Acosta Sunday. Based on communication with medical personnel, Suthers said he expects the injured victims to survive and the community is “crossing our fingers” for no more fatalities.
Joseph Sheldon told CNN affiliate KRDO he visited the club Saturday night to drop off a friend about 10 minutes before the gunman opened fire.
“This is a bar I’ve gone to multiple times in my life since I became the age of 18. A lot of these people at the bar are friends, they are family, a lot are people I’ve become close to,” he said.
“Whether it’s a hate crime or not, it’s hard to see that this is going on, that this happened in my community, that this happened at a place that I’ve gone to and felt safe, that this happened at a place where if I stayed 10 more minutes, I would have been right in the middle of it.”
The suspect is being treated at a hospital, police added. Officers did not shoot at him, police said.
Colorado Springs, the state’s second-most populous city with just under 500,000 residents, is home to a number of military bases and is the headquarters for Focus on the Family, the conservative Christian group that says homosexuality and same-sex marriage are sins.
Club Q opened in 2002 and was, until recently, the only LGBTQ club in the city.
“Proudly queer Club Q has stood as a bastion of the LGBTQ community where others have fallen,” 5280 magazine reported in a story last year. “It’s where LGBTQ folks go for drag performances, dance parties, and drinks, and it supports the community with event sponsorships, pride celebrations, charity drives, and more. While the club has recently shifted to offering more low-key ‘dinner and a show’ vibes before 10 p.m., it’s still known as the place for queer young adults to go and get their dance on.”
In a July 2020 interview with Colorado Springs Indy, Club Q owner Nic Grzecka explained why he and his business partner opened the establishment.
“The whole idea of this place (Club Q) is to have a safe place – to get a permanent one in the city,” Grzecka said.
He and his business partner toured other successful LGBTQ spaces and noted a common theme: “They were gay as hell,” Grzecka told the outlet. “They had go-go dancers and drag queens and bartenders in jockstraps. We knew we had to be gay as hell (to survive).”
The venue also hosts events for people of all ages, including brunch and planned an upcoming Thanksgiving event.
Lifelong Colorado Springs resident Tiana Nicole Dykes called Club Q “a second home full of chosen family.”
“I’m there every other week if not every single week. This space means the world to me. The energy, the people, the message. It’s an amazing place that didn’t deserve this tragedy,” Dykes told CNN on Sunday. “Something like a mass shooting at an LGBT+ safe space is damaging beyond belief. There’s feelings of disrespect, disbelief, and just pure shock. Nobody ever thinks it’s gonna happen to them, and sometimes it does.”
Tim Curran, a copy editor for CNN’s “Early Start,” is a regular at Club Q with his boyfriend when he visits his family in Colorado Springs.
“It’s a very warm, welcoming space, definitely a big step up for diversity in the Springs,” Curran told CNN.
Jewels Parks, who has been in the Colorado drag scene for over a year and performs under the drag name Dezzy Dazzles, said Club Q was a community, a family and a space where the outside world’s cruelty was not welcome.
“Club Q, along with all of the other LGBTQIA+ bars, represent a safe space for a community that has felt unsafe and rejected for most of their lives,” Parks told CNN. “In a world that can be so dark and so angry, it’s that one place that feels like home. We’re able to unwind, forget about our troubles with work, family, society. Because of Club Q, we’re able to make friends that turn into family and be accepted for our true selves.”
“The LGBTQIA+ community has undergone so much bigotry and hatred already. To have our safe place ripped from us and to lose members of our community is a whole other type of hurt,” Parks added.
Antonio Taylor, a drag queen who was born and raised in Colorado Springs, told CNN they discovered Club Q in 2020, when they saw their first drag show. Taylor, who recently came out as bisexual, said a whole new world opened up for them – a world where they were not only safe, but truly loved.
“The people there made me feel like I was a part of a family. Seeing so many people out and proud about themselves definitely influenced me to be my true self,” Taylor told CNN, adding that Club Q and its community helped them feel ready to come out.
“This was one of the places where I didn’t have to worry about looks or people hating me for who I am,” they said. “I’m sick to my stomach that the one place where I knew I was safe has been made unsafe.”
Shenika Mosley, a 14-year patron of Club Q, said the shooting took away the nightclub’s “good energy.”
Mosley has frequented Club Q since 2009 and would find herself on its doorstep “anytime I wanted to get away and go have fun. It just had good energy … never bad energy. We’ll never be able to have that ever again.”
Lily Forsell had a similar sentiment, saying she had been celebrating her 18th birthday at the club and left just before shots rang out. She said she remembers the scene on the dance floor as she was leaving: dozens of people laughing, singing and dancing.
“Looking at that dance floor is going to be a completely different feeling, now that we know what happened to 30 people on that floor,” Forsell told CNN. “I keep all of the drag queens in my heart. They made it out safely, but two of them, who I had first met last night, had to walk out of the building past the horrific scene, their friends injured or killed on the ground.”
Aldrich was arrested in June 2021 in connection with a bomb threat that led to a standoff at his mother’s home, according to a news release from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office at the time and his mother’s former landlord.
Two law enforcement sources confirmed the suspect in the nightclub shooting and the bomb threat were the same person based on name and date of birth.
Video obtained by CNN shows Aldrich surrendering to law enforcement last year after allegedly making a bomb threat. Footage from the Ring door camera of the owner of the home shows Aldrich exiting the house with his hands up and barefoot, and walking to sheriff’s deputies.
Aldrich was arrested that month on charges of felony menacing and first-degree kidnapping, according to the El Paso release.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to a report by the man’s mother that he was “threatening to cause harm to her with a homemade bomb, multiple weapons, and ammunition,” according to the release. Deputies called the suspect, and he “refused to comply with orders to surrender,” the release said, leading them to evacuate nearby homes.
Several hours after the initial police call, the sheriff’s crisis negotiations unit was able to get Aldrich to leave the house, and he was arrested after walking out the front door. Authorities did not find any explosives in the home.
Leslie Bowman, who owns the house where Aldrich’s mother lived, provided CNN the videos. Bowman said Aldrich’s mother rented a room in the house for a little over a year. Aldrich would “come by and visit his mom and hang out in her room,” Bowman said. She described Aldrich as “not very sociable.”
One time, Bowman said, Aldrich got angry at her during an argument about a bathroom toilet not working, and slammed a door in her face.
“That was the only time he was aggressive or angry towards me,” she said.
Attempts by CNN to reach Aldrich’s mother for comment were unsuccessful.
It was not immediately clear how the bomb threat case was resolved, but the Colorado Springs Gazette reported that the district attorney’s office said no formal charges were pursued in the case. The district attorney’s office did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.
Aldrich also called the Gazette in an attempt to get an earlier story about the 2021 incident removed from the website, the newspaper reported. “There is absolutely nothing there, the case was dropped, and I’m asking you either remove or update the story,” Aldrich said in a voice message, according to the Gazette.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat and the nation’s first openly gay governor, issued a statement Sunday calling the attack “horrific, sickening and devastating” and offered state resources to local law enforcement.
“We are eternally grateful for the brave individuals who blocked the gunman likely saving lives in the process and for the first responders who responded swiftly to this horrific shooting,” he said. “Colorado stands with our LGTBQ community and everyone impacted by this tragedy as we mourn together.”
Polis told CNN’s Jim Acosta there are only two gay bars in Colorado Springs, and Club Q was one of the main venues.
“Everyone knew it. I knew it, knew this venue. It’s just shocking. That’s still setting in for people. But I know we’re going to bounce back. We’re showing love for one another. We’re showing healing for one another,” the governor said.
Colorado’s two US senators, both Democrats, offered condolences in statements and said more should be done for the LGBTQ community.
“We have to protect LGBTQ lives from this hate,” Sen. John Hickenlooper said.
“As we seek justice for this unimaginable act, we must do more to protect the LGBTQ community and stand firm against discrimination and hate in every form,” Sen. Michael Bennett said.
President Joe Biden also issued a statement saying he was praying for the victims and their families.
“While no motive in this attack is yet clear, we know that the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years. Gun violence continues to have a devastating and particular impact on LGBTQI+ communities across our nation and threats of violence are increasing,” Biden said in the written statement.
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Gunman who killed 6 at Virginia Walmart was store employee, police say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/11/23/walmart-shooting-chesapeake-virginia/
Police responded to a shooting late on Nov. 22 at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., where several people were reported dead and injured. (Video: Storyful)
The shooter who opened fire late Tuesday at a Walmart in the Tidewater area of Virginia was an employee of the store, Chesapeake Police said at a news conference Wednesday.
Six victims died in the attack, along with the shooter. Four others are injured and at local hospitals, though police said they had no information on their conditions. Police said the gunman used a pistol in the rampage and apparently died of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound.” They did not immediately name him pending notification of next of kin.
It remains unclear how many people were in the store at the time of the incident, which came less than two days before Thanksgiving. Walmart said on Twitter early Wednesday that it was working closely with law enforcement and “focused on supporting our associates.” The store will remain closed as the investigation continues, police said.
As people in Virginia wake up to the news that six people were killed in a Tuesday night attack at a Walmart in Chesapeake, officials are expressing sorrow and praising the response by law enforcement.
“Our hearts break with the community of Chesapeake this morning,” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said. “I remain in contact with law enforcement officials throughout this morning and have made available any resources as this investigation moves forward. Heinous acts of violence have no place in our communities.”
The mayor of Chesapeake, Va., Richard W. “Rick” West, said in a statement early Wednesday that he is “devastated by the senseless act of violence that took place late last night in our City.”
“Chesapeake is a tightknit community and we are all shaken by this news,” West said in a statement shared on social media by the city government. He thanked the first responders “who rushed to the scene” of the Walmart where a gunman opened fire Tuesday night, killing six people.
The shooter who killed six people and injured four others inside a Walmart using a pistol was an employee of the store, officials said Wednesday at a news conference. He apparently died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, they said.
The incident unfolded just after 10 p.m. Tuesday. Officials said the store was secured after officers spent about 30 to 40 minutes searching for anyone who was hurt.
They said the store would remain closed for several days during the investigation.
Chesapeake City Manager Chris Price said at the news conference, “I’m devastated by the senseless act of violence that took place last night in our city.”
Tuesday’s attack in Chesapeake, Va., brings the number of mass shootings in the United States in the past week alone to seven, figures from the Gun Violence Archive show.
According to the database — which classifies a mass shooting as an attack in which at least four people are injured or killed, not including the perpetrator — there have been seven mass shootings since Nov. 18, all but one of them involving fatalities. At least three dozen people were wounded in those attacks.
The figures include the five people killed in a shooting at an LGBTQ bar in Colorado Springs over the weekend.
Six people, and the shooter, are dead as of Wednesday morning, Leo Kosinski, a spokesman for the Chesapeake Police Department told The Washington Post.
Kosinski said the number and names of of those injured were not yet known and it was not immediately clear how many people were inside the Walmart store during the shooting.
Tuesday’s shooting inside a Walmart at Sam’s Circle in Chesapeake, Va., is the latest in a string of deadly attacks on supermarkets across the United States in recent years.
In June, 10 people were killed and three were injured during a shooting at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo. The victims ranged in age from 32 to 86, and 11 of the 13 people shot were Black.
While some of the shootings have unfolded at smaller markets and convenience stores, bigger chains such as Walmart and Kroger have experienced multiple shootings at their locations since 2018. In March 2021, a gunman killed 10 people at a King Soopers outlet, owned by Kroger, in Boulder, Colo.
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After more than 600 mass shootings this year, let’s be honest about guns
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/27/colorado-springs-chesapeake-shootings-gun-laws/
The mass shootings that plague this nation are a uniquely American jumble of contradictions. Each new one horrifies, and yet fits into a depressingly familiar pattern. Communities count the dead — nearly 50 so far in November — and tally the gruesome details. The country vows to honor the lives cut short. And then it all fades from the headlines and people move on, leaving behind thoughts and prayers but no concrete policies to stop the next bloodbath.
The United States has averaged nearly two mass shootings a day this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks when four or more people are shot. To put that another way, it’s now unusual to have a day without a mass shooting. “We aren’t numb — we’re traumatized,” tweeted Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, which has been urging action to stop gun violence in America since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six staff a decade ago.
It can happen anywhere, to anyone. Fourteen Americans mowed down this month at the University of Virginia, Club Q in Colorado Springs and a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., were doing normal activities of daily life — going to school, enjoying a performance, working. They leave behind grieving loved ones, who ask: Why?
In each case, as usually happens, there were warning signs missed — or ignored. The chilling note the Walmart shooter left in his phone railing against his co-workers and claiming his phone was hacked suggests he was a deeply disturbed 31-year-old. And yet, he was able to buy a pistol just hours before he massacred six fellow employees in a break room. In Colorado Springs, a 22-year-old suspect who had been arrested last year for an alleged bomb threat, but never prosecuted, was not prevented from obtaining an AR-15-style weapon and a handgun. It’s eerily similar in the University of Virginia shooting: The 22-year-old suspect had multiple prior run-ins with the law, including a 2021 conviction for possessing a concealed firearm without a license.
Too often these tragedies are written off to individual cases of mental illness. That does not explain why the United States has had more than 600 mass shootings every year since 2020 and why no other country has anything close to this level of gun violence. We must confront the truth about guns in America and why it is so easy for practically anyone to get them — including some that are weapons of war.
The fact that no single action will stop all mass shootings is no excuse not to do things that could prevent some of them or lower the toll when they happen. President Biden is right to call for another nationwide assault weapons ban, which he helped enact for 10 years when he was a senator in 1994. Poll after poll show wide support for stricter gun laws. The House passed the ban in July, but the Senate has yet to act.
Earlier this year, Democrats and some Republicans worked together to pass a gun safety bill as the nation mourned the 19 elementary school students and two teachers who died from a horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, Tex. The new law included more funding for mental health services and school safety, expanded background checks on 18- to 21-year-olds trying to buy guns, and more funding for programs that help seize guns from troubled individuals. It was a start, but lawmakers cannot stop there.
The U.S. Congress is not the only place where action is needed. When Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) was asked whether he would support tighter restrictions on guns after two mass shootings occurred in his state this month, he replied: “Today’s not the time.” So when is the right time?
In 2020 and 2021, with Democrats controlling both the legislature and the governorship, Virginia passed modestly enhanced gun control laws. The changes included sensible reforms: Universal background checks, a three-year ban on firearm possession for people convicted of assaulting a family member and a red-flag law that gives authorities the ability to seize weapons from people considered a threat. Clearly, it wasn’t enough.
The spate of gun violence has erupted even as the Supreme Court has limited the tools that government at all levels can use to address the problem. The court’s June ruling, striking down a New York state law that limited concealed carry permits, instructed lower courts to find gun laws unconstitutional unless proponents could point to a historical analogue — in other words, show that regulations are based on or similar to ones that existed in the past. This is an unnecessary and unworkable standard that is making its way through the lower courts, with predictably dreary results. The court should make clear that its focus on history does not need to be applied with monomaniacal precision.
