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Survivors of recent mass shootings revive calls for federal assault weapons ban, twenty years later
Washington — Nearly twenty years have passed since the expiration of the federal assault weapons ban, and Wednesday’s mass shooting near the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade — which killed one person and injured nearly two dozen others — has again brought the debate around U.S. gun laws front and center.
Some survivors of recent mass shootings are throwing their support behind the Go Safe Act, legislation sponsored by Democratic Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico that would effectively ban gas powered semi-automatic firearms and large-capacity magazines capable of holding more than 10-rounds.
Michael Anderson was pouring a drink at Club Q in Colorado Springs when shots rang out in November 2022.
“The rapid firing of bullets from a high-powered weapons, that’s a sound you’ll never get out of your head,” Anderson told CBS News.
Anderson was the only surviving bartender in the mass shooting at Club Q, a popular LGBTQ bar, in which five people were killed and 17 more wounded, including Anderson.
The gunman pleaded guilty in state court to five counts of murder and 46 counts of attempted murder. He is also facing federal hate crime charges.
Natalie Grumet was shot in the face during the Las Vegas massacre, shattering her jawbone and fracturing her chin in half. She says he has since had “over a dozen” surgeries.
Sixty people were killed and hundreds more wounded when a gunman opened fire from a suite in the Mandalay Bay hotel room onto a crowd during an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip in October 2017 — the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
“I wake up in pain and I go to bed in pain, and emotional recovery is just as challenging,” Grumet said.
Melissa Alexander, a gun owner and Republican, says she wants “to be a voice for that group of people that sometimes I don’t think you hear from.”
Alexander is the mother of a 9-year-old survivor of the Nashville elementary school shooting in March 2023 which killed three children and three adults.
“The more these types of tragedies happen, the more people will be activated,” Alexander said. “There’s going to be an inflection point. Like, we can’t go on like this as a society.”
Garnell Whitfield Jr.’s 86-year-old mother, Ruth Whitfield, was among 10 people killed by a white supremacist in a racially-motivated shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in May 2022.
“You know, that inflection point for me is not going to bring my mother back,” Whitfield said.
Now, fed up with gridlock, this group of mass shooting survivors and family members of shooting victims are meeting with lawmakers to rally support for Heinrich’s Go Safe Act.
“I really wanted to get at the mechanisms, the specific mechanisms that make some of these weapons so dangerous,” Heinrich told CBS News.
The semi-automatic weapons targeted by the bill are behind nine of the 10 deadliest shootings since 2016.
Heinrich’s bill is supported by mass shooting survivors and March Fourth, a nonpartisan organization with a single mission of reinstating the ban.
Between 2015 and 2022, mass shootings carried out with assault weapons left an average of nearly six-times as many people shot as shootings without assault weapons, according to Everytown, a gun safety advocacy group.
“I think that people wanna think like this it is like a left or right issue,” Grumet said. And I think we all know that sitting here, there’s a lot of things going on that need to change, and you have to start somewhere.”
“It starts with us,” Grumet said.
“D.C. should take notes because we’re all very different, from different parts of this country,” Anderson added. “But we’re here united on this, and eventually we will get the change we need and deserve.”
CBS News
Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in path of Lake Fire as it burns more than 16,000 acres in Santa Barbara County
Firefighters are continuing an uphill battle in Santa Barbara County, where the Lake Fire swelled to more than 16,000 acres over the weekend.
The blaze was first reported on Friday at around 3:45 p.m. near Zaca Lake and Saint Lucia Road, according to Cal Fire.
After more than 48 hours, the fire has consumed 16,452 acres and remains just 8% contained with more than 600 firefighters currently engaged in the firefight. On top of ground units, 10 helicopters and numerous other water-dropping aircraft are assisting with the ongoing suppression efforts.
Not only are they dealing with exceedingly dry conditions, crews are also forced to work with the sweltering heat wave that has swathed most of Southern California in triple degree temperatures over the weekend.
