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Nineteen students and at least two adults were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, making the attack the deadliest mass shooting so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The big picture: Mass shootings are becoming deadlier. The deadliest shooting 10 years ago left 16 people dead. The toll from the 2017 shooting at a Las Vegas hotel is 60.

America's deadliest modern mass shootings

Route 91 Harvest music festival, Las Vegas, October 2, 2017: 60 killed, more than 850 injured.

Pulse, Orlando, Fla., June 2016: 49 killed and 53 injured.

Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va., April 2007: 32 killed and 17 injured on campus.

Sandy Hook Elementary School, Newtown, Conn., December 2012: 26 killed.

First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas, November 2017: 26 killed and 20 injured.

Luby's Cafeteria, Killeen, Texas, October 1991: 23 killed.

Walmart, El Paso, Texas, August 3, 2019: 23 killed, 26 injured.

McDonald's, San Ysdiro, Calif., July 1984: 21 killed.

Robb Elementary School, Uvalde, Texas, May 24, 2022: 21 killed.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Fla., February 2018: 17 killed.

University of Texas Tower, Austin, Texas, August 1966: 16 killed around campus. 

Inland Regional Center, San Bernardino, Calif., December 2015: 14 killed.

Edmond post office, Edmond, Okla., August 1986: 14 killed.

Fort Hood, Fort Hood, Texas, November 2009: 13 killed.

Columbine High School, Littleton, Colo., April 1999: 13 killed.

Binghamton Civic Association, Binghamton, N.Y., April 2009: 13 killed.

New Jersey neighborhood and local shops, Camden, N.J, September 1949: 13 killed.

Schoolhouse Lane neighborhood and Heather Highlands Mobile Home Village, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., September 1982: 13 killed.

Wah Mee club in the Louisa hotel, Seattle, Wash., February 1983: 13 killed.

Century 16 movie theater, Aurora, Colo., July 2012: 12 killed, 58 wounded.

Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., September 2013: 12 killed, 8 wounded.

The Borderline Bar & Grill, Thousand Oaks, Calif., November 2018: 12 killed, several wounded.

Virginia Beach Municipal Center, Virginia Beach, Va., May 31, 2019: 12 killed.

This article was first published in October 2017 and has been updated several times after more recent shootings. The Vegas and El Paso tolls were updated in November 2019 and April 2020, respectively, after the victims died of injuries sustained in the attacks.

The deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history

A shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, is the deadliest mass shooting so far in 2022.

People watch the procession carrying the body of Ventura County Sheriff Sgt. Ron Helus, who was killed in the mass shooting

People watch the procession carrying the body of Ventura County Sheriff Sgt. Ron Helus, who was killed in the Thousand Oaks mass shooting. Photo: David McNew/Getty Images

Politics

Mass shootings

U.S. News

<a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Nineteen students and at least two adults" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/2022/05/24/texas-elementary-school-shooting" data-vars-content-id="3b2dfb67-7278-4082-a78c-d9fdbef367f1" data-vars-headline="The deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/2022/05/24/texas-elementary-school-shooting" target="_self">Nineteen students and at least two adults</a> were killed in a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, making the attack the deadliest mass shooting so far this year, according to the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Gun Violence Archive" data-vars-click-url="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting" data-vars-content-id="3b2dfb67-7278-4082-a78c-d9fdbef367f1" data-vars-headline="The deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting" target="_blank">Gun Violence Archive</a>.The big picture: Mass shootings are becoming deadlier. The deadliest shooting 10 years ago left 16 people dead. The toll from the 2017 shooting at a <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="Las Vegas hotel" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/deadliest-mass-shootings-in-modern-us-history-3b2dfb67-7278-4082-a78c-d9fdbef367f1.html" data-vars-content-id="3b2dfb67-7278-4082-a78c-d9fdbef367f1" data-vars-headline="The deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/deadliest-mass-shootings-in-modern-us-history-3b2dfb67-7278-4082-a78c-d9fdbef367f1.html" target="_self">Las Vegas hotel</a> is 60.

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

Politics & Policy

An international court is examining whether the Honduran government was complicit in the killing of Vicky Hernández, a 26-year-old trans woman fatally shot on the night of the country's 2009 coup d'état. 

Why it matters: Legal advocates say the case could set a legal precedent across Latin America, which has the world's highest concentration of trans murders, according to activists. 