Army veteran Richard M. Fierro is rightly being called a hero for tackling the gunman at Club Q in Colorado Springs and preventing the death count from climbing even higher. But it’s chilling to hear him describe how events that night looked similar to what he saw in Iraq and Afghanistan. How his combat training kicked in after he saw the shooter’s weapon and body armor. His daughter’s boyfriend was one of the victims. “Everybody in that building experienced combat that night,” Fierro said. It took only three days for another war-zone scene to arise, this time at a Walmart.
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10 dead in shooting in Monterey Park, Calif.; gunman on the run
At least 10 others taken to hospitals in various conditions in Monterey Park incident
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/22/monterey-park-california-shooting/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f001
A shooter was at large Sunday after killing at least 10 people the previous night in Monterey Park, a suburb east of downtown Los Angeles, shortly after Lunar New Year festivities ended nearby, officials said.
At least 10 other people were taken to hospitals in various conditions after the shooting at a “ballroom dance location,” Capt. Andrew Meyer of the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department told reporters. The sheriff’s department described the shooter as an Asian man between age 30 and 50 but did not provide a name or any other information.
The gunman’s motive was not clear. Sheriff Robert Luna said investigators did not yet know whether the killings were connected to the nearby Lunar New Year celebration.
“Everything’s on the table,” he said at a news conference. “We don’t know if this is specifically a hate crime, defined by law. But who walks into a dance hall and guns down 20 people?”
Here’s what to know
The 10 victims — five men and five women — were pronounced dead at the scene and were “probably” all of Asian descent, Luna said. He said investigators have not yet identified the victims and did not know their ages.
The shooting occurred about 10:20 p.m., a little over an hour after the Lunar New Year event was scheduled to end, Meyer said. The second day of the festival has been canceled, the city of Monterey Park announced Sunday.
Officials said an incident that took place in the neighboring city of Alhambra minutes after the Monterey Park shooting may be related. In Alhambra, an Asian man walked into a dance hall with a gun before people wrestled the weapon away from him, authorities said.
A business known as Star Ballroom Dance Studio is located at the same address as the one identified by Monterey Park as the scene of the mass killing, but officials have not confirmed whether this is where the shooting occurred.
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7 dead in Half Moon Bay as California confronts another mass killing
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/01/23/half-moon-bay-shooting-california-suspect-farm/
HALF MOON BAY, Calif. — Seven people were killed and one was critically injured in related shootings at two locations around this coastal city, San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said. The shooting was California’s second mass killing in three days, after the weekend massacre at a dance studio in Monterey Park that left at least 11 people dead.
Police arrested 67-year-old Zhao Chunli of Half Moon Bay at about 4:40 p.m. Monday, shortly after finding him in his vehicle at the parking lot of a San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office substation. Zhao is believed to have acted alone in the shootings, Corpus said.
Both sites are plant nurseries, including a mushroom farm, in a rural area, Corpus said, and Zhao is believed to be a worker at one of the locations. Corpus said the victims, who are still being identified by a coroner, are also believed to be farmworkers in Half Moon Bay, which is about a 40-minute drive from San Francisco and has a population of fewer than 11,400 people.
Here’s what to know
A news conference is scheduled for 9:15 a.m. Pacific time, a detective with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office told The Post.
Four victims were found dead in the 12700 block of San Mateo Road, and three more were later discovered at a second site in the 2100 block of Cabrillo Highway South, Corpus said.
One victim was being treated for life-threatening injuries at Stanford Medical Center, according to Corpus. The hospital did not immediately respond to a request for a status update Tuesday morning.
‘No past knowledge’ of alleged gunman at farm where second shooting occurred
Concord Farms, the site of the second of two shootings Monday around Half Moon Bay, Calif., where multiple people were killed, had “no past knowledge” of the alleged gunman or his possible motives, a spokesman for the farm said.
“We are shook and very eager to gain more information from the authorities and their investigations. Our hearts are with the victims, their families and the Chinese American community — from Half Moon Bay to Monterey Park,” Aaron Tung, principal at Concord Farms, said in an emailed statement.
A law enforcement officer confirmed to The Washington Post that Concord Farms was one of the shooting sites. It is on Cabrillo Highway South, a street where San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus said three victims were found dead Monday afternoon. That discovery came shortly after five people — four dead and one critically injured — were found shot at another farm about three miles north.
Concord Farms is a family-owned and operated mushroom farm that has operated at the Half Moon Bay location for nearly four decades. According to its website, Concord Farms is “one of the largest growers and importers of gourmet mushrooms, supporting the growing popularity of mushrooms and various specialty vegetables in restaurants and on dinner tables across the country.”
“Half Moon Bay’s climate provides an optimal environment for growing mushrooms, helping us keep consistent standards of quality while lowering overall production costs and energy usage,” the farm says on its website.
Tung, who declined to answer additional questions because of the limited information available at this point, told The Post that the farm is appreciative of all the support it has received since the shooting.
“For certain, we thank the outpouring of thoughts and support from the community,” he said. “We thank law enforcement for their swift response and actions.”
Half Moon Bay massacre is California’s third mass shooting in three days
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California has grappled with three mass shootings in three days that have left at least 19 people dead.
Around the tranquil coastal town of Half Moon Bay, a pair of related shootings at two locations Monday killed seven people and left one person critically injured.
On the opposite side of the San Francisco Bay, in Oakland, police said one person was killed and seven others injured in a “shooting between several individuals” Monday night, with homicide investigators taking over the investigation.
And just outside Los Angeles, a gunman killed 11 people at a dance studio in Monterey Park on Saturday.
In Oakland, police said one person was killed and seven others injured in a “shooting between several individuals” on Monday night, with homicide investigators taking over the ongoing investigation.
The Oakland incident was listed in the database of 2023 mass shootings by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organization, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter. Already, the group has counted 39 mass shootings in the United States in just the first month of 2023 — including the latest three in California.
There is no universal definition of “mass killing” or “mass shooting.” Last year, The Washington Post began defining a mass killing as an event in which four or more people, not including the shooter, have been killed by gunfire.
“Tragedy upon tragedy,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) tweeted. He said he was at a hospital with victims of Saturday’s mass killing in Monterey Park when he was pulled away for a briefing about Half Moon Bay.
California State Assembly member Marc Berman said he was at a vigil for the Monterey Park victims just hours before hearing of victims in Half Moon Bay. “Before we’ve even had a chance to mourn them, there is yet another mass shooting.”
These communities join a mounting list of American cities and towns reeling from shooting rampages in schools, grocery stores, houses of worship, nightclubs and other shared spaces around the country.
The carnage in Monterey Park shook a largely Asian community just as Lunar New Year celebrations were beginning. The Los Angeles County sheriff identified the suspect, a 72-year-old man of Asian descent, and said the motive remained unclear.
A motive also remains unknown in the Northern California town of Half Moon Bay, where police said they arrested a suspect and recovered a semiautomatic handgun after finding victims at two farms.
That rampage, in San Mateo County, was also the second mass shooting in the Bay Area on Monday alone. The Oakland police statement said late Monday that the wounded victims there appeared to be in stable condition.
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What we know about the MSU shooter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/02/14/msu-shooter-anthony-mcrae/
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This combination of images from surveillance video provided by Michigan State University Police and Public Safety show the suspect in the shootings at the university late Monday in East Lansing, Mich. (MSU Police and Public Safety via Associated Press)
The gunman who targeted two buildings at Michigan State University on Monday night, killing three students and critically wounding five, was previously arrested for carrying a loaded firearm without a concealed-weapons permit in 2019 but served no prison time.
Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, was not affiliated with the university in any way before Monday’s shooting, Chris Rozman, MSU’s interim deputy police chief, said in a news conference. Authorities are still working to determine McRae’s motive.
Five of the wounded students remain in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital, and some of them have undergone surgery, hospital spokesman John Foren said Tuesday.
Text messages told MSU students to ‘Run, Hide, Fight’ as shooting began
Rozman said Tuesday that authorities were trying to determine where McRae was living. Public records show he had lived on East Howe Avenue in Lansing since November 2017. Authorities said in the news conference that there was a police presence at Creston Avenue and East Howe Avenue, but they did not confirm whether this address was connected to the shooter.
At the time of the incident Monday night, McRae was wearing dark trousers, red shoes and a denim jacket. Much of his face was shielded — an item of clothing pulled up past his lips and a baseball cap pulled low. Police shared images of him on social media and said it was a citizen’s tip that led police to McRae.
McRae later shot and killed himself, and his body was found by officers off campus, police said.
MSU shooting live updates: Tip led police to gunman; all 3 killed were MSU students
Corrections records obtained by The Washington Post on Tuesday show that McRae was previously arrested on a weapons charge. On June 7, 2019, he was questioned by police when he was spotted near an abandoned building after leaving a Lansing store at 1:30 a.m., according to the Michigan Department of Corrections. McRae admitted to police that he had a gun but did not have a concealed-weapons permit, records show.
“He claimed he left home to walk to a store buy cigarettes and feared for his safety, so he took his gun,” Chris Gautz, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections, said in a statement to The Post.
McRae was arrested and pleaded guilty to possession of a loaded firearm. But he never served time in prison, records show. He was sentenced to 18 months’ probation on Oct. 24, 2019, and was discharged on May 14, 2021, according to the agency.
“He did not have any issues while on probation and never had a positive drug test,” Gautz said.
McRae also faced four counts of driving on a suspended license between 2006 and 2008, all of the violations occurring in Lansing or Eaton County, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
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Nashville school shooter who killed 6 was former student, authorities say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/03/27/nashville-shooting-covenant-school/
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Children run past an ambulance near Covenant School in Nashville after a shooting there March 27. (WKRN-TV/Reuters)
NASHVILLE — A 28-year old woman armed with two rifles and a handgun killed at least three children and three adults at a private Nashville grade school where she was previously a student, authorities said Monday. The shooter is also dead after being “engaged” by police.
Monday’s mass killing is unusual in several respects: It occurred at a private school, the school serves elementary school-age students, and the suspected assailant was a woman.
Nashville police on Monday identified the six victims in the Covenant School shooting as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney, all 9, and Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.
“Our schools should be places of comfort and safety where children come to learn, not worry about getting shot,” U.S. Conference of Mayors chief executive Tom Cochran said in a statement Monday. He implored federal lawmakers to pass gun safety legislation to prevent “senseless slaughter,” adding that local ordinances are “often preempted by state legislatures.”
Christian schools have long understood that they could be victims of a mass shooting, but also have felt a sense of protection due to the culture of their communities, a leader in the Christian school community said Monday.
The shooting Monday at the Covenant School in Nashville was a rare instance of a shooting at a Christian school. Only 6 percent of all school shootings have been at private schools of any type since 1999, according to Washington Post tracking.
It was not known what security measures were in place at the school. A spokesman for the Nashville police said the shooter entered the school through a side entrance and killed multiple victims as she moved from the first floor to the second. He said authorities were working to determine exactly what happened.
Most Christian schools have tried to harden their campuses, for instance by funneling visitors through one locked central entrance, said Jeff Walton, executive director of the American Association of Christian Schools, which has about 700 member schools. He said that where it is legal, many schools have staff members who carry weapons on school grounds. And he said the topic of school security is on the agenda at every conference he attends.
But Walton also said parents and school administrators have felt a sense of security in the belief that they were not likely to be victims of the sort of violence that occurred Monday.
“There are really, really deep cultural divides and cultural issues in American culture — kids who feel worthless and kids who feel that their life hasn’t got purpose or meaning, kids who feel unvalued, and adults who feel the same way,” he said. “And one of the things offered in Christian education is that in Christ, your life has purpose and you are a person who has value and you are loved. … All of those things help to create a culture in our schools — it’s not perfect by a long ways — but a culture that is far less inclined toward the kind of violence we see in the culture in general.”
The shooter — whom police have not identified — was a 28-year-old woman who lived in the Nashville area and had attended the Covenant School at some point, Nashville Police Chief John Drake said during a news conference Monday.
He said he was unsure about the years when she was a student there.
She had three guns with her when she killed at least three children and three adults, according to authorities.
A law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said the weapons included two semiautomatic rifles, with at least one of the rifles identified as an AR-15-style weapon.
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Armed groups on the right and left exploit the AR-15 as both tool and symbol: The radicals’ rifle
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-armed-extremist-militia-groups/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f001
DURHAM, N.C. — The five friends had spent the morning stalking through the trees and crossing a creek in military formation.
Now, D’s reluctant embrace of the AR-15 adds one more foot soldier to the volatile mix of armed movements that have proliferated over the past decade, a predominantly right-wing mobilization whose violence has fueled far-left “community defense” organizing in response.
Confrontations have erupted in Texas, Oregon and elsewhere in recent months as leftists with long guns protect LGBTQ gatherings from armed right-wing agitators who baselessly smear trans people and drag-show artists as “groomers” and pedophiles. Such scenes look ominous to extremism analysts who warn of an elevated risk of political violence from vigilantes who wield the AR-15 as both tool and symbol.
Militants say they favor the AR-15 for all the same reasons mainstream enthusiasts do — it’s easy to handle, affordable and customizable — but they also exploit the fear surrounding the weapon.
“It’s just a tool, an inanimate object, but it is polarizing, and it’ll make people treat you differently,” said Cody, 26, a member of an anti-government militia group near Norfolk, who spoke on the condition that his full name be withheld for security reasons. “It will make people treat you differently if you are armed with an AR-15.”
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Cody, 26, a member of an anti-government militia group in southeastern Virginia, cleans an AR-15 rifle in his home in September. “It will make people treat you differently if you are armed with an AR-15," said Cody, shown here displaying his collection.
The AR-15’s image as an instrument of domestic terror has been crystallized in recent years by its use in a string of hate-filled mass shootings. AR-15-wielding extremists targeted elderly congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, the deadliest anti-Jewish attack in U.S. history; Jewish families on the last day of Passover in Poway, Calif., in 2019; and, last year, Black customers at a supermarket in Buffalo, to name a few.
Other far-right factions throughout the country have shown up with AR-15s to intimidate voters and local officials, harass Muslims outside of mosques, and stand as self-appointed guards at pro-Donald Trump rallies. Anti-government militias also have brandished AR-15s in armed standoffs with federal agents, such as the one in 2014 led by rancher Cliven Bundy in Bunkerville, Nev. “Boogaloo” extremists, part of a right-leaning movement calling for violent revolution, have made the AR-15 a core part of their look, sometimes adorning their weapons with coded symbols.
