So far this year there have been more mass shootings than there have been days. According to the research group the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 39 mass shootings in the first three weeks of 2023. While two recently happened this past week in California, both making mainstream media, most of the incidents have occurred in the south in states such as Louisiana and Florida. This comes after 647 mass shootings in 2022 emerged and another 690 in 2021, according to the Gun Violence Archive group.

Gun Violence Archive
The research group, according to AXIOS, has described a mass shooting “as a situation in which at least four people are shot and either injured or killed, not including the shooter.”

Political Response
Democrats – namely Biden and California Governor Gavin Newsom – have called out Republicans and Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, R-Cali. Biden has urged them to pass his assault weapons ban and Newsom has called out McCarthy as he is from California, where the two most recently popularized incidences occurred this week.

Though McCarthy has, in the past, urged his colleagues to vote the bipartisan gun safety bill into law back in June. This was the biggest federal gun legislation in nearly three decades.

McCarthy has come out to respond to the California shootings during a briefing from Capitol Hill Tuesday, in which he gave his condolences to the families of those affected. He also responded to reporter questions about adding more gun safety legislation. He stated, according to AXIOS, that “California has the strictest gun laws there are, and apparently that did not work in this situation.”

What now?
As we begin another year – what are our solutions? As Speaker McCarthy put it, even the state with the strictest gun control laws can have terrible situations with shootings. While guns can be controlled on the surface, terrible people will find a way to do what they want to do. Sadly. And that is the real issue here, though how can we fix that?

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