mass shootings

U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, led a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023. (Screenshot from U.S. Senate webcast)

Gun violence as a public health crisis explored by U.S. Senate Democrats

BY: - November 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats on Tuesday discussed how to treat gun violence as a public health crisis, in hopes of building upon last year’s federal gun safety legislation. “Across the country, gun violence is a public health epidemic,” Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, the chairman of the committee, said in his opening remarks. […]

COMMENTARY
Who is making these guns, and where? (Photo by Sergio Flores/Bloomberg, Getty Images)

We need to broaden the conversation about guns to include manufacturers

BY: and - April 27, 2023

There is a familiar pattern after the mass shootings that have become a well-known feature of American life. The initial shock and grief gives way to demands for greater regulation of gun ownership by Democrats, while Republicans dismiss such measures and blame mental illness instead. But if we actually want to do something about it, […]

Kentucky police release names of five dead in Louisville shooting, nine injured

BY: - April 10, 2023

LOUISVILLE — Louisville Metro Police Department Interim Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel was joined Monday afternoon by Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg to name the victims of a mass shooting earlier that day in the city, one of them a close friend of the governor. According to LMPD, the victims: – 40-year-old Joshua Barrick […]

3 kids, 3 adults killed in shooting at Nashville private elementary school

BY: - March 27, 2023

Three children and three adult staff members are dead after a mass shooting event Monday at The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville’s Green Hills neighborhood. Among the victims are three 9-year-old children: Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs, and William Kinney. The adult victims are Cynthia Peak, 61,  Mike Hill, 61, and Katherine Koonce, […]

A digital illustration, in pencil and watercolor, about the mental health effects on youth who experience gun violence. A repeating pattern made out of handguns close in on a young boy, who is at the center of the drawing. He covers his face with his hand s, an anguished expression visible on his face. A line of thin red circles are layered across the horizontal center, symbolizing cycles of trauma.

Pandemic stress, gangs, and utter fear fueled a rise in teen shootings

BY: - March 12, 2023

Diego never imagined he’d carry a gun. Not as a child, when shots were fired outside his Chicago-area home. Not at age 12, when one of his friends was gunned down. Diego’s mind changed at 14, when he and his friends were getting ready to walk to midnight Mass for the feast of Our Lady […]

Sen. Bob Menendez

U.S. Senate Democrats unveil legislation to ban high-capacity gun magazines

BY: - February 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, along with 27 of his U.S. Senate colleagues, introduced legislation Tuesday to ban high-capacity magazines, which can be used on the type of semi-automatic firearm that is typically used in most mass shootings.  “High-capacity magazines were designed for one purpose and one purpose only — high-capacity killing […]

Wave of mass shootings prompts Biden to call yet again for assault weapons ban

BY: - January 24, 2023

WASHINGTON — Following a mass shooting on the eve of Lunar New Year in which 11 people in a predominantly Asian neighborhood in California were killed, President Joe Biden again urged Congress to pass legislation banning assault weapons. Communities across America “have been struck by tragedy after tragedy, including mass shootings from Colorado Springs to […]

Researchers say there's been an uptick in mass shootings at stores. Here members of the FBI and other law enforcement investigate the site of a fatal shooting in a Walmart on Nov. 23, 2022, that killed six, including the suspected gunman. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images)

Rampage at Virginia Walmart follows upward trend in supermarket gun attacks

BY: and - November 28, 2022

A gun rampage at a Walmart in Virginia is the latest amid a rise in mass shootings in general in the U.S., and mass shootings at grocery and retail stores in particular. Multiple people including the gunman were killed in the incident on Nov. 22, 2022, at an outlet of the retailer in Chesapeake. It […]

COMMENTARY
People visit a makeshift memorial near the Club Q nightclub on Nov. 21, 2022 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. On Saturday evening, a 22-year-old gunman entered the LGBTQ nightclub and opened fire, killing five people and injuring 25 others before being stopped by club patrons. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Another mind-numbing mass murder brings reflection

BY: - November 23, 2022

Shocked? No. Resigned? Maybe. Numb? I hope not. The slaughter continues. On the heels of two multiple murders on or near college campuses in Virginia and Idaho the week of Nov. 12 comes news of a mass shooting at a Colorado Springs nightclub catering to the LGBTQ+ community on Nov. 19. A gunman entered Club […]

A passerby observes a memorial for the 10 shooting victims outside of Tops market on May 20, 2022, in Buffalo, New York. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Health effects of mass shootings ripple outward beyond immediate community

BY: - November 21, 2022

A grim and familiar pattern has followed the parade of mass shootings across America. In their aftermath, the nation’s attention focuses on the direct victims of the attacks, the dead and injured, their families and friends, and the witnesses. But a growing body of research reveals that the negative effects of mass shootings spread much […]