gun violence

A ban on dozens of semi-automatic rifles has cleared the Democratic-controlled Washington state Legislature. Gov. Jay Inslee has pushed for the ban and is expected to sign it into law. It’ll almost certainly be challenged in court.

King County’s new prosecutor Leesa Manion took office this month. KNKX's Lilly Ana Fowler talked with Manion about legalized drug possession, bail reform and how crime is being handled in King County.

A couple thousand students crowded outside Seattle City Hall on Monday to demand that Seattle Public Schools, Washington state and city legislators do more to prevent shootings in public schools. It comes nearly a week after a shooting at Ingraham High School in north Seattle left one student dead.

Four high-profile shootings in U.S. cities this week drew headlines but masked the daily toll of gun violence in some of the same communities. As shooting rampages unfolded in Oregon, Phoenix, Detroit and Houston, a rash of smaller-scale gun violence went unnoticed except by victims.

Seattle doesn't often make national news for gun violence, but in 2021, more shots were fired there than in any of the previous five years. Last summer, a local group that intervenes to try to prevent gun violence took the unusual step of paying 16 young men who were likely to be involved in shootings to leave the city for 30 days.

The arrest is the latest in a string of student arrests related to weapons and threats of violence in Southwest Washington schools.

The mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, are again putting the focus on gun control measures such as waiting periods to buy firearms. Washington is one of nine states, plus Washington, D.C., that have explicit waiting periods before people can purchase at least some types of firearms.

Neighbors in Portland's Mt. Scott community worked together to combat rising gun violence by changing the environment rather than relying on police. Other communities are learning from their example.

Visitors to Tacoma's Eastside Community Center might notice some new artwork: a mural created to memorialize children from the community who died from gun violence. Full of bright yellows and vibrant blues and greens, "In Loving Memory" shows children dancing and playing.

The year 2020 was deadly in more ways than one. In addition to coronavirus deaths, the murder rate spiked. And there’s no indication things are getting…