USA - Lack of proper Gun Control: Dutch commando dies after US street shooting

In a statement rom the Dutch Defense Ministry said the two other soldiers were both conscious and able to speak

A Dutch Defense Ministry statement on Monday said a special forces commando had died of his injuries after he and two colleagues were gunned down outside a hotel in the US.

The  media said the shooting in Indiana appeared to have followed an earlier altercation and was not random.

 Read more at: With still no proper gun control laws, the US is not a safe place for tourists and other foreigners to visit, including US military trainees from Allies, who go there for training purposes. 

USA: The Holy Grail? Why is gun control so difficult in the US?

A mass shooting occurred nine out of every 10 days in the US.

Why is gun control so difficult in the US? First, the “right to bear arms” was enshrined in the second amendment of the US constitution more than 200 years ago. This is the starting point for all arguments about gun control. The second amendment is interpreted differently by different experts, but as it stands, it is the ultimate defense against implementing strict gun laws.

Rea more at: Why is gun control so difficult in the US? - CGTN

USA: Texas shooting: US gun control claims fact-checked

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who has also opposed gun control measures, did specify, and pointed to Chicago, Illinois.

Illinois has stricter gun laws than Texas but experiences a higher rate of gun crime, especially in the city of Chicago.

However, the majority of guns recovered in Chicago come from other states, often with looser gun laws, such as Indiana and Mississippi.

Read more at: Texas shooting: US gun control claims fact-checked - BBC News

USA: Republicans offer contrasting views on gun law reform - by Jesse Naranjo

A pair of House Republicans on Sunday offered widely contrasting views of whether lawmakers should pursue changes to gun law in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks said Americans feared losing their Second Amendment rights and that any changes to laws must not infringe on them.

It’s not clear what, if anything, motivated the shooter in Texas to kill young children.

Brooks’ comments marked a significant contrast from the position taken by Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who in interviews on CNN’s “State of the Union” and ABC’s “This Week” said his views on gun laws have evolved recently. The moderate Republican said among other changes he was open to raising the age to purchase long guns to 21.

“If you look at this shooting, you look at Buffalo, you look at Parkland and all these others, there are people taking these guns, these ARs, under the age of 21,” Kinzinger told CNN host Dana Bash. “Can we stop all of it? No. Can we mitigate it, certainly. And we should be doing that now.”

Asked whether he stilled opposed a ban on sales of the type of firearm used in many recent shooting, Kinzinger said he was open to it, depending on the specifics. But he was adamant that supporters of the Second Amendment such as himself should be coming to the table with “reasonable” solutions.

“My side’s not doing that. My side’s not coming forward with reasonable ways to defend an amendment that we think is very important,” Kinzinger said. “And so I’m looking at this going, fine, if people are going to put forward solutions about certifying maybe who can buy an assault weapon, I’m certainly open to that.”

Read more at: Republicans offer contrasting views on gun law reform - POLITICO

U.S. Gun Production Triples Since 2000, Fueled by Handgun Purchases -by Glenn Thrush

The United States is in the middle of a great gun-buying boom that shows no sign of letting up as the annual number of firearms manufactured has nearly tripled since 2000 and spiked sharply in the past three years, according to the first comprehensive federal tally of gun commerce in two decades.

The report, released by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on Tuesday — three days after a mass shooting in Buffalo left 10 dead — painted a vivid statistical portrait of a nation arming itself to the teeth. Buyers capitalized on the loosening of gun restrictions by the Supreme Court, Congress and Republican-controlled state legislatures.
br> The data documented a drastic shift in consumer demand among gun owners that has had profound commercial, cultural and political implications: Starting in 2009, Glock-type semiautomatic handguns, purchased for personal protection, began to outsell rifles, which have been typically used in hunting.

Embedded in the 306-page document was another statistic that law enforcement officials find especially troubling. The police recovered 19,344 privately manufactured firearms, untraceable homemade weapons known as “ghost guns,” in 2021, a tenfold increase since 2016. Law enforcement officials say that has contributed to the surge in gun-related killings, especially in California, where ghost guns make up as many as half of weapons recovered at crime scenes.

READ MORE AT: U.S. Gun Production Triples Since 2000, Fueled by Handgun Purchases - The New York Times

USA: The other public health crisis: Gun violence spikes in the U.S. amid pandemic

More than 12,000 shooting deaths have been recorded in the U.S. so far this year and the political establishment in the US can still not come up legislating strong gun control laws.Scandalous.

