PublicSource | News for a better Pittsburgh (https://www.publicsource.org/category/public-safety/)
Experts in trauma care differentiate between sudden violent events, such as the Tree of Life shooting, and chronic forms of violence, such as war zones or ongoing gun violence within neighborhoods. In Pittsburgh, chronic gun violence occurs in some neighborhoods, but not others, and that trauma is disproportionately carried by the city's black communities.
Pittsburgh city officials on Friday announced a trio of gun control bills in response to the Oct. 27 shooting deaths of 11 people at Tree of Life synagogue.
Pittsburgh officials are urging local governments across the country to join them on instituting new gun control laws after the October mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue.
Because lawmakers gave limited authority to the agency responsible for police certification, Pennsylvania has no oversight over noncriminal findings of misconduct, aside from dishonesty during the certification process.
Both Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue on Oct. 27, and George Sodini, who killed three women and himself at the Collier Township LA Fitness in 2009, attended Baldwin High School. People who study mass shooters say their shared school is a likely coincidence — the men were 10 years apart — but there are other more meaningful markers they share.
Avi Baran Munro has lived nearly half her life in Squirrel Hill. Along with her husband, Paul, she’s raised four children there, just blocks away from the Tree of Life synagogue. Her parents, Holocaust survivors, followed the family to Pittsburgh to stay close.
The Oct. 27 massacre at the synagogue was a blow to the entire family.
Solitary confinement can affect brain activity within hours. People who experience the isolation can deteriorate and, especially for those with mental illness, the effects can be profound and even irreversible.
I answered all of them the same way. Although my wife, Judy, and I live two blocks from Tree of Life synagogue, it is not ours. And, ironically, while the terrifying events unfolded, we were in safe and quiet Israel.
Compelling personal stories
told by the people living them. My 5-year-old son was angry and shouting and clingy all last week. Every night from Monday onward, he called me to come into his bed to sleep or asked to come into ours. It’s not his typical behavior. But nothing was typical about last week in Pittsburgh.
It was a weekend of coming together, reflection and collective healing in Pittsburgh. A week after the tragedy in the Tree of Life synagogue last Saturday, Shabbat services took place all over Squirrel Hill.
