Support for Louisiana, the state we're in is provided by.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of.

Dollars to keep the lights on and.

Installing new technology to prevent outages before they.

Happen.

Together.

Together.

Together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred Bea and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you, and.

We cannot imagine our babies being the forefront.

Mass shootings continue unabated.

No one looks at a child, a troubled child, and says, that's a monster.

An S.O.S.

on Mental Health.

Something was done.

And I think that's an extraordinarily positive step.

A step forward.

And the pandemic brought some of the fastest and largest changes that we have seen impacting the economy in generations.

More on the inflation crisis.

This is how the week began in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, for the July celebrations quickly turned to horror when a gunman opened fire from a building.

Children and families scattered, but the rapid gunfire killed seven and injured more than 40.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Kara St. Cyr.

Here.

And I'm Andre Moreau.

Police arrested the 22 year old gunman.

He is being held without bond.

The number of mass shootings as of July eight, that's today is now 322.

In America, though, the day is not over.

And at the midpoint of the year, the separate category of gun violence overall has taken more than 22,000 lives.

With the new legislation, some are asking, have we done enough?

And we'll have much more on this topic later on throughout our broadcast.

We sure will.

Right now, though, let's check other news making headlines across our state.

In a 42 vote, the Louisiana Supreme Court Wednesday rejected the state attorney general's request to allow the immediate enforcement of state laws against most abortions.

The high court ruled to first allow a state judge hear a lawsuit claiming the law is unclear about medical exceptions.

Halfway through the year, New Orleans is on pace to reclaim its ranking as the most murderous city in the U.S. A survey sets the murder rate at almost 37 per 100,000 people, far ahead of Baltimore's 29 per 100,000.

Police say at least 18 people have been shot on Crescent City interstates and highways so far this year, with three of those being fatal.

Two new sub variants of COVID 19 Omicron identified right here in Louisiana.

Four cases are confirmed.

And they are the first of this type in the U.S..

Right now, many more unknowns, but health leaders are working to find out all they can.

Also, the state has its first confirmed case of monkey pox, which delivers flu like symptoms.

State health leaders say there are likely more cases not yet confirmed.

More than 311,000 students have experienced gun violence in school since the Columbine High massacre in 1999.

On May 24th of this year, 21, mostly children killed at Rob Elementary and you've d-texas.

This week, a gunman shattered July 4th festivities in a suburb of Chicago.

We begin our special coverage of mass shootings with what we've seen this year.

Jefferson County, 911.

Yes, I am.

I teach at Columbine High School.

There was a gun shot out of way, I believe one of the Columbine High School.

Columbine was an eye opener.

Mass shootings on this scale weren't common.

You, Morgan, shot all around me.

There was a guy at a table right next to us, next to me and her, and they just shot him.

And they especially didn't result in 13 murders and 21 injuries.

Columbine shooting was a major wake up call for America, and it definitely propelled us into this era where we were addressing gun violence or wanting to address gun violence from a holistic standpoint, and especially starting the argument around ar the conversation around mental health, which is something that you hear quite a bit in terms of mass shootings and folks like carry out mass shootings.

Columbine legacy was a stain on gun policy and mental health response.

Schools began constructing classrooms with doors that locked from the inside.

Blueprints were made of the building so law enforcement can map out escape routes.

Police even began to train for mass violence, but on a federal level, nothing changed much, unfortunately.

Although Columbine served as a little bit of a wake up call, it did not provide the type of legislation or policies to be implemented to prevent future Columbine for happening in the years following Columbine, the country would continue to struggle with shootings in 2020.

The Gun Violence Archive recorded 612 mass shootings in 2021 692 this year.

The trend is continuing.

We are seeing an uptick in gun violence in general and thus we're seeing an uptick in amount of mass shootings.

To be honest, this year alone, we've seen 300 mass shootings, a little over 300 mass shootings only July six.

On average, we would see anywhere from 50 to 100 mass shootings a year, maybe ten years ago.

