US Gun Deaths Hit Record High of Nearly 49,000 in 2021

[BeaverFever]

U.S. on record pace for mass killings, nearly all involving guns, in 2023
 

Slain at the hands of strangers or gunned down by loved ones. Massacred in small towns, in big cities, inside their own homes or outside in broad daylight. This year's unrelenting bloodshed across the U.S. has led to the grimmest of milestones: The deadliest six months of mass killings recorded since at least 2006.

From Jan. 1 to June 30, the nation endured 28 mass killings. With the exception of a deadly arson case in Louisiana, all of the incidents have involved guns.

"What a ghastly milestone," said Brent Leatherwood, whose three kids were in class at a private Christian school in Nashville on March 27 when a former student killed three children and three adults. "You never think your family would be a part of a statistic like that."

Leatherwood, a prominent Republican in Tennessee, a state that hasn't strengthened gun laws, believes something must be done to get guns out of the hands of people who might become violent. The shock of seeing the bloodshed strike so close to home has prompted him to speak out.

A mass killing is defined as an occurrence when four or more people are slain, not including the assailant, within a 24-hour period. A database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University tracks this large-scale violence dating back to 2006.

The 2023 milestone beat the previous record of 27 mass killings, which was only set in the second half of 2022. James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University, never imagined records like this when he began overseeing the database about five years ago.

"We used to say there were two to three dozen a year," Fox said. "The fact that there's 28 in half a year is a staggering statistic."

'Hopefully it was just a blip'

The chaos of the first six months of 2023 doesn't automatically doom the last six months. The remainder of the year could be calmer, despite more violence over the July 4th holiday weekend.

"Hopefully it was just a blip," said Dr. Amy Barnhorst, a psychiatrist who is the associate director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.

"There could be fewer killings later in 2023, or this could be part of a trend," she said.

Experts like Barnhorst and Fox attribute the rising bloodshed to a growing population with an increased number of guns in the U.S.

Yet for all the headlines, mass killings are statistically rare and represent a fraction of the country's overall gun violence. In 2021, the most recent year tracked in its entirety, there were more deaths from suicides than homicides involving guns, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

"We need to keep it in perspective," Fox said.

WATCH l Mall shooting footage highlights thin line between public interest, public safety: Graphic video of a mass shooting in Texas circulated on Twitter for hours and, in some cases, days. About That producer Lauren Bird explores the debate over which rules should govern online content — and who should enforce them.

New legislation not always forthcoming

But the mass violence most often spurs attempts to reform gun laws, even if the efforts aren't always successful.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, had urged the General Assembly in the wake of the Nashville school shooting to pass legislation keeping firearms away from people who could harm themselves or others, so-called "red flag laws," though Lee says the term is politically toxic.

The Nashville shooter used three guns in the attack, including an AR-15-style rifle. It was one of at least four mass killings in the first half of 2023 involving such a weapon, according to the database.

Despite the unprecedented carnage, the National Rifle Association maintains fierce opposition to regulating firearms, including AR-15-style rifles and similar weapons.

"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' constant efforts to gut the Second Amendment will not usher in safety for Americans; instead, it will only embolden criminals," NRA spokesman Billy McLaughlin said in a statement. "That is why the NRA continues our fight for self-defence laws. Rest assured, we will never bow, we will never retreat, and we will never apologize for championing the self-defence rights of law-abiding Americans."

Leatherwood, a former executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party and now the head of the influential Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm, wrote a letter to lawmakers asking them to pass the governor's proposal.

Leatherwood said he doesn't want any other family to go through what his children experienced at the time of the shooting when they were in kindergarten, second grade and fourth grade. One of his kids, preparing for a recent sleepaway camp, asked whether they would be safe there.

"Our child was asking, 'Do you think that there will be a gunman that comes to this camp? Do I need to be worried about that?"'

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-mass-shooting-pace-1.6906786

[Aristides]

On 6/21/2023 at 9:06 AM, Deluge said:

Probably not. Does it excite you to say that the 50's are not coming back? Does it give you a sexual tickle? 

