Brady Responds to Louisiana Mass Shooting That Killed Eight Children; Recent High-Profile Killings of Black Women

Eight children, ranging from 3 to 11 years old, and two women were shot in a domestic violence attack in Shreveport, LA, part of a string of intimate partner violence affecting Black women.

WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 20, 2026 — Yesterday, local authorities in Louisiana confirmed that a father shot and killed eight children and wounded his wife and another woman in a domestic violence-related attack in Shreveport, LA. The tragedy, which was the country’s deadliest mass shooting in more than two years, comes amid several reported killings of Black women, or Black femicide, which is driven in large part by disparities in intimate partner homicide. Importantly, research shows that disparities in intimate partner homicide are not inevitable but linked to structural racism and misogynoir’s overlapping impacts.  

Kris Brown, president of Brady, the nation’s oldest gun violence prevention organization, said:

No one — let alone eight young children — should ever die this way. Yet tragedies like this are all too common in America, in part because of our excess of firearms. Guns are the leading weapon used in domestic violence homicides. Their impact is especially devastating for Black women, who are three times more likely than white women to be fatally shot by an intimate partner. In the hands of an abuser, a gun too often turns violence into death.

In April alone, at least seven Black women were killed — five of them with firearms — by intimate partners or family members, including: Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax, Coral Springs Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer, Pastor Tammy McCollum, Ashly Robinson, Qualeisha Barnes, Davonta Curtis, and Barbara Deer. 

We owe it to all victims to address the deadly intersection between domestic violence and firearms. Preventing tragedies like these is not only possible — it’s our responsibility.