Rolando Otero/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — On Feb. 14, 2018, Sari Kaufman was a 15 year old high school student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, when a gunman opened fire and killed 17 people, a majority of whom were her fellow classmates.
Four years later, she says she continues to relive her trauma through the growing number of others like her who are personally affected by gun violence. Most recently, the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, when authorities say an 18-year-old high school student opened fire and killed at least 21 people, including 19 children.
“It’s just really upsetting, especially to see young students, elementary-aged students, have to go through what I went through,” said Kaufman on the Start Here podcast. “And I know from a personal level how difficult it is to deal with that trauma.”
Kaufman said that not only will these children grieve the loss of their classmates and teachers today, but will wake up for the rest of their life with the belief that they can be murdered while at school.
“It forces you to become an adult before you need to be and it takes away your innocence to know that you go to school and that there’s a possibility,” said Kaufman.
“These students are not just going to be affected today, it’s not just going to be tonight. That’s difficult. It’s going to be every day afterwards. And I think that’s what hurts me the most, because I know on a personal level that it’s really difficult to deal with the aftermath and to be this young and have to deal with that the rest of their lives,” Kaufman added.
Over the past five years, there have been 94,057 deaths and 183,926 injuries due to gun violence in the United States, according to a Gun Violence Tracker a part of ABC News’ multimedia series “Rethinking Gun Violence,” which partnered with the independent, nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.
As a growing number of American students have been affected by active school shooters, parents who have lost their children to gun violence will have to continue to live without their child.
Nelba Marquez-Greene lost her six-year-old daughter Ana Grace in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Now, she is watching other parents go through the same thing she went through nearly a decade later.
“Right now, the families are surviving, but I would say to anyone who wants to help, if you really want to help a family, find out ways to help them directly,” said Marquez-Green on “The View.” “Show up now. Show up 10, 15, 20 years from now. We will need you for a lifetime.”
Marquez-Green said there is more work to be done than just sending thoughts and prayers to the suffering community.
“We must not be unserious in our faith. Thoughts and prayers, faith without work is dead,” she said.
Marquez-Green also urged the country to force change from the lawmakers.
“It is grotesque abdication of duty, abdication of their responsibility to American families, to fail us in this way and we see them,” she said. “Let’s call out the bull crap. Let’s say we see them.”
(WASHINGTON) — Experts examine America’s history with guns, the real-life impacts of gun violence and what can be done going forward to mitigate the problem.
As the nation mourns the latest American massacre of 19 elementary school students and two teachers in Texas, the deadliest mass school shooting in nearly a decade, gun control efforts remain stalled in Washington, as they have for almost 30 years.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday night made impassioned remarks expressing outrage at lawmakers who are blocking “common-sense” gun laws and rejected the argument often heard from Republicans that gun violence is a mental health issue.
“These kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency they happen in America. Why? Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” Biden said with outrage. “Where in God’s name is our backbone to have the courage to deal with and stand up to the lobbies?”
Since the National Rifle Association formed its own political action committee in 1977, the organization has used its deep pockets to lobby lawmakers at the federal and state level to stave off gun control efforts.
According to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the NRA spent $1.6 million in the first half of 2019 alone lobbying members of Congress to vote against a proposal to expand background checks for gun sales.
With Republicans offering sympathy to the loved ones of victims in the Robb Elementary shooting, several critics on social media called out their contributions from the gun lobby, citing $13.6 million to Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and $1.2 million to Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, over their careers.
The last meaningful gun reform legislation passed on Capitol Hill was the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 due to a “sunset” clause in the legislation. In the nearly 30 years since, gun control measures have mostly stalled on Capitol Hill, and in the current Democratic-controlled Congress, that’s due, in large part, to the Senate filibuster rule.