And so this idea that it's not increasing is not true.

It definitely is.

And when you look at some of the factors that contribute to the amount of mass shootings, that's not being addressed either.

In May, 16 were wounded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, just hours after an NBA playoff game later that month.

Ten were killed and one was shot in a racially motivated attack in Buffalo, New York.

After that, the public was on high alert after a school shooting in Texas.

Funerals have begun in Uvalde, Texas, one week after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school.

I also think of all this was a major thing because some of us that do have kids or if we're aunties, if we're uncles, we cannot imagine our babies being the forefront.

The Vivaldi, Texas, shooting left 19 children and two teachers dead.

It would be the most fatal school shooting following Sandy Hook in 2012, prompting outrage from lawmakers and the public.

But this should be a nonpartisan issue.

This should not be a partizan issue.

There is not a Democratic or Republican value in one single act of these shooters.

It's not that people in power have failed to act.

For a while, it seemed Capitol Hill couldn't settle on new gun laws.

The bill that was eventually signed by President Joe Biden on June 25th was the first time gun legislation had been passed in nearly 30 years.

Essentially, it does three things.

One, it incentivizes states to carry out red flag laws, which, as we discussed, provides for someone to petition a court and basically say this person hears evidence that this individual does not have the wherewithal to carry a weapon and they should not be able to purchase one.

So I am excited that that background check would be in place.

Secondly, it expand an existing law, which is really awesome for some of our women that are, as Louisiana, you might know, as Louisiana is second in the US for domestic violence.

And essentially the Biden law does kind of create a second barrier, especially for for individuals getting weapons that have a domestic violence history and loss.

Not least, it does expand background checks to 18 year olds to 21 year olds, which, as you can see in the news every single day, the amount of young folks carrying out mass shootings or just murders in general.

In general.

Daily has increased in that youth group.

Some argue that the bill doesn't pack enough punch because it doesn't ban assault rifles.

But others say this is the first step to changing a dark legacy.

There's always more that can be done.

It says when we're talking about saving lives, as you may already know, about 50,000 people lose their lives to gun violence in this country every single year.

And that number is only going to increase if we continue down the path of not having stricter laws.

And so for me, I think if they would have added, if the administration would have decided to add stricter red flag laws, stricter background checks, maybe going after permit requirements, because we see that there's a huge gap between the permitting system and our in our country.

And so things like that could have been added.

But I don't want to take away from the fact that this is still a major win and it will save lives by having the incentives for the red flag laws, but also having that 18 year old to 21 year old background check.

Some hoped Washington would add more teeth to the new gun law.

They wanted to ban assault rifles, limit who can sell to who and put restrictions on how you can buy.

That's right, though they were able to add red flags and background checks for gun buyers.

It's been a long time coming for this.

Senator Bill Cassidy, a big part of it, says he's proud of it.

Madam President, let me begin by saying that I am proudly pro-Second Amendment.

I believe in a God given right for a law abiding Americans to keep and bear arms.

And the Second Amendment has given millions of Americans the right to defend their spouse, their family, their children, their home.

But if you consider yourself a supporter of the Second Amendment, you absolutely want to do something about evolving, to do something about murders related to domestic violence, to do something about straw purchases, to do something about teen suicide by gun.

You cannot be pro-Second Amendment unless you care deeply about these issues.

That's why we have targeted legislation.

The Safer Communities Act that developed that addresses specific problems that have led to mass shootings by by by restricting access for someone who should not have a weapon, but also by providing additional mental health resources and by hardening schools.

This legislation accomplishes these goals without infringing upon a law abiding citizens Second Amendment right.

The issue of mental health and of politicians doing what makes sense is a large part of this discussion.

One of Louisiana's most seasoned political analysts, Pierson crossed took a new post this summer at UL Monroe as director of the School of Behavioral and Social Sciences.

He told me he is encouraged by the new law.

I'm encouraged that the bipartisan Safer Communities Act was passed at all.