“It is one of several ways they are articulating that what they are doing is warfare,” said Kathleen Belew, a historian at Northwestern University and author of “Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary America.” “The AR-15 remains the emblematic cultural weapon.”
Two armed groups — one on the far right, one on the far left — agreed to allow a Washington Post reporter and photographer to document training sessions on two weekends last fall, on the condition that identifying details be withheld. The gatherings were a rare look at how militants on opposing extremes of American society are arming in anticipation of unrest, and overlap in the belief that civilians with rifles — and specifically, AR-15s — provide an important check on federal powers.
There is no parallel, however, when it comes to the use of violence by the extreme right and left. FBI and Homeland Security officials repeatedly have called far-right extremists the most urgent domestic terrorism concern; the White House strategy document on domestic terrorism specifies that white supremacists and violent militia groups “are assessed as presenting the most persistent and lethal threats.”
By comparison, attacks by militant leftists are almost never deadly, according to attack records, and typically involve “melee violence” at protests rather than the premeditated mass shootings or standoffs carried out by the far right. Far-left violence in the past decade, according to a report by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, “pales in comparison” with other categories of extremism, though the report warns that “ongoing trends in American society could lead to increased frequency and lethality.”
Experts say there is no firm count of armed extremist groups in the United States on the left or the right.
These groups “repeatedly form, splinter into separate units and dissolve, as members’ interests wax and wane,” writes militia researcher Amy Cooter of Middlebury University’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism and Counterterrorism.
More concerning, analysts say, is that the violent rhetoric of once-fringe movements has now seeped into the Republican mainstream, with extremists exploiting white-grievance politics and anti-LGBTQ bigotry at all levels of political office. In 2022, according to an Anti-Defamation League report, more than 100 candidates who expressed extremist views ran in local, state legislative and congressional races, including at least a dozen with documented connections to far-right militant groups.
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An armed leftist group stands guard against right-wing activists who were protesting outside an all-ages drag show in January at BuzzBrew’s Kitchen in Dallas. (Photos by Mark Felix for The Washington Post)
After federal prosecutions of extremist groups involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol attack, several far-right factions dissolved or went underground, saying they were unsure of how far the crackdown would extend. The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a global conflict monitoring group, says at least 56 far-right, militia-style groups were active in 2022, a decrease from 83 in 2021, and 159 in 2020.
Militant leftists, a tiny fraction of armed movements that have been documented nationwide, likewise are impossible to count because of the fluidity of groups and the secrecy involved in the organizing, analysts say. Even among other racial justice activists, armed antifascists have been viewed skeptically for years; groups sometimes were asked to leave by Black Lives Matter protesters who insisted on gun-free events.
The picture has changed since, with wider tolerance from other leftists and liberals whose faith in state protection has eroded after law enforcement failed to prevent the Capitol attack or stop the mass shooting of schoolchildren in Uvalde, Tex. For months during the unrest of 2020, Americans watched racial justice demonstrations in the Pacific Northwest in which the police either intervened with violence or left protesters feeling vulnerable to attack by right-wing provocateurs.
The scenes prompted wider interest in the militant left, with more visibility for independent local networks, some of them organizing under “John Brown Gun Club,” named after the militant abolitionist who was executed in 1859.
“We deserve to be able to defend ourselves, and whether that is against the state or against other folks that would come at us, it’s defense,” said a 33-year-old anarchist organizer who spoke on the condition that they be quoted using only their gun-club nickname, “Paper.” The activist, who identifies as queer, owns two AR-15s and offers firearms training for marginalized communities, including the cohort with D in North Carolina.
D said that at this stage in life — a 40-something parent with a professional job — they never expected to be in the woods learning how to cross a creek in a simulated ambush.
“I view these tools and this training for situations when it is life and limb,” D said. “And I don’t view that as remote.”
A few weeks after that prediction, on a Saturday night just before Thanksgiving, a gunman with an AR-15 opened fire inside an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, killing five people and wounding 18 others.
The bloodshed only reinforced D’s decision to get an AR-15, though they were reluctant to just go out and buy one. Instead, D said, they eased into the idea by building their own rifle, ordering the components in stages starting in late fall.
“I’m picking up the lower receiver from my gun dealer later this week,” they texted.
The next month, on the same evening as a drag performance that far-right groups had tried to stop, a mysterious attack on electrical substations in Moore County, N.C., knocked out power for tens of thousands of people. Though investigators have yet to make arrests or describe a motive, social media posts speculating that the drag event was the target went viral.
D was a longtime fan of one of the performers; they’d hung out in the same drag scene around Durham. This attack was close to home, just a couple hours from where D lives.
Within days of the Moore County incident, D texted a photo of a shiny black rifle lying on a table.
The AR-15 was almost ready.
One sunny day this past fall, members of an anti-government militia group leaned their guns against tree trunks and huddled in the same wooded patch of southeastern Virginia where revolutionaries fought British forces more than two centuries ago.
“This is where the Founding Fathers were,” one member, 28-year-old Harrison, told the others. “I don’t know if y’all can feel it, but I do.”
The men view militia training as an extension of that legacy, preparation to defend the republic from radical leftists and “tyrannical” federal authorities. They see their AR-15s as modern-day muskets, though the rifles shoot 30 times faster, from distances up to 10 times farther.
“It gives you your voice,” Harrison said. “It’s the surest guard to freedom that I can think of.”
Beyond zero tolerance for gun control and deep suspicion of the federal government, there’s little ideological cohesion among the members. The six men who met for training that day — five White, one of Puerto Rican descent, ranging in age from their 20s to 40s — expressed libertarian stances mixed with influences from Christian nationalism and the “boogaloo” movement’s call for violent revolution.
Three military veterans were among the group. One, a former soldier, engraved his AR-15 with a favorite piece of scripture: “Blessed be God, my Rock who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle.” The other two are former Marines, one of whom said he was discharged a year ago after refusing to be vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The gun is a point of bonding. All but one owns an AR-15; most have at least two.
“Even if it sits in your closet,” Harrison said, “the government still knows there’s someone out there with a rifle, and if they go too far, that person may be there.”
The men took turns recording one another running the course, leaves crunching under boots and gunfire interrupting birdsong. Harrison said a neighbor complained recently that the area was beginning to sound “like Afghanistan.” The men laughed.
They believe that something dangerous is bubbling within American society, that a conflagration is coming, even if the battle lines aren’t quite clear yet. That’s what brings them back to the woods with their rifles. Just in case, they said.
“A lot of people think militia groups fantasize about the police coming down on their house and they get into this big shootout and they’re martyred. That’s the last thing I want,” Cody said.
Cody sported a yellow T-shirt paying homage to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who successfully argued that he acted in self-defense when he killed two people with an AR-15 during unrest in Kenosha, Wis., in 2020. In right-wing circles, Rittenhouse’s acquittal was celebrated as a Second Amendment victory. The Rittenhouse case, Cody said, convinced people who were unsure about buying an AR-15 for self-defense “what you can use that rifle for under stress.”
Members of the group first met in online gun forums and coalesced around Second Amendment activism. They no longer use a formal name, they said, partly because of the post-Jan. 6 federal prosecution of militia groups and partly because they don’t fit a single ideology. Cody said he sought out the group after leaving Oath Keepers and Three Percenter formations that he considered “too racist.”
They describe themselves as a “constitutionalist militia,” their term for what terrorism analysts consider an anti-government armed group promoting Second Amendment extremism. The group’s argument — which runs counter to decades of court rulings — is that ordinary citizens should have access to the same weapons as the government.
The men balk at being lumped in with white supremacists under the “far-right extremists” label, noting that they’ve marched alongside armed black nationalists in Richmond. Manny, who expressed pride in his Puerto Rican heritage, said he wouldn’t have joined a racist group: “Gun rights are civil rights.”
Members said their vetting of recruits includes intense questioning to weed out “St. Dylann crap,” a reference to racist fans of the neo-Nazi mass shooter who attacked a historically Black church in Charleston, S.C., in 2015. They say they also reject applicants who seem eager for violence, a way to filter for undercover informants or mentally unstable people.
“I don’t wish to have a war against my government, but if it comes, hopefully I got the right group of people around me,” said a member who goes by Hoss.
“Be honest with yourselves; we’d be out,” one of the former Marines said.
“But there’s 300 million firearms in the United States,” Hoss countered.
“That’s if the country can manage to come together,” the former Marine said. “There’s a lot of division right now.”
“That’s why you find your group before s--- falls apart,” Harrison said.
TEXAS Governor Greg Abbott holding his beloved gun showing you what he loves most.
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Part 2 of 2
Armed groups on the right and left exploit the AR-15 as both tool and symbol: The radicals’ rifle
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-armed-extremist-militia-groups/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f001
The five far-left activists in North Carolina who met for shooting practice did not match the conservative media’s depictions of antifa as masked, black-clad youths burning down American cities.
They were White, middle-aged, college-educated professionals. Three of them identify as queer, and some said they have spouses or children of color whose safety is a primary reason they were in the woods learning Army Ranger techniques for moving in formation.
“We don’t know where the country is going,” said Paper, the firearms instructor. “Jan. 6 was crazy. We came that close to things going in a different direction, and who knows how things would’ve spiraled out from that, which is why we do the training.”
They started in the morning with replica guns as they crept through the foliage on simulated patrols, training on how to react if they came under fire. Scenarios they talked about — rescuing pinned-down comrades at a protest, escorting patrons to a drag brunch — were ripped from recent headlines. After a midday break, they began target practice with real AR-15s and handguns, their own or borrowed from the trainers.
Along with Paper, a co-organizer of the session was Dwayne Dixon, who teaches in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of North Carolina. Dixon was the only participant comfortable with being fully identified — his activism has long been public, drawing repeated right-wing attempts to get him fired.
Dixon, 50, said his radical politics emerged from reading about the Holocaust and apartheid-era South Africa as an adolescent. By adulthood, his belief in armed civilian resistance was cemented, but the idea of owning an AR-15 came much later, in 2013 during a trip to visit anarchist friends in Philadelphia. He recalled being stunned by their weapons.
“Who would’ve thought these dudes — punk kids from South Jersey and Philly — would end up owning ARs? It was kind of like a mind bend,” Dixon said. “This has moved into ‘You might get attacked by the government.’”
Later that year, Dixon decided it was time to buy his own rifle, inspired by his deep mistrust of the government and police coupled with a rise in far-right violence. He said he didn’t publicly carry an AR-15 until four years later, in 2017, when he was in Charlottesville during the deadly Unite the Right rally.
Dixon and Paper, the anarchist organizer, said they had been among roughly 20 antifascists with long guns who showed up at the request of a local anarchist group. Racists with tiki torches had just rampaged through town and were poised to come back for a second day. Dixon recalled their group struggling to sleep that night, clear-eyed about the risks of an armed encounter: “We thought we were going to get killed.”
They rose early and stood guard outside a local park where an anti-racist demonstration was to be held. Soon, a column of white supremacists marched toward the park, heading toward Quaker volunteers who were there early to prepare food, Dixon recalled.
Adrenaline was “so high,” Dixon said, as the activists with rifles waited for the white supremacists to spot them. When they did, he said, there was visible shock, then a retreat.
“They stopped and turned around and went back,” Dixon said. “They clearly got more than they expected by seeing armed leftists.”
Any sense of relief was short-lived.
That afternoon, a neo-Nazi rammed his car into a crowd of racial justice protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and wounding 19 other people. The horror, captured in photos of bodies tossed in the air, catalyzed far-left organizing throughout the nation — with armed backup becoming a presence at some public events.
After Unite the Right, armed leftists say, a surge of recruits signed up to fight against the “fascism” unleashed in the Trump era. Groups pooled money for weapons and grew more disciplined in training. Dixon was invited to speak at Harvard about Charlottesville; he used the stipend for body armor.
“Heather Heyer’s murder solidifies the stakes. This really is about life and death,” Dixon said. “There are people here who are ideologically motivated to kill. It’s not abstract any more; it’s very real.”
Though still only a sliver of antifascist activism, armed leftist groups are becoming increasingly visible, especially on social media, where some borrow and subvert the right-wing militia aesthetic, showing off their tricked-out rifles and bullet-riddled targets. When they face off against far-right groups in public, sometimes the only visible differences are the patches on their clothes and gear — rainbow flags and “FCK NAZIS” vs. Gadsden flags and “Antifa Hunter.”
A John Brown group carried AR-15s on armed patrols of a self-declared police-free zone that Seattle activists briefly held during the protests of 2020. The year before, an early member of that group, carrying a home-built AR-15, died in a fiery standoff with authorities at an immigration facility where he was protesting Trump-era family separation policies.
The growing popularity of guns in segments of the far left has drawn criticism from some liberals, who cite gun violence statistics and argue that more armed vigilantes will only make matters worse — particularly for people of color who are often the victims.
But with those communities facing targeted attacks, the nonviolent movement’s language is being drowned out by a call and response at protests: “Who protects us? We protect us!” And militant leftists say the stakes are now too high for complaints that the embrace of AR-15s will cost the moral high ground.
“It took us awhile to get appropriately militant on this issue,” a Connecticut-based John Brown group tweeted in December. “Folks wrung their hands over ‘optics’ and we came to realize they didn’t want community defense, they wanted us to die first. We don’t always open carry, but we no longer go out just to be martyred.”
Paper and Dixon, who met in early 2017 at a community defense meeting, built one of the country’s earliest John Brown formations. They said they were intentional about not copying the right-wing militia model. No command hierarchy, no Second Amendment worship, no fetishizing of the AR-15.
The North Carolina activists said they picked the AR platform simply because it’s cheaper and “there’s a million YouTube videos” to teach new shooters the ins and outs of the rifle. Paper’s first was a Ruger AR-556 that they said cost around $450.
For a time, the group was part of a national network of leftist organizers before dissolving and reconstituting with a focus on local, low-profile work. These days, their circle has no formal name or regular meetings.
They were leery of allowing observation of the training, worried it would look like an “armed insurgency” and reinforce the idea of two equal extremist threats. In their world, they said, the rifle is a last resort, not a rallying point.
“The AR is not at the apex of people’s capacities,” Dixon said, citing civil rights demonstrations of 2020 and earlier, Native-led protests against an oil pipeline in the Midwest. “People have a real capacity to make physical, material change in the world that’s really disruptive. And they don’t need an AR to do it.”
Anne, a 35-year-old academic and activist, said she started out as an ordinary liberal protester calling for the removal of Confederate statues in North Carolina and elsewhere in the South. By speaking out publicly, Anne landed in the crosshairs of white supremacists and, later, members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence.
The men relentlessly harassed her with threats of rape and death, according to screenshots and messages she provided. They yelled out her home address when they saw her at rallies and have posted photos of her car and apartment, forcing her to move two times in the past three years. In 2021, she bought her own AR-15, not long after posing on Twitter with a friend’s rifle as a warning to her stalkers.
