[music]
Melissa Harris-Perry: This is The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry.
It's time to look back at it and bring you up to date on stories we've been following.
We begin at Michigan State University.
[music]
Unknown Speaker: This truly has been a nightmare that we are living tonight.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Late Monday night, a gunman opened fire on the Michigan State University campus, killing three students and injuring five others. Local law enforcement says that it has not yet found a motive for the shooting from the 43-year-old man who seems to have no ties to the university. On Tuesday, Michigan Governor, Gretchen Whitmer, pledged her support to the Michigan State University community. She also pointed to just how pervasive mass shootings have become.
Gretchen Whitmer: "We know this is a uniquely American problem. Today is the fifth anniversary of the Parkland shooting. We're mere weeks past the lunar new year shooting at a dance hall, and looking back at a year marked by shootings at grocery stores, parades, and so many other ordinary everyday situations. We cannot keep living like this."
Melissa Harris-Perry: Back in January, we reported on two of those mass shootings, which rattled communities across California. 18 people were killed in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, California, in just two days. Following those shootings, California Governor, Gavin Newsom, was candid about his frustration over the lack of real movement towards gun control.
Gavin Newsom: Only in America. We're better than that. We're supposed to be leading the world, not just responding to these mass crises and expressing damn prayers and condolences over and over and over again. I said this, how many times I've done so many of these? Reason I haven't done all the damn press conferences yesterday. I was here the whole day because I can't do those again. I can't keep doing them. Saying the same thing.
[music]
Melissa Harris-Perry: For the past three years, the rate of mass shootings in this country turns out to be twice every single day. According to the gun violence archive, a mass shooting is any gun violence incident involving four or more injured victims. According to that same database, the US has already suffered 72 mass shootings in the first 47 days of this year. Much of the gun violence we've seen has been in schools. Last year, a record high 132 gun violence incidents in schools claimed 74 lives. A dozen of those incidents were considered mass shootings, like Uvalde, Texas.
In the wake of that shooting last May, The Takeaway talked with Vanderbilt sociology and psychiatry professor, Jonathan Metzl. He shared with us about the ways that we experience these mass shootings emotionally.
Jonathan Metzl: This cycle is so catastrophic for our country and how we think about democracy and how we think about our ability to come together to solve problems that threaten shared humanity. It's all of those emotions at one time, and so it's understandable why people feel anger and fatigue and resignation and despair all at once.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Monday's shooting at Michigan State occurred just hours before the fifth anniversary of the Parkland School shooting in Florida that claimed 17 lives. In just a decade, the number of school shootings has significantly risen every year from 20 in 2012 to over 300 in 2022. Since the Columbine massacre in 1999, over 200 students have died in mass shootings. More than 300 more have suffered injuries and even more continue to cope with trauma, like current Michigan State University student, Jaqueline Matthews. She posted this on TikTok.
Jaqueline Matthews: I am 21 years old, and this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through. 10 years and two months ago, I survived the Sandy Hook shooting. The fact that this is the second mass shooting that I have now lived through is incomprehensible. My heart goes out to all the families and the friends of the victims of this Michigan State shooting, but we can no longer just provide love and prayers. It needs to be legislation, it needs to be action. It's not okay.
Melissa Harris-Perry: Okay, Takeaway. You are up to date.
[music]
Copyright © 2023 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.
New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.
