But that mass shooting (a shooting where at least four people are shot) is just one of many this year. Most of them don't make the national news. In the first 248 days of this year, there have been 385 mass shootings in the United States. That's an average of 1.55 mass shootings every day!
And once again, we are hearing Republicans offer up thoughts and prayers. But thoughts and prayers don't save innocent lives - and they don't stop or slow the mass shootings. The only thing that will do that is the passage of sensible gun laws.
Republicans oppose all gun laws and restrictions. They claim passing any gun laws will impinge of the right of citizens to buy and own a gun. That's a lie!
The right to buy and own a gun is not absolute. The Supreme Court has ruled that reasonable gun laws are constitutional - including who can buy a gun, where they can carry that gun, and what kind of gun can be bought or possessed.
The court has ruled that criminals and other dangerous individuals may be restricted from buying or possessing a firearm of any kind. They upheld the background check law passed many years ago. But sadly, that background check law was full of holes, and allowed many dangerous people to purchase a gun without a background check. Republicans refuse to plug the holes in that law - even though between 80% and 90% of the public wants it done.
The 14 year old Georgia shooter had an assault-style weapon. That's not unusual any more. Many, if not most, mass shootings have been done with an assault weapon. Unfortunately, our politicians let the ban on those weapons expire (even though the Supreme Court had ruled it was constitutional).
The ban on assault weapons needs to be reinstated. And any assault weapons allowed must be registered and required to have liability insurance in a significant amount. There is no legitimate reason to allow these kind of weapons to proliferate in our society.
I am not advocating anything that would violate the Second Amendment. But we need to pass reasonable and constitutional restrictions on guns that would keep them out of the hands of dangerous people while allowing decent and law-abiding citizens to own a gun.
That's not going to happen as long as Republicans have the power to block those laws. They must be voted out of power - and the coming November election is a great opportunity to do that. Vote for gun sanity. Vote for Democrats.
Three adults and three children have been killed in a Nashville school shooting by a 28-year-old assailant with three guns, including at least one AR-15-style rifle.
These attacks are always heart-wrenching. But they’re not surprising anymore — neither the massacres themselves nor the weapons used to carry them out. Ten of the 17 deadliest mass killings in the United States since 2012 involved AR-15s. The names of the towns and cities where these tragedies took place have become familiar: Newtown, San Bernardino, Las Vegas, Parkland, Uvalde and beyond. The Post chronicles the journey this now-iconic rifle took from military-issued firearm to off-the-shelf bestseller, and underscores the danger in the public’s embrace of a weapon the Defense Department once lauded for its “phenomenal lethality.”
“I don’t know why anyone needs an AR-15,” President Donald Trump reportedly told aides in August 2019 after back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso. There’s no good answer. The AR-15 was designed for soldiers, yet its associations with warfare eventually became a selling point for everyday buyers. “Use what they use,” exhorted one ad displaying professionals wielding tactical rifles. Now, about 1 in 20 U.S. adults own at least one AR-15. That’s roughly 16 million people, storing roughly 20 million guns designed to mow down enemies on the battlefield with brutal efficiency. Two-thirds of these were crafted in the past decade — and when more people die, popularity doesn’t fall. Instead, it rises.
The AR-15, The Post explains, is materially different from traditional handguns. The rifle fires very small bullets at very fast speeds. The projectiles don’t move straight and smooth through human targets like those from a traditional handgun. Their velocity turns them unstable upon penetration, so that they tumble through flesh and vital organs. This so-called blast effect literally tears people apart. A trauma surgeon notes, “you don’t see the muscle … just bone and skin and missing parts.” Another mentions tissue that “crumbled into your hands.”
A Texas Ranger speaks of bullets that “disintegrated” a toddler’s skull.
This explains the lead poisoning that plagues survivors of the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Tex.; David Colbath, 61, can scarcely stand or use his hands without pain, and 25-year-old Morgan Workman probably can’t have a baby. It explains the evisceration of small bodies such as that of Noah Pozner, 6, murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary, and Peter Wang, 15, killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. The Post examined the way bullets broke inside of them — obliterating Noah’s jaw and Peter’s skull, filling their chests with blood and leaving behind gaping exit wounds.
