mass shooting

(Airs 10/27/23 @ 3 p.m. & 10/29/23 @ 6 p.m.) The Media Project is an inside look at media coverage of current events with former Times Union Editor, current Upstate American, Substack columnist Rex Smith, Judy Patrick, former Editor of the Daily Gazette and Vice President for Editorial Development for the New York Press Association, Barbara Lombardo, former Editor of the Saratogian and Adjunct Professor at the University at Albany, and Daily Freeman Publisher Emeritus Ira Fusfeld. On this week’s Media Project, Rex, Judy, Barbara and Ira talk about the misinformation coming out of the Israel, Hamas war, the importance of local coverage of the mass shooting in Maine, media consumption a trust both being down, and much more.

In the 1950s, an obsessive firearms designer named Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 rifle in a California garage. High-minded and patriotic, Stoner sought to devise a lightweight, easy-to-use weapon that could replace the M1s touted by soldiers in World War II. What he did create was a lethal handheld icon of the American century.In "American Gun," the veteran Wall Street Journal reporters Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson track the AR-15 from inception to ubiquity.

"Bloodbath Nation" by Paul Auster traces centuries of America’s use and abuse of guns, from the violent displacement of the native population to the forced enslavement of millions, to the bitter divide between embattled gun control and anti-gun control camps that has developed over the past 50 years and the mass shootings that dominate the news today. Auster's text is interwoven with Spencer Ostrander’s haunting photographs of the sites of more than thirty mass shootings in all parts of the country.

Next, we take a look at violence and trauma from the psychiatrist who treated mass shooter James Holmes, perpetrator of the infamous movie theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado. On July 20th, 2012, the shooting occurred inside a movie theatre during a midnight screening of the film "The Dark Knight." Twelve people were killed and 70 others were injured, 58 of them from gunfire. As an expert and speaker on mass shootings and gun violence, Dr. Lynn Fenton knew it was impossible to “spot a killer.” But when she met her new patient, troubled grad student James Holmes, the hair on her arms stood up. She feared he was going to kill. Yet she could find no way to thwart him. Dr. Lynn Fenton is the author of "Aurora: The Psychiatrist Who Treated the Movie Theater Killer Tells Her Story." The book was co-authored by Kerrie Droban.

Mark Follman is a longtime journalist and the National Affairs Editor for Mother Jones. Since 2012, when he created a first-of-its-kind public database of mass shootings, his various investigations into gun violence have been honored with numerous awards. His new book is "Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America."

New York Governor Kathy Hochul says tech companies have failed to do their part to prevent mass shootings.

There's an average of one mass shooting per day in the United States. In 2020, Distinguished Professor of History at American University Allan Lichtman wrote the book: "Repeal the Second Amendment" - the first book that uses history, legal theory and up-to-the-minute data to make a compelling case for the amendment’s repeal in order to create a clear road to sensible gun control in the US."Repeal the Second Amendment" explores both the true history and current interpretation of the Second Amendment to expose the NRA’s blatant historical manipulations and irresponsible fake news releases. Lichtman looks at the history of firearms and gun regulations from colonial times to the present to explain how a historically forgotten sentence in the Constitution has become a flash point of recent politics that benefits only the gun industry, their lobbyists, and the politicians on their payroll. He probes court decisions and the effective lobbying and public relations strategies of the gun lobby as well as the ineffectiveness of the gun control movement for lessons in doing better.What emerges is a clear and cogent plan--repeal and replace the Second Amendment without taking guns away from anyone who has them now--to make the US a safer place.

WAMC spoke with area grocery shoppers feel after Saturday’s mass shooting in Buffalo.

The Woodstock Film Festival will present the world premiere screening of the new documentary "Parkland Rising," executive produced by Katie Couric and…

The Roundtable Panel: a daily open discussion of issues in the news and beyond.Today's panelists are WAMC’s Alan Chartock, WAMC’s Alan Chartock,…