Wikimedia CommonsThe Steyr IWS 2000, an Austrian semi-automatic anti-materiel rifle produced by Steyr Mannlicher.So Gabby Giffords shot a gun yesterday.
She still speaks with enormous difficulty, as I witnessed this week at the Aspen Ideas Festival, where she and her husband Mark Kelly spoke briefly. She walks with difficulty, too. She has not fully recovered from being the victim of one of the worst mass shootings in recent history. Yet, as I heard in Aspen, both she and her husband went out of their way to insist that they supported the Second Amendment, and they were simply trying to push for a country that was more responsible in the way it handles guns. Her decision on Monday to go to a shooting range was clearly aimed at making the same point.
I understand that she is still, at heart, a politician (as is her former astronaut husband, at least judging by his remarks in Aspen). I understand she lives in gun country. Still, to be shot in the head and still come out in favor of guns says something. To me, it says just how much the Second Amendment absolutists control the debate. James and Sarah Brady did not come out in favor of guns after he was shot 32 years ago. But that was a very long time ago—a time when it was still O.K. to be against guns. It’s not anymore.
Here is today’s report. The Gun Report will return July 8 with a holiday weekend report.
—Joe Nocera
A 15-year-old boy was hospitalized after he stuck a gun in his mouth, certain it was unloaded, and it discharged in a mobile home park in Logan County, Okla., early Tuesday. The boy was able to speak to officers and let them know he was not trying to kill himself. He is in critical condition.
A man and a 15-year-old girl were injured when someone opened fire outside a home in Fort Wayne, Ind., Tuesday evening. The victims were standing in the front yard when the suspect fired several shots before running into an alley. No arrests have been made and police have no suspects.
A drive-by shooting in Ensley, Ala., Monday night wounded two teenage girls, one of them seriously. The shooting happened at a house party that had been going on for much of the day. Two teens, ages 18 and 19, are in custody.
Two 16-year-old boys are in critical condition after a shooting in Jefferson Parish, La., Monday night. Deputies said the victims, who were found just south of Interstate 10 in Metairie, had argued over drugs. The feud continued into Tuesday morning, when Dondrell Cage Jr., 16, shot Bobby Bruer, also 16. Bruer’s cousin then grabbed the gun and fired at Cage.
A firefighter was shot by a patient inside an ambulance en route to a hospital in Omaha, Neb., Monday afternoon. Justine Dubois, 24, who had reportedly suffered a seizure, had a gun and shot the victim in the stomach. He was treated and released.
A woman was shot and killed at a cafe in Columbia, S.C., early Monday. Surveillance video shows unidentified men barging into the entrance, their faces covered with hooded sweatshirts, and brandishing what appear to be weapons. The first man is seen pointing a gun toward the victim, a mother of five. Police are soliciting tips.
A man was found with a gunshot wound in a car in Marinette County, Wis., Monday night. He was taken to a hospital, where he later died. Officers found another man with a gun inside a vehicle nearby, and when he pointed his gun at police, they fired on him.
—TMJ4
Shari Donnel, 49, was shot during a home invasion in Butler, Pa., early Sunday. The victim was in bed sleeping when a single shotgun blast hit her abdomen and lower chest. She underwent surgery and is expected to survive. Police are investigating.
A man was shot to death and four people were wounded in separate attacks on the South Side of Chicago, Ill., Monday. Two women were shot and wounded, one of them critically, in the Fernwood neighborhood a little before 1:45 p.m. They ran into a nearby supermarket looking for help. At about 8 p.m., Stephon Wright, 18, was shot multiple times and killed in the Washington Heights neighborhood. At about 9:30 p.m., a 22-year-old man suffered graze wounds to his back and calf in the Washington Park neighborhood. At about 10:40 p.m., a 15-year-old boy was shot in the leg and wounded in the West Englewood neighborhood.
Two vendors at San Francisco’s Gay Pride Parade were shot as the celebration wound down Sunday evening. Police said two suspects, described as men in their late teens or early 20s, approached a group of people and one of them opened fire. The victims, two men ages 23 and 42, were both shot in the leg and expected to survive.
