Will it be a blazing hot summer filled with guns blazing?

Chicago — A spate of shootings over the past several days has law enforcement on edge, with some warning that a turbulent brew of a pandemic, protests against racism, historic surges in gun sales and a rancorous election year could make it a deadly summer.

Although mass shootings — often defined as four or more killed, excluding the shooter — are down sharply this year, other non-suicidal gun deaths are on pace to exceed last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

That increase came before the start of summer, when there is traditionally a spike as people venture outside more, and before Independence Day, which historically has been one of the deadliest days each year.

The spike may have many causes, gun experts say, including an American public increasingly stressed by the coronavirus pandemic, which has roiled the economy and kept them at home, deep divisions over racial justice and policing, and the political divides of a presidential election year.

“There’s something going on at the moment, these underlying tensions,” said James Densley, professor of law enforcement and criminal justice at Metropolitan State University. “Everyone’s been cooped up for so long with the pandemic, and then we had this sort of explosion of anger and grief after George Floyd’s killing.”

In just the past few days, more than 100 people were wounded in shootings in Chicago, including a 3-yearold boy who was killed while riding in a car with his father. Police said the boy’s father was the intended victim.

In North Carolina, three people were killed and six were wounded Monday when gunmen opened fire during a party in Charlotte. An annual birthday party in Syracuse, N.Y., over the weekend was marred by gun violence that wounded nine people.