“Nazis get very arrogant and think that because they have AR-15s, they can do anything or kill anyone who disagrees with them,” she said. “When I posted that photo, they can tell that I’m serious about defending myself and they should think twice before trying to murder me.”
Real threats prompted her to buy an AR-15, Anne stressed, not the far right’s hypothetical scenarios of gun confiscations or a communist takeover. Two of her harassers, according to the materials she provided, are Proud Boys who have since pleaded guilty for their roles in the Capitol attack.
Until they stormed the Capitol, Anne said, the Proud Boys targeted her and other leftists with impunity. She recalled spending hours taking screenshots of the threats so that there would be a record in case they attacked her and she was forced to use her rifle.
“I was in favor of banning guns for a long time and still think the world would be better without them,” Anne said. “But now I’m more practical."
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Why do Americans own AR-15s?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/american-ar-15-gun-owners/?itid=hp-top-table-main_p001_f001
The Washington Post and Ipsos asked nearly 400 AR-15 owners why they own the rifle
The AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, industry figures indicate. Almost every major gunmaker now produces its own version of the weapon, which dominates gun dealers’ walls and websites.
Critics claim that the military-style gun has no legitimate civilian use — yet about 1 in 20 Americans own one. So who chooses to buy an AR-15, and why?
The Washington Post and Ipsos asked nearly 400 AR-15 owners to explain their reasons for having the weapon, what they use it for and how often they fire it.
The survey found that AR-15 owners come from red, blue and purple states. Compared with Americans as a whole, AR-15 owners are significantly more likely to be White, male and between the ages 40 and 65. They’re also more likely to have higher incomes, to have served in the military and to be Republican. And AR-15 owners are more likely to live in states former president Donald Trump won in 2020 than adults overall.
Self-defense was the most popular reason for owning an AR-15. Other popular answers included recreation, target shooting and hunting, while some pointed to owning an AR-15 as their Second Amendment right.
Why people own AR-15-style rifles
Second Amendment/
It's my right/
Because I can
12%
Target shooting/
Take to range/
Competition
15%
Self-defense/
Protect home/
self/family
33%
Recreation/
Fun/Sport
15%
Hunting
12%
Like the way it looks/
Like it/
Because I want to
9%
Other
reason
5%
n case of chaos/
Government tyranny
3%
Angers liberals/
People want to ban them/
They make other people afraid
2%
The Post-Ipsos poll is one of the most detailed nationally representative surveys to date focused on the opinions of AR-15 owners.
The gun industry estimates there are about 20 million AR-15s in circulation. There is no way to independently confirm that number, but polling can estimate how many Americans own them.
National surveys by Ipsos in 2022 found that 31 percent of adults own guns. The Post-Ipsos survey of AR-15 owners estimates that 20 percent of gun owners own an AR-15-style rifle. Taken together, the polls find that 6 percent of Americans own an AR-15, about 1 in 20.
The data suggests that with a U.S. population of 260.8 million adults, about 16 million Americans own an AR-15.
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At least 5 dead, 8 injured in shooting at Louisville bank building, police say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04/10/louisville-active-shooting-bank-downtown/
A shooter killed four people at a bank in downtown Louisville, police said Monday morning. Police fatally shot the assailant, authorities said, but it was unclear whether the person died of a self-inflicted wound.
Two officers were injured, with one in critical condition. Another victim is also in critical condition, authorities said. There is no active danger, authorities said.
Footage from the scene captured a series of gunshots, sirens blaring, and law enforcement officers running and shouting, “Active shooter!”
The footage, shared online shortly after the incident, began with at least three gunshots. Officers hurried across a downtown street, yelling at drivers to get out of their cars while warning about the gunfire.
8 hospitalized, including 2 in critical condition
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By Marisa Iati
Eight people are being treated at University of Louisville Hospital after the shooting, including two in critical condition, police said.
One of the two in critical condition is a police officer who was shot, Louisville Metro Police Department Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey told reporters. He said at least one other officer was also struck by gunfire.
Humphrey said police received a report of the shooting at 8:30 a.m. and that the shooter was still firing when officers arrived.
There is no longer any danger to the public after the shooting at Old National Bank, 333 Main St., police said Monday. The bank is on the ground floor of a building that houses businesses and residences.
At least five people were killed Monday morning and six others injured and transported to University of Louisville Hospital, Lt. Col. Paul Humphrey of the Louisville police said. The shooter is confirmed to be dead at the scene, although Humphrey did not give the circumstances of the death. It’s not known whether the shooter was included in the death toll.
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4 dead, at least 28 hurt in shooting at teen’s birthday party in Alabama
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04/16/dadeville-shooting-alabama/
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DADEVILLE, Ala. — A small town in Alabama became the latest American community to reckon with gun violence, after four people were killed and at least 28 were injured in a shooting that authorities said occurred during a teenager’s birthday party.
The shooting happened just after 10:30 p.m. Saturday near Broadnax Street, said Sgt. Jeremy Burkett of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Burkett declined to take questions or identify the victims or the perpetrator during a news conference late Sunday afternoon.
Burkett said “a wide variety of injuries” were sustained by 28 people, and “some of those injuries are critical.”
Authorities have been tight-lipped about providing information concerning the shooting, which rocked the town of 3,000 people in Tallapoosa County, roughly 50 miles northeast of Montgomery. Burkett said the scene is safe and there is no risk to the public at this time. He asked for people to provide authorities with tips via phone or email.
“We can confirm that it was tied to a birthday celebration,” Burkett said. “The investigation will be a long and complicated process.”
The party for a 16-year-old girl had been uneventful until the girl’s mother told the crowd of about several dozen people that she had learned somebody there had a gun, said Keenan Cooper, who was hired to DJ the party at the Mahogany Masterpiece dance studio in downtown Dadeville. The mother asked them to leave, Cooper added, but no one did.
“I should have shut it down,” Cooper told The Washington Post on Sunday, standing outside the police tape blocking off the scene of the shooting. He was waiting for police to release his DJ equipment.
The shooting came an hour later. Cooper said he quickly dropped to the ground, then grabbed six kids and pushed them under his DJ booth. He described it as 5 minutes of “nonstop shots.”
Pastor Ben Hayes, who serves as the chaplain for the Dadeville Police Department and for the local high school football team, told The Post that he was present at the hospital Saturday night and that most of the injured were teenagers.
“What we know is that a shooting took place. Four of our friends are dead. Twenty or more wounded,” Hayes said at a vigil Sunday afternoon attended by hundreds. “We’ll never be the same.”
One of those killed was Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, Hayes said. Phil was a high school senior who planned to attend Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship, the Montgomery Advertiser reported.
“He was a great young man with a bright future. My staff and I are heartbroken and hope that everyone will support his family through this difficult time,” Jacksonville State Coach Rich Rodriguez said in a statement Sunday.
Save for the one block buzzing with police, some news vehicles and people driving by to view the scene, downtown Dadeville was quiet Sunday afternoon. A lone police officer was climbing a ladder toward the roof of Mahogany Masterpiece. And authorities were power washing the sidewalk and front door of the dance studio using a fire tanker.
On Sunday morning, the community reeled. Hayes gathered with dozens of residents at the First Baptist Church and prayed for the first responders and hospital staff dealing with the tragedy. “Some were injured from gunshots and others from falling while running away from the shooter,” Hayes said.
Bobby Presley said a frantic call from his 16-year-old daughter woke him up at 10 p.m. Saturday. Shakaya Presley had just escaped America’s latest mass killing. She was shot twice through both her thighs, her father told The Post on Sunday.
Presley said he rushed to the hospital and found a chaotic scene. “People were in an uproar trying to find their child,” he said. His daughter is now recovering at home and will see an orthopedic doctor in the coming days to check for nerve damage. Presley, who coaches girls sports, said he’s seen many of the injured teens grow up.
“I’m just emotionally torn apart,” he said. “You don’t expect it to happen to a small town — to Dadeville, Alabama.”
Heidi Smith, a spokeswoman for Lake Martin Community Hospital in Dadeville, said nine of the teenagers treated there were transferred to other hospitals to receive a higher level of care. Five of them were in critical condition, Smith said, adding that there are only a couple of “small rural hospitals” in the county.
The hospital is now offering counseling and mental health services to the distraught community and the victims’ families.
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Dadeville firefighters clean blood off the sidewalk the day after a shooting in Dadeville, Ala. (Cheney Orr/Reuters)
Superintendent Raymond Porter said schools in the area will be providing counseling to children on Monday. “This [incident] does not represent our children and who we are as a community,” Porter said at a Sunday morning news conference.
State officials also issued statements on the shooting.
“This morning, I grieve with the people of Dadeville and my fellow Alabamians. Violent crime has NO place in our state, and we are staying closely updated by law enforcement as details emerge,” Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) said on Twitter.
President Biden was also briefed on the shooting, according to a note from his team. He and the White House are monitoring the situation and have been in contact with law enforcement officers and local officials to offer support, per the president’s team.
Chris Hand, the Dadeville High School principal, was out of town when he heard the news of the shooting. He’s been in shock since, he told The Post.
Hand also coaches the track team, a sport Phil Dowdell excelled in. Hand was last with Dowdell Friday night at a track meet in Troy, Ala. Dowdell finished first in the 100-meter dash and had even stepped up to fill in for a teammate who couldn’t compete in another race.
“‘Whatever I can do for the team, I’ll do it,’” Hand recalled Dowdell telling him Friday. “It’s just unreal to me. … If there’s a best representative of the school, it was him, athletically, academically.”
This weekend’s gun violence in Dadeville is the latest of a staggering number of mass killings this year that have ravaged the nation and left an immense toll.
Less than four months into 2023, there have been 163 mass shootings that have killed 228 people and injured 638, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. The group defines mass shootings as those in which four or more people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed.
The tragedy in Dadeville has shaken a city that residents and authorities say is unaccustomed to shootings. However, data shows gun violence is pervasive across the state. With a rate of 23.6 deaths per 100,000 people, Alabama has the fifth-highest rate of gun violence in the United States, according to EveryStat, a site that collects and analyzes data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate of gun deaths has increased 54 percent from 2012 to 2021 in Alabama, compared with a 39 percent increase nationwide.
At the vigil in Dadeville on Sunday afternoon, the hundreds of attendees listened to local community leaders and prayed. Intermittent hands rose toward the sky as pastors prayed before the crowd of people gathered in the parking lot of First Baptist Church Dadeville. Members of the crowd sniffled and wiped away tears. Others stood perfectly still.
A youth pastor, Hunter Baker, closed out the vigil. “Lord help us to love people we haven’t got along with,” Baker said. “Life is just a vapor. It’s here today and gone tomorrow.”
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Gunman who killed neighbors with AR-15-style rifle still at large, sheriff says
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04/29/cleveland-texas-gunman-kills-five-8-year-old/
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A man killed five people, including an 8-year-old boy, with an AR-15-style weapon Friday night in an angry response to his neighbors’ request that he stop shooting in his yard while their baby was trying to sleep, Texas authorities said Saturday. The suspect was still on the loose as of Saturday afternoon, authorities later said at a news conference.
Instead of heeding the request, the man allegedly took the gun, went to the neighbors’ house and killed half the people inside. He then fled, sparking an overnight manhunt around Cleveland, Tex., that continued through Saturday afternoon.
“He could be anywhere right now,” James Smith, special agent in charge of the FBI Houston office, told reporters Saturday afternoon. “We believe he’s on foot but we don’t know.” Smith added that the suspect could be somewhere within a 10-20 square mile radius but that dogs lost his scent. Authorities located the gun allegedly used in the killings but are unsure if the suspect is still armed.
The mass killing of a family in their home was the latest act of retaliatory gun violence to traumatize an American community. The shooting renewed calls from gun control advocates for a federal ban on assault weapons, which have a unique ability to destroy the human body. It was at least the seventh incident this month in which an armed American shot people in response to regular, everyday interactions.
The family in Texas had lived on Walter Drive for about two years.
Police released the names of the victims: Sonia Argentina Guzman, 25; Diana Velazquez Alvarado, 21; Julisa Molina Rivera, 31; Jose Jonathan Casarez, 18; and Daniel Enrique Laso, 8.
Their neighbor, Francisco Oropeza, 38, was charged with five counts of murder, San Jacinto County Sheriff Greg Capers told The Washington Post. Authorities believed he was about two miles from the area Saturday afternoon and were working to apprehend him, he said.
Ten people, all family members, were in the home during the shooting. Five survived, including three children. Three women and a man were killed, along with an 8-year-old boy who died later at a hospital, the sheriff’s office said on Facebook.
Two of the women who were killed were found lying on top of the surviving young children in a bedroom, “trying to protect them,” Capers told The Post by phone from the scene.
All five victims were shot in the head, Capers said.
“It’s horrific,” Capers said. “No one should ever have to look at this scene, the blood, the trauma that went on in that house.”
Authorities were searching for Oropeza in a wooded area near the neighborhood Saturday afternoon, Capers said. The FBI said Saturday afternoon that it was assisting the county sheriff’s office in the search and referred further questions to the office, which was leading the investigation.
Oropeza frequently shot his AR-15-style weapon in his yard, Capers said, and was doing so Friday when his neighbors asked him to stop about 11 p.m. He allegedly became angry after they said their baby was trying to sleep and, after the conversation, went to their home. Authorities saw video footage of Oropeza walking to the victims’ front door before going inside.
“The neighbors walked over and said … ‘Hey man, can you not do that, we’ve got an infant in here trying to sleep’ or whatever,” Capers said. “They went back in their house and then we have a video of him walking up their driveway with his AR-15.”
Vianey Balderas, who lives across the street from the family, said she first heard gunshots that night when a few people were outside. About 20 minutes later, Balderas heard about five more gunshots, then another 10, she told The Post.
“When I heard those gunshots, I didn’t think anything of it because in this neighborhood everyone has guns. Every weekend you hear gunshots,” she said in an interview in Spanish.
“People shoot in their backyards, after they drink alcohol, men take out guns at house parties and shoot the ground.”
Minutes later, Balderas, 27, heard a truck pulling away. She then saw one of her neighbors — the father of the children, she said — outside, begging for someone to call an ambulance. She said the family and Oropeza had quarreled before.
Law enforcement officers went to the home after receiving a report of “harassment” around 11:30 p.m., Capers told reporters. They found the four adults dead and took the 8-year-old to the hospital. The three surviving children also were taken to a hospital, Capers said, but they were not injured.
The victims had moved to Cleveland from Harris County, where Houston is located. Cleveland is about 40 miles northeast of downtown Houston.
They lived in a “regular country neighborhood” known as Trails End, Capers said. All of the victims were from Honduras, Capers said.
