Tuesday, the Alabama chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, said that they are grieving for the families affected by recent incidents of gun violence in Alabama.
This statement followed the shooting deaths of five people in a family in Elkmont. The Limestone County Sheriff has reported that the victims were shot and killed by a 14-year-old family member who is in custody.
This shooting followed several instances of gun violence over the weekend in Alabama. On Friday night, 10 teenagers were injured in a shooting at a football game in Mobile and on Saturday night, seven people were injured in a shooting at a parking lot in Valley.
“We are grieving for the five people whose lives were senselessly cut short in this tragedy, and the family and friends whose lives will be forever changed,” said Dana Ellis, volunteer leader with the Alabama chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “We’re still reeling from the gun violence that has plagued Alabama and the country in recent weeks. No one should have to live in fear of gun violence, whether they are at home, at a football game or just walking down the street. We need to urge our lawmakers to take action to protect our communities.”
Everytown for Gun Safety claims that this is at least the 213th mass shooting since January 2009, and the 19th mass shooting this year. Everytown defines mass shootings as those in which four or more people are shot and killed, excluding the shooter. An analysis of 173 mass shootings from 2009 to 2017 showed that 59 percent of mass shootings took place in private homes.
There were a total of 17,284 reported murder and non-negligent manslaughter cases in the U.S. in 2017. The murder rate has been steadily dropping for the last twenty years after peaking in the violent 1990s.
Canada has a murder rate of just 2.05 per 100,000 people versus 5 per 100,000 people in the U.S. On the other hand, Mexico, our neighbor to the south, has a murder rate of 15 per 100,000 people: three times the murder rate in the United States.
Everytown is the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country with nearly 6 million supporters and more than 350,000 donors including moms, mayors, survivors and everyday Americans fighting for public safety measures that can help save lives.
Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. Moms Demand Action campaigns for new and stronger solutions to lax gun laws.
Americans have a constitutional right to own and possess firearms under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
A June 2018 report from the Small Arms Survey estimates that American civilians own 393 million guns, both legally and otherwise. Of the worldwide total of 857 million civilian firearms 45.9 percent are owned or possessed by Americans. That is up from just 270 million civilian-owned guns in America in 2007. Then there were only 650 million civilian guns globally with Americans owning just 41/5 percent. Americans are only 4.49 percent of the world’s population; but we have 45.9 percent of the world’s guns and 24.08 percent of the world’s GDP (2017).
On Tuesday conservative pundit Meghan McCain predicted on ‘The View’, “If you’re talking about taking people’s guns from them, there’s going to be a lot of violence.”
Alabama is an open carry state where citizens may wear their guns clearly visible in most public places. Non-felon citizens of sound mind may purchase a concealed carry permits from their county sheriff to carry pistols on their person or in their vehicles.
