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Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Violence Grows, 63% Of Americans Want Gun Laws To Change, Poll Finds
A majority of Americans surveyed expressed dissatisfaction with current gun laws in the U.S. amid a recent string of mass shootings affecting the country, according to a new Gallup poll. The poll, published Wednesday, found that 63 percent of respondents said they are dissatisfied with the nation鈥檚 laws and policies on firearms, while 34 percent of those surveyed said the opposite. (Oshin, 2/15)
Nationwide, there have been a total of 71 mass shootings this year-to-date. "There's not been any year that we've had 67 in six weeks" this early in the year, said Mark Bryant, executive聽director of the聽Gun Violence Archive, on Tuesday morning. By Tuesday evening, the number of mass shootings reported and verified by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit formed in 2013 to track gun violence in the U.S, increased to 71. (Tanner, 2/15)
Also 鈥
One person was killed and three were wounded in a shooting at El Paso鈥檚 Cielo Vista Mall Wednesday evening鈥攕teps away from the Walmart where an attacker killed 23 people in 2019. Police in the West Texas border city said reports of an active shooter near the mall鈥檚 food court came in at 5:05 p.m. local time. An off-duty officer at the mall was at the scene of the shooting within three minutes and detained one suspect, interim police Chief Peter Pacillas said. A second suspect was later taken into custody as well. (Findell, 2/15)
A white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket was sentenced to life in prison without parole Wednesday after relatives of his victims confronted him with pain and rage caused by his racist attack. Anger briefly turned physical at Payton Gendron鈥檚 sentencing when a victim鈥檚 family member rushed at him from the audience. The man was quickly restrained; prosecutors later said he wouldn鈥檛 be charged. The proceeding then resumed with an emotional outpouring from people who lost loved ones or were themselves wounded in the attack. (Thompson and Peltz, 2/15)
More on the gun violence epidemic 鈥
"Tonight we pray, tomorrow we change our culture, we change our laws," said the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, the Rt.聽Rev. Bonnie Perry, said. "I am so mad and so sad that we have yet another shooting. ... We know that gun deaths is the leading cause of death for young people in the state of Michigan and in the United States of America." (Warikoo, 2/16)
While elementary, middle and high schools in the United States have been transformed in the last generation 鈥 with only moderate success 鈥 by metal detectors, new security systems, increased screening for visitors and the installation of locks on classroom doors to evade mass shooters, the same changes have not come to colleges and universities. 鈥淲hat we do and what is acceptable from K through 12 is not necessarily acceptable when you get to the college level,鈥 said Anthony Gentile, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and security adviser to the Newtown Public School District, where the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre occurred in 2012. 鈥淔rankly, anybody can drift onto one of the campuses and do what happened the other day.鈥 (Bosman, Jimenez and McKinley Jr. 2/15)
At 21, Zoe Beers has already survived two school shootings. The first was in California when she was 8. The second was this week, as a gunman stormed the Michigan State campus, killing three students and wounding five more. Now, she said, she鈥檚 had enough. 鈥淣o one I know understands what it is like for me, what it is like for us,鈥 she said. 鈥淭hings needed to change 20 years ago, and they absolutely need to now.鈥 (Rosenzweig-Ziff, Thebault and Khan, 2/15)
Five years later, the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is still very much on the mind of English teacher Sarah Lerner. Lerner was teaching at the school on Feb. 14, 2018, when gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people -- 14 students and three staff members -- at the Parkland, Florida, high school. It was the second-deadliest shooting at a K-12 school at the time, a total since surpassed by the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. She still struggles with the trauma. "Anytime the fire alarm goes off or ... even just a lockdown drill, it all comes flooding back to you," Lerner told ABC News. (El-Bawab and DiMartino, 2/14)