A Single Day Offers A Snapshot Of Gun Violence In America

ACROSS AMERICA — Only 24 days old Tuesday, 2023 has already seen 39 mass shootings, more than 2,800 gun violence deaths and a renewed push for a federal assault weapons ban that has little chance of passing.

Monday was more or less a typical day, offering a snapshot of a time in America when an average of 110 people die in gun violence, more than 200 others are shot and wounded, and Americans are as polarized as ever on issues of gun control and gun rights, even with a death toll that rises daily.

Some, but not nearly all, incidents of gun violence make headlines. Among those that did Monday:

• At least seven people died in a killing spree across two locations in Half Moon Bay, California.
• In Oakland, California, one person was killed, and seven others were wounded in a shooting during a music video filming.
• In Chicago, two people were killed and three others were injured in what authorities called a targeted home invasion.
• The 11th person died of injuries sustained during a mass shooting at a Monterey Park, California, dance hall Saturday following a Lunar New Year’s celebration.
• Two students died and the founder of their charter school to help youths stay away from gang violence were, ironically, killed in a school shooting in Des Moines, Iowa, that authorities later said stemmed from disputes among rival street gangs.

The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as one in which a minimum of four people are either injured or killed, excluding the suspect. With two students dead and another person injured, the shooting in Des Moines doesn’t qualify as a mass shooting, but it is emblematic of growing gun violence in America’s schools, according to EducationWeek, a news site covering education, which maintains a School Shooting Tracker.

EducationWeek defines a shooting in which someone other than the suspect sustains a bullet wound from a firearm discharged on K-12 school property or a bus, whether when school is in session or at a school-sponsored event.

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• Half Moon Bay Shootings: California Farm Works Shook After 7 Killed
• Last Dance': Remembering The 11 Killed In Monterey Park Mass Shooting

‘Hundreds Of Times A Year’

The two Des Moines teenagers are the first school shooting fatalities this year in a half dozen incidents. Another six people have been injured. Monday’s school shooting in Des Moines came after a record year in 2022 in the six-year history of tracking by Education Week.

There were 51 school shootings, compared to 35 in 2021, another record year. Last year, 39 people were killed and 101 were injured. That compares to 15 people killed and 55 people injured in 2021.

School shootings are generally thought of as mass-casualty incidents, such as last year’s Uvalde elementary school massacre, in which 21 people — 19 first-graders and two of their teachers — were killed. But, EducationWeek reported, there were no fatalities in 34 of the 51, or 67 percent, school shootings last year. There was a single casualty in little more than half — 28 of 51, or 55 percent — of incidents. In 23 of 51 school shootings, more than one person was injured or killed.

The first school shooting of the year occurred Jan. 9, authorities said a Newport News, Virginia, 6-year-old shot his teacher with his mother’s handgun, an incident a gun violence researcher told EducationWeek became newsworthy because of the age of the suspect.

David Riedman, who independently tracks gun violence on school grounds, told EducationWeek that if not for the suspect’s age, the story likely would not have been considered newsworthy.

“This plays out hundreds of times a year,” Riedman told the education news site. “This is just one of the rare times anyone knows about it.”

Storage Law Moves Ahead In Virginia

The incident triggered renewed debates about safe gun storage laws.

On Monday, Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee in Virginia advanced legislation requiring parents to keep their firearms locked up when minor children are in the house and gun dealers to post notices in their stores warning of the consequences of unsafe gun storage.

All six Republicans on the committee voted against it, a disappointment to the legislation’s sponsor, Democratic Sen. Jennifer Boysko, who said it had been written as a compromise measure that kept the fine low — around $250 maximum for a low-level misdemeanor — and was intended to “teach somebody instead of sending them to prison.”

• Related: ‘Slippery Slope’ In Firearms Legislation Is Doing Nothing

“It is up to us to be the adults and protect our children from harming themselves or others,” Boysko said during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Monday morning, The Virginia Mercury reported. “This is a reasonable thing. It takes nobody’s Second Amendment rights away.”

But when Republicans declined to support the measure, Boysko said on Twitter that she would support any amendment that toughed penalties.

“It was an effort to find common ground,” Boysko wrote. “Too bad they put their love of guns ahead of child safety.”

Biden Renews Assault Weapons Ban Call

President Joe Biden’s renewed call Monday for reinstatement of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban is almost certain to be met with similar pushback from Republicans.

Biden has consistently pushed Congress to pass an assault weapons ban since taking office two years ago, an issue he made some progress on the heels of the murder of 19 innocent children and two of their teachers inside Robb Elementary School. The House passed the assault weapons ban with Republican support, but also with Democratic detractors.

The measure lacked support in the Senate. Biden called on Congress again after the midterms to ban assault-style weapons while Democrats still had the majority. Again, the legislation never came up for debate in the Senate.

Gallup has said its polling over time has shown a cyclical nature to Americans’ support for restrictions on firearms ownership. It goes up when emotions are strong after mass shootings, but declines as the details of those events begin to fade from memory.

Biden’s call for tougher gun laws is cyclical, too. After last year’s shootings in Uvalde and, before, that a racially targeted shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, the president was able to ride a wave of gun-control support long enough for a bipartisan gun safety bill to pass. It made the most significant curbs on firearms legislation in nearly 30 years, but stopped short of banning assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

But with support in the Senate far from certain and Republicans now controlling the house, it’s unlikely the assault weapons ban will be approved.

The violence continues. Just a few hours after Monday turned to Tuesday, three people were fatally shot in a random attack at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington, setting off a manhunt. Details were still unfolding early Tuesday afternoon.