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2019 Smart Talk Top Stories — research on guns and mass shooters

  • Scott LaMar
In this April 25, 2018 photo, a .9mm handgun produced by Honor Defense, a gunmaker in Gainesville, Ga., is displayed. In the wake of high-profile mass shootings, corporate America has been taking a stand against the firearms industry amid a lack of action by lawmakers on gun control. Payment processing firms are limiting transactions, Bank of America stopped providing financing to companies that make AR-style guns, and retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods imposed age restrictions on gun purchases. (AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane)

In this April 25, 2018 photo, a .9mm handgun produced by Honor Defense, a gunmaker in Gainesville, Ga., is displayed. In the wake of high-profile mass shootings, corporate America has been taking a stand against the firearms industry amid a lack of action by lawmakers on gun control. Payment processing firms are limiting transactions, Bank of America stopped providing financing to companies that make AR-style guns, and retailers like Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods imposed age restrictions on gun purchases. (AP Photo/Lisa Marie Pane)

The 2019 top stories on Smart Talk series continues Friday with conversations that came in the aftermath of the deadly mass shooting in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio last August.

On Friday’s program, we hear that mass shooters from the past 50 years all have four traits in common. That’s according to The Violence Project — a think tank that has assembled comprehensive research on mass shootings in America.

Appearing on Friday’s Smart Talk to talk about what the data shows about mass shooters is Dr. Jillian Peterson, PhD, co-founder of The Violence Project and a psychologist and professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University in Minnesota.

Also on the program, there was a renewed call for more gun laws after the shooting in El Paso and Dayton. Advocates both for and against more gun restrictions use statistics to make their case. We talked with Dr. Cassandra Crifasi with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research about their gun violence findings.-

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