Even thinking about these injuries is horrifying, so much so that crime scene photos are often kept confidential. But the gruesome reality of what an AR-15 can wreak poses an argument in itself: There is no excuse for the widespread availability of these weapons of war.
A woman armed with assault rifles entered a Christian school in Nashville and fatally shot three nine-year-old children and three staff members before she was shot and killed by the police.
It makes me weep. It’s happening gain and again and again. Our children.
President Biden renewed his call for Congress to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban, but with Republicans in control of the House there’s little to no chance.
So far this year, there have been 129 mass shootings in the United States.
Ten of the 17 deadliest U.S. mass shootings since 2012 have involved AR-15s. In a review of the history of the AR-15, the Washington Post reports that it was originally designed in the 1950s as a soldiers’ rifle. “An outstanding weapon with phenomenal lethality,” according to an internal Pentagon report. It soon became standard issue for U.S. troops in Vietnam (where the weapon was called the M16).
Few gunmakers envisioned that ordinary people would buy the semiautomatic version, which didn’t seem suited for hunting and appeared overkill for home defense. The National Rifle Association and other industry allies focused on promoting traditional rifles and handguns.
Today, the AR-15 is the best-selling rifle in the United States, owned by about 1 in 20 U.S. adults, or roughly 16 million people. It dominates the walls and websites of gun dealers. (Republican Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama has even introduced a bill to declare the AR-15 the “National Gun of America.”)
What accounts for this dramatic change? Follow the money. The early 2000s were a tough time for the firearms industry. Gun sales had been flat for several years. But after the Assault Weapons Ban ended in 2004, gun manufacturers saw a chance to ride a post-9/11 surge in military glorification. As America soldiers were seen in Afghanistan and Iraq wearing tactical gear and holding M16 and M4 carbine rifles, gunmakers used the conflict-zone images to market AR-15s.
“We made it look cool,” said Randy Luth, the founder of gunmaker DPMS, one of the earliest companies to promote AR-15s. “The same reason you buy a Corvette.”
One Smith & Wesson AR-15 ended up in the hands of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who fatally shot two people and wounded a third during 2020’s racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As Rittenhouse explained during his trial, he chose an AR-15 because “I thought it looked cool.”
Another AR-15 was alluring to the gunman who killed 10 Black people at a supermarket in Buffalo in May 2022. “The AR-15 and its variants are very deadly when used properly,” he wrote in a manifesto filled with racial vitriol. “Which is the reason I picked one.” Ten days later, 19 schoolchildren and two adults were shot to death in Uvalde, Tex., with another AR-15.
The string of attacks prompted President Biden, who as a senator had strongly supported the 1994 assault weapons ban, to promise a renewed effort to stop the sale of military-style weapons. Last year, the Democratic-led House passed a new assault weapons ban on a tight party-line vote of 217-213 — the first time the measure had been voted on in nearly three decades. But the Senate, also run by Democrats, never took action.
***
When Bill Clinton signed the original Assault Weapons Ban in 1994, he was widely condemned by Republicans and gun owners. The Democrats’ subsequent losses of the House and Senate in the 1996 midterm elections were partly blamed on the ban. But it saved lives.
The 10-year length of the ban has allowed researchers to compare mass shooting deaths before, during, and after the ban.
Before: From 1981 (the earliest year analyzed) until the ban went into effect in 1994, the proportion of deaths in mass shootings in which an assault rifle was used was lower than it is today, and the average number of yearly deaths attributed to mass shootings was 7.2.
During: In the years after the assault weapons ban went into effect, the average number of yearly deaths from mass shootings fell to 5.3. Even including 1999’s Columbine High School massacre (the deadliest mass shooting during the period of the ban), the 1994 to 2004 period saw lower average annual rates of both mass shootings and deaths resulting from such incidents than before the ban’s inception.
After: In the years after the assault weapons ban expired in 2004, the data shows an almost immediate – and steep – rise in mass shooting deaths to an average of 25.
Researchers have calculated that the risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70 percent lower when assault weapons ban was in place than it is today.