The only constant in life is change. Get used to it.

[CdnFox]

1 hour ago, BeaverFever said:

U.S. on record pace for mass killings, nearly all involving guns, in 2023
 

Slain at the hands of strangers or gunned down by loved ones. Massacred in small towns, in big cities, inside their own homes or outside in broad daylight. This year's unrelenting bloodshed across the U.S. has led to the grimmest of milestones: The deadliest six months of mass killings recorded since at least 2006.

From Jan. 1 to June 30, the nation endured 28 mass killings. With the exception of a deadly arson case in Louisiana, all of the incidents have involved guns.

"What a ghastly milestone," said Brent Leatherwood, whose three kids were in class at a private Christian school in Nashville on March 27 when a former student killed three children and three adults. "You never think your family would be a part of a statistic like that."

Leatherwood, a prominent Republican in Tennessee, a state that hasn't strengthened gun laws, believes something must be done to get guns out of the hands of people who might become violent. The shock of seeing the bloodshed strike so close to home has prompted him to speak out.

A mass killing is defined as an occurrence when four or more people are slain, not including the assailant, within a 24-hour period. A database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University tracks this large-scale violence dating back to 2006.

The 2023 milestone beat the previous record of 27 mass killings, which was only set in the second half of 2022. James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern University, never imagined records like this when he began overseeing the database about five years ago.

"We used to say there were two to three dozen a year," Fox said. "The fact that there's 28 in half a year is a staggering statistic."

'Hopefully it was just a blip'

The chaos of the first six months of 2023 doesn't automatically doom the last six months. The remainder of the year could be calmer, despite more violence over the July 4th holiday weekend.

"Hopefully it was just a blip," said Dr. Amy Barnhorst, a psychiatrist who is the associate director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California, Davis.

"There could be fewer killings later in 2023, or this could be part of a trend," she said.

Experts like Barnhorst and Fox attribute the rising bloodshed to a growing population with an increased number of guns in the U.S.

Yet for all the headlines, mass killings are statistically rare and represent a fraction of the country's overall gun violence. In 2021, the most recent year tracked in its entirety, there were more deaths from suicides than homicides involving guns, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

"We need to keep it in perspective," Fox said.

WATCH l Mall shooting footage highlights thin line between public interest, public safety: Graphic video of a mass shooting in Texas circulated on Twitter for hours and, in some cases, days. About That producer Lauren Bird explores the debate over which rules should govern online content — and who should enforce them.

New legislation not always forthcoming

But the mass violence most often spurs attempts to reform gun laws, even if the efforts aren't always successful.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, had urged the General Assembly in the wake of the Nashville school shooting to pass legislation keeping firearms away from people who could harm themselves or others, so-called "red flag laws," though Lee says the term is politically toxic.

The Nashville shooter used three guns in the attack, including an AR-15-style rifle. It was one of at least four mass killings in the first half of 2023 involving such a weapon, according to the database.

Despite the unprecedented carnage, the National Rifle Association maintains fierce opposition to regulating firearms, including AR-15-style rifles and similar weapons.

"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' constant efforts to gut the Second Amendment will not usher in safety for Americans; instead, it will only embolden criminals," NRA spokesman Billy McLaughlin said in a statement. "That is why the NRA continues our fight for self-defence laws. Rest assured, we will never bow, we will never retreat, and we will never apologize for championing the self-defence rights of law-abiding Americans."

Leatherwood, a former executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party and now the head of the influential Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm, wrote a letter to lawmakers asking them to pass the governor's proposal.

Leatherwood said he doesn't want any other family to go through what his children experienced at the time of the shooting when they were in kindergarten, second grade and fourth grade. One of his kids, preparing for a recent sleepaway camp, asked whether they would be safe there.

"Our child was asking, 'Do you think that there will be a gunman that comes to this camp? Do I need to be worried about that?"'

