US violence mars holiday weekend
14 mass shootings since last Tuesday
After a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers last week, many politicians, public figures and gun-control advocates said the U.S. government should ensure mass shootings could not happen again.
But mass shootings have already happened again — and again. At least 14 mass shootings have taken place across the United States since Tuesday, from California to Arizona and Tennessee.
This Memorial Day weekend alone — spanning Saturday, Sunday and the federal holiday on Monday — there have been at least 11 mass shootings.
These incidents, gleaned from local news reports and police statements, meet the threshold for mass shootings as defined by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research organization.
GVA defines a mass shooting as one in which “four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.” Several of those shootings occurred at parties, and one at a Memorial Day event.
At least seven people have been killed and 49 injured in the mass shootings over the holiday weekend, according to GVA and local news sources. Since the Uvalde shooting last Tuesday, at least 10 people have been killed and 61 were injured in mass shootings.
Brian Stelter, chief media correspondent and news anchor at CNN, interrupted a broadcast Sunday about the response to the mass shooting in Uvalde to tell viewers about another — in Tennessee.
“Mass killings like Buffalo and Uvalde become national news, but many mass shootings do not. They just end up being local stories,” Stelter said, in a clip that has been viewed over 334,000 times on Twitter.
On Saturday evening, six teenagers were injured by gunfire in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in what Mayor Tim Kelly said was probably “an altercation between other teenagers.”
The victims, who were between the ages of 13 and 15, were transported to a hospital, and two had life-threatening injuries, according to the Chattanooga Police Department.
Kelly said he was “heartbroken” for the families of the victims and “angry” about political inaction on gun laws during a news conference following the shooting.
The Chattanooga shooting was one of at least five mass shootings that took place on Saturday alone, according to GVA.
On Sunday, there were at least another five mass shootings, including one at a Memorial Day festival in Taft, Okla.
The latest apparent mass shooting occurred in the early hours of Monday in Port Richmond, Pennsylvania. Two people died and two others were injured during a shooting at a party, according to preliminary statements from law enforcement. The victims ranged in age from 14 to 21, and police told FOX 29 they found 47 shell casings.