Gun Violence in the US

I woke at 5 am today to a child in my bed with a (very) bloody nose. An hour later, that situation settled (bleeding stopped, shower taken to wash bloody hair, sheets changed), I climbed back in bed. Unable to easily fall back asleep, I grabbed my iPad to read. Then I saw the news alert. Instantly I knew this was one of those days when life would change again, when innocence was stolen yet again.  Another mass shooting, so senseless, and relatively close to home. These are the times we live in, and I'm not yet immune to feeling a combination of sorrow and horror each time.

I hope you and your family and friends are all safe. I've checked in with my Orlando area friends, and thankfully they are all okay. But many others are not (and if you have Type O blood you might want to help out by donating).

I'm not writing this to engage in a conversation or debate about gun rights, but needless to say this has been one of the topics blowing up my Facebook feed today. One friend shared this NPR piece from last December, which discusses the lack of a gun violence database at a time when gun violence seems to be increasing (just the stats on Chicago in a give weekend over summer are absolutely alarming):

http://www.npr.org/2015/12/09/459056018/the-u-s-has-a-mass-shooting-epidemic-but-no-federal-database-on-gun-violence

Mark Follman, a journalist featured in this NPR piece who noted the lack of a central database, set out to gather the information himself. He writes for Mother Jones and you can find some of his database work here:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map

I know the date in the URL is 2012, but it's been kept up to date. A note at the top says that they're updating it with Orlando data.