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-mass-shooting-pace-1.6906786

And it's never going to change as long as the left insists on poisoning the discussion the way they do.  Blaming the guns instead of the people and talking about how republicans must love seeing people die and that we must ban guns but it's wrong to go after the criminals etc etc....   there's no reasoning with people like that and things won't get better

[Guest]

2 hours ago, BeaverFever said:

"Our child was asking, 'Do you think that there will be a gunman that comes to this camp? Do I need to be worried about that?"'

Didn't anyone think to reassure the poor thing that if she was to have her head removed by a deer slug that there would be lots of people offering thoughts and prayers?

[Aristides]

Thoughts and prayers can make anything better.

2 hours ago, CdnFox said:

And it's never going to change as long as the left insists on poisoning the discussion the way they do.  Blaming the guns instead of the people and talking about how republicans must love seeing people die and that we must ban guns but it's wrong to go after the criminals etc etc....   there's no reasoning with people like that and things won't get better

Nothing will ever change as long as you let anyone have them. I'm not saying anyone enjoys seeing people die, just that they don't care enough to do anything to prevent it.

[Aristides]

1 hour ago, bcsapper said:

Didn't anyone think to reassure the poor thing that if she was to have her head removed by a deer slug that there would be lots of people offering thoughts and prayers?

Thoughts and prayers will make anything better. 

[CdnFox]

45 minutes ago, Aristides said:

Thoughts and prayers can make anything better.

Nothing will ever change as long as you let anyone have them. I'm not saying anyone enjoys seeing people die, just that they don't care enough to do anything to prevent it.

Funny how a lot of countries with lower gun ownership have higher murders than Canada then isn't it.

Your position is irrational and hoplophobic. And it just proves my point - with that level of irrational thinking on the left nothing is going to change.

[Aristides]

Just now, CdnFox said:

Funny how a lot of countries with lower gun ownership have higher murders than Canada then isn't it.

Your position is irrational and hoplophobic. And it just proves my point - with that level of irrational thinking on the left nothing is going to change.

Do they? This isn't about Canada.

[Aristides]

Per capita, the US has six times more gun fatalities than Canada and four times as many guns. Can't see a connection there?

 

[Deluge]

3 hours ago, Aristides said:

The only constant in life is change. Get used to it.

And the only change that's acceptable is change to the conservtive point of view. It's what's right and what's American. 

Erasing queer marriage is the next acceptable change on the docket. 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Deluge

[Aristides]

13 minutes ago, Deluge said:

And the only change that's acceptable is change to the conservtive point of view. It's what's right and what's American. 

Erasing queer marriage is the next acceptable change on the docket. 

Poor you, guaranteed to be disappointed.

[Deluge]

4 minutes ago, Aristides said:

Poor you, guaranteed to be disappointed.

Just like I was guaranteed to be disappointed about the Roe v Wade decision? 

Oh, wait....

[Aristides]

3 minutes ago, Deluge said:

Just like I was guaranteed to be disappointed about the Roe v Wade decision? 

Oh, wait....

Why do you care how other people live? Why do you feel the need to control other people's lives? I thought conservatives and Americans were all about freedom. Apparently it's just about the freedom to control others.

[Deluge]

33 minutes ago, Aristides said:

Why do you care how other people live? Why do you feel the need to control other people's lives? I thought conservatives and Americans were all about freedom. Apparently it's just about the freedom to control others.

I don't care how other people live. At least I don't care until other people try to normalize their wrong behaviors, then EVERYONE should care. It's not just a Deluge thing, but a societal thing. 

Marriage is between man and woman; that's how it's been throughout history and that's how it needs to remain - it's the mark of a healthy, stable society. 

[Aristides]

1 minute ago, Deluge said:

I don't care how other people live. At least I don't care until other people try to normalize their wrong behaviors, then EVERYONE should care. It's not just a Deluge thing, but a societal thing. 

Marriage is between man and woman; that's how it's been throughout history and that's how it needs to remain - it's the mark of a healthy, stable society. 

You can't tolerate anyone's life choices or circumstances that don't fit your narrow view of the world. You have to control. That makes you a very insecure person.

