Since Roger Ebert’s passing last week, most obituaries have focused—naturally enough—on his witty, wide-eyed movie criticism. But in his later years he wrote on a number of topics, including gun legislation. After the massacre in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, he wrote an Op-Ed in this newspaper arguing that there is no “easy link between movies and gun violence. I think the link is between the violence and the publicity.” He continued:

“That James Holmes is insane, few may doubt. Our gun laws are also insane, but many refuse to make the connection. The United States is one of few developed nations that accepts the notion of firearms in public hands. In theory, the citizenry needs to defend itself. Not a single person at the Aurora, Colo., theater shot back, but the theory will still be defended. …

This would be an excellent time for our political parties to join together in calling for restrictions on the sale and possession of deadly weapons. That is unlikely, because the issue has become so closely linked to paranoid fantasies about a federal takeover of personal liberties that many politicians feel they cannot afford to advocate gun control.”

That was true in 2012, after Aurora. And it’s true in 2013, after Newtown, although the Senate is finally approaching a deal on background checks for purchases at gun shows and online.

It’s a start. Here is today’s report.

—Jennifer Mascia

A 17-year-old is dead and two other teens are hospitalized after being shot near Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia, Pa., Thursday afternoon. Police say a group of teenagers playing football on near practice field began to brawl, and Brandon Scott was shot in the arm and chest. Two men, 19 and 20, are in police custody.

—6abc.com

A Nashville, Tenn., teenager was shot and killed Thursday morning while waiting for a bus. The victim, believed to be 16 or 17, was shot in the neck while waiting for a school bus going to Pearl-Cohn High School. The shot came from a vacant lot across the street.

—UPI.com

A 12-year-old girl was shot during an argument between a man and his ex-girlfriend Wednesday night at an apartment complex in DeKalb County, Ga. The victim went with an older female relative to meet the woman’s ex-boyfriend, and after an argument between the couple, the suspect pulled out a weapon and fired it at the child. She is in stable condition. Police have charged the man, David Tatum, with aggravated assault.

—Examiner.com

A rapper and music executive is dead after being shot multiple times near the Edgewood neighborhood in Atlanta, Ga., Thursday evening. The musician known as Freeband Double D was driving on the westbound Interstate 20 when he was shot multiple times in the chest and face. An investigation is ongoing.

—11Alive

29-year-old Brandon Sparks was found dead in the driver’s seat of an Acura in Springfield, Mass., Wednesday night. He had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and detectives have determined that the killing is drug-related.

—MassLive.com

A was man killed and his brother seriously injured in a shooting on Chicago’s far South Side Wednesday night. 36-year-old Courtney Young was pronounced dead at the scene and Young’s 19-year-old brother was shot in the leg. No suspects are in custody.

—WGNTV.com

A 16-year-old girl was shot in the stomach and wounded in Chicago, Ill., Thursday afternoon. Sandra Fowlkes, who had just celebrated her 16th birthday, was shot at about 1:15 p.m. on the city’s South Side. “She was calling for God. She was really hurt,” a witness said. She is listed in critical condition.

—NBC Chicago

Saginaw, Mich., police are investigating the city’s third shooting in two days. On Wednesday, a 24-year-old man died as a result of gunfire at a small apartment complex on the city’s West Side. Less than ten hours later, police responded to a shooting near the intersection of Webber and Sheridan. Details of the most recent incident were not immediately available.

—M Live

A Kansas City, Mo., gas station clerk who came out of his store to intervene in a robbery was shot in the stomach Wednesday afternoon. Police say Murad A. Jones stole a woman’s purse after she drove him to a convenience store, and Haroon Yousef came outside to help. The two men were struggling over the purse when Jones fired several shots, two of which hit Yousef, leaving him with life-threatening injuries. Jones was taken into custody.

—KMBC

A 37-year-old man shot Wednesday night in South Seattle, Wash., died Thursday from his injuries. Shots were fired near Rainier Avenue South and South Austin Street at about 11:30 p.m., and witnesses reported that two men had been hit. The second victim, a 25-year-old man, was treated for wounds to his stomach and leg. The homicide is believed to be gang-related, and police are still searching for the gunman. The victim is the fifth homicide victim in Seattle this year.

—Seattle Post-Intelligencer

A shooting in Vallejo, Calif., left four people hospitalized on Wednesday night. In what police are describing as a “rolling attack,” three men and a woman had been injured by gunfire in multiple locations, presumably by the same shooter. Police found between 20 and 30 shell casings of multiple calibers on the street, and there was bullet damage to nearby cars and homes. All four victims were expected to survive.

—CBS SF Bay Area

A 30-year-old man was shot dead in a Houston, Tex., driveway Thursday afternoon, just around the corner from a raging house fire. Two couples began arguing in the driveway of a home in Houston’s Fifth Ward at around 12:40 p.m. when one man shot the other. The victim, who worked as a barber, had been to prison before, and during his last incarceration he’d lost his mother to illness and his wife to suicide. Police have not said whether the suspected gunman has been found.

—KHOU

According to Slate’s gun-death tracker, an estimated 3,409 people have died as a result of gun violence in America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012.