In a tweet in Spanish, Honduran Foreign Minister Enrique Reina demanded that authorities apply “the full weight of the law” against the killer and expressed condolences for the family’s relatives.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had not publicly responded to the news of the shooting by late Saturday afternoon.
Balderas, who has lived in the neighborhood for three years, described the family as happy. They moved in about two years ago, she said. The children’s father, an electrician, helped her around the house, and the family aided Balderas when her father died, she said.
“They were a very happy family. Christian. They were kind,” she said. “They would never say no to us. They were always helping us. … They were always there.”
Balderas said she stayed up until 5 a.m. in fear because the gunman had not been apprehended.
“It hurts a lot, because I did love the family a lot. I am now afraid to be at home,” she said. “This shatters the sense of safety of being in your own home, especially because they are neighbors whom I see every day. … [He] went in to shoot people who were getting ready to go to bed.”
This was the year’s 19th U.S. shooting to kill at least four people, not including the shooter, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks U.S. shootings.
The killings drew calls from gun control advocates for a federal ban of AR-15-style weapons, whose sale is banned in a few states. Washington became the latest on Wednesday, when its Democratic governor signed a ban into law.
President Biden urged Congress to pass a federal assault weapons ban after a shooter killed six people with an AR-15-style weapon at a Nashville school last month. Republicans in Congress have dismissed the idea of such legislation.
After Friday night’s shooting, Kris Brown, president of the Brady gun control organization, said AR-15s “have no place in civilian life.”
“These weapons of war were designed to kill as many people as quickly as possible, which is why they are the weapon of choice for America’s mass shooters — and why Congress must ban them immediately,” Brown said in a statement.
Texas has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country, according to the nonprofit Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports stricter firearms laws. There are some restrictions, though, including a state law barring people from displaying “a firearm or other deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm.”
Texas gun rights advocates, meanwhile, said the shooting did not highlight any problems with the state’s firearm-friendly policies.
“It’s a tragedy but we need to get away from blaming guns which only answers the question of how and start asking the question why these shootings take place, why people feel the need to settle differences with violence and murder,” said C.J. Grisham, legal and policy director for Texas Gun Rights, a Second Amendment advocacy group.
Grisham said the gunman’s use of an AR-15 style gun was “meaningless” because “he could have killed those people just as easily with a handgun.”
The killings add to a growing list of recent shootings carried out by armed Americans who have fired in response to what could have been normal, everyday interactions.
This month, an Illinois man was fatally shot by a neighbor angry about his leaf blower; a 20-year-old woman was shot and killed by a New York homeowner after accidentally pulling into the wrong driveway; a 6-year-old and her father were shot by a neighbor in North Carolina after the child’s basketball rolled into his yard.
Those violent confrontations followed the April 13 shooting of Ralph Yarl, a Black teenager who was picking up his siblings and was shot by a White man when he accidentally rang the doorbell of the wrong home.
TEXAS Governor Greg Abbott holding his beloved gun showing you what he loves most.
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Texas gunman’s white supremacist views eyed as possible motive
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/07/texas-allen-outlets-shooting-dallas/
Investigators found a patch on the dead man’s chest that said “RWDS," an acronym for Right Wing Death Squad.
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ALLEN, Tex. — The 33-year-old gunman who opened fire on an outlet mall in a Dallas suburb Saturday, killing at least eight people, had an apparent fascination with white supremacist or neo-Nazi beliefs that are now being examined by investigators as a possible motive for the attack, people familiar with the investigation said Sunday.
Mauricio Garcia, a local resident, had multiple weapons on him and five additional guns in his car nearby, said people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing probe.
Authorities have not released a motive, but a patch on his chest said “RWDS,” an acronym that stands for Right Wing Death Squad, according to people familiar with the investigation. The phrase is popular among right wing extremists, neo-Nazis and white supremacists, they said, and while there is still a great deal of evidence to analyze and authorities have not reached any conclusions yet, investigators are approaching the shooting as a possible hate crime.
Witnesses said the gunman’s tactical vest was also packed with ammunition clips, indicating just how much carnage he hoped to inflict at one of the most common places for Americans to gather on the weekends — a shopping mall. Panicked video from the scene showed adults running as fast as they could to get away from the crack of rifle fire, their shopping bags flapping around them as they sprinted across the parking lot. One young boy in a red t-shirt ran away while screaming “run,” a look of terror on his face.
The shooter also injured at least seven people before a police officer who happened to be at the mall on an unrelated call fatally shot him at about 3:30 p.m., Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey said Saturday. Authorities believe that the gunman acted alone and that there were no further threats, Harvey said.
At least one of the victims was a child, according to officials and witness accounts. A person wearing a security uniform was among the dead, according to several witnesses, but it was unclear whether the guard was on duty at the time. A witness described finding a young boy alive under the corpse of his mother, who died protecting him.
The assailant was living in a Dallas-area hotel at the time of the shooting, according to the people familiar with the investigation. Since the gunman is dead, a major focus of investigators is whether anyone knew what he planned to do or helped him do it. The gunman’s parents have been cooperating with authorities, these people said.
Six victims were found dead at the scene, and nine people who had been injured were taken to hospitals by the local fire department, Allen Fire Chief Jon Boyd said Saturday. Two of them died at the hospital. At least three people remained in critical condition as of Sunday morning, police said.
The victims being treated at Medical City Healthcare trauma facilities ranged from 5 to 61 years old, said Kathleen Beathard, a spokeswoman for the hospital system.
Sherry Tutt was shopping at Victoria’s Secret on Saturday when she heard booming sounds. People started rushing onto the store, she said, and someone yelled, "‘They’re shooting!’”
Tutt and her fiancé hurried into a storage area with a few dozen other customers, hiding among boxes. She said panic spread when the group had trouble getting through to 911. One woman was crying.
After about an hour, police escorted the group out of the store, telling them that if they had kids, they should cover their eyes. Passing Fat Burger, Tutt glimpsed two bodies — a sight she described as “something I will never unsee.”
At the Allen outlet mall, all the stores were closed Sunday, and police blocked entrances to the center of the complex. The parking lot in the center of the mall was packed with cars, which shoppers and employees had not been allowed to retrieve by mid-Sunday.
In a statement, Allen Premium Outlets said it was “outraged by the violence that continues to plague our country,” and thanked the police response.
“We are thankful for the police officer’s heroic actions and for the support of all the first responders,” the statement read.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) told “Fox News Sunday” that he was going to Allen on Sunday. The Dallas FBI office said it is assisting the investigation.
Biden ordered flags flown at half-staff through Thursday in recognition of the shooting victims. In a statement, he expressed condolences for the victims and called on Republican members of Congress to support a bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, among other changes to gun laws.
“We need more action, faster to save lives,” he said. “Too many families have empty chairs at their dinner tables.”
Aerial footage of the scene, about 25 miles northeast of Dallas, showed what appeared to be bodies underneath white sheets on the ground outside an H&M outlet, where much of the violence was concentrated.
Steven Spainhouer pulled up to the mall minutes after his son, an H&M employee, called and said a shooter was inside the store. Spainhouer, 63, who said he was an Army and law enforcement veteran, arrived to find people running on the freeway and the streets. Police and paramedics were not yet on scene.
Spainhouer described trying to help people who were shot outside H&M. He started with a girl who was in a “praying position” in the bushes outside the store. “I felt for a pulse,” recalled Spainhouer, who now works in risk management. “There was none. I pulled her head back. There was no face."
Helen Bennett said she and her daughter were in the HanesBrands store when the manager saw someone in the parking lot exiting a car with a weapon. Everyone inside locked themselves in a storeroom, where they hoped fervently that bullets would not fly through the walls. A mother rocked her baby to keep the child from crying.
“As soon as we got in the backroom, we heard the shots — BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!,” Bennett said.
Colin Palakiko, a 36-year-old cook, said had gone to the mall to do some shopping for an upcoming vacation to Hawaii. He was in a Tory Burch shoe store with his mother when a girl ran in and said there was a shooter outside.
After taking shelter in the store for 45 minutes, the police led them outside in a single file. He heard a woman screaming frantically -- she was saying another vehicle that was shot up was her boyfriend’s.
“That was the most horrifying sound I ever heard,” Palakiko said.
Then Palakiko started seeing bodies. There was a person Palakiko thought was a mall security guard on the ground in a white security uniform -- he had been shot in the front of his body and was laying face down.
Deirdra Gordon, who was visiting from Arkansas, said she wept as police led her and others out of Banana Republic after the shooting. She and her husband, Bobby Gordon, said they saw several bodies, including a person in a security uniform and someone they thought was the shooter.
Nearby, a police officer helped a man with a leg wound exit a restaurant. The Gordons also saw bullet holes in store windows and the windshield of a gray sedan.
“It was just a beautiful Saturday,” Deirdra Gordon said. “It was just nice, and then all of a sudden, no one wanted to believe that that’s what was happening.”
A local mother, Sonia Ali, whose son was working at the mall during the shooting told The Post that many of her son’s fellow high school students work in the mall. Ali’s son was not physically harmed by the shooting. The school has emailed students, offering to help those experiencing trauma from the shooting, she said.
Abbott told Fox that his priority in response to mass killings is to address mental health crises, rather than tighten gun regulations. (Research shows that stricter gun laws could lessen the severity of mass killings and may decrease overall gun violence.)
“We’ve got to find a way in this country where we can once again reunite Americans as Americans and come together in one big family and in that regard, find ways to reduce violence in our country,” Abbott told the TV network.
Last year, Texas had the most mass killings by gun of any state, with six. This year it has had three.
Less than two weeks ago and 240 miles south of the Allen shopping mall, a man killed five of his neighbors after they asked him to stop shooting his AR-15 style rifle near their home in Cleveland, Tex. The politics of gun violence and gun control are still being debated in the state, which is about to mark the one-year anniversary of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex. that killed 19 children and two teachers.
In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 4,613 firearms-related deaths in Texas. The state’s annual death toll from guns has increased steadily since 2014.
Led by Abbott, Texas has moved in recent years to loosen restrictions on firearms. In 2021, the state began allowing permitless carry so residents can carry handguns in public without a license. The state “does not specifically put restrictions on who can carry a long gun such as a rifle or shotgun,” according to a Texas government website.
Weakened gun laws put Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on the defensive
Rep. Keith Self, a Republican congressman whose district includes Allen, told The Washington Post Sunday: “The immediate aftermath is not the time for politics.”
Instead of limiting gun rights, Self said local governments need to be free to better defend public spaces from armed criminals. He called proposals to restrict gun rights, such as raising the age at which people can purchase AR-15-style weapons, “a knee-jerk reaction that does not stop criminals.”
Still, gun-control advocates called for a substantive response. Shannon Watts, founder of the advocacy group Moms Demand Action, lamented how such killings have become commonplace in the United States. She noted that she’d gone to school in the county where the latest incident took place.
“If you haven’t been impacted yet by gun violence, God bless you. But sadly, it’s coming — to your state, community, school,” Watts said.
Mushtaq Abdullah, 38, said he walked past multiple bodies while exiting the mall Saturday. He was still anxious the next day. His car remained at the mall, and he had heard authorities were checking vehicles left there with bomb-sniffing dogs.
This morning, when he took his family to brunch, he brought a gun for the first time.
TEXAS Governor Greg Abbott holding his beloved gun showing you what he loves most.
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'Now it’s God’s fault': Texas Republican slammed for claiming 'the almighty' controls shootings
https://www.alternet.org/texas-state-rep-almighty-shootings/?utm_source=123456&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=14268
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A gunman, who is now dead, opened fire at an outlet mall in the town of Allen, Texas, Saturday afternoon, taking "multiple" peoples' lives and leaving nine people hospitalized.
CNN's Paula Reid interviewed Texas State Rep. Keith Self (R-Allen) on Saturday night to get his reaction to the shooting, zeroing in on what Self believes the next steps should be.
"Now, you know, congressman, that is a common refrain after these incidents, after mass shootings, but many people argue that prayers aren't cutting it, prayers are not preventing the next mass shooting. What is your response to that criticism?" Reid asked.
Self's answer was to double down.
"Well, those are people that don't believe in an almighty God who, who has, who is absolutely in control of our lives. I'm a Christian. I believe that he is. We have people though, with mental health that we're not taking care of since this nation made the decision that we were gonna close the mental health institutions. Many of these situations are based on that, uh, and the people that say, and, and I really, I would like to stay away from the politics today because I wanna focus on the victims. Today we should be focused on the families," Self said. "Prayer is powerful in the lives of those people that are devastated. I know people want to make this political, but prayers are important and they are powerful in the families who are devastated right now."
The frustration on social media was palpable.
Moms Demand Action founder Shannon Watts: "Texans own among the most guns per capita of any state. If more guns and fewer gun laws made us safer, Texas would be the safest state. Instead it has high rates of gun suicide and homicide, and is home to four of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in the US."
MeidasTouch: "What an absolute disgrace. If you're not willing to actually do the work to stop these senseless killings, then get the hell out of the way for the people who are."
Ford News: "Republicans will lose the House, lose more seats in the Senate, and President Joe Biden will be reelected. They aren't listening to the majority of Americans."
Charles Adler: "So if we are to go with what this Republican pol is saying, God wants disturbed people to have easy access to guns in the US, but not in the rest of the world. Apparently God wants Americans to be sacrificed. Who believes these pig droppings? Apparently, multiple millions do."
Chidi: "If their almighty god demands we live in a society that values guns over lives and lets people kill innocent men, women and children on a daily basis, then their god is cruel. I don't understand the type of Christianity these people are practicing."
Paul Griffiths: "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? - James 2:14"
Machine Pun Kelly Redux: "So it's God's fault children are getting shot?"
JoeyBonnano: "I don't remember billionaires using prayer to get tax cut welfare, they demanded action to get welfare, but kids and people getting gunned down, no action needed"
Alvina McHale: "Rep. Self wants to take away women's control over their own bodies and limit people's voting rights but he thinks Almighty God is in the driver's seat when it comes to gun violence."
@RebeccaRebelCan: "Are You Kidding Me? Now it's God's fault."
Adrienne Quinn Martin: "Texans stop electing these people! They are going to kill us all. If your personal religious beliefs prevent you from doing your job … resign!"
https://twitter.com/i/status/1654993928574074881 (https://twitter.com/i/status/1654993928574074881)
TEXAS Governor Greg Abbott holding his beloved gun showing you what he loves most.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CyJCAluW8AAYi6Q.jpg)
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/12/texas-mall-massacre-guns-shooter-race/
Opinion How to reckon with the cult of the gun
By Karen Attiah
May 12, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. EDT
Happy Friday …
… I guess.
The French-Cuban writer Anaïs Nin made a number of astute observations about the character of the United States. In her famous diaries, she wrote about America’s love of argumentation, of competitiveness, and its lack of regard for art and culture.
