shooting

Plush toys on red chairs covered with flowers and candles.

Plush toys on chairs placed in remembrance of the victims of the deadliest U.S. school shooting in nearly a decade at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on May 29, 2022. REUTERS/Veronica G. Cardenas

Four days. That’s how long researchers have found that people’s sadness and outrage last after each major gun massacre in America. Perhaps this is our own defense mechanism kicking in or maybe we have become far too desensitized to this time loop of horrific gun violence. But anger that dissipates after four days dishonors the lives that are stolen. Four days isn’t enough time to sufficiently process and grieve. And it’s not nearly enough time to galvanize the political will necessary to overcome political fecklessness, particularly the degree to which the GOP remains captive to fierce advocates for gun rights.

A diverse crowd of people stand in a church wearing masks during a vigil.

Mourners gather at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church for a vigil on May 15, 2022, the day after a shooting at TOPS supermarket in Buffalo, New York. REUTERS/Jeffrey T. Barnes 

Before the public outcry dies down — and isn’t sad that we all know it will? — we must boldly and unequivocally denounce the great replacement theory and instead live out the great commandment. The great replacement theory draws on the worst of our nation’s history, falsely implying that nonwhite people are threats to our nation’s future. But the great commandment offers the best of our civic and religious values, reminding us that we are to love our neighbors as ourselves; it lends itself to a moral vision of multi-racial democracy in which everyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, and religion, is equally valued.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James listens to man who became emotional during a prayer vigil across the street from the TOPS supermarket a day after a mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, May 15, 2022. Seth Harrison/USA Today Network via Reuters

“That was an evil, racist, white supremacist,” Reverend Darius Pridgen said from the pulpit at True Bethel Baptist Church on Sunday. “He literally looked for a zip code that had the highest concentration of African Americans.”

Balloons are released during a funeral service for some victims of the Sutherland Springs Baptist church shooting, in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Nov. 15, 2017. REUTERS/Darren Abate

A federal judge found the U.S. government 60 percent responsible for a 2017 mass shooting that killed 26 people at a rural Texas church, where a former Air Force serviceman used firearms he should not have been allowed to purchase.

U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez ruled on Tuesday that the Air Force did not use reasonable care when it failed to record Devin Patrick Kelley's plea to domestic violence charges in a database used for background checks on firearms purchases.

He said the government bears "significant responsibility" for harm to victims of the Nov. 5, 2017 massacre at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, TX.

Heather Brady 12-11-2019

A picture of the scene the day after an hours-long gun battle with two men around a kosher market in Jersey City, New Jersey, on December 11, 2019. Image courtesy REUTERS/Lloyd Mitchell.

One of the two suspects in a shooting in Jersey City, N.J., on Tuesday had previously posted anti-Semitic messages online and was linked to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement.

Matt Dodrill 10-18-2019

Former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger leaves the 204th District Court in Dallas, Texas. Oct. 2, 2019. Tom Fox/Pool via REUTERS

A racial leveraging of forgiveness followed Amber Guyger’s trial in Dallas.

Amber Guyger, who is charged in the killing of Botham Jean in his own home, arrives on the first day of the trial in Dallas, Texas. Sept. 23, 2019. REUTERS/Jeremy Lock/File Photo

Guyger, 31, could face life in prison for the slaying.

Image via REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez

Though Juarez is known as a center of cartel- and smuggling-related violence, El Paso is rated on various websites as one of the safest cities in America and among the best places to retire or raise a family. According to KVIA, a local ABC affiliate, it averages 16 murders a year.

Catherine Orsborn 3-20-2019

In front of Christchurch Botanic Gardens in Christchurch, New Zealand. March 19, 2019. REUTERS/Jorge Silva

As executive director of the Shoulder to Shoulder Campaign, my professional life is concentrated on counteracting anti-Muslim discrimination and violence. When I started this work, there were many from my white Christian community of origin that wondered if I had converted to Islam — as if that’s why I started doing this work. I understood where the people asking this question were coming from, but the assumption behind it bothered me. They assumed the only reason Christians would care about anti-Muslim hate in the United States is if they had converted to Islam themselves. The assumption caused me to dig deeper into why I would care enough about this issue to devote myself to it not in spite of my Christian identity but because of it.