I think it caught most people by surprise.

I think people had, you know, based on good evidence for a long time, said nothing could be done in the area of guns by Congress.

And so something was done.

And I think that's an extraordinarily positive step.

I think the numbers that we're looking at in terms of gun violence in the United States are not encouraging.

There seems to be a crescendo of violence and there's no indication that this is going to stop.

So I'm very hopeful that Congress will return and expand and strengthen this act in several areas and add some areas that they used to do.

But it's certainly a great first step.

Great first step.

Does anything stand out that you're glad is included in it or you.

Think had to be included in that in the art of the possible?

I think it did quite a bit, particularly for mental health, providing funds for mental health, partnering schools, providing funds so that we can make schools a bit safer.

Providing for red flag laws and encouraging red flag laws where you take away guns from people who are clearly in crisis in certain areas.

I think it was quite strong and all of the aims of the bill as a whole were fairly limited compared to what gun and gun safety advocates would like.

At the same time, it was a good summation of the art of the possible at this moment in Congress.

And it does sound like this is something maybe that you didn't expect to happen.

I did not expect this to happen at all.

And I and I really thought it and that's one of the frustrating things about guns and thinking about guns and gun violence is that Congress has been at an impasse for some 30 years and loggerheads between people who think it's crazy that the United States leads the world in gun violence and gun deaths and other people who say, well, there are bad people here, just like there are everywhere.

And we have mostly law abiding, gun owning citizens who are exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights.

And that's been the divide over which we have been unable to affect any great legislation.

But the politicians, if you were if you were teaching them in your class right now, what would you say?

Okay, you've done this, this and this, but you need to look at this, this and this.

One of the things take a look at, I think, is to go back to allowing the CDC to look at this as a public health issue.

You know, we've seen some areas like, for example, seatbelts is a good example or are childhood safety features on different kinds of play toys and so on.

Where studies have shown how to make things safer and better and deaths have gone down and injuries have gone down.

So I think if the CDC was empowered to really do the kind of studies that they need to do, then some solutions would start to emerge.

One of the things that's a problem in guns and talking about guns and legislating on guns today is not just the impasse or the Second Amendment or the advocates one way or the other, but the fact that we really don't have good data about what changes in our current gun laws might produce in terms of reductions in gun harm.

So do you really want to bring down teenage suicide, for example?

It really makes sense to do some research to figure out what would be the single thing that would be most likely to bring down teen suicide.

But as long as the CDC is prevented from doing that kind of research, we are handicapping ourselves and we're not doing some of the commonsense things we it.

Are there any essentials that that what was crafted falls short of?

Yeah, there are some real essentials.

I mean, people point to the easy availability of guns in our society.

And that's certainly one thing.

There are some holes with straw purchasers.

You know, we saw the killing at Highland Park.

Illinois is a state with fairly strict gun laws, but someone was still able to get a guns.

Guns cross borders fairly easily.

Borders are porous.

It doesn't matter that New York has tight gun laws if other states close to it have very loose gun laws.

So there are a number of things that could be done under the Interstate Commerce Clause and some other ways to tighten up and crack down.

It just Congress needs to find the will to do so.

Thanks so much.

I appreciate always your comments and congratulations on your new post.

And you also.

Thanks, Audrey.

We'll be sure to reach out any time you want to talk.

Always happy to talk.

Lesley Tod is an experienced mental health professional in Baton Rouge and joins us now.

Lesley, you named your psychotherapy business strategies for change because you believe decision making is one of our greatest human powers.

A lot of soul searching and decision making going on right now.

Let's discuss what we know about the characteristics of mass shooters.

Okay.

One of the characteristics of mass shooters is that they study other mass shooters.

So we might say that mass shooting is contagious.

And that's also true of suicide with with adolescents.

But let's talk just about the mass shooters for a minute.

We've had 300 already, more than 300 so far this year.

And so they inspire each other, which is terrifying.

