New York Yankees cancel game coverage to share gun violence stats instead

The New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays decided to cancel their online game coverage to share gun violence statistics instead following the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.

On Thursday (26 May), both teams, who played each other, took to their official Twitter accounts to highlight the horrific toll of gun violence in the US.

"The devastating events that took place in Uvalde, Buffalo and countless other communities across our nation are tragedies that are intolerable," both teams said in a joint statement.

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Both teams further pointed out devastating statistics in Twitter threads, such as the average number of veterans who die yearly by firearm suicide — 4,500 — or the amount of times a young Black man dies in a gun homicide every three hours.

The teams also pointed out that guns were the leading cause of deaths in children and teens in 2o20.

Each of the statistics had links to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Veterans Affairs.

The Rays also said that it pledged $50,000 to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control advocacy group. They also partnered with the group on Thursday to help "amplify facts about gun violence in America."

"We all deserve to be safe - in schools, grocery stores, places of worship, our neighbourhoods, houses and America," the Rays penned in another post.

They added: "This cannot become normal. We cannot become numb. We cannot look the other way. We all know, if nothing changes, nothing changes."

On Tuesday, (24 May) Nineteen children and two adults were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde after teenage gunman Salvador Ramos opened. Ramos was eventually killed.

The attack was considered the deadliest since the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

This latest mass murder comes a little over a week after a gunman opened fire on live-stream in Tops Market in Buffalo, New York.

Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old man who wore military gear, has been identified as the shooter who opened fire with a rifle at a Tops Market, leaving 10 people dead. Three others were wounded/

The US has experienced almost 200 mass shootings in the first five months of 2022.

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