Facts, data, logic, analysis — do they play any role in what our government decides? The Republican Party in particular no longer listens, or thinks. It is owned — lock, stock, and barrel — by the gun industry.
You might think that preventing young children from being murdered in random mass killings by assailants with assault weapons would be a goal shared by all lawmakers. But you’d be wrong.
The Assault Weapons Ban must be reinstated — the greed of gun manufacturers be damned.
The AR-15 is more than a weapon.
It is a potent symbol with a grip on the American imagination — a readily available and easy-to-use killing machine wielded during some of the country’s darkest moments, and a tactical weapon championed as the ultimate expression of Second Amendment rights. It is also a lucrative consumer product with a distinct appeal: The more controversial it becomes, the better it sells.
To understand the AR-15 and its impact, The Washington Post interviewed more than 200 people with expertise or relevant firsthand experience — including firearms industry executives and lobbyists, gun owners, shooting survivors and victims’ families, lawmakers, trauma surgeons, first responders, activists, armed militants, academics and ballistics experts, among others. Our seven-month examination also relied on a review of more than 1,000 pages of documents, including internal company records, court and regulatory filings, and autopsy reports, many of them obtained through public records requests. And, in the most detailed poll of its kind to date, The Post partnered with Ipsos to survey hundreds of AR-15 owners about their reasons for having the weapon.
Here’s what we learned:
A flip by the gun industry: The AR-15’s rise over the past two decades was sparked by a dramatic reversal in strategy by the country’s biggest gun companies to invest in a product that many in the industry had long viewed as anathema to their culture and traditions. The industry embraced the gun’s political and cultural significance as a marketing advantage as it looked for new revenue. Manufacturers rode a post-9/11 surge in military admiration while also stoking a desire among new gun owners to personalize their weapons with tactical accessories. Gun companies seeking to rebrand the AR-15 have used images of police and soldiers wielding tactical rifles in the field, urging civilian buyers to, as one ad put it, “use what they use.”
Spikes in consumer demand: While handguns account for the most gun-related killings in the United States, sales of AR-15s surge in times of tragedy and political change. They soared in the run-up to the election of Barack Obama in 2008, and after the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 and a high school in Parkland, Fla., in 2018, and again ahead of the turbulent 2020 presidential election. AR-15s, which once accounted for a small fraction of guns produced in the United States, now represent nearly 1 in 4, according to industry and government figures.
Who owns AR-15s and why: About 1 in 20 U.S. adults — or about 16 million people — own at least one AR-15, according to new polling data from The Post and Ipsos. Self-defense is the most popular reason for owning one, with many respondents also citing recreation, target shooting and hunting. Compared with Americans as a whole, AR-15 owners are more likely to be White, male and between the ages of 40 and 65. They’re also more likely than adults overall to be Republican and to live in states Donald Trump won in 2020. The industry, meanwhile, has shifted operations in many cases to more culturally welcoming terrain. Numerous firearms, ammunition and gun accessory companies have moved headquarters or production facilities from liberal to conservative states, where communities see the companies as sources of jobs, not controversy.
The gun’s brutal efficiency: The AR-15’s mechanics, which allow shooters to easily fire bullets at a high velocity in rapid succession, make the weapon lethal and destructive. When the bullets penetrate the body, they create a blast effect that blows up organs and pulverizes bones. The weapon’s power magnifies the impact of gun violence, both because of the number of victims and, for survivors, the long-lasting effects on physical and mental health. In Sutherland Springs, Tex., where more than two dozen people were killed during an eight-minute rampage in 2017, the additional 20 people injured continue to grapple with debilitating, lifelong conditions such as paralysis or infertility. More than 90 percent of gun-related homicides involve handguns, according to the FBI, but 10 of the 17 deadliest U.S. mass killings since 2012 have involved AR-15s.
Escalating arsenals: In response to years of right-wing violence and intimidation linked to the AR-15, some far-left activists have begun to form armed groups, billed as community defense, often turning to the AR-15 as their weapon, as well. Some leftist activists who long favored nonviolence have grown more tolerant of armed support at public events as threats against the LGBTQ community and other vulnerable groups rise and faith in law enforcement recedes.