It's also the first case to ask the Inter-American Court of Human Rights' whether a government has failed to protect a transgender person.

Background: In June 2009, Hernández's body was found around 7am local time on a San Pedro Sula street. An examination at the scene by first responders judged her time of death to be the middle of the previous night, when a curfew was in place that allowed only military and law enforcement outdoors.

She had been shot in the head, Kacey Mordecai, a senior staff attorney with Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, which brought the case before the court, told Axios.

Two other trans women reported that on the night of Hernández death, a police patrol car, or "military patrol," drove up to them and Hernández, who was a sex worker. The three women scattered as they were approached, per testimony given in November by Claudia Spellmant, who had spoken to the two women at Vicky's funeral.

Attorneys with RFK Human Rights say they have not seen evidence from authorities that a final autopsy report was ever completed.

Honduran human rights group Cattrachas alleges that Hernández was the victim of an extrajudicial killing, citing the circumstances and timing of her death.

The other side: “There is no evidence at all, and nor can it be rationally inferred, that those responsible for Vicky Hernández’s death were members of the public safety forces, simply because a patrol car trying to avoid lamentable tragedies happened to be nearby,” Sonia Escobar Rodríguez, the government's lawyer for the case, wrote in an argument summary shared with the New York Times.

The big picture: The case and the government's response highlight the broader dangers and inequities for transgender people in Honduras, Mordecai said. 

"Our case is about Vicky's death. It was the moment that cost her her life. But to me, what it represents, it's really about her life in Honduras and how she wasn't able to live as Vicky Hernández." 

What they're saying: "They told me to fight and fight, so that Vicky's death does not go unpunished," Rosa Hernández, Vicky's mother, told the Los Angeles Blade from her home in San Pedro Sula.

The Inter-American court required the state to protect Vicky's relatives after her mother received three phone calls from someone claiming to be a Honduras police representative. The state acknowledged the calls took place and said they weren't meant to be intimidating.

The bottom line: Even if the court requires Honduras to pay damages to Hernández' family, systemic changes — like training police and legally recognizing trans people's names and genders — are still needed to fight anti-trans discrimination in the country.

Case of murdered Honduran trans woman could set legal precedent in region

The international case on trans violence could set legal precedent across Latin America.

A photo of Vicky Hernandez wearing a dress and posing, against a pink background

A family photo of Vicky Hernández, courtesy of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights and Cattrachas. Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios

Transgender

Latin America and Latinos

An international court is examining whether the Honduran government was complicit in the killing of Vicky Hernández, a 26-year-old trans woman fatally shot on the night of the country&#x27;s 2009 coup d&#x27;état. Why it matters: Legal advocates say the case could set a legal precedent across Latin America, which has the world&#x27;s <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="highest concentration of trans murders" data-vars-click-url="https://transrespect.org/en/map/trans-murder-monitoring/?submap=tmm_relative_numbers" data-vars-content-id="a890f092-e1a4-41ce-be57-a0af2e2b38a6" data-vars-headline="Case of murdered Honduran trans woman could set legal precedent in region" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://transrespect.org/en/map/trans-murder-monitoring/?submap=tmm_relative_numbers" target="_blank">highest concentration of trans murders</a>, according to activists.

China is becoming the most formidable rival America has faced, and the risk of confrontation with Russia, North Korea or Iran still looms. Authoritarians are rising, the chaotic Afghanistan exit revealed the limits of U.S. power, and the pandemic, climate change and other critical challenges continue to pose grave threats.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly voted, 168-55, to draft a document that they hope will prevent President Biden and other Catholic politicians from receiving Communion if they advocate for abortion rights, the Associated Press reports.

Why it matters: Biden is the United States' second Catholic president and the country's most religiously observant leader since Jimmy Carter, per the New York Times. Enforcing the rule to deny Communion would be up to individual bishops.

Last month, Cardinal Luis Ladaria, the head of the Vatican's doctrine office, sent a letter to the conference imploring them to carefully deliberate before making the decision.

The cardinal advised that the bishops should seek unanimous approval, adding that it could become "a source of discord rather than unity within the episcopate and the larger church in the United States."

What they're saying: “That’s a private matter, and I don’t think that’s going to happen," Biden told reporters on Friday, when asked about the vote.