In an effort to help our family grieve the loss of our beloved Vickie Lee Jones, a preacher told us that it was God’s will that a white man named Gregory Alan Bush shot her to death in the parking lot of a Kroger grocery store outside of Louisville, Ky. because, as a witnesses implied, she was black.

It was not.

Image via United Nations Photo / Flickr

A crowd of thousands of angry, shouting protesters gathered as his body, covered by a sheet, was carried on a makeshift stretcher along dirt streets to the presidential palace, a Reuters witness said.

Jamie D. Aten 11-14-2017

Image via Rick Wilking/Reuters.

I’ve dedicated my career to helping churches prepare for disasters, including mass shootings. And I believe that responding to the Texas church mass shooting with an arms race does more to protect fear than it does to protect our churches. Here are three suggestions I want to offer the U.S. church now.

Mourners attend a candle light vigil after a mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, U.S., November 5, 2017. REUTERS/Joe Mitchell

"We are dealing with the largest mass shooting in our state’s history," Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at the news conference. "The tragedy of course is worsened by the fact that it occurred in a church, a place of worship where these people were innocently gunned down."

A woman is aided by first responders after sustaining injury on a bike path in lower Manhattan on Oct. 31. Image via Reuters/Brendan McDermid

The New York City Police Department, in a post on Twitter, said that one vehicle struck another, then the driver of one of the vehicles "got out displaying imitation firearms and was shot by police."

Police said the suspect was taken into custody.

the Web Editors 12-15-2016

Image via Charleston County Sheriff’s Office

A federal jury found Dylann Roof guilty on all 33 counts of hate crimes, religious obstruction, and firearms violations, reports the Post and Courier. The jury will return Jan 3. to deliberate whether Roof's charges warrant the death penalty or life imprisonment. 

We Are Charleston

We Are Charleston

On June 17, 2015, a young white man walked into a Bible study at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., and sat quietly until the benediction, when he shouted racist statements and opened fire. The suspect, Dylann Roof, was arrested the next day. Killed were Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Rev. Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson, Tywanza Sanders, Ethel Lee Lance, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Rev. Daniel L. Simmons Sr., Rev. DePayne Middleton-Doctor, and Susie Jackson. After the killings, some family members expressed their forgiveness.

There are cynics who assume these extraordinary expressions of forgiveness were only a trip of the tongue when these family members were put on the spot—but if that’s true they would have recanted their statements or qualified them somehow. Each said something distinctly different at the bond hearing, and all the complexities and contradictions that weave their anger and grief into the notion of forgiveness must be considered. This forgiveness is not easy; it is quite the opposite.

But not every family had a representative at the bond hearing, and not all the family members feel the same way about forgiveness. Forgiveness itself is as complex as any human action. These extraordinary expressions of forgiveness do not suggest acceptance, nor do they imply forgive and forget.

Order We Are Charleston: Tragedy and Triumph at Mother Emanuel here.
the Web Editors 6-01-2016

Image via  / Shutterstock.com

The Department of Justice will not pursue charges against the Minneapolis police officers who shot and killed Jamar Clark, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger announced at a press conference June 1.

the Web Editors 3-28-2016

Screenshot via CBS News

The U.S. Capitol and the White House were on lockdown the afternoon of March 28 when someone opened fire near the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, according to DCist.

One Capitol police officer was shot, but not seriously injured, and the shooter was taken into custody.

Frederic Lemieux 3-23-2016

Image via /Shutterstock.com

The actions of the shooters like those in San BernardinoParis, and very probably Brussels are difficult for most people to understand. But the work of scholars specializing in extremism can help us begin to unravel how people become radicalized to embrace political violence.

Security experts Alex Wilner and Claire-Jehanne Dubouloz define radicalization as a process during which an individual or group adopts increasingly extreme political, social, or religious ideals and aspirations. The process involves rejecting or undermining the status quo or contemporary ideas and expressions of freedom of choice.

Newly radicalized people don’t just agree with the mission and the message of the group they are joining — they embrace the idea of using violence to induce change.

the Web Editors 2-26-2016

A man in Mason County, Wash. killed his wife and children and proceeded to call 911, reports KING-TV.

The shooter then killed himself, according to the Mason County sheriff.