Category Archives: Gun violence

Everytown for Gun Safety, Gun violence, Legislative Action

Gun Safety – Report on progress in the U.S. House

Email from Sarah Trumble, Director of Federal Legislative Campaigns, Everytown for Gun Safety, September 11, 2019

Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee advanced three pieces of lifesaving gun violence prevention legislation:

    • The Disarm Hate Act, which would prohibit people convicted of threatening or violent hate crimes from buying or possessing guns.
    • New prohibitions on high-capacity magazines, like the ones used by the shooter in Dayton.
    • A strong Red Flag law, which strengthens and expands the tools family members or law enforcement can use to intervene and temporarily suspend someone’s access to guns if a judge finds there is evidence that person poses a serious threat to themselves or others.

Yesterday’s Committee vote follows the critical steps the House already took to prevent gun violence in this country earlier this year. It passed the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019, addressed the Charleston Loophole, took action to close the deadly “boyfriend loophole,” and allocated funding for gun violence research. The contrast between the House’s lifesaving action and the Senate’s inaction could not be more clear.

As the House continues to move important gun safety legislation forward, the Senate STILL has not taken a single action to prevent gun violence in America. We need to keep up the pressure and urge the Senate to pass stronger gun laws, starting with background checks on all gun sales and a strong Red Flag law. Send a message to your U.S. Senators and demand action to address gun violence in our country.

Thanks for all you do,

Sarah Trumble
Director of Federal Legislative Campaigns
Everytown for Gun Safety

#DoSomething, #ENOUGH, #NOTONEMORE, Gun violence

51 Mass shootings since Dayton OH – in just 29 days!

By Roger Straw, September 2, 2019

Gun Crisis in America: 51 Shootings, 54 dead, 202 wounded in 29 days

Numbers don’t tell the tragic human stories of loss and pain, grief and healing — but they sure do tell the story of our national crisis.  Legislators – DO SOMETHING!

Here’s the shockingly long list of mass shootings since August 4 when a 24-year-old white man dressed in body armor shot and killed 9 and wounded 27 others in Dayton, Ohio.  (Mass Shootings Tracker lists all shootings where 4 or more people are SHOT (not just those where 4 or more are killed).  We don’t even hear about most of these stories…

date killed wounded city state
9/2/2019 2 2 Greensboro NC
9/1/2019 0 4 Rocky Mount NC
9/1/2019 0 4 Hartford CT
9/1/2019 0 4 Toledo OH
8/31/2019 0 7 Valley AL
8/31/2019 0 4 Baltimore MD
8/31/2019 1 4 Chicago (West Englewood) IL
8/31/2019 6 21 Odessa TX
8/31/2019 2 2 Philadelphia PA
8/31/2019 0 4 Moncks Corner SC
8/31/2019 0 4 Frederick MD
8/31/2019 1 3 Charlotte NC
8/30/2019 0 10 Mobile AL
8/30/2019 1 3 Baltimore MD
8/29/2019 1 3 Baltimore MD
8/26/2019 4 0 Pembroke Pines FL
8/25/2019 3 4 Hobbs NM
8/25/2019 1 3 Chicago (Chatham) IL
8/24/2019 1 3 Lynn MA
8/24/2019 0 7 Temple Hills MD
8/23/2019 0 4 Dublin GA
8/23/2019 1 3 St. Louis MO
8/23/2019 3 2 Houston TX
8/22/2019 0 4 Los Angeles CA
8/22/2019 2 2 Columbia SC
8/20/2019 0 4 Atlanta GA
8/18/2019 0 4 Kansas City MO
8/17/2019 0 4 Kansas City MO
8/17/2019 2 2 Newport News VA
8/17/2019 0 6 Houston TX
8/15/2019 2 3 Montgomery AL
8/15/2019 0 5 Philadelphia PA
8/14/2019 1 5 New Manchester WV
8/14/2019 0 6 Philadelphia PA
8/13/2019 2 3 Tacoma WA
8/13/2019 0 4 Greenwood MS
8/12/2019 3 1 Hickory NC
8/12/2019 2 2 Riverside CA
8/11/2019 0 6 Chicago (Garfield Park) IL
8/10/2019 0 4 Richmond VA
8/10/2019 0 4 San Francisco CA
8/9/2019 0 4 Houston TX
8/9/2019 0 4 Chicago (Marquette Park) IL
8/8/2019 2 3 Irvington NJ
8/7/2019 2 2 St. Louis MO
8/6/2019 4 0 Stone Mountain GA
8/6/2019 0 4 Detroit MI
8/6/2019 1 3 Suitland MD
8/5/2019 4 0 San Antonio TX
8/5/2019 0 4 Brooklyn NY
8/4/2019 0 4 Grenada Co. MS
TOTAL 54 202
#DoSomething, #NEVERAGAIN, Gun violence

Death Toll In TX Shooting Rampage Now At 7

By Bobby Allyn, NPR News, September 1, 201911:37 AM ET
Updated 9/1/19, at 12:04 p.m. ET

The death toll from a mass shooting in the West Texas cities of Midland and Odessa has risen from five to seven, according to Odessa Mayor David Turner.

