Category Archives: Gun crime

US mass shootings are getting deadlier and more common, analysis shows

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The last five years have seen more mass shootings than any other comparable time span dating back to 1966, with 31 massacres from 2017 through 2021, compared with 24 from 2012 through 2016

On the morning of 4 July, President Joe Biden hailed the day as one to “celebrate the goodness of our nation”.

Less than an hour after his 9.25am EST tweet, a gunman on a rooftop opened fire into a crowd of spectators who gathered to enjoy a Fourth of July parade in a Chicago suburb. He killed seven people and injured dozens.

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Gun violence rattles US amid Independence Day celebrations – latest updates

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Suspect pre-planned Highland park attack and wore ‘women’s clothing’, police say

A new poll from Monmouth University has found that President Joe Biden remains unpopular, but for Democrats, that’s not its most troubling finding. The Biden administration has hoped that the supreme court’s recent rulings curtailing abortion access and expanding concealed weapons possession would fire up Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, but the poll instead shows that voters’ biggest issue remains the nation’s high rate of inflation - a trend that Biden has had little success in reversing.

First the bad news about Biden’s approval rating, which Monmouth reports actually worsened last month:

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Details emerge about victims of Highland Park Fourth of July shooting

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Shooting injured dozens and killed six, including 76-year-old grandfather Nicolas Toledo and teacher Jacki Sundheim

The first details have begun to emerge of the victims of the mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, after a lone gunman fired into a crowd of people watching the Chicago suburb’s Fourth of July parade.

The shooting killed six and injured dozens, triggering panic and shock across the US as yet another attack disrupted what is usually a day of patriotic celebration.

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Copenhagen shooting: police say no indication of terrorism motive

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Gunman acted alone and appears to have selected his victims at random, officials in Denmark say

A shooting at a Copenhagen shopping centre in which three people were killed and four others seriously wounded was not terror-related, Danish police have said.

Søren Thomassen, Copenhagen’s chief police inspector, said the gunman, a 22-year-old Danish man who confessed to the shooting on Sunday night, had apparently picked his victims at random when he opened fire at the Field’s shopping centre on Sunday afternoon.

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Reporter shot to death in Mexico, the 12th journalist killed there this year

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Attacks on the press have increased 85% in the three years since president Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power

Yet another Mexican reporter has been shot to death, bringing to 12 the number of journalists killed this year in the country, one of the world’s most dangerous for media workers.

Antonio de la Cruz, 47, was shot on Wednesday as he was leaving his house with his 23-year-old daughter, who was seriously injured, according to state prosecutors and the newspaper that employed him.

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Gunman, 70, kills three people at Alabama church dinner

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Police say the man fatally shot people attending monthly dinner at Episcopal church in Birmingham suburb

A 70-year-old man has shot and killed three people at a church potluck dinner in Alabama.

Police said the man, who had previously attended services at St Stephen’s Episcopal church, pulled out a handgun and fatally shot three of the participants, one of whom died in his wife’s arms.

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California Taiwanese church shooting suspect charged with hate crime for May attack

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David Wenwei Chou, 68, is accused of opening fire on a gathering at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian church and killing one person

Authorities in California have added hate crime allegations to attempted murder charges filed against a 68-year-old who opened fire at a Taiwanese American church luncheon last month, killing one person and wounding five.

The gunman, David Wenwei Chou, is accused of attacking a gathering of members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian church in Laguna Woods in May. A 52-year-old doctor who took his mother to the event was killed.

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Shooting at an Alabama church leaves two dead and one in hospital

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Police confirmed a suspect had been taken into custody after the attack at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Birmingham

A shooting at a church in a suburb of one of Alabama’s major cities left two people dead and two others wounded on Thursday, police said, adding a suspect was quickly taken into custody.

The shooting erupted inside St Stephen’s Episcopal church in the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills.

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Uvalde survivor, 11, tells House hearing she smeared herself with friend’s blood

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Miah Cerrillo recounts at gun violence hearing how she watched as her teacher and friends were shot and acted quickly to save herself

An 11-year-old survivor of the elementary school massacre in Uvalde, Texas testified before the House oversight committee on Wednesday, as lawmakers continued to try to reach a compromise on gun control legislation after a series of devastating mass shootings.

The House hearing came two weeks after an 18-year-old opened fire at Robb elementary school, killing 19 children and two teachers, and three weeks after 10 people were killed at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

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Gun crime victims are holding the firearms industry accountable – by taking them to court

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Following the strategy used in legal actions against cigarette and opioid firms, the lawsuits attempt to sidestep a law shielding gun makers

With each slaughter of innocents, the gun industry offers its sympathy, argues that even more weapons will make America safer, and gives thanks for a two-decade-old law shielding the firearms makers from legal action by the victims.

Mike Fifer, the chief executive of one of the US’s leading handgun manufacturers, Sturm Ruger, once described the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) as having saved the firearms industry because it stopped in its tracks a wave of lawsuits over the reckless marketing and sale of guns.