Read more at: The other public health crisis: Gun violence spikes in the U.S. amid pandemic | CBC News

USA: Hundreds of Casualties Reported in Shootings Across U.S. Over July 4th Weekend: by Mary Ellen Cagnassola

According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which compiled data from cities across the country showing hundreds of injuries and deaths over a 72-hour period, the Fourth of July weekend was the most violent weekend in the United States so far this year.

Roughly 233 people were killed in the U.S. and hundreds more injured — from 5 p.m. Friday through Monday, according to the GVA data. The organization reported numbers exceeding 600 injuries as of Tuesday morning and is still finalizing numbers collected from police, media and government sources in real time.

Read more at: Hundreds of Casualties Reported in Shootings Across U.S. Over July 4th Weekend

USA - gun contro;: Biden urges Congress to act on gun legislation: "Enough prayers, time for some action"

President Biden said he’d “use all the resources at my disposal as President to keep the American people safe from gun violence,” but pushed Congress to pass further legislation.

"They can do it right now. They’ve offered plenty of thoughts and prayers, members of Congress, but they have passed not a single new federal law to reduce gun violence," he said.

Read more at: (6) Biden urges Congress to act on gun legislation: "Enough prayers, time for some action"

USA: Gun Control is not a luxury: Three million more guns: The Spring 2020 spike in firearm sales

When Americans are concerned about their personal security, they buy firearms. Such concerns have been rampant since March, initially due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and then the social unrest in June that followed George Floyd’s killing. Our estimates indicate that almost three million more firearms have been sold since March than would have ordinarily been sold during these months. Half of that increase occurred in June alone. This pattern highlights an important potential consequence that may result from this tumultuous period: more firearms in the hands of private citizens.

The geographic pattern in the additional sales is not correlated with COVID-19 death rates nor with increases in unemployment rates. This suggests that the spike in firearm sales resulted from a general sense of national apprehension, rather than a response to differential deterioration in local conditions. Over the next two months, as the country settled into its new environment and even moved into a period of scheduled re-openings, firearm sales stabilized, if perhaps at a slightly higher level than earlier in the year (seasonal variation is modest during this period of the year).

Read more at:Three million more guns: The Spring 2020 spike in firearm sales

USA: Gun violence global statistics: Rate Of Gun Violence Deaths In U.S. Is Higher Than Much Of The World :- by Nurith Aizenman

The horrific mass shooting events in the Atlanta area and Boulder, Colo., just days apart have once again shown a spotlight on how frequent this type of violence is in the United States compared with other wealthy countries.

The U.S. has the 32nd-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world: 3.96 deaths per 100,000 people in 2019. That was more than eight times as high as the rate in Canada, which had 0.47 deaths per 100,000 people — and nearly 100 times higher than in the United Kingdom, which had 0.04 deaths per 100,000.

On a state-by-state calculation, the rates can be even higher. In the District of Columbia, the rate is 18.5 per 100,000 — the highest in the United States. The second-highest is in Louisiana: 9.34 per 100,000. In Georgia and Colorado — the scenes of the two most recent mass shootings — the rates are a bit closer to the national average: 5.62 per 100,000 in Georgia and 2.27 in Colorado.

The numbers come from a massive database maintained by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which tracks lives lost in every country, in every year, by every possible cause of death.

Read more at https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/03/24/980838151/gun-violence-deaths-how-the-u-s-compares-to-the-rest-of-the-world

USA: Opinion | Why America Can’t Fix Its Gun Violence Crisis - by Spencer Bokat-Lindell

On an average day in the United States, more than 100 people are killed by guns. Whenever the fact of this ambient crisis rises back to the surface of national consciousness, as it has this past week, it tends to inspire a certain mystified resignation. Politicians and commentators, acting in good faith and bad, probe the problem with the same stock of questions: Was mental illness to blame? White male supremacy or Islamic extremism? Video games? (If guns don’t kill people, perhaps PlayStations do.)

Read more at: Opinion | Why America Can’t Fix Its Gun Violence Crisis - The New York Times

USA - gun control, the endless political saga -: The Colorado attack is the 7th mass shooting in 7 days in the US

They are also among at least seven mass shootings in the past week across the United States -- including three incidents on Saturday alone.

