Tag Archives: Mass Shootings

Citizens should proceed with caution FBI issues alert on increase in mass shooting

Fireworks

Important Takeaways:

  • July 4 warning: FBI issues alert over attackers targeting holiday celebrations
  • The security organizations say the biggest threats are lone offenders and small groups, who may have a larger agenda, and find large events such as holiday gatherings “attractive” targets, according to a bulletin.
  • “The political environment of the country certainly doesn’t help,” Aaron Katersky, a security correspondent, told ABC News. “The police are being told by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to be on watch for these types of things that are notoriously difficult to guard against.”
  • Katersky added that big cities including New York and San Francisco are likely potential targets.
  • He added that citizens should proceed with caution, however they should not panic.
  • According to the Gun Violence Archive, mass shootings on the Fourth of July have steadily increased over the past three years.
  • The organization tallied a total 80 mass shootings that occurred over the past three years between July 1-7, according to Mark Bryant, the executive director of the nonprofit that tracks US shootings.
  • The group defines a “mass shooting” as a shooting that kills or injures four or more people, not including the shooter.
  • Last year, in 2023, there were 28 mass shootings over the July 4th week, followed by 27 in 2022 and 25 in 2021.
  • The researchers found that days with high heat saw an 18 percent increase in violence among inmates.
  • Hot weather increases body temperature, which in turn increases heart rate and blood pressure.
  • Increased blood pressure and heart rate can lead to discomfort, which researchers say explains how high heat leads to increased anger and violence.

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Record for deadliest six months in the US as Lawlessness continues to increase

Mathew 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Important Takeaways:

  • The US sets a grim milestone with a new record for the deadliest six months of mass killings
  • From Jan. 1 to June 30, the nation endured 28 mass killings, all but one of which involved guns. The death toll rose just about every week, a constant cycle of violence and grief.
  • Six months. 181 days. 28 mass killings. 140 victims. One country.
  • 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.

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Fourth of July sees 16 mass shootings across US with victims as young as 2

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Important Takeaways:

  • From the nation’s capital to Fort Worth, Texas, from Florin, California, in the west to the Bronx, New York, in the east, the Fourth of July long weekend in the US was overshadowed by 16 mass shootings in which 15 people were killed and nearly 100 injured.
  • The tragic bloodletting was recorded from 5pm on Friday until 5am on Wednesday across 13 states as well as Washington DC. Texas and Maryland both entered the register twice.
  • The greatest fatality in a single incident over the long weekend was seen in Philadelphia, where five people were killed when a shooter wearing a bulletproof vest and bearing an assault rifle went on a random rampage on Monday night.
  • The youngest person to die was 15. A two-year-old boy was shot four times in the legs and a 13-year-old was shot twice in the legs.

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Mass Shootings from Jan-April 2023

Mathew 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Important Takeaways:

  • Mass Shootings are, for the most part an American phenomenon. While they are generally grouped together as one type of incident they are several with the foundation definition being that they have a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.
  • 15 mass shootings since the beginning of April and there’s a good chance that by the time you read this that number could be even higher
  • 126 mass shooting since the beginning of 2023
  • Our Society is completely on edge
  • In 2016 there were 383 mass shootings
  • In 2017 there were 348 mass shootings
  • In 2018 there were 336 mass shootings
  • In 2019 there were 415 mass shootings
  • In 2020 there were 610 mass shootings
  • In 2021 there were 690 mass shootings
  • In 2022 there were 646 mass shootings

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Gun Violence Archive counted 648 U.S. mass shootings last year

Walmart Shooting Memorial

Mathew 24:12 “And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold

Important Takeaways:

  • A Partial List of Mass Shootings in the United States in 2022
  • The Gun Violence Archive counted 648 mass shootings in 2022. Of those shootings, 21 involved five or more fatalities, including the attack at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Va., on Nov. 22 and the shooting at an L.G.B.T.Q. nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19 that left five people dead.

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Rep. Billy Long: not surprised to see mass shootings when abortions have destroyed the respect for human life

Matthew 19:18 ESV “And Jesus said, “You shall not murder…”

Important Takeaways:

  • Rep. Billy Long, a Missouri Congressman, says the killing of 63 million babies in abortions has destroyed the respect for human life that existed prior to Roe v. Wade.
  • “I go back to abortion, when we decided it was OK to murder kids in their mothers’ wombs. Life has no value to a lot of these folks.”
  • The ultimate figure of 63,459,781 babies killed in abortions is greater than the populations of a couple dozen states and larger than many of the biggest countries in the world.

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Mass shooting insurance in high demand as U.S. emerges from lockdown

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Carolyn Cohn

(Reuters) – As normality filters back into American lives after a year of lockdowns, hospitals and other institutions are busy making provisions for one aspect of that old normal they would rather consign to the past – mass shootings.