Outgunned police: Police departments that once deferred to SWAT teams wielding military-style rifles for active-shooter situations have started equipping officers with AR-15s and other long guns, as those weapons have flooded the neighborhoods they patrol. Many officers welcome the change, some buying their own AR-15s and using them for sport. But police often say they still feel outgunned and ill-prepared — hampered by a lack of training and by public demands that they do everything possible to avoid using force.
A path to fewer deaths: Many gun violence experts and law enforcement veterans say that restricting the sizes of ammunition magazines would lessen the carnage caused by AR-15s and other guns. Smaller capacity magazines would force shooters to pause during their attacks to reload, allowing people to flee or fight back, research shows. Most states do not limit magazine sizes, but in the past year, four states have capped them at anywhere from 10 to 17 rounds. Such efforts face growing legal challenges, and the issue could ultimately wind up before the Supreme Court.
Both of those numbers were less than in 2021 -- but only slightly less. And both numbers were still far to high. The country averaged about 121 gun deaths per day, and about 1.77 mass shootings per day. That is certainly no reason to celebrate!
There is no excuse for allowing this to continue. No other developed nation even comes close to those numbers -- and most third world nations don't either. That's because other nations have sensible gun laws. They don't let dangerous people have guns.
Right-wing Republicans whine that sensible gun laws would be a violation of the Constitution's Second Amendment, and that supporters of stricter gun laws want to take guns away from Americans. Both of those claims are lies! They are just excuses to protect the profits of gun manufacturers (and the campaign donations those manufacturers send to GOP politicians).
There are two sensible things Congress could do -- and both are constitutional. Both are also supported by a substantial majority of Americans. Congress could plug the loopholes in the national background check law for anyone wanting to purchase a gun or for anyone to receive a gun as a gift. Congress could also ban the sale (and possession) of assault-style weapons. These are weapons of war designed to kill as many people as possible in a short time. They are not appropriate for either hunting or self-defense.
Unfortunately, Republicans took control of the House in the last election, and have enough votes to filibuster any gun laws in the Senate. That means the carnage will continue for at least two more years!
Is this really what we want? If not, the gun-lovers must be booted out of Congress in 2024.
Some sensible gun laws would not prevent very gun death in the country. But they would save thousands of innocent lives each year.
NOTE -- the numbers in the charts above are from the Gun Violence Archive.
The following editorial is from the editorial board of The Washington Post:
Over the past week, a Florida jury has listened as medical examinerstestified in excruciating detail about the autopsies they performed on the 14 students and three staff members murdered in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Jurors heard how bullets fired from the AR-15-style rifle hit the victims with such force that they caused extensive and devastating damage, while the weapon’s rapid fire action magnified the carnage. Alaina Petty, 14, was shot four times; Martin Duque Anguiano, 14, was shot eight times; Carmen Schentrup, 16, was shot five times; Meadow Pollack, 16, was shot nine times.
That gruesome account — and the pain of parents who sobbed or fled the courtroom — resonated as we listened to the indifferent testimony of executives of companies that market assault weapons such as the one used in the Parkland school slaughter. Appearing Wednesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, leading manufacturers of assault weapons that have been used in the country’s deadliest mass shootings said they bear absolutely no responsibility for the violence.
“I believe that these murders are a local problem that have to be solved locally,” said Marty Daniel of Daniel Defense, which manufactured the AR-15-style rifle that an 18-year-old used in May to murder 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tex. “I don’t consider what my company produces to be ‘weapons of war,’ ” said Christopher Killoy of Sturm, Ruger & Co., which produced the weapons used by mass shooters in Sutherland Springs, Tex., in 2017 and Boulder, Colo., in 2021.
There is no question, as the gun manufacturers argued, that the individuals who pull the trigger are culpable for their terrible crimes. The gunman in the Parkland shooting has pleaded guilty; the jury hearing the penalty phase of his trial will determine whether he is to be sentenced to death or to life in prison without parole. But gun companies can’t wash their hands of responsibility for the damage caused by their products — particularly when their marketing strategies are designed to appeal to angry, insecure, young males — the very demographic that is increasingly the profile of mass shooters. “Consider your man card reissued,” read one advertisement. Another: “Your status at the top of the testosterone food chain is now irrevocable.” To make it easier to obtain the weapons, the companies offer generous credit plans.
