Children's ages: 9, 10 and 13. Shooter's age 39. Female adult supervisor's age not listed.

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/crime/church-shooting-sacramento/103-c8bbfdcb-0826-4c2e-a194-43ec7aea3daf

— how often, on average, an American teenager took their own life with a gun from 2019 through 2020
The Trace email news letter

From The Trace email newsletter

10,579 people shot.
198 unintentional shootings.
144 children under the age of 11 shot.
And wait for it . . . . 143 good guys with a gun, aka defensive uses.

There have also been about 140 women shot by intimate partners. Which leads me to the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act. In a compromise to get enough republicans to vote for it a key provision was removed. Known as the 'boyfriend loophole' it would prosecute unmarried dating partners the same as a spouse. Apparently if he isn't actually actually married to her he can just beat the shit out the bitch when she won't shut up. In return the bill now includes a provision to notify police of who and when someone is denied a gun because they can't pass a background check.

Wait, what? Gun sellers aren't required to report a crime committed during an attempted gun purchase?? WTF! Owners aren't required to report a lost or stolen guns either. Seems republicans think the poor gunner has suffered enough, after all he just lost his gun! There are about 150,000 guns reported lost or stolen every year and there is no federal mandate to report them. Who really knows how many guns enter the black market every year.

It is like this because the gun industry seized control of enough legislators to turn the voter's will on it's head. Nearly 40% of voters want stricter gun regulation and only 9% want less (the rest are like: Meh, who cares?).

Nothing is going to change until we play by the gunner rules; Money talks, voters walk. We have to out bid the gun lobby.

Join me and do something about it: Resources

From the Trace newsletter email:

A Young Scientist Compared Gun Deaths to Other Leading Causes, and Found a Billion Dollar Research Deficit
How David Stark put a number to the knowledge gap surrounding fatal shootings.

link

I've seen everything in the world blamed for gun violence and the devastation it leaves behind. Video games, poverty, gangs, drugs, the pandemic and just about everything under the sun. Yet we really don't know how to deal with 90 people a day being shot. It costs the US $280 Billion a year yet we spend next to nothing finding out how to stop it.

It's politics clear and simple. The gun industry does not want us to know how to stop gun violence because it will decrease sales. Fear sells guns and gun violence stokes fear. The gun industry has been buying legislators for 50 years. ALEC and the ILA (legislative arm of the NRA) write laws and hand them to politicians to put into practice. ALEC wrote the first Stand Your Ground law and got it passed in 25 states.

If anything is to change we have to play their game. BUY politicians. Contribute to a gun violence prevention group of your choice.

Take a Positive Stand: resources

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/public-mass-shootings-database-amasses-details-half-century-us-mass-shootings

Like most DOJ reports it's kinda dry reading but there are some highlights:



What surprises me is that about half of the shooters broadcast their intentions and nobody did anything about it! Of course that's made more difficult by the fact that only 19 states (and DC) have red flag laws and one state, Oklahoma, has an Anti Red Flag law. In the states that have red flag laws police and courts are often un-informed of their existence or are unwilling to enforce them. How about that, more than half the states have no recourse even if someone knows of a pending mass shooting and the states that do often treat warnings with 'meh'.

It doesn't have to be this way. GVPedia.org researched political donations by state by pro&anti regulation groups. In states where anti violence spending exceeded gun rights spending there was a 44% success in passing anti violence laws resulting in about a 5% decrease in gun deaths. It can be done. Now is a critical time to give. The gun industry has had 50 years to buy politicians and we have just passed the 10 year mark. Momentum is building and every $5 counts.

Do something: resources

There have been 4122 people shot in the united states since the new year started.

2% were shot in defensive use incidents.

That matches the 2% that were children under the age of 11.

It's far less than the 3% that were 'unintentional shootings'.

Can someone tell me again how safe guns make you?

It doesn't have to be this way: link

https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/

Link to Trace article.

This doesn't mean that the gun lobby is toothless, only that it has a cavity or two. The other news is that the NRA was a major influence in 2016 but since Trump came into power the influence has shifted to Brietbart, Tucker Carlson (not Fox at large) and other once fringe groups. That's kind of mixed news.

We CAN counter the gun lobby. Take action.

Our dead children don't trump their second amendment rights . . . every gunner knows that.