Last year was the least deadly for U.S. mass shootings in a decade, a Reuters tally shows.

But spring has brought a resurgence and insurers are reporting a jump in demand for protection against such events, at a time when the pent-up traumas and frustrations of living through a pandemic are also re-entering the public domain.

Client inquiries for what the industry calls active shooter policies have risen 50% year on year in the past six weeks, said Tarique Nageer, Terrorism Placement Advisory Leader at Marsh, the world’s biggest insurance broker.

Such policies gained popularity in recent years following a spate of school shootings. They typically cover victim lawsuits, building repairs, legal fees, medical expenses and trauma counseling.

This year, however, even though fatal shootings in U.S. hospitals are comparatively rare and mass ones one-in-a-decade events, Nageer says demand has been particularly strong from the healthcare sector.

That finding is supported by Tim Davies, head of crisis management at Canopius, a Lloyd’s of London global specialty insurer.

Most hospitals are open to the public and their emergency wards, where patients with COVID-19 and other severe illness and injuries get treatment, can become triggers for potentially volatile behavior.

“Those are places where you could see people who are disgruntled that members of their family might have died and didn’t get a vaccine or weren’t treated properly,” Davies said.

Such concerns have led to an about 25% to 50% hike in active shooter insurance prices compared to last year for healthcare firms, while overall rates have remained steady, he said.

Chris Kirby, head of political violence cover at insurer Optio, said active shooter policy rates had risen by as much as 50% for some clients, without specifying any industry sector.

SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES TOO

Brokers say that, besides hospitals, retail establishments, schools, universities, restaurants and places of worship are other prominent clients, buying cover ranging from $1 million to as high as $75 million.

The United States witnessed 200 mass shootings in the first 132 days of this year, according to a report by the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit research group that defines them as any event involving the shooting of four or more people other than the assailant.

Hart Brown, senior vice president of R3 Continuum, a crisis management consultancy that helps clients deal with the aftermaths of about 800 shootings a year, said violence had migrated from public spaces into homes in 2020.

But this year, demand for R3 Continuum’s services is up 15% to 20%, he says, with the gradual reopening of offices having brought violence back to the workplace – compounded by pandemic-induced stresses and economic insecurities often endured in isolation.

“The environment that was created by the pandemic, with the social distancing, the lockdown, and so forth and the compounding stressors is really what’s driving much of the violence that we’re seeing right now,” he said.

A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation backs up that assessment, showing 41% of U.S. adults reporting symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorders in January, compared with 11% in the first half of 2019.

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru and Carolyn Cohn in London; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and John Stonestreet)

Amid deadly U.S. mass shootings in 2019, heroes emerged

By Brad Brooks

(Reuters) – The relentless pace of American shootings did not slow in 2019. But amid the harrowing scenes, heroes also emerged.

Here are just a few of the selfless acts the U.S. saw in the face of tragedy this year:

CHARGING GUNMAN, SAVING LIVES

When a gunman walked into a crowded classroom at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in April and began firing a pistol, 21-year-old environmental studies student Riley Howell screamed “go, go, go!” to classmates and forcefully tackled the shooter.

Police and witnesses said Howell, who was fatally shot, allowed fellow students to escape unharmed and enabled classmates to disarm the man. Another student, Ellis Parlier, 19, also died that day and four other students were wounded. Howell’s family said in a statement after the shooting that their son “radiated love and always will.”

HIGH SCHOOL HERO LUNGES AT COLORADO SHOOTER

It was just three days before graduation when the shooting began inside the Colorado high school. Two teenage gunmen had opened fire on fellow students at the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math School in Highlands Ranch. Authorities said far more kids would have died if not for Kendrick Ray Castillo, an 18-year-old lover of robotics who also enjoyed spending time with the elderly. Facing the barrel of a gun, Castillo lunged at one of the shooters, witnesses said. One of the gunmen “shot Kendrick, giving all of us enough time to get underneath our desks, to get ourselves safe, and to run across the room to escape,” student Nui Giasolli told NBC News.

Castillo was the only fatality that day, while eight other students were wounded.

TWO HEROES HAILED IN ATTACK ON CALIFORNIA SYNAGOGUE

When a teenage gunman opened fire at a California synagogue during Passover celebration in April, he had Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein directly in his sights. That was when Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, threw herself between the shooter and the rabbi inside Chabad of Poway synagogue in suburban San Diego, witnesses said. She was hit and quickly died.

Goldstein was shot in the hands but recovered, and said that Gilbert-Kaye’s action saved his life. Congregants also praised the heroism of Oscar Stewart, 51, a U.S. Army and Navy veteran who served in Iraq and who chased the assailant outside, screaming, “I’m going to kill you!”

“I was an instrument of God,” Stewart said afterward. “I had no conscious effort in what I was doing.”