In the current 50-50 Senate, Democrats need 10 Republicans to join them to reach the 60-vote threshold required by the Senate’s filibuster rule in order to end debate on a bill, allowing it to proceed to a final vote. Republicans have warned even a single exception to the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to advance legislation would be dangerous to the rights of whichever party is in the minority (although both parties have used the so-called “nuclear option” in the last decade — requiring 51 votes to confirm all executive branch and judicial nominees, for example).
Republicans Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn headed back to their home state of Texas on Wednesday to visit Uvalde.
Cornyn has supported bipartisan talks to expand background checks in the past. Cruz has not, and has faced backlash, along with Abbott, for being slated to speak at the NRA’s annual meeting in Houston this weekend, only a few hundred miles away from the massacre in Uvalde. Because former President Donald Trump is also attending, the NRA said Wednesday that firearms would not be allowed at the event, citing Secret Service protocol.
The last time Congress came close to passing substantial gun reform was in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, when a single gunman killed 20 students and 6 adults. Biden was tasked with the White House response on Capitol Hill while serving as vice president, but that effort ultimately failed to garner enough bipartisan support.
In lieu of congressional action, Biden has taken some executive actions aimed at curbing gun violence but conceded last week while in Buffalo there’s “not much” more he can do without congressional support.
Where does gun control stand in Congress?
House Democrats passed two gun control bills last year — one aimed at expanding background check requirements for gun sales, and the second aimed at extending the review period for background checks from three days to 10 days. But Democrats don’t have the votes needed to squash a GOP-led filibuster to pass either bill in the Senate.
Two Senate Democrats — Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — have been adamant in their opposition to changing the Senate filibuster rule.
“If we can’t get 60 or 70 or more votes, we’ll talk then,” Manchin said Wednesday, expressing some confidence that senators could find some common ground before ending the rule.
Sinema, asked directly if she could support scrapping the filibuster to pass gun control legislation, told ABC News’ Trish Turner, “I don’t think that D.C. solutions are realistic here.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer moved Tuesday evening to put the two House-passed bills on the chamber’s calendar, but it’s unclear if and when a vote would be held. If Schumer does bring legislation to the floor, it would likely be an effort to put every single senator on the record, as he’s done with failed legislation on abortion and voting rights.
When eviscerating Republicans in a floor speech Wednesday, Schumer signaled he was disinclined to put up that vote.
“I accept the fact that most of my Republicans are not willing to do what it takes to present this needless loss of life. The NRA will have a hold on them. That’s just the reality, unfortunately, but it is unacceptable to the American people to think that there are not 10 of my Republican colleagues just 10 — one out of five over here — would be ready to work to pass something that we reduce this plague of gun violence,” Schumer said. “It’s unacceptable, that there are not 10 members of the Republican caucus willing to save lives, find a way to do it. And yet, that’s where we are.”
Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who has represented his state since the Sandy Hook massacre also questioned his colleagues on the Senate floor Monday night in a speech that quickly went viral on social media.
“What are we doing? Just days after a shooter walked into a grocery store to gun down African American patrons. We have another Sandy Hook on our hands,” he said. “There are more mass shootings than days in the year. Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?”
Renewed talks but will there be action?
While lawmakers on both sides of the aisle often talk about taking action in the wake of deadly mass shootings, there’s not widespread bipartisan agreement on what action to take.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., pushed for The School Safety Act, which would create a federal clearinghouse database and collect information to establish best practices for school safety nationwide. Rubio will try to force a vote on that legislation Wednesday.Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who has accepted more than $3 million from the NRA in his career, told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that he does support background checks.
“It’s not just about these horrific mass shootings, it’s also about this broader issue of gun violence, and then what are the actual solutions — what’s actually going to make a difference,” he said. “If we’re passing something to make us feel better here, that doesn’t have any impact on the actual issue.”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said he thinks there could be common ground on red flag laws, noting his bipartisan red flag law bill with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. Red-flag laws allow police or family members to petition a court to order the removal of firearms from a person who may present a danger to others or themselves.
But Graham, asked by Scott on Wednesday if he can assure the American people that — this time — something will get done, said, “I can’t assure the American people there’s any law we can pass that would have stopped this shooting.”