Catholic leaders advance plan that could deny Biden Communion

Enforcing the rule would be up to individual bishops.

Joe Biden and Jill Biden stand next to each other in a church pew

President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden attend Mass at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, DC, on Jan. 20. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images

Joe Biden

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly voted, 168-55, to draft a document that they hope will prevent President Biden and other Catholic politicians from receiving Communion if they advocate for abortion rights, <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="the Associated Press reports" data-vars-click-url="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-government-and-politics-religion-ea0179cd6c8eddbf66693a7e2b28e2da" data-vars-content-id="ef3c24f6-2c6e-455f-945c-012b8e7825d9" data-vars-headline="Catholic leaders advance plan that could deny Biden Communion" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-government-and-politics-religion-ea0179cd6c8eddbf66693a7e2b28e2da" target="_blank">the Associated Press reports</a>.Why it matters: Biden is the United States&#x27; second Catholic president and the country&#x27;s most religiously observant leader since Jimmy Carter, per the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="New York Times" data-vars-click-url="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/us/targeting-biden-catholic-bishops-advance-controversial-communion-plan.html?referringSource=articleShare" data-vars-content-id="ef3c24f6-2c6e-455f-945c-012b8e7825d9" data-vars-headline="Catholic leaders advance plan that could deny Biden Communion" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/us/targeting-biden-catholic-bishops-advance-controversial-communion-plan.html?referringSource=articleShare" target="_blank">New York Times</a>. Enforcing the rule to deny Communion would be up to individual bishops.

Many elder LGBTQ Americans, already disproportionately isolated before the pandemic, faced greater loneliness in quarantine as they lost access to resources and community, two older LGBTQ Americans told Axios. 

Why it matters: Data is lacking on how LGBTQ Americans have been affected by the coronavirus — especially older populations, who battle a myriad of complications as a high-risk and under-resourced group. 

The big picture: "There’s very little if any hard data" on how LGBTQ Americans were affected by the pandemic, Aaron Tax, director of advocacy for SAGE, said. "What we can do is piece together the data we do have ... it paints a challenging picture for LGBTQ older people."

He said SAGE has been playing phone and email tag with Biden administration officials over their calls for the American Jobs Plan to include $450 million to improve elder care.

$50 million from that proposal would go to SAGE and the National Resource Center on LGBT Aging.

Randi Robertson, 58, a pilot instructor on the Florida space coast, retired from the Air Force at the end of 2010 and lives with her spouse and two kids. As a trans woman, she said she felt extraordinarily privileged during the pandemic compared to other transgender people. 

"The number of people that I know who've taken their own lives ... you become very aware of those kinds of indicators when people are struggling," she said. "I don't count, cause that's a depressing thing to do. No one's a number. Everyone's significant."

Robertson saw a "serious uptick" last year in social media posts from trans people around her age who shared stories of poor mental health, depression, anxiety, feelings of separation.

For some, the LGBTQ centers and programs that closed down as infections surged "may have well been their only real contacts with live human beings," she said. 

Lujira Cooper, 73, writes fiction and lives alone in Manhattan. She worked at the 34th Street YMCA during the Stonewall riots, a historical moment that she said didn't really affect her life. 

"I don't think I would have been out there, but I can appreciate those who were, because somebody's got to go stand out on the line under the possibility of being killed," she told Axios.

"I’ve had more trouble being a Black outspoken woman than being a lesbian."

Cooper said she was fortunate to get food delivered three times a week when the pandemic hit, although she eventually stopped deliveries to cook for herself again. Having a social worker and nurse practitioner in her building helped too.

"The thing about the quarantine, there's an extreme sense of isolation … there have been periods of times when I felt very lonely," she said. "I do understand that feeling of not being able to hug people, talk to people."

Cooper, who leads a writing group with Advocacy & Services for LGBT Elders (SAGE), said she and other members missed Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, and the annual gala last year — on top of church outings and other community meals.

"These are the ways you can get together with people and talk … those are the kinds of things I miss," she said. Cooper added that she doesn't yet know if she'll go back to the dinners or hold writing groups in-person.

Robertson and Cooper both said that LGBTQ Americans can already be isolated as they can face estrangement from family and friends. They both agreed the pandemic made it worse.

"There are people who live in parts of this country ... where the isolation can be profound," Robertson said. "Just as a trans person, let alone given all of the other factors that are in play in the past 18 months." 

