The number of gun deaths that have taken place in the United States since the December shooting rampage in Newtown, Connecticut, has topped 2,100. The website Slate, along with the Twitter feed @GunDeaths, say they have documented 2,141 deaths in more than two months. That’s equivalent to more than 79 Newtown massacres. Meanwhile, a new analysis by USA Today has found more than 900 people died in mass shootings over the past seven years, most killed by people they knew. But those mass killings accounted for less than 1 percent of all gun-related homicides. Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told the newspaper, “Mass shootings … are the tragedies that capture the public’s attention. But every day, 33 Americans are being killed, mostly with handguns, and distressingly often by a family member or intimate partner.” In the latest violence making headlines, three people died after a shooting sparked a fiery crash in Las Vegas, Nevada, Thursday. Authorities say a Maserati collided with a taxi after the sports car driver was hit by shots fired from another vehicle. Among those killed was the rap artist Kenneth Cherry Jr., known as Kenny Clutch. On Thursday, Vice President Joe Biden continued his push for lawmakers to take action on gun control with a speech in Danbury, Connecticut, where he met with families of the Newtown shooting victims.

Joe Biden: “I can imagine how we will be judged as a society if we do nothing. I can imagine that. I can predict that, what will be written of us, 20 and 30 years from now, if we don’t act. When I think about all the courage you’ve shown, it’s not too much to ask the political establishment in this country, the members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, state legislators, governors, to show some political courage, too.”