Social Media and Murder

We don't know the age of the shooter who committed the murder of two people and then committed suicide.  All three deaths by firearm are tragedies, tragedies which could have and should have been avoided.

The following news article about teen gun violence is significant as a demographic in light of the following statistics from the CDC and the Legal Community Against Gun Violence:

Guns cause the death of 20 children and young adults (24 years of age and under) each day in the U.S.⁴⁰
Children and young adults (24 years of age and under) constitute over 41% of all firearm deaths and non-fatal injuries.⁴¹
In the United States, over 1.69 million kids age 18 and under are living in households with loaded and unlocked firearms.⁴²
More than 75% of guns used in suicide attempts and unintentional injuries of 0-19 year-olds were stored in the residence of the victim, a relative, or a friend.⁴³
A 2000 study found that 55% of U.S. homes with children and firearms have one or more firearms in an unlocked place; 43% have guns without a trigger lock in an unlocked place.⁴⁴

The practices of keeping firearms locked, unloaded, and storing ammunition in a locked location separate from firearms may assist in reducing youth suicide and unintentional injury in homes with children and teenagers where guns are stored.⁴⁵

and this, citing THEIR sources for the data:

^40. WISQARS Injury Mortality Reports, 1999-2007, supra note 1. ^41. Id.; WISQARS Nonfatal Injury Reports, supra note 2.
^42. Catherine A. Okoro et al., Prevalence of Household Firearms and Firearm-Storage Practices in the 50 States and the District of Columbia: Findings from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2002, 116 Pediatrics e370, e370 (Sept. 2005), at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/3/e370.
^43. Grossman et al., supra note 16, at 875.
^44. Mark A. Schuster et al., Firearm Storage Patterns in U.S. Homes with Children, 90 Am. J. Pub. Health 588, 590 (Apr. 2000).
^45. David C. Grossman et al., Gun Storage Practices and Risk of Youth Suicide and Unintentional Firearm Injuries, 293 JAMA 707, 711-13 (Feb. 2005).

From MSNBC.com and the AP:

Police alerted to Ind. deaths by Facebook post

By The Associated Press

FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Authorities in Indiana say they were alerted to the shooting deaths of a woman and two men after someone thousands of miles away called police about a chilling posting on Facebook.
Police in Fort Wayne are investigating whether the breakup of a 19-year-old woman and her boyfriend was the motive behind the killings.
Authorities suspect the ex-boyfriend shot and killed Erin Jehl and her friend 19-year-old Ryann Tipton. They say Jehl had brought Tipton with her when she went to her ex-boyfriend's house in Fort Wayne on Saturday afternoon to retrieve some belongings.
Foster said authorities were alerted to the scene by a woman who said she was in Washington state. She told police a friend on Facebook had posted that he had killed two others and himself.