Luke Sharrett/The New York Times

Dear Senator Max Baucus,

I saw the news that you won’t run for reelection in Montana, a week after you voted against universal background checks for firearms. When I called yesterday, your office was insistent that there was no link between that vote and your decision to retire—even though you had already raised $5 million in a campaign fund, and had made it sound as though you were raring to run for another term. I suppose.

What I find harder to believe, sir, is that you truly believe—as I’ve been told in recent days—that your vote was one of principles. That you believe that a universal background check is a “one-size-fits-all” solution inappropriate for Montanans. That you see your job not as rising above parochial interests when that is called for, but hewing strictly to the desires of your constituents.

So if Montanans wanted speed limits of 120 miles an hour, would you put in a bill to allow it, even though it would surely increase the number of fatal crashes? I would hope not, but perhaps you would. Perhaps that really is how you see your job. Sad, if true.

Take a look at today’s Gun Report, Senator. The first seven items all involve children or teenagers. This is what we are doing to ourselves as a country. Here is another sad fact: If gun violence was eliminated, the average increase in male life expectancy would be higher than if all prostate and colon cancers were eliminated. Something to think about the next time a vote on universal background checks comes up on the Senate floor.

You’ve got 19 months before you leave. There’s still time to do the right thing.

—Joe Nocera

A 15-year-old boy was found shot to death in the Grand Boulevard neighborhood of Chicago, Ill., Monday night, less than four blocks from the home of President Obama. Cornelius German was found lying in the backyard of a home with a gunshot wound in his back at about 9:40 p.m. Police said German was affiliated with a gang. No one is in custody.

—CBS Chicago

A 10-year-old boy was shot in the head and critically injured in Vicksburg, Miss., Monday night. Officers were called to a home on Park Avenue around 9:40 p.m. and found the boy lying on the floor. Police, who are interviewing three people who were in the home at the time of the shooting, confirmed that the gunshot wound was not self-inflicted.

—WLOX13

A 17-year-old boy was found shot to death at an apartment complex in Lawton, Okla., Monday evening. Police are searching for two suspects.

—NBC Philadelphia

A 16-year-old boy is in critical condition Tuesday after he was shot in the chest in East Mount Airy, Pa. The teen was sitting on his porch when someone opened fire at 10:38 p.m., hitting him at least once. Police said they haven’t made any arrests in the shooting, which happened about six blocks from where a 15-year-old boy was critically wounded by another 15-year-old boy in a shooting Sunday afternoon.

—Philly.com

Two men were killed and an 8-year-old boy injured on Tuesday when two men opened fire in the Mid-City neighborhood of New Orleans. The boy was playing on a sidewalk with two other young children when he was struck by stray bullets. He is in stable condition. Two men were found dead on the porch. The gunmen fled the scene.

—The Times-Picayune

A teenager is in critical condition after being shot in Indianapolis, Ind., early Tuesday morning. Shots were fired in a home on the city’s east side around midnight, and police found a 17-year-old suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck. Suspects were not immediately identified.

—WISHTV.com

A teenager was shot in the leg when a fight broke out at a U-Haul store in South Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday afternoon. Police are searching for a 50-year-old man in connection with the shooting.

—10TV.com

Two people were wounded in a drive-by shooting in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday afternoon. Shonta Glass, 23, was found in the street along with Thomas Seals, 19. Both are in stable condition.

—ABC6

A woman was accidentally shot in the jaw while en route to a shooting range in Miami, Fla., late Sunday. A group of people were riding in an SUV on the Dolphin Expressway when a firearm accidentally discharged, hitting the woman. She is expected to recover. Charges will not be filed.

—Local10.com

Shanel Negron, 24, was shot in the head and killed Monday in Waukesha, Wis. Police are searching for Eddie Donald Callaway, 26; he is considered armed and dangerous. Negron and Callaway had been living together.

—WISN2.com

39-year-old April Vanderlinden was shot and killed at her Ponchatoula, La., home around 7:40 a.m. Tuesday. 18-year-old Ryan Pourciau, who is accused of violating protective orders, is being investigated as a person of interest.

—NOLA.com

Police are investigating a shooting in Springfield, Mass., that left three men injured. Police were called to a home on Franklin Street around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and found three men shooting at each other. One man was shot in the thigh, another was grazed in the head and the third man was shot in the calf.

—ABC40

Three men in in their 20s have been wounded in two separate shootings Tuesday in the Roseland and Little Village neighborhoods of Chicago. Shortly after noon someone shot two men, who were wounded in the back and the leg. In a separate attack on the city’s Far South Side, a man in his 20s was seriously wounded after being shot in the chest.

—Chicago Tribune

A parolee shot another man in the back across the street from Wrigley Field in Chicago after the man tried to interfere with a robbery. The 25-year-old victim and another man were outside a club in Wrigleyville around 3:20 a.m. Sunday when Marcus E. Harris, 26, walked up to him and tried to rob him. He is charged with aggravated battery and attempted armed robbery. The victim is recuperating.

—Chicago Tribune

Two people were shot and injured in Providence, R.I., Monday evening. Police called to Ohio Street found a 15-year-old suffering from shotgun pellet wounds to his back, buttocks and right leg, and a 21-year-old with multiple pellet wounds in his back. Police are on the hunt for suspects.

—WPRI

A man was shot and injured when two men armed with a shotgun tried to rob him in the parking lot of a Kansas City., Mo., Walgreens Tuesday afternoon. The victim tried to take the gun and was shot in the leg during the struggle. Police have released photos of the suspects.

—The Kansas City Star

Gunfire from the same car hit two Sanford, Fla, homes within minutes late last night, seriously injuring a 32-year-old man. Edgar Maldonado was shot in the shoulder and treated at a hospital. Police said the shootings had no connection to the dozen drive-by shootings that plagued Sanford and Deltona last fall, which were related to drug activity.

—Orlando Sentinel

The brother of a popular female rapper was shot and killed in northwest Miami, Fla., Tuesday morning. Wilbrent Bain, the brother of the rapper Trina, was allegedly shot and killed by Ron Dobson, 27. The two men, who were friends and lived around the corner from each other, had a dispute, and when the victim got off his bicycle, Dobson took a firearm from his waistband and shot him multiple times. He was later arrested.

—NBC Miami

According to Slate’s gun-death tracker, an estimated 3,628 people have died as a result of gun violence in America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012.