Everytown, South Carolina Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action Respond to Mass Shooting in York County

The South Carolina chapters of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action, both part of Everytown for Gun Safety, released the following statements after at least five people – Dr. Robert Lesslie, Barbara Lesslie, their two grandchildren, and James Lewis – were shot and killed in a home near Rock Hill. 

“Our hearts are broken for the victims of yet another mass shooting, for their families, and for the broader community,” said Suzanne Mackowski, a volunteer with the South Carolina chapter of Moms Demand Action. “The need for gun violence prevention couldn’t be clearer and yet just yesterday, our lawmakers advanced a dangerous permitless carry bill that could make our gun violence epidemic worse. I’m begging them at this point – please, just stop. Listen to the families across South Carolina whose lives are shattered forever, the law enforcement officers who are telling you how deadly this could be, the doctors and nurses who have to give parents the worst news they will ever hear. Stop trying to make our state less safe.”

This shooting comes shortly after a mass shooting in Allen, Texas, a mass shooting in Orange, California, a mass shooting in Baltimore County, a mass shooting in Boulder where ten people were shot and killed, including one police officer, at a grocery store, and a series of shootings in spas around metro Atlanta, in which nine people were shot, eight fatally — six of whom were Asian women. Every day in the U.S. on average, more than 100 people are killed with guns, and more than 230 are wounded —most in shootings that are not mass shootings.

Research by Everytown for Gun Safety shows that this is at least the 250th mass shooting since January 2009 in which four or more people were killed, not including the shooter. In an average year, 908 people die by gun violence in South Carolina and 1,780 more are wounded. More information about gun violence in South Carolina is available here.