With an apparent eye on midterms, Sen. Cory Booker, D-S.C., said he’s urging Schumer to put every senator on the record.
“I’m hoping it comes to the floor for a vote. It will fail. Americans should know that,’ Booker said. “Right now, there are not seemingly 10 senators that want to do the most moderate of things, which is universal background checks supported by almost 90% of Americans, the majority of gun owners, but I do think at this moment its important we put people on the record.”
Americans across party and demographic lines overwhelmingly support expanded background checks (89%) and red flag laws (86%), according to an ABC News-Washington Post poll from 2019.
ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, Trish Turner and Allie Pecorin contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, Tuesday has put the spotlight back on recent data showing that firearm injuries are the No. 1 cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States.
A total of 19 children, mainly third and fourth graders — as well as two teachers — were killed at Robb Elementary, in what President Joe Biden referred to as an act of “carnage.”
It’s an all-too-familiar story in which communities are left wondering in the aftermath how to best keep children safe.
“It’s a senseless act of violence,” Dr. Jason Goldstick, an associate professor of emergency medicine at the University of Michigan, told ABC News. “You shouldn’t be expected to be exposed to violence when going to school like that.”
And it comes just a month after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing guns were the No. 1 killer of children and adolescents in 2020.
The agency found that 4,368 Americans under the age of 19 died from gun violence in 2020, a 29.5% jump from 2019.
That’s equivalent to 5.4 out of every 100,000 kids and teens in the U.S. dying from a firearm injury and a 63% jump from the 3.3 per 100,000 recorded one decade ago.
It’s unclear what’s behind the spike, but the data is consistent with other recent studies showing the increase in firearm-related injuries at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“If you look at the trajectory over the last several years, that should raise alarm,” said Goldstick, who is also a member of the university’s Institute for Firearm Injury Prevention. “The fact that this is the leading cause of death among kids is obscene.”
It also marks the first time since the CDC started recording leading causes of death among children that firearm-related injuries overtook motor vehicle crashes as the No. 1 cause.
For the last 21 years, gun deaths were second to motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents; however, the gap between the two categories has been narrowing since 2016, the CDC said.
By comparison, motor vehicle accidents killed about five per 100,000 Americans aged 19 and younger in 2020.
That is a more than 50% decline in the rate of children and adolescents being killed by cars since 1999.
There has been significant progress in reducing the fatality rate of motor vehicle crashes, including increased use of seat belts and safety technology, including automatic emergency braking systems and airbags.
“A lot of the political rhetoric around reducing firearm-related deaths center around gun control and the Second Amendment,” Goldstick said. “But we were able to accomplish huge reductions in motor vehicle crash injuries without banning cars ever. There’s no reason an analogous approach can’t work for firearms.”
He added there are several evidence-based approaches that can help drive down firearm fatality rates including investments in organizations and programs aimed at curbing community violence, safe storage campaigns and firearm training courses.
“Tracking these kinds of trends is really sort of step zero,” Goldstick said. “It’s not a solution … It tells you it’s a worsening problem and points us in a direction to focus on to reduce mortality among children and teens.”
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images For The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
As Def Leppard prepares to release its latest studio album, Diamond Star Halos, on Friday, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers will be featured as the musical guests on tonight’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, which airs at 11:35 p.m. ET on ABC.
The band will also perform additional songs that won’t air on the Kimmel show but will be streamed on the program’s YouTube channel. According to information on the YouTube page, performances of four classic Def Leppard tunes will be shown online — “Rock of Ages,” “Photograph,” “Pour Some Sugar on Me” and “Hysteria.”
Meanwhile, as previously reported, Def Leppard will premiere the music video for the new song “Fire It Up,” the latest single from Diamond Star Halos, on Thursday, May 26, at 9 a.m. ET on the group’s YouTube channel. Following the clip’s debut, the band members will take part in an exclusive YouTube Premieres afterparty, during which they will discuss the new album. For more information on how to join the afterparty, visit YouTube.
