One dead and 34 wounded as incidents in New York, Alabama, Missouri and Ohio swell 2024 mass shooting tally.
A series of mass shootings rocked the US early on Sunday, leaving at least one dead and 34 others wounded in just four cases reported in New York, Alabama, Missouri and Ohio. The shootings came amid a broader spate of recent mass shootings, including the one at an Arkansas grocery store on Friday that left four dead and nine wounded, as well as another at a nightclub in Kentucky on Saturday that killed one and injured seven.
The violence brought the number of mass shootings in the US so far this year, as of Sunday, to more than 240, an average of more than one daily, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The non-partisan archive defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.
Such a high rate of mass shootings in the US has prompted some public calls for more substantial gun control. But the federal government has generally been unwilling or unable to heed those calls. The weekend’s bloodshed came after the US Supreme Court’s decision earlier in June to strike down a federal ban on “bump stocks”, accessories which can allow a semi-automatic gun to fire as fast as a machine gun.
Following the 6-3 decision from the court’s conservative supermajority, Joe Biden condemned the ruling, saying that the decision “strikes down an important gun safety regulation”. “I call on Congress to ban bump stocks, pass an assault weapon ban and take additional action to save lives – send me a bill and I will sign it immediately,” the president added.
Police did not address what kinds of guns or accessories may have been used in Sunday’s violence. But critics of the supreme court’s bump stocks decision maintain that such a ruling does not contribute to the general public’s safety.
Rawr
Article URL : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/23/mass-shootings-new-york-alabama-missouri-ohio