This Week’s School Shooting

The 19-year-old gunman who killed a teacher and a 15-year-old girl at a St Louis high school on Monday was armed with an AR-15-style rifle and 600 rounds of ammunition. Back in July, the House passed a bill that would raise the age of ownership of such assault weapons to 21. A similar bill has languished in the filibuster-plagued Senate, thanks to Republicans.

Monday’s school shooting was the 40th this year resulting in injuries or death, according to Education Week.

Missouri, which allows open or concealed carry of firearms without a permit or background check, has one of the highest gun death rates in the nation.

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Mass Shooting in Indianapolis Kills 8 People

A gunman murdered eight innocent human beings and injured at least seven others in Indianapolis, Indiana on Thursday before shooting himself dead. This is the third mass shooting in Indianapolis so far this year. Five people, including a pregnant woman, were killed in a January shooting, and three adults and a child were shot to death in March.

Indiana has some of the weakest gun laws in the United States, a country of lax gun safety laws and more guns than people, where there have been 45 gunshot mass murders in the last month, 147 in 2021 to date, more than one every day (details here).

So far in 2021, 12,421 people have been shot to death in the US, including 87 children under 12, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

More:

“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” The Onion

“These are the victims of the Indianapolis FedEx mass shooting,” Fox 59 News

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Second Mass Shooting In a Week

Ten innocent people, including a police officer, were shot to death on Tuesday at a grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Nine were random shoppers; the officer was responding to reports of the shooting. The murderer, wearing tactical clothing, was armed with an assault-style weapon he bought last week. Also last week: Boulder’s 2018 assault weapons ban was voided by a judge.

This follows a mass shooting in Atlanta last Tuesday, when eight people were murdered by a gunman who bought his high-capacity handgun the same day. Georgia is not among the 14 U.S. jurisdictions with a waiting period for guns purchases, to prevent such impulsive acts of violence.

More:

“‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” The Onion

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The gun violence solution we’re not talking about

89 percent of Americans want expanded background checks for gun purchases. While background checks make obtaining guns more difficult, they don’t have any effect on gun deaths. what would? Gun licensing. Madeline Marshall of Vox explains.

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Doctors are taking on the NRA

American Trauma: How the NRA Sparked a Medical Rebellion, an Atlantic video.

“’I see more gunshot wounds as a trauma surgeon here in the United States per week than I did when I was serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan,’ says Dr. Mallory Williams, chief of the Division of Trauma and Critical Care at Howard University Hospital. ‘There’s no question about it.’”

Related:

“I’m a Trauma Surgeon and a Shooting Victim. I Have Every Right to Speak Out on Gun Violence.” Joseph Sakran, The Atlantic

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Doctors Write Rx to Prevent Gun Deaths

On Tuesday the American Medical Association addressed a persistent and deadly U.S. public health menace, and officially endorsed firearms safety measures, including:

• Minimum age requirement of 21 to own or buy guns and ammo
• Licensing and safety course requirements for gun owners
• Registration requirements for all firearms
• Closing loopholes allowing people with history of domestic abuse and stalking to buy or own guns
• Allow courts, upon a relative’s request, to remove guns from homes in which a person is imminently violent or suicidal
• Better training of doctors on screening suicide risk

This is an attempt by physicians to stem a growing public health danger:

“AMA members cited U.S. government data showing almost 40,000 deaths by gun in 2016, including suicides, and nearly 111,000 gun injuries. Both have been rising in recent years.

By comparison, U.S. deaths from diabetes in 2016 totaled almost 80,000; Alzheimer’s, 111,000; and lung disease, 155,000. The leaders are heart disease, with 634,000 deaths in 2016, and cancer, about 600,000.”

— “Frustrated AMA adopts sweeping policies to cut gun violence,” Lindsey Tanner, AP via Chicago Tribune

More:

“The country’s largest doctor group just took its most aggressive stance on gun control yet,” German Lopez, Vox

Related:

“Congressional staffers are learning how to treat gunshot wounds,” Summer Meza, The Week

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More Than a Single March

Gun violence marches this weekend span the entire country, and over 800 places around the world.

What can be done? The Parkland students have some ideas.

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School Shootings

What students think about school shootings. A Vox video.

More:

“Parkland Students: Our manifesto to fix America’s gun laws,” The Guardian

Follow the March for Our Lives with the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Eagle Eye

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187,000 students experienced school gun violence since Columbine

More than 187,000 students at nearly 200 U.S. schools have experienced gun violence during school hours since the 1999 Columbine shooting. A Washington Post analysis found that there have been 10 school shootings a year since Columbine. There have already been 11 shootings in 2018.

Read the analysis:

“Scarred by school shootings,” John Woodrow Cox and Steven Rich, Washington Post

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Guns & Cats

“Guns Explained With Cats,” an animation by It’s Alex Clark. Lead Animator: Chris Taniguchi, No cats were harmed in the making of this video.

Related:  March For Our Lives, March 24th.

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