Clarence William Nelson II is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Florida from 2001 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1972 to 1978 and in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1991. In January 1986, Nelson became the second sitting member of U.S. Congress to fly in space, after Senator Jake Garn, when he served as a payload specialist on mission STS-61-C aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. Before entering politics he served in the U.S. Army Reserve during the Vietnam War.
Christopher Louis Jacobs is an American politician representing New York's 27th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. Jacobs served as the 62nd secretary of state of New York from April 2006 to January 2007. Beginning in 2012, he held the post of Erie County clerk, and he was a Republican member of the New York State Senate for the 60th district from 2017 to 2020. On June 23, 2020, he won a special election to fill a congressional vacancy in the 27th district. He was reelected to a full term in November 2020.
Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) is a public school district based in Uvalde, Texas, US. Located in Uvalde County, the district extends into portions of Zavala and Real counties. In addition to Uvalde, the district serves the communities of Batesville in Zavala County, and Uvalde Estates in Uvalde County. The total land area of the district is 1,093 square miles (2,830 km2).
Everytown for Gun Safety is an American nonprofit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was created in 2013 when Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America joined forces.
Ronald Harold Johnson is an American accountant, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Wisconsin. A Republican, Johnson was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010, defeating Democratic incumbent Russ Feingold. He was reelected in 2016, defeating Feingold in a rematch. Before entering politics, Johnson was chief executive officer of a polyester and plastics manufacturer founded by his brother-in-law.
The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act or Federal Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) was a subsection of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, a United States federal law which included a prohibition on the manufacture for civilian use of certain semi-automatic firearms that were defined as assault weapons as well as certain ammunition magazines that were defined as large capacity.
On June 15, 2016, in the wake of a mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, launched a filibuster in the United States Senate, promising to hold the floor "for as long as I can" or until Congress acts on gun control legislation.
In the United States, a red flag law is a gun control law that permits police to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who they believe may present a danger to others or themselves. A judge makes the determination to issue the order based on statements and actions made by the gun owner in question. Refusal to comply with the order is punishable as a criminal offense. After a set time, the guns are returned to the person from whom they were seized unless another court hearing extends the period of confiscation.
On February 14, 2018, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, murdering 17 people and injuring 17 others. Cruz, a former student at the school, fled the scene on foot by blending in with other students, and was arrested without incident approximately one hour later in nearby Coral Springs. Police and prosecutors investigated "a pattern of disciplinary issues and unnerving behavior".
Never Again MSD is an American student-led political action committee for gun control that advocates for tighter regulations to prevent gun violence. The organization, also known by the Twitter hashtags #NeverAgain, and #EnoughIsEnough, was formed by a group of twenty students attending Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD) at the time of the deadly shooting in 2018, in which seventeen students and staff members were killed by the alleged gunman, who was a 19-year-old former student of the school and was armed with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle. The organization started on social media as a movement "for survivors of the Stoneman Douglas Shooting, by survivors of the Stoneman Douglas Shooting" using the hashtag #NeverAgain. A main goal of the group was to influence that year's United States mid-term elections, and they embarked on a multi-city bus tour to encourage young people to register to vote.
Cameron Marley Kasky is an American activist and advocate against gun violence who co-founded the student-led gun violence prevention advocacy group Never Again MSD. He is notable for helping to organize the March for Our Lives nationwide student protest in March 2018. Kasky is a survivor of the February 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Kasky was included in Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People of 2018".
Fred Guttenberg is an American activist against gun violence. His 14-year-old daughter Jaime Guttenberg was murdered in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018. His son, Jesse, also a student at the school, ran from the shooting to meet him at a nearby store. He learned about his daughter's death from a friend who is a Coral Springs SWAT officer. Jessica McBride, for the website Heavy, described him as "one of the strongest voices for changes to gun laws in the wake of the mass shooting".
Kyle Kashuv is an American conservative activist. He survived the 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and subsequently advocated for gun rights, notably in opposition to his fellow survivors' March for Our Lives movement.
Ryan Blaine Petty is an American school safety activist. His 14-year-old daughter Alaina Petty was murdered in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting on February 14, 2018. Petty is credited with helping to pass the "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act" Florida Senate Bill 7026 just three weeks after his daughter Alaina was murdered. At the federal level, Petty worked with Senators Orrin Hatch, Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson to pass the STOP School Violence Act and the Fix NICS Act of 2017. He has met frequently with Florida governor Rick Scott, and many federal lawmakers.
The Extreme Risk Protection Order Act is federal gun control legislation to support State, Tribal, and local efforts under "red flag laws" to remove access to firearms from individuals who are considered a danger to themselves or others. Sen. Richard Blumenthal introduced such legislation in March 2018, in the 115th U.S. Congress; and Dianne Feinstein introduced such legislation in February 2019, in the 116th U.S. Congress. The House version of her legislation was introduced by Rep. Salud Carbajal and re-introduced on 14 February 2019, one year after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
Ernest Anthony Gonzales II is an American politician and United States Navy veteran who has served as the U.S. representative for Texas's 23rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives since 2021. He is a member of the Republican Party.
The following is a list of events from the year 2022 in the United States, as well as predicted and scheduled events that have not yet occurred.
On May 24, 2022, a mass shooting occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, United States, where 18-year-old Salvador Ramos fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers, and wounded seventeen others. Earlier in the day, he shot his grandmother in the face at home, severely wounding her. Outside the school, he fired shots for approximately 5 minutes before entering unobstructed with an AR-15 style rifle through an unlocked side entrance door. He then shut himself inside 2 adjoining classrooms, without locking the classroom door, killed 19 students and 2 teachers, and remained in the school for more than an hour before members of the United States Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) fatally shot him. The shooting is the third-deadliest school shooting in the United States, after the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 and the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, and the deadliest in Texas.
Arming teachers is equipping teachers in preschool through secondary school with firearms. Such proposals have engendered public debate regarding with whom the responsibility for providing a safe environment lies, and whether it would reduce or escalate the risk of shootings. School shootings, and proposals to arm teachers are the most common in the United States, but proposals have also been made in Israel, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, and Thailand.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is a law passed during the 117th United States Congress. It implemented several changes to the mental health system, school safety programs, and gun safety laws. It was introduced by Senator Marco Rubio (R–FL) on October 5, 2021 as an unrelated bill, then consistently modified by an amendment by Senator Chris Murphy (D–CT) on June 21, 2022 and signed into law by President Joe Biden on June 25, 2022. Gun safety laws in the bill include extended background checks for gun purchasers under 21, clarification of Federal Firearms License requirements, funding for state red flag laws and other crisis intervention programs, further criminalization of arms trafficking and straw purchases, and partial closure of the boyfriend loophole.