CNN defines a mass shooting as: a shooting incident which results in four or more casualties (dead or wounded) excluding the shooter(s).

Read more at: a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/23/us/7-mass-shootings-7-days-trnd/index.html">The Colorado attack is the 7th mass shooting in 7 days in the US - CNN

USA: Gun sales surged 80 percent in January, data shows - by Hannah Denham and Andrew Ba Tran

More than 2 million firearms were bought last month, according to The Washington Post’s analysis of federal gun background-check data. That is an 80 percent year-over-year spike and the second-highest one-month total on record.

Background checks, and sales of firearms and ammunition, have been increasing pace for months. The surge is in line with the record pace set in 2020: Nearly 23 million firearms were bought, representing a 64 percent jump year over year.

Read more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/03/gun-sales-january-background-checks/

Gun killings in U.S. cities: The scourge not even a pandemic lockdown can stop

 Not even a deadly pandemic has halted the spread of another scourge: gun violence in American cities. Despite stay-at-home orders, some cities are seeing similar, or even higher, homicide figures. Meanwhile, some police forces are overwhelmed by COVID-19 cases in their ranks.

Read more at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/pandemic-shootings-usa-1.5541773

USA - Gun Control: 2019 saw most mass killings on record, US database reveals

Thirty-three of 41 incidents involved firearms, research shows.

Read more at :
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/28/mass-killings-2019-us-database?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Add_to_Firefox

USA: Why is tourism to the United States on the decline? - Gun Violence

The decrease isn't steep, but any decline is seen as alarming, given the overall rise in global tourism.

One of the major reasons for this decline in tourism to the US is the fear of gun violence in America, which is widely publicized around the world.

Read more at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/09/06/more-people-are-traveling-world-than-ever-number-coming-america-is-dropping/

USA - Gun Control Legislation: "How many more killings and School Shootings will it take for Mitch McConnell to start debating Gun Control Legislation in the Senate after another 3 students killed in todays California school shooting ?

Stop sitting on your hands McCinnell

Two 14-year-old boys and a 16-year-old girl are dead and two other students are injured after a classmate opened fire at a high school in Southern California Thursday morning, sheriff's officials said.

Detectives reviewed video from the scene which showed the gunman in the quad of Saugus High School in Santa Clarita when he took a gun from his backpack, shot five people and then shot himself in the head, authorities said. The early morning school shooting was on the suspect's birthday, authorities said.  

Read more: 3 students killed in California school shooting, 16-year-old suspect in hospital in 'grave condition' - ABC News

USA: Shooting at Halloween party leaves 4 dead, 4 injured-its all about having no serious gun control rights in America

At least four people were shot dead at a house party in California on Halloween night, say authorities.

Four others were injured in the shooting, which occurred in the city of Orinda, some 9 miles northeast of Oakland.

"We are still investigating the scene," Orinda Police Chief David Cook told ABC News in an email Friday morning

Read more: Shooting at Halloween party leaves 4 dead, 4 injured

USA - Visitors/Tourists To US Beware: No Gun Controls, White Extremists, and Frequent Kilings of Innocent people - "Recent Texas shooting: Death toll rises to 7 in gunman's rampage - by John Bacon and Olivia Sanchez

The death toll rose to seven Sunday after a gunman's rampage that left many more injured following what began as a routine traffic stop in Odessa, police in the West Texas city said.

Odessa police spokesman Steve LeSueur said Sunday that at least one person remains in “life-threatening” condition. Police Chief Michael Gerke previously said the gunman, whose name has not been released, was fatally shot by police.

"There is no longer an immediate threat to the public, and this situation continues to be investigated by local, state and federal officials," Gerke said in a statement.

The assault took place one day before a series of gun law changes in state that ease restrictions on where Texans can carry or store firearms, from foster homes to churches.

The shooting began Saturday afternoon when a state trooper pulled over the suspect, described by authorities as a white male in his mid-30s and driving a gold-colored car, was pulled over for a traffic violation on Interstate 20 between Midland and Odessa.

The driver opened fire on the trooper before fleeing westbound on the interstate, shooting his way to Odessa, stealing a mail truck and continuing his assault, police said.

Read more: Texas shooting: Death toll rises to 7 in gunman's rampage

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Switzerland: vote in favoring tightening gun laws

Swiss voters favor tightening gun laws ...... When will US politicians have the courage to do the same?

Read more at: 
https://p.dw.com/p/3Ijrb