After the premiere, the “Fire It Up” video will be available to view at Facebook Watch. You can check out a snippet of the clip now on Def Leppard’s Facebook page.
Diamond Star Halos is Def Leppard’s first album of new, original tunes since 2015’s self-titled effort. It can be preordered now and will be available as a deluxe package, on CD, as a two-LP set and digitally, among other configurations.
Don McLean had been scheduled to perform at a concert event in Houston this Saturday celebrating the 150th anniversary of the National Rifle Association, aka the NRA, but the “America Pie” singer/songwriter has pulled out of the event in the wake of the recent mass shooting at a grade school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday.
Variety reports that McLean has issued a statement that reads, “In light of the recent events in Texas, I have decided it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to perform for the NRA at their convention in Houston this week. I’m sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events as well. After all, we are all Americans. I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation.”
The show, dubbed NRA’s Grand Ole Night of Freedom Concert, takes place on the second day of the 2022 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits, a three-day convention that’s also scheduled to feature speeches by former President Donald Trump, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and “over 14 acres of guns and gear and 800 exhibitors.”
Performers still apparently on the bill for the concert include Lee Greenwood, Larry Gatlin, T. Graham Brown and Restless Heart singer Larry Stewart. Gatlin and Stewart both confirmed that they still planned to perform at the event.
Nineteen children and two adults were shot to death by 18-year-old Salvador Ramos on Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Ramos was then killed by police.
(WASHINGTON) — On the second anniversary of George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police, President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order on policing reforms for federal law enforcement.
He had made a campaign promise to enact broader reform — but Democrats in Congress failed to overcome Republican opposition to a measure that would hold local police accountable — by making federal funding contingent on departments following congressionally-imposed requirements. The order signed Wednesday will apply to roughly 100,000 federal officers total, administration officials said.
Speaking in the East Room surrounded by Floyd’s family members, relatives of Breonna Taylor and civil rights leaders, Biden celebrated the order as a “measure of what we can do together to heal the very soul of this nation to address profound fear and trauma exhaustion.”
But first, he and Vice President Kamala Harris briefly addressed the shooting that took place Tuesday at a Texas elementary school that left 19 young children and two teachers dead.
“Enough is enough,” Harris said. “We must work together to create an America where everyone feels safe in their community, where children feel safe in their schools.”
Biden, who confirmed he will be traveling to Texas with first lady Jill Biden in the coming days, called for gun control reform.
“We’re here today for the same purpose,” Biden said, “to come together and say enough, to act, we must.”
The executive order signed by Biden will create a new national database that contains records of federal officer misconduct, including convictions, terminations, de-certifications, civil judgments, resignations and retirements while under investigation for serious misconduct.
It also requires all federal law enforcement agencies to revise use-of-force policies, banning chokeholds and restricting the use of no-knock warrants — two tactics that were widely criticized following the deaths of Floyd and Taylor.
Floyd died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than nine minutes. Taylor, a Black medical worker, was shot and killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police using a no-knock warrant in March 2020.
Vice President Harris said Wednesday it was an honor to be joined by the families, stating she’s been moved by their courage.
“Your loved ones should be with us today,” she added. “You should not have to mourn, should never have had to mourn in order for our nation to feel your pain and to understand what is wrong and to agree that something must be done.”
Harris also criticized Senate Republicans for not supporting the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a package of reforms passed by the House last year, stating the GOP members, “walked away from their moral obligation to address what caused millions of Americans to march in the streets.”
On Wednesday, Biden once again called on lawmakers to pass the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, stating he held off on signing the executive order because he was afraid it would undercut the effort on Capitol Hill to pass reforms. “Today we%u2019re acting,” Biden said. “We%u2019re showing that speaking out matters, feeling engaged matters, that the work of our time — healing the soul of this nation — is ongoing and unfinished and requires all of us never to give up.” Biden invited Floyd’s daughter, Gianna, to come and sit at the desk where he signed the order.
