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On Monday, three children and three staff members were fatally shot at the Covenant School in Nashville, which one expert describes as part of an "astronomical increase" in violence on school campuses in recent years. There is no universal definition of a school shooting, explains Jillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminology and the president of the Violence Project, a non-profit research center. (López Restrepo, 3/29)

Guns are the leading cause of death for US children and teens, since surpassing car accidents in 2020. Firearms accounted for nearly 19% of childhood deaths (ages 1-18) in 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wonder database. Nearly 3,600 children died in gun-related incidents that year. That’s about five children lost for every 100,000 children in the United States. In no other comparable country are firearms within the top four causes of mortality among children, according to a KFF analysis. (Choi, 3/29)

The mass shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville this week has generated a broad shrugging of the shoulders in Washington, from President Biden to Republicans in Congress, who seemed to agree on little other than that there was nothing left for them to do to counter the continuing toll of gun violence across the country. But while President Biden’s stark admission on Tuesday that he could do no more on his own to tackle the issue was a statement of fact that aimed to put the burden on Congress to send him legislation, like the ban on assault weapons he has repeatedly championed, Republicans’ expressions of helplessness reflected an unwillingness, rather than an inability, to act. (Karni, 3/29)

After a shooter killed three children and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville, lawmakers on Capitol Hill once again indicated there was little support for addressing gun violence through legislation. ... “I’m a realist,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the chair of the Judiciary Committee, about the possibility of moving gun legislation through his committee without enough Republican support to overcome the 60-vote filibuster. “I know what’s going to happen on the floor.” (Sotomayor and Goodwin, 3/29)

A Democratic lawmaker who was screaming about Republicans' approach to gun violence just off the House floor on Wednesday soon got into a tense altercation with one of his conservative colleagues. An animated Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., a former principal, came off the floor and began telling reporters to continue to press GOP members on their views on the issue of guns and shootings. (Ibssa, 3/30)

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) slammed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) over Republican efforts to ban certain books in schools but not enact gun control legislation following the shooting at the Nashville, Tenn., school, saying “dead kids can’t read.” “You guys are worried about banning books — dead kids can’t read,” Moskowitz said at a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday. ... Greene argued that the shooting was stopped because Hale was killed by a “good guy with a gun.” “Did the good guys with a gun stop six people from getting murdered? No,” Moskowitz said. (Gans, 3/29)

After a mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas last year prompted calls for new gun restrictions, Republican-led states around the country moved in the other direction. One of them was Tennessee, where the governor insisted that tighter firearms laws would never deter wrongdoers. “We can’t control what they do,” Gov. Bill Lee said. Tennessee lawmakers have instead moved to make firearms even more accessible, proposing bills this year to arm more teachers and allow college students to carry weapons on campus, among other measures. (Baker, Kovaleski and Thrush, 3/29)

North Carolina’s state legislature has voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s (D) veto and repeal the state’s requirement for a resident to obtain a permit from a local sheriff before legally purchasing a handgun. Senate Bill 41 passed in the state’s House of Representatives in a 71 to 46 vote on Wednesday. The state Senate previously voted 30 to 19 on Tuesday in approval of the measure. ... The enacted bill would also allow guns on some school properties where religious services are held. In a statement, North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein (D) said that the state legislature’s moves to override the requirement is a mistake and will eventually put citizens at risk. (Oshin, 3/29)