This week, I find myself thinking once again of this quote from 1940: “America is in even greater danger because of its cult of toughness, its hatred of sensitivity, and someday it may have to pay a price for this, because atrophy of feeling creates criminals.”
I live in Texas, where gun culture is extraordinarily seductive. I could go this weekend for a fun day at a range and shoot an AR-15 with friends. Gun shows are family-friendly events. And I have to say, shooting guns is fun. And like any hobby, it gives people, men especially, a sense of identity and community.
In the United States, the holy symbol for our cult is the gun, and its sacred text is the Second Amendment. So how do we combat the cult of toughness? How do we stem the creation of criminals?
These were the topics under discussion at a conference I attended last weekend at Wesleyan University’s Center for the Study of Guns and Society, where researchers, lawyers, historians and movement workers grappled with the role of firearms in American life.
One interesting idea, brought up at the conference dinner, was how religious communities, particularly churches, could act as centers of spiritual resistance to America’s cult of gun death. As a former evangelical Christian, I grew up seeing people renounce all manner of things to deepen their faith in God. I remember seeing people bring empty alcohol bottles to church, pledging to give up drinking. Others testified to giving up drugs. What if prominent pastors and spiritual influencers were to begin renouncing guns?
After all, the Bible says, “If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you.” And holding a gun in that hand, having guns in a household, makes it easier for people in a household to violate (intentionally or accidentally) the sixth commandment — “thou shall not kill.” This being the case, simple deductive reasoning raises a question: Shouldn’t guns be cast out of Christian homes?
What if conservative, gun-owning pastors were to set an example, give up their guns to honor God and challenge their congregations to walk in faith, not in a spirit of fear?
I was thinking this over after the conference, on my flight back to Dallas. When I landed, a news alert hit my phone.
“Gunman reported at Allen Premium Outlets: Multiple Casualties.”
Home Front: Mass shootings, race matters
My column this week was a dispatch from the Allen Premium Outlets, a day after the gunman, identified by police as 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, opened fire at the busy shopping mall. He killed eight people and wounded seven others. It was the second-deadliest mass shooting in the United States this year.
I wrote that I grew up going to the Allen outlets with my family, and since moving back to Texas, I’ve shopped there again. It’s profoundly shocking to think that a place that brought joy to North Texas families is now the site of such a horrific tragedy.
Here in Dallas, people have expressed frustration at law enforcement authorities’ slowness to release information. But what we do know is that authorities have said that Garcia, who was of Hispanic descent, expressed neo-Nazi sympathies, a hatred of women and white-supremacist views. Officials are treating the shooting as a case of racially motivated violent extremism.
Allen, and North Texas as a whole, is becoming increasingly diverse, with Asians being the fastest-growing group. At least half of those killed in the Allen massacre were of Asian descent.
All of this has led to the question: Can people of color be white supremacists?
Of course, y’all know my answer is a big “yes.” Over at the Nation, Joan Walsh tackles this idea head on in a piece headlined “White Supremacists Don’t Have to Be White”:
"Just like rape is not about sex, but power, white supremacy is all about power. It’s sad but it shouldn’t be shocking that a troubled 30-something named Garcia might want to grab that power for himself. He has company: Look at Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, convicted last week of seditious conspiracy for his role on January 6, or anti-Semitic incel Nick Fuentes. Both have Hispanic heritage."
— Joan Walsh
One thing I predict, though: Garcia isn’t going to get the post-massacre sympathetic treatment from the media that White mass shooters do.
A 2018 study from Ohio State University found that “white shooters were 95 percent more likely to be described as ‘mentally ill’ than black shooters,” and that White shooters were more likely to be described as victims of society in some way — isolated, under stress, and so forth.
A Frontiers in Psychology study published last year found that perpetrators racialized as Black were more likely to be covered in ways that flatly situate them as “violent threats to the public,” while White male shooters were more likely to receive more nuanced and sympathetic coverage, and to be characterized with more complexity.
So far, I’ve not heard many attempts at compassionate coverage toward Garcia, and I doubt we will. Of course, I don’t think he or any deranged killer deserves the “but he was such a nice boy” type of coverage. But I do think that as this country grows more diverse, this is surely not the last time a non-White mass killer will slaughter people in the name of white supremacy. Ultimately, we should disavow hate and violence, no matter the killers’ origins or color.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/05/12/us-gun-violence-deaths-cause/
Opinion There’s no mystery about why the U.S. has so many gun deaths
By Fareed Zakaria
The tragic mass shooting last weekend in a Dallas suburb took place as I was leaving the country to visit Britain. I might as well have taken one of Elon Musk’s rockets and landed on a different planet. The Allen, Tex., massacre means that, so far in 2023, more than 15,000 Americans have died from gun violence. In 2021, the last year for which we have complete data, there were 48,830 gun-related deaths, of which 20,958 were gun homicides. In England and Wales, there were 31 gun homicides. Even accounting for its larger population, calculating deaths per 100,000 people, the United States in 2019 had roughly 100 times as many gun homicides as the United Kingdom.
A comparison of suicides is equally depressing. In 2021, 26,328 Americans took their own lives using guns. About half of the people who kill themselves in the United States use guns to do it. In the U.K. in 2019, that number was 117, and of all suicides, death by firearm is one of the rarest methods. With 4 percent of the world’s population, the United States has about 44 percent of the world’s gun suicides.
Britain is actually a useful point of comparison. In cultural terms, it is this country’s closest relative, the mother ship that created the colonies from which the United States of America sprang. It has strong traditions of individualism, rights and liberty that prefigure America’s. Even the more violent strains of American culture — the Scots-Irish tradition in parts of the South — owe their origins to the British Isles.
Editorial Board: These people did not have to die
And yet, with regard to contemporary gun violence, Britain looks like most other advanced industrial countries. The United States, meanwhile, might as well be on another planet.
Perhaps because it draws on the same history of liberties and rights as America, Britain was not always exempt from the problems of gun violence and mass shootings. In fact, British gun laws changed substantially after two mass shootings: in 1987 in Hungerford and then another in 1996 in Dunblane. In the latter case, a man entered a primary school in Scotland armed with four handguns and 743 rounds of ammunition. He entered a gym full of children and opened fire. In just a few minutes, he caused the deaths of 17 people and then turned the gun on himself.
After those two massacres, it was Conservative governments that passed gun control laws, significantly restricting the use of firearms. When Tony Blair swept into power in a landslide in 1997, his Labour government expanded on those laws, and today there’s an almost total ban on handguns, as well as automatic and semiautomatic weaponry, in most of the U.K. Britons were given a few months to hand in their weapons in a government buyback program. These laws remain in place today, and gun violence of all kinds has declined markedly over the past 25 years across Britain. A similar gun ban and buyback took place in Australia after a gruesome massacre there in 1996. (It was also enacted by a Conservative government.) Since then, gun homicides and suicides have declined in that country, as well.
One study by the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety suggests that U.S. states that have strong gun control laws are much safer from gun violence. For example, the gun-death rate in New York state, which has some of the strongest gun control laws, is only a fraction of the national average. Overall, the states with the most permissive gun laws have almost triple the gun-death rates of those with the most stringent. According to the Nationhood Lab, living in the Northeast means you have a much lower likelihood of gun-related homicides or suicides than in the Deep South.
It’s true that some states with strong gun laws, such as Illinois, don’t reap the full benefits of these laws because of neighboring states that are more lax. But you also see the equivalent phenomenon in reverse. States such as New Hampshire, with weak gun laws, have low gun deaths, helped by the fact that their neighboring states have enacted tougher measures.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, true to form, pulled out an old cliche in his response to the mass shooting in Allen. “People want a quick solution,” he said. “The long-term solution here is to address the mental health issue.” Abbott has it almost exactly backwards. The quick nonsolution is always to talk about mental health. But do people in the United States have 100 times as many mental health problems as they do in the U.K.? The United States has a rate of gun violence 18 times higher than the average rich country. Does that mean it has 18 times the rate of mental disorders? Texas has almost triple the rate of gun deaths as the state of New York — yet Texas doesn’t have three times as many mentally ill people as New York.
All these statistics can have the effect of deadening our sensibilities to what is going on in the United States. But let me try one last set to try to jolt us all into awareness. Every day in America, more than 200 people are wounded by guns; 120 are killed by them. Of these 120, 11 are children and teens. The leading cause of mortality among children in America is now death by a gun. The same number of deaths — 120 — will happen tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, every day, until we come to our senses and do something about it.
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New Mexico shooting suspect, 3 people dead with multiple injured
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/05/15/farmington-active-shooting-new-mexico/
An 18-year-old gunman who killed at least three people and injured several more on Monday in northern New Mexico fired from at least three weapons, including an AR-style rifle, police said.
Police arrived to a “chaotic scene” where the suspect was “actively firing upon individuals” before officers killed him, Farmington police said at a news conference.
Speaking in a later video update, Police Chief Steve Hebbe said authorities are still trying to piece together a motive but it appeared the attack was random, with the shooter firing seemingly indiscriminately at people, houses and cars across a quarter-mile distance.
Two officers were shot during the incident. A New Mexico State Police officer was in stable condition at San Juan Regional Medical Center, and a Farmington officer was treated and released.
Gunman fired 3 weapons including AR-style rifle, police chief says
The 18-year-old gunman fired three separate firearms during his rampage through a northern New Mexico neighborhood on Monday, Farmington Police Chief Steve Hebbe said.
One of the firearms was an AR-style rifle, Hebbe said in a video statement posted to the department’s Facebook page Monday evening.
The gunman, who was not identified, was fatally shot by police after officers responded to reports of a shooting, Hebbe said. The gunman shot three people fatally and injured six more, he said, including two officers.
A motive was not immediately clear, Hebbe said, adding that it appeared to be “completely random” with “no schools, no churches, no individuals targeted.”
At least six homes and three cars were shot as the gunman “roamed” through the neighborhood and “randomly fired at whatever entered his head to shoot at,” Hebbe said. He added that authorities are still trying to piece together information about the shooter and any potential motives.
Farmington Police Deputy Chief Baric Crum said “officers responded to the area to find a chaotic scene,” where an 18-year-old man was “actively firing upon individuals in that neighborhood.”
Four officers confronted the man and “were able to stop his actions at that time. The subject is deceased,” Crum said at a news conference.
Three people were killed and nine people were injured, he said. Among those injured were two officers, one from Farmington police and another from state law enforcement. Both officers are receiving medical treatment and are in stable condition.
Police had no further details regarding the suspect or his motive. The investigation is ongoing, Crum said.
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A man helping deer cross the street shot to death by ‘scared’ driver
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/09/14/deer-street-shooting/
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A man who was trying to slow traffic in his neighborhood because deer were crossing the street was shot and killed by another man who was driving past, authorities in western Washington state said.
Dan Spaeth of Snohomish, Wash., was outside his home with his wife on the evening of Sept. 7, trying to alert passing cars to deer that were crossing the road, Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office Det. Kendra Conley wrote in an affidavit of probable cause filed in court.
He was shot once by a man driving by, who later told authorities that seeing Spaeth and his wife in the street made him afraid and he fired the shot to scare the couple, according to the affidavit.
After a search for the car, police detained Dylan Picard, 22, of Lake Stevens, Wash. He is charged with second-degree murder. Picard told detectives he did not know Spaeth or his wife.
Spaeth, 37, was a correctional officer with the state Department of Corrections, said spokesperson Chris Wright. He had a 7-year-old son and was married to his teenage sweetheart, Alissa, said friend Jeff Perkins, who spoke to The Washington Post on behalf of the family.
Spaeth enjoyed playing outdoors with his son, helping his wife with her horses and shooting at gun ranges. He was a military history buff and appreciated antiques at the gun shows he frequented. The couple hosted a Fourth of July celebration every year, and Spaeth was “an amazing grill master,” Perkins said.
“Everybody loved Dan like a brother,” Perkins said. “If you needed money, he’d help you. If you needed a ride, if you needed anything, he was there, and a lot of times you didn’t even have to ask.”
Spaeth grew up in the Snohomish area and met his wife as a teenager. He traveled with his wife to support her hobby of showing horses and participating in rodeos, Perkins said, describing his wife as “his world.”
“If he wasn’t at work, he was playing with his son; if he wasn’t playing with his son, he was making his wife happy cleaning out the horse stalls,” Perkins said.
Spaeth’s death becomes another in a growing list of killings by Americans who have shot people in seemingly innocuous situations, from a 9-year-old killed by a neighbor while riding her scooter to a woman fatally shot by a homeowner for pulling into the wrong driveway.
The suspect allegedly fired his gun “in response to a routine situation with no reasonable indications that he was in danger,” the detective wrote in the court filing.
The Post could not immediately determine whether Picard, who was jailed in Snohomish County, had a lawyer.
According to the affidavit, Picard told investigators that he was driving on the road past Spaeth’s house when the Jeep in front of him slowed down. He said he saw a man and woman in the street and said the man appeared to yell at the Jeep and hit the car with his hands.
Picard said he became “scared,” according to the affidavit, and grabbed the loaded gun he had in the car. When the Jeep drove on and Spaeth approached his car, he said he thought he saw Spaeth’s wife reach into a bag. He said he fired one shot out of the open passenger window “to scare the male and female,” the affidavit said, and said he didn’t know whether he had hit someone. He drove away.
There was no indication in body-camera footage or in interviews with Spaeth’s wife that she had a bag with her, authorities said. Picard allegedly “acknowledged he could have” driven around the couple instead of firing his gun, according to the affidavit.
Spaeth had been a correctional officer for about a year and a half. He worked in construction before joining Perkins, also an officer, at the Department of Corrections. Wright, the spokesman, said the department had been shocked by the loss.
“Dan has been described as someone always willing to do whatever it took to get the job done in what can often be a challenging work environment,” Wright said. “He was killed in what appears to be a senseless act of violence. It’s tough to make sense of.”
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Texas boy, 13, convicted for killing Sonic worker with AR-style rifle
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/11/texas-sonic-murder-boy-rifle/
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A 13-year-old Texas boy has been found “the equivalent of guilty” in the murder of a Sonic restaurant worker with an AR-style rifle after the child’s uncle got into a fight with the employee, according to authorities.
The boy was arrested on May 13 after police received calls about a shooting at the Sonic Drive-In in Keene, Tex., about 30 miles southwest of Fort Worth, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office. The boy, who was 12 at the time of the shooting, was found “delinquent,” which is the equivalent to guilty in juvenile court, of a murder charge on Oct. 5. The boy, who is from Fort Worth but hasn’t been publicly identified because of his age, was convicted after nearly seven hours of deliberation, the sheriff’s office announced Sunday.
The boy is scheduled to be sentenced on Thursday, the sheriff’s office said. A juvenile convicted of murder in Texas could face up to 40 years in prison, according to state attorneys.
