Welcome to the beat everyone I am Ari Melber. We're starting this week tracking a bunch of stories including this fall out over accountability for lies in the insurrection and the civil case against Donald Trump over defamation and battery Nicole was discussing that earlier we have that later in the hour here on the beat.

Our top story though right now tonight is a topic that could be the top national story on most nights by many metrics. America's gun epidemic and the ongoing threat and reality of a highly armed nation with easy access to some of the most dangerous guns in the world and a gun related death toll that exceeds every other country per capita in the world and that can look like this.

Thanks.

That was the heroine scene at a recent little league baseball game in South Carolina you can imagine or feel how all of the kids and parents felt and that is the kind of story that may not even make what we call national news that you may not have heard about.

It occurred because teenagers were firing in a nearby parking lot and we live in a country where gunfire is routine where deadly shootings are quite normal and even mass shootings actually occur daily on average in America.

Take these first four months of 2023 that we just concluded there have been 120 one days in that time period through the end of April and in that time there have been more than a hundred and twenty one mass shootings a total of a hundred and eighty four.

Mass shootings defined as four or more people shot in one single incident meanwhile down in Texas to stay with extremely lax gun laws there was this scare at a basketball game.

Sister.

Hello.

Welcome.

Welcome.

What's going on?

The shooter.

Okay.

What?

Okay.

What is going on?

We can see it.

We can see it.

What's going on?

Okay.

What's going on?

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