A 23-year-old man who was shot outside the Greektown Casino in Detroit, Mich., early Sunday has died. The victim was in an argument with a man, who pulled out a gun and shot him. No arrests have been made. The victim was one of at least 10 people shot in Detroit on Sunday.
Rolando Ponce, 40, was killed in a targeted drive-by shooting outside his home on the east side of San Antonio, Tex., Tuesday morning. Police said Ponce was waiting for contractors to arrive at around 7:30 a.m. when he was shot multiple times in the chest.
A 29-year-old man was shot and wounded by two masked men in front of a home in the Villa Park section of Trenton, N.J., Monday. The victim was attended to by a neighbor, who placed a towel over his bleeding wound. The shooting came a day after Garious Denard Burton, who had been on life support after he was shot in the forehead early Saturday, died of his injuries.
Elsewhere in Trenton, a man was found inside a home suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg Tuesday afternoon. Officers at the scene located at least three shell casings in front of the home.
Police say a second person has died from a domestic shooting at a Muscatine, Iowa, home Saturday. 39-year-old Lance Stormm shot 43-year-old Teresa Rowan before shooting himself in the head. Rowan died at the scene; Stormm was taken to a hospital in Iowa City, where he died Sunday.
A homeless woman was sent to the hospital after she was grazed by a bullet during an shooting behind a Walgreens in northwest Harris County, Tex., early Tuesday. The victim was hospitalized.
A 30-year-old man died Tuesday following a shooting late Monday in Davenport, Iowa. The victim was in the front yard of a home at about 11:48 p.m. when a vehicle drove by and one of the occupants shot him. Police are not releasing the man’s name pending the notification of his family.
A man was killed outside a Circle K convenient store in Phoenix, Ariz., early Tuesday. Police said the man was shot after a fight. No arrests have been made.
An 18-year-old man sustained a gunshot wound in a drive-by shooting in Pomona, Calif., Monday night. The victim and an 18-year-old woman were walking to a liquor store at 9:16 p.m. when a gunman drove by and fired five or six gunshots. The bullets didn’t strike the woman. Suspects are being sought.
Anthony Smith Jr., 21, was the victim of a fatal shooting in Jersey City, N.J., early Tuesday. Smith was attending a party just after midnight when he was approached by a man who shot him multiple times. The shooter then chased Smith down the street and continued to fire at him before he collapsed. Police are soliciting tips.
Skilar Rhodes, 21, was shot in the back and wounded after a dispute in Napoleonville, La., Monday night. Deputies booked Daron Holloway, 21, who initially fled the scene.
Police say a man shot his friend after a bar fight in Tulsa, Okla., early Tuesday. Investigators believe both men had been drinking when an argument about a woman turned physical at the Four Aces Tavern. Jeremy Burnes, 24, was booked on complaints of reckless handling of a firearm and carrying a firearm while intoxicated.
A 40-year-old man was shot in an apparent car-to-car shooting on the 110 Freeway in south Los Angeles, Calif., Tuesday afternoon. The victim was driving when a Nissan Sentra pulled up and someone opened fire. Police are searching for the Sentra. The man’s condition is not known.
A man was shot and seriously wounded in the Park Heights area of northwest Baltimore, Md., Tuesday afternoon. The victim was found collapsed in the front yard of a home. A woman who had known him since he was young said, “I love him, but I know he was living reckless.” Earlier Tuesday, a man was shot and wounded in Franklin Square.
Two men, ages 23 and 29, were shot while getting into a car in east Akron, Ohio, Tuesday afternoon. One victim was found hiding inside a home two blocks away, and the other was found sitting on a front porch of a Good Samaritan’s home. “He just said he didn’t want to die,” said Judy Davidson, who offered the bleeding man a chair.
According to Slate’s gun-death tracker, an estimated 5,681 people have died as a result of gun violence in America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012.