Crowdfunding has become a popular way to raise money for music, art projects, and even small business start-ups. But gun research? Given the lack of federal funds available for such research, why not? (A quick reminder: In 1996, the National Rifle Association lobbied Congress to cut all funding to the Center for Disease Control for gun-related research.) That hasn’t stopped researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, however. Last year, a U.A.B. study found that increased gun background checks correlate with fewer homicides and suicides. The study concluded that more comprehensive background checks at the state level may reduce firearm deaths, but “more research is needed.”

To that end, Dr. Bisakha Sen, who is leading the ongoing gun research effort at the school, is soliciting pledges on Microryza, which is a kind of Kickstarter for scientific research grants. Though President Obama directed the C.D.C in January to resume “the causes and prevention of gun violence,” the sequestration poses a major hurdle to funding.

Dr. Sen is trying to raise $25,000 in 47 days. So far, she has collected $2,698 in pledges.

Here is today’s report.

—Jennifer Mascia

A 13-year-old girl, her mother and her mother’s boyfriend were found dead at their Jackson, Miss., house on Tuesday. Each appeared to have been shot once in the head in what authorities believe was a murder-suicide. The dead were identified as Wiley Young, 55; Danica McCord, 46; and 13-year-old Destiny McCord. Danica McCord and Young were dating and possibly engaged to be married.

—Sun Herald

A dad accidentally shot his son dead as he cleaned his gun in the family’s living room. Christopher Stanlane, 34, was wiping down the loaded weapon at his home in Fairmont, N.C., Sunday when it discharged. The bullet hit his 10-year-old son, Christopher Stanlane Jr, who was watching television, in the back of the head. His eight-year-old daughter was also in the room. The boy was pronounced dead at the scene. No charges have so far been filed in the case.

—New York Daily News

A 29-year-old woman was gunned down outside a West Oakland, Calif., market this morning in what a police spokeswoman called “a very brazen act.” At about 10:30 a.m. a woman was walking near the Family Market when a man approached her and fired multiple shots. She died at the scene. Police have obtained surveillance video and investigators are reviewing it.

—NBC Bay Area

Philadelphia police are investigating a homicide that occurred in broad daylight in the Logan section of the city Tuesday afternoon. The incident began when two men began arguing, igniting a firefight. The first shooter was hit in the left side of his chest and died. Police are investigating.

—CBS Philly

Police are searching for a gunman who opened fire from a car and shot a 14-year-old boy in the chest in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood Monday evening. The boy is in stable condition. In other shootings overnight, a 19-year-old man was shot in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, and two men were shot in the South Austin neighborhood while sitting in a car.

—Chicago Tribune

A 37-year-old man was playing with a loaded pistol on his front porch when a friend’s 3-year-old son tugged on it, causing it to discharge. The boy was struck in the hand. Terrance Robinson confessed to the accidental shooting and was charged with negligent injuring, illegal use of a weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

—Times-Picayune

A man previously wounded in a drug-related shooting was found shot to death early Tuesday inside a rental car in Biddeford, Maine. The body of Charles Raybine was found inside the car parked at the Parish Place apartments around 12:45 a.m. Raybine, 47, who had a lengthy criminal record, underwent surgery after being shot four times in 2003. The death is being investigated as a homicide.

—Boston.com

A 16-year-old Fairmont, N.C., high school student was shot and killed Friday while playing on a basketball court at a local park. Daquan Stephens was approached by two men on the court at Calvin Haggin Park just before 6 p.m. and shot multiple times. He later died at the hospital. Authorities have issued warrants charging two teenagers and a 20-year-old with murder.

—The Robesonian, News 14 Carolina

A man shot in the leg knocked on the door of a state senator’s Meridian, Idaho, home looking for help. State Sen. Russ Fulcher says his youngest child, a high school senior, called him Monday on the Senate floor and said a man who had been shot was at the door. The 36-year-old man had been in a car with three people, and when he got out, the men in the car opened fire. He was treated at the hospital.

—Idaho Statesman

A pizza delivery driver was shot and killed in Tulsa, Okla., early Saturday, and three 17-year-olds have been charged in his murder. 53-year-old Robert Horton was delivering pizza dough to a Papa John’s Pizza restaurant in Tulsa when he was shot to death. Authorities say Horton was making deliveries in Oklahoma after driving up from Texas. Police believe the motive was robbery.

—Houston Chronicle

The Hammer Report

Beaumont, Tex., Police have arrested a man accused of using a hammer to hit a woman on her head Monday morning. Officers caught the suspect hiding under a shed behind a home following a one hour manhunt. Paramedics treated the woman before transporting her to a hospital. Her injuries aren’t life threatening.

—SETX

A Martinsburg, W.V., man who pleaded guilty in January to striking his ex-girlfriend with a hammer during a January 2012 robbery at her home was sentenced to more than 40 years behind bars Monday. John Kenneth Walters, 50, broke into his former girlfriend’s home with the intent to kill her and her new boyfriend. The ex-girlfriend was severely injured in the attack.

—Your4State.com

According to Slate’s gun-death tracker, an estimated 3,053 people have died as a result of gun violence in America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012.