“A few years ago … she pulled me aside and she said, ‘My daddy is gonna change the world,'” Biden said at the ceremony.
ABC News’ Armando Garcia contributed to this report.
Speaking out for the first time since Brittney Griner‘s detainment, Cherelle Grinersat down with GMA‘s Robin Roberts to speak on behalf of her wife, who, after nearly 100 days, is still being held in a Russian prison.
Recalling the moment she found out about the WNBA star’s imprisonment, Cherelle said it was a 2 a.m. text message she received from Brittney that left her with so many questions.
“‘Babe. babe. babe. Wake up,'” Cherelle said, repeating some of the messages her wife sent her while she was held up by customs in “this room,” as Brittney referred to it.
Cherelle says her wife explained that her phone was being taken away and alerted her “not to text anymore” before she was “grabbed” and held on February 17.
Cherelle told Roberts that during the first week away from her wife, she cried her eyes out and couldn’t get up from her couch.
“I was numb, I couldn’t move,” she said. Attempting to find the strength to continue each day without her other half, Cherelle said she told herself, “You gotta get up now.”
She said the support Brittney has gotten from the league has brought her wife “comfort” amid her detention in Russia. The WNBA, which kicked off its 2022 season on May 6, is honoring Brittney with a floor decal bearing her initials and jersey number, 42, on the sideline of all 12 WNBA team courts.
“Things like that matter, like, it has her hopeful,” Cherelle said. “It lets her know she’s not forgotten.”
Musicians continued to express their feelings, both explicitly and subtly, via social media following the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead.
Britney Spears posted a graphic on Instagram in which she wrote, “My heart is shattered. I’m lost for words.” She continued, “My prayers are with the victims of Robb Elementary and their families. Our sympathies and condolences are just not enough. We need to take action. We need change. Enough is enough. We will keep our prayers coming even if it’s not enough to heal the loss.”
Pink let a photo do the talking for her. On Instagram, she posted a picture of someone holding up a sign that reads, “Let’s take a moment to honor the sacrifice of our brave school children who lay down their lives to protect our right to bear arms.”
She captioned the post, “I don’t know where this picture is from but it says it better than I can. I have no words of my own right now.“
In her Instagram Stories, Pink also posted video of Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy pleading for change on the Senate floor; Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr berating politicians for not doing enough; and a tweet that reads, “It must do something to your psyche, to your soul, to live in a society which pointedly and repeatedly does nothing about the mass murder of children.”
Adam Levine, the father of two young daughters, posted Kerr’s speech on his feed; in his Instagram Story, he posted a graphic that says, “Change the f**king gun laws now.”
From the Upside Down to the Great White Way: Stranger Things star Gaten Matarazzo is making his return to Broadway this summer.
The 19-year-old actor will be playing the role of Jared Kleinman in the hit musical Dear Evan Hansen.
“Words could never express how truly honored I am to be a part of this company,” said Matarazzo in a statement to Entertainment Weekly. “This show has taught me so much about myself and to be able to participate in any capacity, let alone on Broadway, makes me want to melt. I am ecstatic to be back on stage and eternally grateful for the opportunity.”
Matarazzo made his Broadway debut in 2011 in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. In 2014, he played Gavroche in Les Miserables.
His limited run in Dear Evan Hansen will begin July 19. Meanwhile, season 4 of Stranger Things debuts on Netflix this Friday, May 27.
In case you missed it, Lainey Wilsonmade an appearance on TODAY Tuesday, May 24, to perform her new single “Heart Like a Truck.”
Brett Young is headlining the 2022 Wisconsin State Fair on August 13. Tickets go on sale on June 2.
Before his new album arrives on June 17, Brett Eldredge is hosting a special free album premiere event in Nashville on June 10. For details on how to attend, and how to score VIP access by joining his fan club, visit his website.