And when you think of how much Internet chatter there is and stations like for Chan and places where they can find each other, they study each other.

Another thing that they have in common is childhood trauma.

Now that may not have been inflicted directly by their parents.

We're not saying that all these parents are terrible people.

It could be that there was domestic violence, which is common, but it could also be other unfortunate things that have happened.

An unstable beginning in life also affects your brain, and there may be some other other characteristics of the child that leads them to being bullied.

Very unfortunately, a child with a learning disability, a stutter might inspire the other children to bully them.

When there is childhood trauma, children blame themselves.

So children who might grow up in alcoholic homes or have been sexually abused or have lived through other traumas, may blame themselves.

So with the self-hatred, it can turn into suicide, but it can also then be externalized into who's responsible for my feeling so badly.

Right.

And these people, these shooters, will externalize it onto a group.

And that's what we're seeing and.

That's what we're seeing.

So it could be in the case of Buffalo, black people or my classmates at Uvalde or Colorado in Colorado, all those ones.

So many of the school shootings, it's their classmates.

Right.

Right.

So they externalize that.

And it's really a form of suicide.

But they're going to bring other people with them.

So with that in mind, what can we do to look for signs and to try to stop this epidemic?

Well, the first thing I always want to say is that people who have mental illnesses are by far mostly not violent people.

That's very important.

So it's a small minority of people.

In fact, these school shooters, only 16% of them are psychotic.

Hmm.

Okay.

Also, they may not have a diagnosable mental illness at the time they do this thing.

So.

And when you remember that 50% of all Americans have a diagnosis at some point of a mental illness.

So we have to be careful with that.

But we do have to have a lot more mental health services available around schools and in communities because they may need services at those places outside their home if their homes are very dysfunctional or their parents just don't see the need for doing it.

And part of that is we're in denial about the people we love having a problem.

So they may not see it.

And and if you're looking for red flags, then, well, not my family might be in denial about that.

And I completely I want to say that with love and compassion, because it's very hard for parents to know what their kids are doing.

Okay.

You can't raise a child today and know what they're doing on the Internet or know what their friends are teaching them or whatever.

It's completely out of control with that.

So with all compassion, I want to say that, you know, there is that issue as well that parents may not know what's going on.

But we also know that 90% of these school shooters target their own school.

So it's in the school's best interests to have really good eyes on the children, to see if there's troubled children there.

And we need to get a lot more resources in place in the schools or the communities to have no, no.

But then it costs money.

Sure.

And people don't want their taxes going up, so they won't fund this.

And I am saying you want change.

We're going to have to change how we look at the problem and fund those things.

And we also need to remember no one looks at a child, a troubled child, and says, that's a monster.

They say that after the after trigger is pulled.

Right.

So it's hard to look at a child and see that.

But we have to say that's a troubled child.

We've got to look inside.

We've got to make some decisions.

Lesley Todd, thank you so much.

You're very welcome.

We've heard tons of information going around about inflation in the United States and it seems like the prices are just continuing to rise.

Now that inflation has reached a 40 year high, many Americans are wondering if it's even possible for prices to decrease any time soon.

Here with me to discuss this is Steven Barnes.

He's a professor of economics and also the director of the Kathleen Blanco Public Policy Center.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Happy to be here.

All right.

So let's get into it.

So first, let's start with the basics about, you know, what is inflation and also how do you even get to a state of inflation?

Sure.

Inflation is what we call a pattern of rising prices.

And so specifically, when you go to the store week after week and you look at the same exact items on the shelf, when those prices start to go up over time, that's what we call inflation.

So obviously, the pandemic had something to do with this.

How does that tie into the increased prices we're seeing now?

Sure.

The economy we often think of as being a very flexible and dynamic environment.

But the reality is it takes time for businesses and workers.

The people that are running these businesses to adjust and make changes.

And the pandemic brought some of the fastest and largest changes that we have seen impacting the economy in generations.

And it's just taken the economy some time to adapt and adjust to that.