A report released by the House committee found that the country’s top five gun manufacturers have collected more than $1 billion in revenue over the past decade, much of it from the sales of assault-style weapons. At the same time, they have failed to take even basic steps to monitor the violence associated with their products. None of the companies have systems to track injuries and deaths caused by AR-15-style rifles, whether from accidental discharge, product malfunction or deliberate use. Nor do they monitor crimes committed with the products.
It’s no surprise that the gun manufacturers fail to collect data that might make their products safer. Congress has provided them unique protection from legal liability. As a consequence, there is no disincentive to their irresponsible business practices when it nets them record-breaking profits. One would have hoped that Petty, Anguiano, Schentrup, Pollack and the other children lost to gun violence might give the gun industry some pause. Since that is clearly not the case, it is up to Congress to crack down.
* It does not violate the Second Amendment of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has already ruled on that.
* It has been done before, and it saved lives.
* It is the weapon of choice for most mass shooters. That's because it gives them the ability to kill a large number of people in a short period of time.
* It was developed for use by the military in a time of war. It was never meant to be used or owned by ordinary citizens in the society.
* A person shot by this weapon is less likely to survive than those shot by other firearms. This is because the assault-style weapon causes much greater damage to the victim (see above).
* This weapon has no real use in society. There are better weapons for hunting and for self-defense.
There is no doubt that banning this weapon would save many lives -- both by fewer people being shot in a mass shooting scenario, and by the less serious wounds of those who are shot.
Why has this weapon not been banned? Because too many of our politicians have been bought-off by the gun manufacturers. They know the above things are true. They just don't care. Campaign donations (from the gun lobby) are more important to them than the lives of American citizens. We must vote against these politicians.
It is up to us to accomplish this. Make sure you know where candidates stand on this issue, and then vote against the candidates that don't support banning assault-style weapons. Failure to do this makes us as guilty of the lost lives as the uncaring politicians.
Yesterday (June 1st), there was another mass shooting. This one was in a Tulsa hospital. Five people died (including the shooter) and others were wounded.
The Tulsa mass shooting was the 20th mass shooting in the United States since the Uvalde massacre on May 24th. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 233 mass shootings in the United States in the first 152 days of the year. That's an average of 1.53 mass shootings for every day of this year.
In addition, there have been 18,187 deaths due to gun violence (that about 119.65 gun-related deaths for every day).
It seems obvious that gun violence (and mass shootings) are out-of-control in this country. In a country with about 330 million people, there are more than 400 million guns -- and more are being sold every day.
Republicans wants to blame everything but the proliferation of guns and the ability of anyone to get a gun. But the United States is the only country with 1.2 guns for every man, woman, and child -- and it's the only developed nation with this kind of gun violence.
Republicans want to blame mental illness for the shootings. But the U.S. doesn't have more mentally ill people than other developed nations. It is, however, the only nation that makes it easy for those people to arm themselves with any kind of gun they want, and as much ammunition as they want.
Between 80% and 90% of Americans want anyone buying or receiving a gun to have to pass a background check. Unfortunately, the U.S. background check law is full of holes, and it's easy to bypass the background check and get a gun.
That should be immediately fixed. And any politician refusing to fix the background check law should be voted out of office, regardless of their political party.
The gun used in the Tulsa shooting was an assault-style rifle. The gun used in Uvalde was the same -- and the gun used in nearly every mass shooting is the same. It is a rifle that has only one purpose -- to kill as many people as possible as fast as possible. There is no legitimate reason for civilians to own this weapon of war.
About 67% of the population would support banning these assault-style rifles. That is constitutional, and has been done in the past. It should be done again.
It is time to make a choice. Do we want to save lives, or do we want to allow criminals, terrorists, and other dangerous people to buy any weapon they want (including assault-style rifles)?
Closing the holes in the background check law and banning the sale of assault-style rifles would not keep any honest and law-abiding citizen from buying or possessing a gun. Refusing to do so though, will insure that many more lives are unnecessarily lost.
