As Mass Gun Violence Rises, Debate Intensifies Over Strategy On How To Proceed In Active Shooter Situations

The Washington Post: Ventura Shooting: Guard, Officer Killed, Stoking Debate About Active-Shooter Defenses
The gunman began his rampage by shooting an unarmed security guard outside a country-music bar in California, police said. After the attacker began firing on patrons inside, a sergeant with the sheriff’s office charged into the building to confront him and was cut down by gunfire. The Ventura County mass shooting that left 12 dead Wednesday became a grim test case in a persistent debate about how places such as schools, nightclubs and houses of worship should steel themselves against shooters and how police should respond to them. (Jouvenal and Horton, 11/8)

The New York Times: A Look At California Gun Laws, Among The Toughest In The Nation
California, where a gunman killed 12 people in a bar in Thousand Oaks on Wednesday night, has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. It was the first state to ban assault weapons in 1989 after a shooting at a Stockton elementary school left five students dead. In the wake of several recent mass shootings — including one in February in Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 students and employees at a high school — state legislators put forward at least nine new gun control bills in response. Here’s a look at the state of gun regulations in California. (Urbina, 11/8)

CNN: Doctors Share Gun Stories, Demand Action After NRA Tells Them To 'Stay In Their Lane'
Two signs of the times: another mass shooting and more Twitter outrage. This time, though, the barbs over social media came from the medical community in response to a tweet from the National Rifle Association. The piling-on began after the NRA tweeted on Wednesday a link to an article from its Institute of Legislative Action. The article, titled "Surprise: Physician Group Rehashes Same Tired Gun Control Policies," was promoted with these words: "Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. Half of the articles in Annals of Internal Medicine are pushing for gun control. Most upsetting, however, the medical community seems to have consulted NO ONE but themselves." (Ravitz, 11/8)

The Associated Press: California Gunman Was Volatile But Passed Mental Assessment
Neighbors of Ian David Long described the man who shot and killed 12 people at a country music bar as distant in public but combative with his mother inside the suburban Los Angeles home the two shared. One ruckus in April was so extreme that they called law enforcement. Authorities brought in a mental health specialist who concluded that Long could not be involuntarily committed for psychiatric observation but worried the 28-year-old Marine veteran might have post-traumatic stress disorder. (Ronayne and Pritchard, 11/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Police Probe Motive In Southern California Bar Massacre
From Las Vegas to Parkland, Fla., Pittsburgh to Santa Fe, Texas, the nation has been shaken by the frequency of mass shootings over the past two years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation says 30 active-shooter incidents in 2017 left in 138 people dead—both the highest totals since the FBI began keeping track in 2000. The FBI defines an active shooter as someone actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. (Lovett, Frosch and Elinson, 11/8)

The Wall Street Journal: California Bar Shooter Had Domestic-Disturbance History After Serving In Afghanistan
Ian David Long, identified as the gunman in a mass shooting here, was a high-school baseball player remembered as a perfectionist who dropped the sport his senior year in part to focus on joining the military. When Long’s baseball coach sat down to write about him in a yearbook, one word came to mind: “Intensity!” (Berzon and Randazzo, 11/8)

KQED: Thousand Oaks Shooter's Health Frayed In College, Roommate Says
Research on links between mental health disorders associated with military service and violent acts leaves an incomplete picture. Impulsive aggression, like getting into fistfights, has been tied to PTSD. But there was no higher likelihood for premeditated aggression in veterans suffering from PTSD. (Suulvado, Jamali, Gilbertson and Denkmann, 11/8)

The Washington Post: ‘A Surreal Shock’: Las Vegas Shooting Survivors Live Through California Massacre
When the first shots were fired at Borderline Bar & Grill, David Anderson immediately knew he was in the middle of a mass shooting. He had lived through one last year. Anderson survived the attack at a country music festival in Las Vegas in October 2017 that left 58 people dead. On Wednesday, he again survived a gunman indiscriminately firing at people enjoying country music, this time at college night at a well-loved bar. Twelve people were killed. (Zezima and Mettler, 11/9)

The Washington Post: Thousand Oaks Parents: ‘I Don’t Want Prayers. I Don’t Want Thoughts. I Want Gun Control.’
Marc and Susan Orfanos awoke at 2 a.m. on Thursday in Thousand Oaks, Calif., to a call from a relative in New York. The groggy-eyed couple stumbled into a ritual that is familiar to parents in Columbine, Blacksburg, Aurora, Newtown, Orlando, Parkland — and, as of this week, also in the quiet outpost of Los Angeles. They waited to find out if their child, who had survived the deadliest gun massacre in modern American history last year in Las Vegas, had perished in another mass-casualty shooting. (Stanley-Becker, 11/9)

Los Angeles Times: 'We Have Been Drawn Into This Terror': At Vigils, Thousand Oaks Grieves For 12 Victims Of Mass Shooting
The wind that roared through Thousand Oaks on Thursday night threatened to drown out their voices, but the mourners still sang, channeling their grief, shock and anger into a familiar melody. More than 100 people fell silent as the strains of “Amazing Grace” wafted through the crowd and the light-wrapped trees on the lawn outside the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. (Gerber, Karlamangla, Newberry and Greene, 11/8)

Kaiser Health News: Deadly Shootings Are Rising In U.S. After Steady Declines
After steadily declining for more than two decades, deadly shootings are rising across the country, according to a new government report. The researchers also said that the number of suicides involving a firearm grew 21 percent between 2006 and 2016. The report, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at gun deaths around the country and in 50 major metropolitan areas. The researchers found a rise in gun homicides in 2015 and 2016, reversing a downward trend and bringing them to a level comparable to a decade ago. (Heredia Rodriguez, 11/9)

CNN: Gun Deaths Increasing After Years Of Decline
During 2015-16, 27,394 people were killed by someone with a gun in the United States, and 44,955 used a gun to kill themselves, according to a report published Thursday in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Researchers looked at firearm homicides and suicides from 2012-13 to 2015-16 in the 50 most populous US metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, not far from Wednesday's mass shooting at a bar in Thousand Oaks that left 13 dead, including the suspect. (Christensen, 11/8)

And in other news —

The Associated Press: Mother On A Mission: Gun Control Advocate Wins US House Race
In a campaign ad pierced by the sound of gunfire, Lucy McBath earlier this year laid out the story of her 17-year-old son's shooting death and how his loss propelled her to activism. The story resonated with voters, who elected her Tuesday to fill a long-red House seat that Georgia Republicans held onto just last year. (Martin and Santana, 11/8)

Politico: How An All-Woman, Pro-Gun Control Ad Crew Is Flipping Republican Seats
When Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut gave his now-famous filibuster in the aftermath of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting, his impassioned plea for increased gun control galvanized liberals across the country. One of them, all the way on the other coast in Los Angeles, was Sarah Ullman. The 30-year-old had once interned for Murphy and relocated to pursue a career as a filmmaker, but she was moved deeply enough that she launched a special undertaking, separate from but related to her primary career. She began to make political ads for progressive, pro-gun control candidates across the country with her super PAC, One Vote at a Time. (Flores and Robertson, 11/9)

MPR: Twin Cities Researchers To Discuss Preliminary Results Of Mass Shooting Study
Two Twin Cities professors have been working on a study of mass shootings. They're trying to find ways to identify people who might turn into mass shooters, and strategies to prevent attacks like the one in California this week and the many before it. They recently received a $300,000 federal grant to further that research. (Roth, 11/8)