Police say the incident unfolded when the boy’s uncle, Angel Gomez, started urinating in the parking lot of the Sonic on the night of May 13. Matthew Davis, a 32-year-old Sonic employee, confronted Gomez, 20, for “being disorderly in the parking lot,” and the argument between them got physical, according to the Keene Police Department.
Then, Gomez’s nephew, who was sitting in the back seat of the car, retrieved an AR-style .22 rifle and shot Davis at least six times, according to police.
“A confrontation between two adults became physical at which point the 12-year-old boy got out of the vehicle and fired multiple shots, striking the victim,” the sheriff’s office said on Sunday.
Davis was airlifted to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
By the time police arrived at about 9:40 p.m., the boy, Gomez and the boy’s aunt had fled the scene, according to the sheriff’s office. Gomez later returned to the scene of the crime and was arrested, the Keene Police Department said in a news release. Authorities found the boy in Rio Vista, Tex., about 13 miles south of the Sonic in Keene, and took him into custody.
Gomez is also charged with murder. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney, and court records were not available to determine the status of his case. If he’s convicted, Gomez could face a sentence of five to 99 years in prison.
It’s unclear whether Gomez had a concealed-carry permit. Since September 2021, it is legal in Texas for most people over the age of 21 or over to carry a handgun in a holster without a permit both openly or concealed. While Texas law does not specifically put restrictions on who can carry a long gun such as a rifle or shotgun, some people are prohibited from owning or possessing any firearm, according to state law.
The boy’s trial at Johnson County Court lasted three days but was not open to the public because of the boy’s age.
“Please understand there is much more than what we can speak of due to the suspect being a minor and additional charges and trials possible in the future,” the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office said in a Sunday news release.
A Sonic spokesperson told The Washington Post in a statement on Wednesday that the fast-food chain was “saddened to learn about the tragedy involving a franchised team member in Keene, TX,” and that the franchisee was cooperating with authorities.
Davis is survived by a fiancée and his 10-year-old son, Trystyn, who lives in Louisiana. When Davis was killed, his family started a GoFundMe to help pay for his funeral expenses. The GoFundMe had raised more than $27,000 as of Wednesday morning.
Family members told KDFW, a Fox affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth, that Davis had just moved to Keene and started working at Sonic shortly before the shooting. Joyce Hardge, a family spokesperson, told WFAA, an ABC affiliate in Dallas-Fort Worth, in May that Davis was making money at Sonic to buy an iPhone for Trystyn so they could FaceTime together.
“He tried to make sure he did things right,” Hardge said.
TEXAS Governor Greg Abbott holding his beloved gun showing you what he loves most.
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Maine shootings suspect found dead just miles from Wednesday’s rampage
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/27/maine-shooting-search-investigation-robert-card/
LEWISTON, Maine — The gunman in Wednesday’s mass killing in Maine was found dead late Friday just miles from the scenes of the rampage, ending a massive manhunt that had left authorities scrambling for answers and thousands of residents afraid to leave their homes.
Robert Card, the shooter, is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, state police said at a late-night news conference.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D), looking visibly relieved, confirmed the death. “I am breathing a sigh of relief tonight, knowing that Robert Card is no longer a threat to anyone," she told reporters. “But I also know that his death may not bring solace to many.”
“I ask that all Maine people continue to keep those families and all of the people impacted by this tragedy in their thoughts and prayers,” Mills added.
Card’s body was found at 7:45 p.m. Friday in Lisbon, a town neighboring Lewiston, Maine Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said.
Card, a 40-year-old Army reservist, killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, police said, before disappearing Wednesday night.
The victims included a 14-year-old boy and his father out for a night of bowling; four people from the area’s deaf community who had gathered at the bar to play cornhole; a married couple in their 70s; and two men who witnesses said confronted the shooter at the start of the rampage.
Earlier Friday, law enforcement authorities had deployed divers to search the Androscoggin River and combed through nearby forests as the search for the gunman stretched into a third day and the city of Lewiston began to reckon with unfathomable loss.
Suspect at large in deadliest U.S. mass killing this year
At least 18 dead, 13 injured in attacks at bowling alley and bar in Lewiston
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/25/lewiston-maine-shooting-live-updates/
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At least 16 people have been killed in shootings in Lewiston, Maine, a law enforcement official said, based on initial information gathered by first responders at three locations. Dozens more were injured, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Authorities were trying to locate Robert Card, 40, a “person of interest” who they said should be regarded as armed and dangerous. The death toll, which could rise, is the largest from a mass shooting this year, according to data compiled by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University and analyzed by The Post.
Two businesses have been associated with the “active shooter incident” by Lewiston police: Schemengees Bar & Grille, an arcade-style restaurant on Lincoln Street, and a bowling alley formerly known as Sparetime Recreation, now Just-In-Time Recreation, on Mollison Way.
The Lewiston Police Department named Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest in the shootings, sharing a photo of Card in a post on Facebook and warning that he “should be considered armed and dangerous.”
The department added that he was born April 4, 1983, and that anyone aware of his whereabouts should contact law enforcement.
Androscoggin County Sheriff Eric Samson said law enforcement officers have located the suspect’s vehicle in Lisbon — a town about seven miles southeast of Lewiston — and have surrounded it. The suspect, Samson told The Washington Post, does not appear to be inside the vehicle.
At least 22 killed in Maine shootings
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/lewiston-maine-shootings-active-shooter-10-25-23/index.html
A vehicle of interest was located in Lisbon, Maine, Mike Sauschuck, state commissioner for the Department of Public Safety, said during a news briefing Wednesday night.
Lisbon is about 8 miles southeast of the city of Lewiston, where the shooting unfolded earlier Wednesday.
Residents in Lisbon and Lewiston are being told to shelter in place as the manhunt for a person of interest, Robert Card, continues, he said.
Hundreds of officers continue to search for Card as he remains at large and is considered armed and dangerous, Sauschuck said.
Sauschuck noted the shootings began around 6:56 p.m. ET on Wednesday evening and there were multiple locations involved.
The Lewiston Police Department has identified Robert Card as a person of interest in the two shootings in Lewiston.
Card is 40 years old and should be “considered armed and dangerous,” according a Facebook post from the Lewiston Police Department.
Law enforcement officials in Maine describe Card as a certified firearms instructor and a member of the US Army Reserves.
Here's the full statement from Lewiston Police:
"Law Enforcement is attempting to locate Robert Card 4/4/1983, as a person of interest regarding the mass shooting at Schemengees Bar and Sparetime Recreation this evening. CARD should be considered armed and dangerous. Please contact law enforcement if you are aware of his whereabouts."
The New Hampshire State Police is assisting in the search for Card, including the use of its helicopter, state police spokesperson Amber Lagace said.
What we know so far
At least 22 people were killed in two mass shootings at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine, Wednesday night, one of the city's councilors told CNN. Another 50 to 60 people were injured, according to multiple law enforcement sources.
An intensive manhunt is underway for a suspect, officials said, and police are asking residents to shelter in place as the situation is ongoing. Lewiston is the state's second-largest city which is about 36 miles north of Portland.
Police identified Robert Card, 40, as a person of interest in the shooting, adding he should be “considered armed and dangerous."
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UNLV shooting live updates: Suspect is dead after multiple victims reported in rampage
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/unlv-shooting-las-vegas-live-updates-rcna128402
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Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen and Cortez Masto said they are in touch with local law enforcement and is monitoring reports about the active shooting at UNLV.
Both Rosen and Masto encouraged people to stay away from the area and to listen to law enforcement in posts on X.
The suspect involved in UNLV campus shooting has been located and is dead, Las Vegas police said in a post on X.
“There appears to be multiple victims at this time. Please avoid the area and we will have more information soon,” police said on X.
At 11:54 a.m. local time, the university posted an emergency notice online, saying, “University Police responding to report of shots fire in BEH evacuate to a safe area, RUN-HIDE-FIGHT.”
Shortly after, the university also said on X police were responding to “additional report of shots fired in the Student Union,” and advised people to evacuate the area.
A secretary in the university’s medical school told CNN they have been asked to shelter in place.
Beam Hall is the home of the university’s Lee Business School and features food service kitchens and laboratories, computer labs and classrooms, according to its website. It is five stories high.
UNLV is located just a few miles from the site of the 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival, which left at least 58 people dead and hundreds more wounded.
The White House said it is monitoring the shooting reported at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) “very closely.” The second gentleman is already scheduled to deliver remarks tonight at the Newtown Action Alliance Foundation’s 11th Annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence, the White House added.
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Suspect arrested in Texas fatally shot his parents before killing 4 other people, authorities say
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/06/us/texas-homicides-shootings-austin-bexar-county/index.html
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A 34-year-old Texas man who was arrested after a string of homicides is believed to have first fatally shot his parents before killing four other people in another county, authorities said Wednesday.
The suspect, identified by police as Shane James, was charged in Travis County with multiple counts of capital murder and is expected to remain in custody pending a trial, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday in a statement. James was booked into the Travis County Jail in Austin early Wednesday morning, according to jail records.
“Based on information obtained over the course of these investigations, we strongly believe that one suspect is responsible for all of these incidents,” Austin Interim Police Chief Robin Henderson said.
Murder charges are also expected in the coming days out of nearby Bexar County, where the suspect is believed to have shot his parents in the hours before carrying out the other killings, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar said at a Wednesday news conference. The suspect had mental health problems, had previously been arrested on misdemeanor assault charges and had been discharged from the military after a domestic violence incident, the sheriff said.
The suspect allegedly carried out the homicides at four different locations in Austin Tuesday before he was arrested.
In the morning, he allegedly shot and injured an Austin Independent School District officer. At about noon, he allegedly fatally shot a man and a woman miles away in South Austin, investigators said.
At about 5 p.m., he allegedly shot and wounded a man on a bicycle, authorities said. And that evening, the suspect allegedly shot and injured an Austin police officer who was responding to a call about a burglary at a home, authorities said. Two people were found dead at the home, police said.
That final shooting set off a car chase that ended with the suspect in custody at 7:15 p.m., authorities said.
The relationship, if any, between the suspect and the victims isn’t known, authorities said.
Once in custody, the suspect was connected to a home in San Antonio, about 80 miles southwest of Austin, where the bodies of his parents were found. The timing of those deaths was not clear, but police believe that shooting took place in the hours before the Austin violence unfolded.
Suspect was previously arrested, sheriff says
As police in Austin investigated the suspect following his arrest, they connected him to an address in Bexar County and contacted authorities there, Salazar told reporters Wednesday.
Deputies were sent to check out the home Tuesday night and discovered water leaking from the home so they decided to force their way in, Salazar said. The suspect’s parents were discovered in a small room of the home, the sheriff added.
James is believed to have fatally shot his parents sometime between 10 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday.
There were several gunshots fired from a “large caliber handgun,” the sheriff said, and asked anyone from the public who may have heard or seen anything that night to contact authorities.
In a previous news conference on Tuesday, Salazar had described the two victims as a “very quiet family.”
James was arrested in January 2022 for three misdemeanor charges of assault and the victims are believed to have been his parents and a sibling, Salazar said. Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales said in the news conference that the assault allegations involved “pushing” and “scratching.”
The suspect’s family told the sheriff’s office a few days later he “has mental health issues” and did not belong in jail, Salazar said.
The conditions of his bond were altered and James was later released from jail on March 7. A day after his release, he cut off his ankle monitor, the sheriff said. “Those three charges then became warrants for his arrest,” he added.
In August 2023, deputies received a call from the house for “a mental health episode.” The suspect was upset and would not let authorities inside his bedroom. Deputies eventually left and asked the suspect’s father to call so they could return and arrest James, but they were never called back, the sheriff said.
“It’s always possible that we could have done more,” Salazar said Wednesday, regarding the summer incident, but said deputies were “making every effort to avoid a violent confrontation.”
The suspect was also in the military but was discharged “due to some sort of a domestic violence incident in the military,” Salazar said. The sheriff said his office found about the military discharge on Wednesday.
“It appears, by all accounts, he suffered with mental illness for some years,” the sheriff said. “From what the family members are telling us, he’s had mental health issues for some years based upon some of the history that we’ve seen.”
How the violence in Austin unfolded
In Austin, the first shooting happened around 10:40 a.m., when an Austin Independent School District officer was shot near Northeast Early College High School. The officer was shot in the leg and was stable, Austin Independent School District Police Chief Wayne Sneed said.
The school went on lockdown as another school resource officer assisted the injured officer, Sneed said. It and nearby International High School are closed Wednesday as the investigation continues, district officials said.
A little more than an hour later, Austin Police responded “to multiple calls for help” at a location about 12 miles away from the high school, Austin Police Sgt. Destiny Silva said Tuesday afternoon during a news briefing.
“The callers reported hearing gunshots and stated that there was two possible victims,” Silva said.
“Our officers arrived on scene at approximately 12:04 p.m. and located a male and a female victim with obvious signs of trauma to their body.”
One victim died there and the other was pronounced dead at the hospital, Silva said.
The third incident in Austin occurred around 4:57 p.m., “when Austin 911 received a call at 5701 West Slaughter Lane” about a male cyclist who said he had been shot. The man suffered non-life-threatening injuries, Henderson, the police chief, said.
About two hours later, a police officer responding to a burglary call in southwest Austin was shot in an exchange of gunfire with a suspect. The officer had non-life-threatening injuries and the suspect wasn’t injured, Henderson said.
The suspect fled the burglary scene in a vehicle, Henderson said, and officers pursued him. The suspect crashed the vehicle around 7:14 p.m. and was arrested, the chief said. He had a firearm on him, Henderson said.
During the pursuit, additional officers who responded to the home for the burglary call checked inside the house and found two people dead inside, said Henderson.
After his arrest, the suspect was taken to the Travis County Jail, Henderson said.
Charges related to an outstanding assault and family violence warrant for the suspect are also pending, the chief added.
TEXAS Governor Greg Abbott holding his beloved gun showing you what he loves most.
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Police kill female shooter at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church; 5-year-old injured
A boy and a 56-year-old man were wounded in the shootout with off-duty officers, police say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/02/11/shooting-lakewood-church-joel-osteen/
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A woman wielding a long gun is dead and the child who was with her is in critical condition after the woman walked into a Texas evangelical megachurch on Sunday afternoon in Houston and opened fire, police said.
Off-duty law enforcement officers confronted the woman shortly after she entered the massive Lakewood Church building just before 2 p.m., when the church was changing between English and Spanish-speaking services, according to Houston Police Chief Troy Finner.
The woman fired several rounds and indicated she had a bomb before officers fired back, killing her and injuring the 5-year-old boy who was with her. Police did not elaborate on the child’s relationship to the woman.
The child was taken to a children’s hospital in critical condition. A 56-year-old man who was attending services suffered a gunshot wound to the hip, city fire officials said.