The mayor said that at least 18 remain injured — including a 17-month-old girl — following the shooting rampage that began after Texas state troopers attempted to pull over a vehicle Saturday afternoon on a Texas interstate for failing to signal a left turn.

The toddler, Turner said, is still in the hospital recovering from injuries that are “not as bad as they thought,” saying, “we are very grateful the injuries weren’t worse.”

As the community searches for answers about what motivated the gunman, the focus needs to be on the families of victims, the mayor said in an interview with NPR.

“We covet everyone’s prayers for those who were injured and for those loved ones who were lost and for the community as a whole,” Turner said.

Authorities in Texas are scheduled to hold a briefing on the shooting at noon local time to provide additional details about the incident.

Police say the gunman, described as a man in his mid-30s, fled police and then stole a postal truck and began firing indiscriminately at people along the highway and streets around Midland and Odessa.

Three law enforcement officers were wounded in the attack, and Turner said all three are in “stable”condition and still hospitalized.

“Our law enforcement are in as good condition as can be expected. Physical injuries are there, but there are also emotional injuries. And so, we’ll have to watch them close,” Turner said.

Police shot and killed the shooter outside of a movie theater in the Odessa area. The gunman’s motive has not been revealed.

The communities jolted by the massacre are in need of support right now, according to the Odessa mayor.

“In West Texas, we’re known for being strong and independent,” Turner said. “It’s time for us to come together and love on those who need are love that have lost friends and family.”

#DoSomething, #ENOUGH, #NEVERAGAIN, #NOTONEMORE, Gun control, Gun violence, Mass killings, Mass shootings

How many dead? Database discrepancies…

By Roger Straw, August 6, 2019

Well, of course one death by the hand of a mass shooter is too many.

But the numbers are important, and how are we to know the facts when we read widely varying reports:

    1. “At least 60 people have died in the U.S. from mass shootings in 2019 alone”  – Vallejo Times-Herald on Aug. 6
    2. Prior to the El Paso shooting, “20 mass killings in the US in 2019 claimed 96 lives.”  – The Guardian on Aug 4
    3. “The Ohio mass shooting was the 293rd this year, accounting for 345 killed.”  – The Benicia Independent on Aug 4

Yes, one is too many, but what is the real story of America’s gun violence problem?  How to report with a sense of accuracy?  And how are readers to make sense of the wide discrepancies?

#1 – First, it is likely that the Aug 6 Vallejo Times-Herald headline (60 killed) is just an error.  I can find no other news article making that claim, and the headline is not referenced in the body of the two Associated Press news reports below the headline.

#2 – The Aug 4 Guardian article (96 killed) refers to “a database compiled by the Associated Press, Northeastern University and USA Today.”  The database only counts shootings where four or more people killed, not including the shooter.  Using this methodology, the shooting in Dayton was only “the 22nd mass killing in the US this year.  The first 20 mass killings in the US in 2019 claimed 96 lives.”

#3 – My own reporting here on the Benicia Independent relies on two very similar databases with shockingly higher numbers: MassShootingTracker.org and GunViolenceArchive.org.  Both of these track all shootings where 4 or more people are SHOT (not just those where 4 or more are killed).  The justification for this as stated by example on MassShootingTracker is convincing: “…in 2012 Travis Steed and others shot 18 people total. Miraculously, he only killed one. Under the incorrect definition used by the media and the FBI, that event would not be considered a mass shooting! Arguing that 18 people shot during one event is not a mass shooting is absurd.”  One difference between these two is that MassShootingTracker includes the death of the shooter, while GunViolenceArchive does not.  Thus, they give these numbers for 2019 as of today, Aug 6:

Database – Mass Shootings in 2019 Incidents Killed Wounded
MassShootingTracker.org 298 353 1162
GunViolenceArchive.org 253 275 1055

Only using the more detailed mass shootings data can we understand that in the 218 days of this year, the U.S. is experiencing more than one mass shooting every day.

This is a crisis.

Congress needs to act.  Now.