And some of those changes have to do with people's buying patterns.

Maybe they were buying a different type of product and how does that change?

How does that affect inflation?

Absolutely.

So in the earliest days of the pandemic, we saw huge changes in consumer behavior as large parts of the economy were entirely shut down.

So people shifted from consuming food at restaurants to purchasing food from the grocery store to consume at home.

And vacations were canceled and people spent money on home improvements and different categories of spending.

And with those big changes in consumer behavior, that started to put a lot of pressure on the supply for goods that people hadn't really been consuming quite at that level.

Now that we're coming out of that pandemic environment, it's not fully behind us, but we're really moving back into a more normalized environment.

We're seeing the pendulum swing back with people shifting again towards the a lot of things that they used to buy.

And with that big push in consumer demand, very often the supplies can keep up.

And that's when we'll see that upward pressure on prices that ultimately leads to inflation.

Okay.

So really, it's consumer driven.

It's largely consumer driven.

Now, prices are always about supply and demand.

And so we have seen some big changes in supply as well.

We can think about a lot of the disruptions that we saw and heard about during the pandemic with companies having to shut down because of virus cases within their workforce.

And so when you start to have disruptions like that throughout the economy, over time, those things accumulate and make it harder for us to get raw commodities.

You know, basic products like steel and iron all the way through to finished products like vehicles and cars.

And so over these last couple of years, we've seen those disruptions anywhere up and down that supply chain ultimately slow down how quickly companies can get those supplies to market.

And that's also helped contribute to this shortage, so to speak, or this difference between high demand and shortcomings on the supply side, which also can contribute to higher prices and inflation.

Well, Americans have definitely seen inflation before.

Like I said earlier, this is a 40 year high.

Is there a way to predict when it will end?

Well, we'll never be certain until we start to see that curve change.

But one of the other factors that we know has helped to prop up high demand for these products is some additional savings that people built up and the additional federal support people got during the pandemic.

And people are really using up that one time money and getting back into a place where they're going to have to be a little more responsive to those high prices.

What that means is we no longer have savings to draw from.

We're going to have to slow down our consumption, purchase a little bit less.

That's going to decrease demand and help us cool off that price inflation.

All right.

And so just, you know, in the meantime, is there anything people should know about inflation and just how to weather the storm?

Well, it's it's not fun for anybody.

And I think the good news is it's not going to last forever.

You know, we really don't expect it to last all that much longer.

A lot of the data we're looking at does suggest that we might be at a high point now and that things may start to cool off even as soon as the end of this year.

So hang in there, you know, but you know, be careful with that, with your purchases.

And as we all do that collectively and start to pull back a little bit and be a little more selective on what we're buying, that's going to help also to to slow down that price inflation and get us back into a more normalized environment.

All right.

So thank you so much for joining us, Stephen, again.

Stephen is the director of the Kathleen Blanco Public Policy Center and he's also a professor of economics.

Thanks again for joining us.

Thanks for having me.

A place that is dedicated to serving children with severe, emotional and behavioral needs opened a new home June 24th in LA.

Roger.

Yeah.

It's the new Methodist children's home of southeast Louisiana.

A $10 million facility.

Louisiana United Methodist Children and Family Services manages and operates the home.

They've helped children here for more than a century.

They are a big part of our community.

They certainly are.

And everyone, that is our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything else, TV, any time, wherever you are with our Lpv PBS app.

You can catch LPB News and Public Affairs shows as well as other Louisiana programs you've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

For everyone here at Louisiana Public Broadcasting, I'm Andre Moreau I'm Kara St.Cyr here.

Until next time.

That's the state we're in.

Every day I go to work for Entergy.

I know customers are counting on me.

So Entergy is investing millions of dollars to keep the lights on and installing new technology to prevent outages before they happen.

Together, together, together.

We power life.

Additional support provided by the Fred B and Ruth B Zigler Foundation and the Zigler Art Museum, located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for southwest Louisiana and the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

With support from viewers like you.