LGBTQ seniors on the isolation of living through a pandemic

Data is lacking on how LGBTQ Americans have been affected by the coronavirus.

Photos of two women displayed side-by-side

Lujira Cooper, left, and Randi Robertson. Photos: Courtesy of SAGE and Randi Robertson.

LGBTQ

Many elder LGBTQ Americans, already disproportionately isolated before the pandemic, faced greater loneliness in quarantine as they lost access to resources and community, two older LGBTQ Americans told Axios. Why it matters: Data is lacking on <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="how LGBTQ Americans have been affected" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-cdc-lgbtq-americans-27f12507-1174-412e-bb33-57f0ef4ce9b2.html" data-vars-content-id="f68debd3-5516-44ec-b93e-806b9517668f" data-vars-headline="LGBTQ seniors on the isolation of living through a pandemic" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-cdc-lgbtq-americans-27f12507-1174-412e-bb33-57f0ef4ce9b2.html" target="_self">how LGBTQ Americans have been affected</a> by the coronavirus — especially older populations, who battle a myriad of complications as a high-risk and under-resourced group.

The U.S. faces a range of health care flashpoints — unaffordable drugs, opioids, vaping — as we debate whether to adopt universal care. For now, the Affordable Care Act is the law of the land, but Republicans want to issue it a final death blow.

Health

The 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause prevents West Virginia and Arkansas from carrying out laws that exclude transgender girls from women's sports and ban gender-affirming care, respectively, the Justice Department argued Thursday in two statements of interest for separate lawsuits.

Why it matters: They are the Justice Department's first direct statements on the record number of bills targeting trans youth. The statements come after the White House repeatedly deferred to the DOJ on whether it will take action against the predominately Republican-backed legislation.

The DOJ's statements also come one day after the Education Department extended Title IX protections to gay and trans students.

The agency filed statements of interest in two ACLU-backed lawsuits: 

One was brought by the family of a West Virginia transgender girl, who say the state has barred their daughter from trying out for her school's cross-country team because she is trans. 

"To be sure, there remain significant barriers to providing full equity in athletics for female students. But permitting participation by transgender girls, who make up 'approximately one half of one percent' of the United States' population, is not one of them,"  the Justice Department's statement of interest in the West Virginia lawsuit reads.

The other lawsuit was filed on behalf of four trans kids and their families in response to an Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care, which was unsuccessfully vetoed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R).

"Prohibiting medically necessary care in the manner proscribed [in the Arkansas' law] amounts fo intentional discrimination against transgender minors on the basis of sex," the DOJ said in its statement of interest in the Arkansas lawsuit.

Go deeper: Which states have banned trans youth in sports

DOJ issues first direct statements against states targeting trans youth

The agency filed statements of interest in two ACLU-backed lawsuits.

Illustration of a child in silhouette holding a transgender pride flag over their shoulders like a cape

The 14th Amendment&#x27;s Equal Protection Clause prevents West Virginia and Arkansas from carrying out laws that exclude transgender girls from women&#x27;s sports and ban gender-affirming care, respectively, the Justice Department argued Thursday in two statements of interest for separate lawsuits.Why it matters: They are the Justice Department&#x27;s first direct statements on the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="record number of bills" data-vars-click-url="https://www.axios.com/trans-youth-lgbtq-bill-sports-75aad489-ded5-4e1e-b70a-d0eb22d2d677.html" data-vars-content-id="faac3ab2-68a8-43fd-a75f-94779fad247e" data-vars-headline="DOJ issues first direct statements against states targeting trans youth" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://www.axios.com/trans-youth-lgbtq-bill-sports-75aad489-ded5-4e1e-b70a-d0eb22d2d677.html" target="_self">record number of bills</a> targeting trans youth. The statements come after the White House repeatedly deferred to the DOJ on whether it will take action against the predominately Republican-backed legislation.

Shifts in technology and media are changing the way we play, watch and understand sports. Business models are adapting and social change is forcing those in charge of teams and leagues to reconsider decades-old practices.

Orion Rummler

Stories

The deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history

LGBTQ seniors on the isolation of living through a pandemic

Catholic leaders advance plan that could deny Biden Communion

DOJ issues first direct statements against states targeting trans youth

Case of murdered Honduran trans woman could set legal precedent in region