The shooting set off panic inside the cavernous nondenominational church, which is home to Joel Osteen’s global ministry, welcomes nearly 45,000 worshipers weekly and broadcasts to more than 100 countries. It is the one of the largest megachurches in the nation. Witnesses told reporters that they barricaded themselves inside closets and took cover behind pillars as the shots rang out.
A live stream of the service on YouTube captured the sound of loud bangs coming from behind a speaker in front of the camera giving announcements in Spanish. Law enforcement evacuated businesses in a busy commercial center of Houston amid early reports of a second shooter. However, the situation involved just one shooter, Finner said.
A visibly shaken Osteen said during a news conference Sunday that he did not know why such things happen but was assured that “God is in control.”
While fans of all faiths read and watch Osteen for his general, encouraging words, he is controversial among other Christians who note his near-total silence on topics such as sin and doctrine.
A search warrant executed on Monday identified the shooter as Genesse Moreno, 36, who records show had a criminal record that included assault, fraud and drug charges.
Police and fire officials said the woman was wearing a trench coat and carried a backpack when she entered the church. Finner said she sprayed a substance as she entered the west side of the building, which prompted police to run a complete sweep of the downtown building that was once a basketball stadium. A bomb-detecting robot was also deployed as a precaution to inspect the white vehicle they say the woman drove to the church.
Officers from multiple agencies executed a search warrant on a home about 50 miles north of Houston early Monday in connection with the shooting, according to Mike Holley, a spokesman for Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office. They searched for evidence connected to aggravated assault, possession of a prohibited weapon and a hoax bomb, Holley said.
Lakewood Church is not holding in-person services on Monday, a staff member said.
Finner asked Houstonians to pray for the child wounded in the attack.
The newly elected Democratic mayor of Houston, John Whitmire, who ran on a law-and-order platform, praised the Houston area agencies for their prompt and collaborative response to the active shooter.
“It’s unfortunate that on a day we want to attend church and watch America’s No. 1 sports event that we find ourselves gathering to respond to this tragedy,” he said.
Houston police and the mayor plan to hold a briefing Monday at 1:30 p.m. Central time.
Lifeway Research, owned by the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, did a survey of Protestant pastors last year. It found that by far the most popular security plans pastors have are an “intentional plan for an active shooter” and armed congregants. Fifty-four percent of the pastors polled said they have a plan involving armed churchgoers. Three years earlier, that number was 45 percent, Lifeway said.
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HOUSTON — The person who opened fire Sunday in one of the country’s largest megachurches — using an AR-15 adorned with the word “Palestine” — was subject to an emergency detention order in 2016 due to mental health issues and was caught up in a fraught dispute with her ex-husband and his family, officials said Monday.
Genesse Moreno, 36, pulled up outside Lakewood Church about 2 p.m., walked inside with her 7-year-old son just before the start of a Spanish-language service and started shooting. The gunfire set off a panic in the cavernous building, with two off-duty officers confronting Moreno, who was wearing a trench coat, according to police and a search warrant executed early Monday.
In the ensuing moments, officials said, the boy was shot in the head and critically injured, and a male church employee was shot in the hip. Moreno was pronounced dead at the scene by the fire department.
Local and federal law enforcement officials, speaking at a news conference, said they believe Moreno acted alone. They said that a search of her home in suburban Conroe, Tex., about 50 miles north of Houston, had found “some antisemitic writings” that investigators will be “delving into.”
“We believe there was a familial dispute that has taken place through her ex-husband and her ex-husband’s family, who are Jewish. That may be where some of this stems from,” said Christopher Hassig, commander of the Houston Police Department’s homicide special investigations unit.
Moreno was identified via a driver’s license, said officials, who noted that she had multiple aliases, including “Jeffrey Escalante,” and used male and female pronouns.
She had also brought a .22-caliber rifle to the church but did not fire it, officials said. The car she drove there is being processed for evidence.
At the time of the shooting, Moreno had a backpack, yellow rope and “substances consistent with the manufacture of explosive devices, which appeared to be a detonation cord,” according to police and the warrant. Investigators searched Moreno’s house — in Conroe’s Sterling Place subdivision — for evidence of a bomb hoax, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and/or possession of prohibited weapons, the warrant said.
Moreno purchased the AR-15 rifle in December, and officials were still tracing it and trying to determine how she purchased both guns.
The injured child remained hospitalized in critical condition on Monday, “fighting for his life,” according to Police Chief Troy Finner. The other victim has been released from the hospital.
The chief said it wasn’t clear why the shooter targeted Lakewood or if she had any connection to the church. “I can’t speculate. It could be any place of worship. Bad people or individuals suffering from mental illness we all need to look out for,” he said.
Of the two off-duty officers who immediately responded, Adrian Herrera is employed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and Christopher Moreno (no relation to the shooter) by the Houston police force. The latter was working security for the church and wearing a body camera; investigators are now reviewing footage from that as well as from church security cameras.
Finner said Moreno’s relatives were cooperating with the investigation. He said it wasn’t clear who shot the 7-year-old.
Moreno’s social media indicated she worked in real estate. She had been convicted or pleaded guilty in the Houston area to misdemeanor assault, fraud and drug charges, records show.
At the briefing, Finner and the FBI special agent in charge were asked how Moreno was able to obtain guns when records show that a weapon was taken away from her in 2022 and that the FBI had questioned her attempt to purchase a weapon last year. Generally, Texas has few restrictions on gun purchases, with no firearm sales registry, no required waiting period to buy a gun and no red-flag law guarding against mentally ill or violent people having weapons.
“That’s part of the investigation,” Finner said. “That’s the challenges that we have. That’s what law enforcement talk about all the time. We need to make sure everything is tight. We are not people standing up here against Second Amendment rights, but [against] people who are suffering from mental illness, criminals. We’re looking at that.”
Lakewood Church, the home of Joel Osteen’s global ministry, is a former basketball arena with nearly 45,000 worshipers weekly. The church was not holding in-person services Monday, a staff member said.
Carl Chinn, founder of Faith Based Security Network, a national nonprofit of faith-based groups that shares security information — and includes Lakewood — said Monday that the two men who stopped the shooter were part of the church’s intentional security program.
Intentional programs at faith-based organizations — especially at large churches, such as Lakewood — usually involve members who are in law enforcement, Chinn said. The average member would probably have been informed not to jump up and get involved in an incident, so that multiple people aren’t firing outside a coordinated plan, he noted.
TEXAS Governor Greg Abbott holding his beloved gun showing you what he loves most.
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1 dead and multiple injured in shooting following Chiefs Super Bowl parade
https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/kansas-city-chiefs-parade-shooting-02-14-24/index.html
The Kansas City shooting marks 48th mass shootings in 2024
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Today's shooting in Kansas City is at least the 48th mass shooting in the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Zeroing in on Missouri, there have been at least 154 mass shootings in the state since 2013, not including today's shooting, according to a CNN analysis.
Madison Anderes, 24, who attended the Kansas City Super Bowl parade with her brother and mother, had to run for her life after shots rang out.
"At first we thought it was a string of fireworks," Anderes told CNN over the phone. Shortly after, she said a man standing in front of them turned around and yelled: "He's got a gun! He's got a gun!" Then a second round of pops went off, this time significantly louder.
After Anderes got up, she ran with her brother and mother and huddled with about 10 other people by a storefront, she said. She said by that point she witnessed law enforcement enter the scene.
Kansas City's police chief thanked law enforcement officers for running toward danger in their response to a shooting after a Super Bowl rally — while everyone else attending the celebrations ran away.
Two people were detained for further investigation. Officers chased one of those people shortly after they arrived at the scene of the shooting, Graves said.
"We were here for a safe celebration and because of two bad actors — or more — it is why we're standing here today. We will recover as a city," the police chief said.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said he's "as heartbroken as anybody" as well as "incredibly upset, disappointed" about the Kansas Chiefs Super Bowl shooting that took place today.
Lucas added he attended the celebration with his wife and mother.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on a shooting in Kansas City, Missouri, at the end of a celebration for the Super Bowl-winning Chiefs, according to the White House.
The White House also said they have been in touch with both state and local leaders and that federal law enforcement is on the scene assisting local law enforcement.
The Kansas City Fire Department says one person has died and at least 14 people were injured at the end of a celebration for the Super Bowl-winning Chiefs. Police say two armed people were taken into custody.
Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Quinton Lucas told reporters in a news conference that he received a call from the White House offering “federal assistance in the investigation.”
Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves confirmed that at least one person was killed in a shooting at the end of a celebration after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl.
Graves said the shooting happened on the west side of Union Station. When officers got there, they took two people into custody and immediately started helping people who were hurt.
Officials don't know exactly how many people were wounded, but it "could be upwards from 10 to 15," Graves said. She also said she did not yet have more information about the condition of victims.
She said she does not believe any of the victims were children.
An investigation into the Kansas Chiefs Super Bowl rally shooting is active and "is just beginning," according to Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves.
Law enforcement is working to clear surrounding areas near the incident, she said.
All Kansas City Chiefs players, coaches and staff are safe and accounted for after the shooting at the end of the Super Bowl celebration rally, Mayor Quinton Lucas said during a news conference.
Police Chief Stacey Graves said over 800 law enforcement officers were at the event to keep people safe.
Officials are holding a news conference in Kansas City, Missouri, after a shooting at a Chiefs Super Bowl rally following the victory parade.
At least one person has died and 14 others were injured, according to authorities.
Kansas City police have detained two armed people after a shooting near a rally celebrating the Chief's Super Bowl win.
The police department said these people have been taken in for more investigation.
At least one person has been killed and at least 14 others were injured, according to the Kansas City Fire Department.
One person has died after a shooting at the end of a rally celebrating the Chiefs Super Bowl win, according to the Kansas City Fire Department
Fire Department spokesperson Michael Hopkins said that in addition to the fatality, three patients were in critical condition, five were in serious condition and one had non-life-threatening injuries.
Hopkins said that five additional victims have also sought medical attention for injuries from the event. It is unsure if they are gunshot victims.
One woman said she was standing to the right of the stage where the Chiefs were having a rally to celebrate their Super Bowl victory on Wednesday when a shooting happened.
She told local station KCTV that she didn't know what was going on right away, but she saw police start running into buildings around Union Station. She said another person in the crowd speculated at the time that there was a fire.
She also watched officers swarm a stairwell, where she heard another "pop" sound.
The governors of Missouri and Kansas are safe after a shooting at the victory rally following the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade on Wednesday.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson and his wife were both in attendance when the shooting took place near Union Station, but "they are safe and secure," according to a tweet from the governor’s X account.
“As we wait to learn more, our hearts go out to the victims,” the tweet read.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly was also in attendance and confirmed on X that she was evacuated and out of harm’s way.
Throngs of Kansas City Chiefs fans lined the streets of the city’s downtown on Wednesday to join in a raucous celebration with their back-to-back Super Bowl champions. It's the team’s third NFL championship celebration in five years.
But the celebrations soured after police said multiple people were shot near Union Station after a pep rally with the team.
The parade started with Chiefs players crowded on double-decker buses, waving to fans as they rolled through the city. It didn’t take long for some players to leave their rides to walk the parade route, high-fiving fans and some even handing out a few libations to people who had been waiting throughout the morning to cheer on the Chiefs.
A pep rally following the parade featured several players toasting the team’s connection with the city.
The Chiefs have cemented themselves as the NFL’s latest dynasty with this latest championship victory.
Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who at 28 years of age has already made a claim to the title of the greatest quarterback ever, ran along the parade route with his arms outstretched – a similar pose to the one he made after tossing the winning touchdown in overtime on Sunday.
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Man kills family members in suburban Philadelphia rampage, police say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/03/16/falls-township-active-shooter-investigation/
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A Pennsylvania man killed the mother of his children, his stepmother and his 13-year-old sister Saturday morning, causing a manhunt in suburban Philadelphia before he barricaded himself in a home in Trenton, N.J., authorities said.
Andre Gordon, 26, allegedly broke into his family members’ homes in Falls Township, Pa., on Saturday morning and attacked them with what police said was an AR-style rifle before fleeing. He carried out a carjacking in a retail parking lot before driving to a home of other family members in Trenton.
The residents of the Trenton home were safely evacuated and were uninjured, while Gordon remained there Saturday afternoon, Trenton Police Detective Lt. Lisette Rios said. Live video from Fox 29 Philadelphia showed SWAT team members helping people down from an upper level of a house.
The rampage prompted a shelter-in-place order for Falls Township, a town of about 34,000 people directly southwest of Trenton in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County. The county’s St. Patrick’s Day parade was shut down, and some stores closed. The shelter-in-place order was lifted at 12:15 p.m.
Before 9 a.m., Gordon allegedly broke into his family’s home in Falls Township, where he killed his stepmother Karen Gordon, 52; and his sister Kera Gordon, 13, Bucks County District Attorney Jen Schorn said at an afternoon news conference.
Three other people, including one minor, were in the home and hid as Gordon searched for them. They were uninjured, Schorn said.
Gordon then broke into the home of Taylor Daniel, 25, with whom he has two children, Schorn said. He shot and killed her with the children present. He bludgeoned her mother with the assault rifle; she is expected to recover from the injuries, Schorn said.
Gordon arrived in Falls Township, driving a stolen vehicle authorities said he had carjacked in Trenton earlier Saturday. After the killings, he allegedly carjacked a 44-year-old man in a Dollar General parking lot, taking his Honda CR-V. The man was uninjured. The car was found about 2½ hours later, abandoned, in Trenton, authorities said.
Authorities did not offer theories about a motive for the attack. They were investigating whether Gordon had legally come to possess the rifle, Schorn said.
Gordon was homeless, authorities said. Local police had “minor contacts” with Gordon in the past, “but nothing that would indicate anything like this would happen,” Falls Township Police Chief Nelson Whitney said.
Just before 2 p.m., police remained at the scene at the Trenton home where Gordon was barricaded.
Gun violence against family members and partners is a leading factor in shootings. In more than two-thirds of mass shootings between 2014 and 2019 — which The Washington Post defines as four or more people killed, not including the perpetrator — the shooter killed at least one family member or partner or had a history of domestic violence, Johns Hopkins researchers found. On average, 70 women are shot and killed by an intimate partner every month, and about two-thirds of women killed by partners are killed with guns, according to the gun-control advocacy group Everytown.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/04/17/florida-state-university-shooter/
2 dead, 5 injured in Florida State University shooting; suspect is a student
Two people were killed and five others were injured Thursday in a shooting at Florida State University, campus police chief Jason Trumbower told reporters at a news conference. A suspect was taken into custody and is believed to be a 20-year-old FSU student and the son of a local sheriff’s deputy. The two killed are not believed to be students; the suspect was also taken to a local hospital.