So far one structure has been damaged and one injury has been reported, Cal Fire said. Among the homes threatened by the rapidly spreading flames is Michael Jackson’s former residence, the famed Neverland Ranch, located in the 5000 block of Figueroa Mountain Road. He owned the 2,700-acre property from 1988 until his death in 2009.
An evacuation order was issued late Saturday evening for Figueroa Mountain Road to Sawmill Basin, including Tunnel Road and the Figueroa Campground.
DANIEL DREIFUSS/AFP via Getty Images
Additionally, evacuation warnings have also been issued for Figueroa Mountain Road to Chamberlin Ranch and Zaca Lake Road, Foxen Canyon Road and the area south of the Sisquoc River, firefighters said.
It remains unclear what sparked the massive fire, which is now the second largest reported in California since the start of 2024.
The Lake Fire is one of several large wildfires currently burning in California. The Thompson Fire, currently raging in Butte County near Chico, has torched more than a dozen homes, while the Basin Fire near Fresno has engulfed more than 14,000 acres.
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The turbulent courtship between Paramount Global-parent National Amusements and Skydance Media is back on less than a month after the sides abruptly ended merger talks.
Paramount, owner of Paramount Pictures movie and television studios, the CBS television network and CBS News, announced in a news release that it is merging with Skydance, an entertainment business founded by David Ellison, son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison. Paramount also owns the Paramount+ streaming service, Nickelodeon, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and other media brands.
The transaction resolves months of speculation around the future of Paramount, which also reportedly attracted a $26 billion bid from a consortium including Sony Pictures and private equity firm Apollo Global Management. A range of prominent media and entertainment industry executives were also said to have expressed interest in a possible deal for Paramount.
Under the terms of the latest deal, Skydance would pay $2.4 billion for National Amusements, which controls 77% of the voting shares for Paramount, while shareholders with non-voting stock will receive $15 per share or one share of non-voting stock in the new company.
The deal also gives other potential bidders for Paramount 45 days to submit a competing offer, an apparent effort to appease shareholders who felt Skydance’s initial bid undervalued their stake in the media company.
Uniting old and new Hollywood
The deal unites Paramount — a storied movie studio dating back to 1912 that is known for film classics such as “Titanic,” “The Godfather” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” as well as franchises including “Star Trek” and “Mission Impossible” — with a relative newcomer to the entertainment industry. Since David Ellison launched Skydance in 2010, the company has produced or co-produced hit films and TV shows including “Top Gun: Maverick” and the “Reacher” streaming series.
For Shari Redstone, controlling shareholder of National Amusements, the deal brings to a close her family’s long stewardship of Paramount, which was built on the foundation laid by her late father, entertainment mogul Sumner Redstone. In recent years, that effort has focused on growing Paramount’s streaming footprint, along with the continued expansion of its core network TV, cable and movie businesses.
In its most recent quarter, Paramount reported an operating loss of $417 million on revenue of $7.6 billion, compared with a loss of $1.2 billion on revenue of $7.2 billion in the year-ago period. Skydance, which is privately held, expects its annual revenue to reach $1 billion in 2024, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The merger with Skydance follows what has been a delicate negotiation in which Paramount executives sought to balance the interests of investors who own the company’s voting shares — which are primarily controlled by Redstone — and investors with non-voting stock. The latter are represented by large institutional investors such as Berkshire Hathaway and Vanguard, according to financial data firm FactSet.
The merger also follows the April 29 departure of former Paramount Global CEO Bob Bakish, who was replaced by an Office of the CEO led by three division chiefs: George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS; Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime and MTV Entertainment Studios; and Brian Robbins, president and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon.
After the initial deal to combine National Amusements and Skydance collapsed on June 11, Paramount’s new leadership disclosed plans to cut costs by $500 million, explore a joint venture or other possible partnerships for Paramount+, and sell non-core assets. It is uncertain how that blueprint could change under Skydance’s watch.
The sale of Paramount also highlights ongoing consolidation within the media space as industry stalwarts like Paramount and CBS seek to compete with much larger competitors, including technology and entertainment companies.