[Deluge]

27 minutes ago, Aristides said:

You can't tolerate anyone's life choices or circumstances that don't fit your narrow view of the world. You have to control. That makes you a very insecure person.

I tolerate lots and lots and lots of life choices. I tolerate life choices so much more than I don't. But when someone tries to normalize his wrong behaviors, that's where the line has to be drawn. 

Maybe you should stop being so selfish and think about society as a whole for once. 

[Aristides]

No you don't, all you want to do is take them away according to your own narrow view of the world. R vs W was all about choice. Choice is the opposite of control.

[Deluge]

1 minute ago, Aristides said:

No you don't,

Prove it. 

[CdnFox]

2 hours ago, Aristides said:

Per capita, the US has six times more gun fatalities than Canada and four times as many guns. Can't see a connection there?

 

No, and only an uneducated dolt would think that commonality is causality.   If there was a connection then the death rate would be directly proportional to the guns owned per state - and it isn't even remotely close. 

Further, proffessor gary mauser's work (which i've posted before ) shows that there's zero correlation between the availability of guns and murder rates.

And only a ****** would care about 'gun deaths' vs just 'deaths' - people dying is somehow acceptable to you if it's done with a knife instead? What kind of slimeball makes that argument?

You know what kills the most people in BC when it comes to illegal deaths? Drugs.  What do the left demand we legalize? Drugs.

As long as your arguments are based on fanaticism and factless ideology there will be no change.  But hey - at least you get to virtue signal once in a while and that's WAYYY more important than people's lives, right?

[BeaverFever]

5 hours ago, CdnFox said:

And it's never going to change as long as the left insists on poisoning the discussion the way they do.  Blaming the guns instead of the people and talking about how republicans must love seeing people die and that we must ban guns but it's wrong to go after the criminals etc etc....   there's no reasoning with people like that and things won't get better

It’s not poisoning the discussion to point out the obvious   Anybody who thinks USA doesn’t go after criminals ought to get their head examined. USA has people serving life sentences for petty crimes like stealing a slice of pizza or $2 pack of socks and cops shoot unarmed people for jaywalking and minor traffic offences and get away with it 

[BeaverFever]

4 minutes ago, CdnFox said:

If there was a connection then the death rate would be directly proportional to the guns owned per state

So we can add statistics to the long list of subjects you don’t understand. 

[CdnFox]

4 minutes ago, BeaverFever said:

It’s not poisoning the discussion to point out the obvious 

But you aren't.  And we've seen how psychotic and dishonest you are on the subject already, You would happily see a thousand kids die if it meant you could virtue signal about it or a million if it meant you could ban guns, even if the murder rate didn't change.

You're the kind of scum who keeps the death rates nice and high, insisting instead that we release violent offenders on bail and lock up gun owners.

3 minutes ago, BeaverFever said:

So we can add statistics to the long list of subjects you don’t understand. 

We can add it to the long list of things you enjoy lying about

[Deluge]

24 minutes ago, BeaverFever said:

It’s not poisoning the discussion to point out the obvious   Anybody who thinks USA doesn’t go after criminals ought to get their head examined. USA has people serving life sentences for petty crimes like stealing a slice of pizza or $2 pack of socks and cops shoot unarmed people for jaywalking and minor traffic offences and get away with it 

Illegal immigration supporters and petty crime supporters are the ones who need to get their heads examined.

What you're babbling about with life sentences for petty crimes pales in comparison to what the Left is pushing now. 

[BeaverFever]

1 hour ago, Deluge said:

Illegal immigration supporters and petty crime supporters

[BeaverFever]

1 hour ago, CdnFox said:

But you aren't.  And we've seen how psychotic and dishonest you are on the subject already, You would happily see a thousand kids die if it meant you could virtue signal about it or a million if it meant you could ban guns, even if the murder rate didn't change.

You're the kind of scum who keeps the death rates nice and high, insisting instead that we release violent offenders on bail and lock up gun owners.

We can add it to the long list of things you enjoy lying about

Wow you sure wasted a lot of energy writing that empty diatribe   Seriously what a fail on your part