BAR BOUNCER STARES DEATH IN THE FACE, SAVES DOZENS

When a gunman opened fire on a Dayton, Ohio, street known for its night life, panic ensued. But the toll of nine dead and 14 wounded would have been far worse had it not been for Jeremy Ganger, who was working as a bouncer at the Ned Peppers bar. Security camera footage showed Ganger helping dozens of people into the bar and away from the gunman.

“I was grabbing people off the street, telling them to get in and get down,” Ganger told ABC News afterward, adding that he “would’ve died before that guy came in.” Video showed the shooter turning to enter the bar and shouldering his rifle before the police shot him dead.

NAVY SAILOR SAVES LIVES IN FLORIDA SHOOTING

Joshua Kaleb Watson, a 2019 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, had just arrived at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, beginning his journey to become an aviator. That dream was taken on Dec. 6, when a Saudi Air Force lieutenant being trained at the base opened fire with a handgun in a classroom building. A wounded Watson, 23, made it outside and told responders where the shooter was before dying.

“He died a hero and we are beyond proud but there is a hole in our hearts that can never be filled,” Joshua’s brother Adam wrote on Facebook after his family was briefed by authorities. Two other sailors died in the shooting and eight more people were shot and injured.

The Navy posthumously awarded Wings of Gold to all those killed, making Watson a naval aviator in death.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Austin, Texas; Editing by Scott Malone and Diane Craft)

More U.S. children die in mass shootings at home than at school: study

By Brad Brooks

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – Three out of four U.S. children and teens killed in mass shootings over the past decade were victims of domestic violence and generally died in their homes, according to a study released on Thursday by the gun control group Everytown.

While the specter of school shootings looms darkly in the minds of American parents who remember massacres in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida, and around the country, the group’s review of shootings from 2009 through 2018 found far more children are killed in their own homes.

“These are not random acts of violence, yet people have the perception that the killings come out of nowhere,” said Sarah Burd-Sharps, Everytown’s research director. “That is simply not the truth.”

The Everytown report, based on police and court records, as well as media reports, found that 54% of mass shootings involved the shooter killing a family member or intimate partner.

A total of 1,121 people were killed in 194 mass shootings in the decade examined – one-third of whom were children or teens.

Nearly two-thirds of all mass shootings took place entirely inside homes, the study found.

Burd-Sharps said Everytown hopes that its report helps the public gain more understanding about the statistical realities of mass shootings, which it defines as an incident that kills at least four people, excluding the shooter.

The federal government and other groups set a lower threshold for what constitutes a mass shooting. Those definitions can result in higher totals than Everytown’s count.

Only 1% of the nearly 35,000 gun deaths averaged in the United States each year in the past decade involved mass shootings, but Burd-Sharps said she believes public interest in them can help propel gun-safety legislation that could cut gun deaths across the board.

At the top of Everytown’s wish list is a “red flag” law that would allow family members or law enforcement officers to petition a judge to seize firearms from a person they think is a threat to themselves or others.

The group also believes a comprehensive federal law requiring background checks on all gun sales would quickly be effective in decreasing gun deaths.

The link between domestic violence in mass shootings was seen this week in San Diego, when a man who had a restraining order against him killed his wife and three of their four young sons before taking his own life.

“When you look at all these cases of kids who lost their lives, if some family member had been able to heed the warning signs and temporarily had guns removed from the home, many of those children would still be alive,” Burd-Sharps said.

(Reporting by Brad Brooks in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)

Attorney General Barr launches effort to prevent more mass shootings

Attorney General Barr launches effort to prevent more mass shootings
By Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Wednesday announced an initiative to prevent mass shootings by intervening to provide mental-health treatment and other forms of counseling to potentially violent individuals.

The new effort, announced in a memo to federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials, follows dozens of deadly mass shootings in the United States this year, including a massacre of 22 people at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas and another just one day later in Dayton, Ohio, in which nine people were killed.

Barr said a training conference at FBI headquarters in December will present “proven models for engaging extremely challenging individuals” and consider new ideas to face such threats.

In one successful case, Barr said, the FBI worked with parents and social-service workers to get court-ordered supervision and mental-health treatment for a young person who was the subject of a threat investigation.

Lawmakers are considering whether they need new laws to help the FBI investigate domestic terrorism instigated by U.S. residents who are motivated by white supremacy, anti-Semitism or other ideologies that are protected by the U.S. Constitution’s free-speech guarantees.

The FBI in the past has come under criticism for how it documents and follows up on investigative leads about possible shooters.

In the wake of the Feb. 18 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, the FBI’s No. 2 official David Bowdich told Congress the bureau should have done more after it received warnings about the gunman, Nikolas Cruz.

Earlier this year, the FBI requested bids for a contractor who could help it try to detect national security threats by trawling through social media sites.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Andy Sullivan; Editing by Angus MacSwan)