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Texas A&M University refutes claim Rittenhouse will be attending school

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Rittenhouse, who was found not guilty after fatally shooting two and injuring one in Kenosha unrest, made claim on Friday

Kyle Rittenhouse – who was acquitted last year on charges related to a triple shooting resulting in two deaths during racial justice protests in Wisconsin – will not attend Texas A&M University as he has claimed, school officials said.

In an appearance on Friday on a conservative radio show, Rittenhouse said he would attend Texas A&M University and it would be “awesome”.

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Philadelphia, Tennessee and Michigan shootings leave at least nine dead and 27 wounded

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Gunfire erupted Saturday night in Philadelphia’s downtown area and near a Chattanooga nightclub and north-west of Detroit on Sunday morning

Gunfire killed three people and wounded at least 11 in one of downtown Philadelphia’s most popular entertainment districts late on Saturday night, hours before separate shootings in Tennessee and Michigan left six dead and at least 16 wounded, authorities said.

The violence erupted as many, including US president Joe Biden, call on Congress to enact meaningful gun control measures, especially in the wake of deadly mass shootings last month in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.

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Wisconsin man killed in what officials say was a ‘targeted act’ to those in the judicial system

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Officers found a 68-year-old man fatally shot in his home and a suspect in the basement with an apparent self-inflicted wound


A man was fatally shot at his home in Wisconsin on Friday and a suspect was discovered in the basement with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in what may have been a plan to target people connected to the judicial system, Wisconsin’s attorney general said.

Josh Kaul, the attorney general Josh Kaul refused to name the victim or the suspect, but said the shooting appeared to be a “targeted act” and that the gunman had selected targets who were “part of the judicial system”.

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Ron DeSantis blocks funds for Tampa Bay Rays after team’s gun safety tweets

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  • Florida governor defends vetoing funds for training facility
  • Rays had joined Yankees in tweeting about gun safety

The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, has defended his veto of $35m in funding for a potential spring training site for the Tampa Bay Rays, after the Major League Baseball team used social media to raise awareness about gun violence after mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.

“I don’t support giving taxpayer dollars to professional sports stadiums,” DeSantis said on Friday, when asked about the veto of the sports complex funding.

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Police arrested teen for allegedly planning shooting at Berkeley, California, high school

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Authorities received tip that the teenager was recruiting students for mass violence, in one of many recent threats against US schools

A teenage boy was arrested in Berkeley, California, on Monday after police received a tip he was “recruiting other high school students to participate in a mass shooting and/or bombing” at a local high school.

When authorities searched the teen’s home they found explosives, assault rifles, knives and electronic devices that could be used to make more weapons, police said.

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Tulsa hospital shooting: number of wounded not known after four killed

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Gunman also dead, police deputy chief says, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound

A gunman carrying a rifle and a handgun killed four people on Wednesday at a medical building on a hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police said, detailing the latest in a series of mass shootings across the US. The number of wounded was not known.

The Tulsa police deputy chief, Eric Dalgleish, said the gunman also was dead, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

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Canada plans complete freeze on handgun ownership

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It will be illegal to buy, sell, transfer or import handguns anywhere in country, Justin Trudeau says

The Canadian government has introduced legislation that would put a freeze on importing, buying or selling handguns.

“We are capping the number of handguns in this country,” said the prime minister, Justin Trudeau. The regulations to halt the growth of personally owned handguns is expected to be enacted this autumn.

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DoJ launches investigation into police response to Uvalde school shooting

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Inquiry comes amid anger over why officers waited over an hour outside the classroom where the gunman killed 21 people

The US government on Sunday announced a federal investigation into the police response to the mass shooting at a Texas school five days ago as anger mounted over why armed officers waited more than one hour in the hall outside the classroom where the gunman killed 19 children and two teachers and wounded others.

The US Department of Justice said it will conduct a “critical incident review” of the law enforcement action in the small south Texas city of Uvalde last Tuesday.

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Texas shooting timeline: the 911 calls children made during massacre

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At least two girls hiding in their classrooms at Robb elementary school in Texas dialled 911 during the shooting, law enforcement officials have said

The first call came from a little girl who called multiple times on Tuesday. At 12.03pm, she identified herself and told authorities what room the shooter was in, said Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Here is a 911 emergency call timeline McCraw outlined at a news conference:

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‘More could have been done’: Texas police under scrutiny over response to school shooting

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Gunman remained barricaded inside a classroom for up to an hour before his rampage was brought to an end

Texas law enforcement agencies are facing escalating criticism over their response to the mass shooting at Robb elementary school in Uvalde, after it emerged that the gunman remained locked inside a classroom for up to an hour while large numbers of police officers were amassed outside the room without taking any action.

At a press conference on Thursday afternoon, Texas authorities confirmed that the shooter had been locked inside a classroom for an hour before he was confronted and killed. He committed all his 21 murders inside that room – including 19 children and two teachers.

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