Nearly 900 people have been killed, and almost 2,000 wounded, by American gun violence since the Las Vegas shooting gripped the world’s attention at the beginning of this month.
Gunman Stephen Paddock’s massacre of 58 people from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino the night of Oct. 1 was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, and he left more than 400 people wounded after opening fire with a tricked-out semi-automatic weapon.
National and international media have not delved into the personal tragedies of those who have died in American gun violence since, though what could be mistaken for “normal” bloodshed is unique in that it is a reminder of a problem not faced by any other developed country.
Data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive shows that 896 people have died as the result of shootings since Vegas, with 23-year-old Ellie Becote of Pamplico, S.C., the first fatal victim listed after those at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival.
As of early Wednesday, the latest reported victims were a man believed to have shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself as they drove in rural Wisconsin.
Gun Violence Archive data shows 1990 people have been wounded from the night of Oct. 1 through Tuesday.
Those killings are believed to have been carried out with handguns, not high-powered assault-style weapons such as those in the arsenal that Paddock had accumulated over the years.
He also used a “bump stock” on his semi-automatic weapons, essentially turning them into automatics, generally illegal under U.S. law, by increasing the rate of fire.
Discussions in Congress originally centered on the possibility of stopping the nation’s pathologic problem from claiming so many victims at once by banning the devices.
Some Republican lawmakers voiced support for the idea, and even the National Rifle Association said in statement that bump stocks “should be subject to additional regulations.”
But politicians’ pens and words have so far lacked the might of the gun lobby, with the NRA later coming out against a bill put forward by Democratic California Sen. Diane Feinstein to stop the sale of bump stocks.
It was later joined by Republicans such as Speaker of the House Paul Ryan in saying that the bump stock issue was a regulatory one for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives rather than the elected representatives of the American people.
There is little apparent movement on the bump stock legislation.
MAP: Mass shootings in the United States since 2013
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that he would bring forward legislation Wednesday calling for universal background checks, a measure that has widespread public support but never passed Congress.
Some action has been taken on the state level, with Illinois House lawmakers advancing a bill to ban the add-ons on Tuesday.
But few think that a ban on bump stocks would put a stop to mass shootings completely, or be a sizable step in reducing “normal” shooting deaths and injuries in the hundreds of cities whose names have appeared in the Gun Violence Archive over the last three weeks.
Despite state-level measures, even those with more restrictive laws such as New York and California must deal with guns coming in from states where it is easier to get a weapon.
A study published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that gun deaths and injuries in California towns nearby rose 70% in the aftermath of gun shows held in Las Vegas.
