Another mass shooting occurred last night when a gunman opened fire at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, killing at least 18 people and injuring 13 others.
It’s the deadliest massacre so far this year, and the worst since El Paso in 2019. It’s also the 565th mass shooting in the U.S. in 2023.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, 566 Americans have died because of a mass shooting this year. On average, 1.9 mass shootings — defined as any time four or more people are shot or killed, not including the perpetrator — have occurred this year, marking 2023 as the deadliest year on record for mass shootings in the U.S.
A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation earlier this year found that nearly one in five adults in the U.S. say they know someone who was killed by a gun, including death by suicide. To date, 35,287 people have died from gun-related deaths.
Mass shooting survivor and author Taylor Schumann spoke with RELEVANT about a third way forward for America, a way led by the Church that advocates for gun safety.
“Too often, this conversation sends people to the furthest ends of the political arena, which is understandable since politics is largely how we accomplish things in the United States and how we act on our beliefs,” she says. “But if anyone should be advocating for protecting lives and limiting human suffering, it’s the Church.
“My hope really is that we wouldn’t have to rely so heavily on legislative action but that we would see more action at individual and community levels,” she continued. “I would love to see more people decide the safety of their neighbor is worth more than their guns.”
