A long holiday weekend of bloodshed has intensified after a heavily armed gunman in a <a href="https://news.ad-astra.icu/biden-condemns-surge-in-gun-violence-during-fourth-of-july-celebrations-across-the-us.html" title="Biden condemns surge in gun violence during Fourth of July celebrations across the US”>bulletproof vest opened fire on the streets of Philadelphia on the eve of Fourth of July celebrations, in yet another mass shooting in the US, killing five people and wounding two boys before surrendering to the police.
Across the country, Texas was entering the holiday to news that another shooting had killed three people in Fort Worth, occurring just before midnight amid a gathering in a parking lot that also wounded eight.
Fourth of July is a US celebration. Why is it the riskiest day for mass shootings?Read more
In Chicago, a total of five people were killed and at least 33 wounded in a rash of shootings across the city, coming one year after a shooter took seven lives at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, near Chicago.
Highland Park’s mayor, Nancy Rotering, has planned a musical performance, a moment of silence and a walk along the parade route on Tuesday afternoon to mark the 2022 mass shooting.
Also, police in Kansas on Tuesday said 11 people were hurt over the weekend when a gunman opened fire inside a Wichita nightclub.
The burst of gun violence and the prospects of more shootings as the day of parties unfolded threatened to overshadow Independence Day celebrations, underpinned with evidence that 4 July is the riskiest day for mass shootings in the US calendar.
The Philadelphia violence was the country’s 29th mass killing in 2023, according to a database maintained by the Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University, the largest number on record by this time in the year.
The number of people killed in such events is also the highest by this time in the year.
Joe Biden decried the violence, in a statement from the White House on Tuesday, after he and first lady Jill Biden returned from Camp David.
He said: “Our nation has once again endured a wave of tragic and senseless shootings in communities across America. Today, Jill and I grieve for those who have lost their lives and, as our nation celebrates Independence Day, we pray for the day when our communities will be free from gun violence.”
Much more must be done across America to address the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our communities apartJoe Biden
He praised Mayor Rotering and other leaders for pushing through a ban on military-style assault weapons for the general public in Illinois, adding: “Their achievement will save lives. But it will not erase their grief … Much more must be done in Illinois and across America to address the epidemic of gun violence that is tearing our communities apart.”
Biden urged other states to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and once again called on Congress to renew a national ban on such weapons.
The nation was braced on Tuesday to see what the Fourth of July holiday itself would bring. In separate research, using data from the Gun Violence Archive, James Alan Fox, a criminologist at…
2023-07-04 14:53:10
Article from www.theguardian.com
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