SEATTLE, WA – The Alliance for Gun Responsibility issued the following statement in response to news of three separate shootings in less than 24 hours in King County. Early Monday evening, six people were wounded in a shooting in Kent near a King County Metro bus stop. Just a few hours later, a 15-year-old was wounded in a shooting at a Target in Renton. And later on Monday night, one police officer was killed and another wounded in a shooting after a police chase in Bothell. 

“We are grieving today for all those impacted by this senseless gun violence,” said Renée Hopkins, CEO of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility. “These incidents are proof that the gun violence epidemic is not slowing down for the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, as gun sales continue to surge and the economic and social stress of the pandemic persist, the risk of gun violence remains heightened. These shootings also serve as painful reminders that so many of our communities experience the tragedy of gun violence all too regularly without making headlines. We must keep working to end the shoot-first mentality that drives so much senseless gun violence. And as we work together to imagine a safer and more just future for our communities post-COVID, we must remain committed to ending gun violence in all its forms.”

These shootings come on the heels of record-breaking gun violence nationwide. There were 95 mass shootings in June 2020—more than any other month since the Gun Violence Archive began collecting data in 2013. The previous record was set just one month earlier, when May 2020 saw 60 mass shootings. These records, as staggering as they are, do not capture many types of gun violence, from suicide to police shootings to unintentional shootings, which means they fail to reflect the full scope of the epidemic.

###