Record pace of mass murders in the US

2023-04-21 22:45:08, Kosova & Bota CNA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. has hit a record pace for mass killings in 2023, repeating the killing spree roughly once a week so far this year.

17 mass murders took the lives of 88 people over 111 days. Each time, the killers had bought the firearms. Only in 2009, so many such tragedies were recorded in the same period of time.

Children at an elementary school in Nashville were gunned down on an ordinary Monday. Farmers in Northern California came under fire over a workplace brawl. People celebrating the Lunar New Year at a dance hall near Los Angeles were massacred.

Just in the last week, four partygoers were killed and 32 injured in Dadeville, Alabama, when gunfire rang out at a 16-year-old's birthday party. A man who had just been released from prison fatally shot four others, including his parents, in Bowdoin, Maine, before opening fire on motorists traveling on a busy interstate highway.

“Nobody should be surprised,” said Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was one of 17 people killed at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. “I visit my daughter at the cemetery "Indignation is the least I feel."

According to data kept by the Associated Press and USA Today, in partnership with Northeastern University, the victims at the Parkland school are among 2,842 people who have been killed in mass shootings in the US since 2006. The data is collected on killings involving four or more too many deaths, not including the perpetrator, same standard as the FBI.

Mass murders represent only a fraction of the fatal violence that occurs each year in the US. Still, mass killings are occurring with staggering frequency this year: an average of once every 6.53 days, according to an AP/USA Today analysis of data.

The 2023 figures become even more dire when compared to the total figures for other years since the number of mass killing incidents began to be recorded. The United States has recorded 30 or fewer incidents of mass killing in more than half of the years in which data on such incidents is collected, so the fact that 17 were recorded in less than a third of the year is exceptional.

Violence has increased for a variety of reasons. Murder-suicides, domestic violence, gang reprisals, school shootings, and workplace revenge attacks. All murders with these motives have claimed the lives of four or more people simultaneously since January 1.

However, violence persists and obstacles to change efforts remain. The chances of Congress reinstating the law banning semi-automatic rifles are slim, as the US Supreme Court last year set new standards for reviewing the nation's gun laws, calling into question the country's gun restrictions. fires across the country.

Record pace of mass murders in the US

The pace of mass gun attacks so far this year does not necessarily predict a new annual record. In 2009, the bloodshed slowed and the year ended with 32 incidents of mass killings resulting in the deaths of 172 people. These numbers slightly exceed the average of 31.1 mass killing incidents and 162 victims per year, according to an analysis of data dating back to 2006.

Heavy records have been set over the past decade. The data shows a high number of 45 incidents of mass killings in 2019 and 230 people killed in such tragedies in 2017.

That year, 60 people died when a gunman opened fire on people gathered at a music festival in Las Vegas. This continues to be the deadliest mass murder incident in modern America.

"This is the reality: If someone is determined to commit mass violence, they will," says Jaclyn Schildkraut, executive director of the Regional Governmental Consortium for the Study of Gun Violence at the Rockefeller Institute. "And the onus falls on us, as a society, to try to put up obstacles and barriers to make that more difficult."

But there is little sign, either at the state or federal level, with a few exceptions, of major policy changes in the near future.

Some states have tried to impose more controls on gun ownership within their borders.

Last week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a new law that mandates criminal background checks for rifle purchases, whereas the state previously only required it for people buying handguns.

On Wednesday, a ban on dozens of types of semi-automatic rifles was passed in the Washington state legislature and will be sent to the governor's office for signature.

Other states are facing a new round of pressure. In Tennessee, a conservative majority state, protesters gathered at the state Capitol to demand stronger gun laws after six people were killed at a private elementary school in Nashville last month.

At the federal level, President Joe Biden last year signed a landmark anti-gun violence bill that strengthens background checks for younger gun buyers, creates gun ownership restrictions for people who have committed domestic violence, and helps states use red-sign laws, which allow police to ask courts to confiscate guns from people who show signs of becoming violent.

Record pace of mass murders in the US

According to statistics, mass murders are rare, despite the bombastic headlines. They are carried out every year by a small number of people, in a country of about 335 million inhabitants. There is no way to predict whether this year's events will continue at the same pace.

Sometimes mass murders happen back-to-back, like in January, with the shootings in Northern and Southern California two days apart. Months go by without bleeding.

"We don't necessarily expect mass murders to continue to occur for less than a week," says criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, who oversees the database. "Hopefully that won't happen."

However, experts and lawyers criticize the rapid spread of weapons in the United States in recent years, including record sales during the height of the pandemic.

"We need to know that this is not the way to live," said John Feinblatt, president of the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety. "We don't have to live this way. And we cannot live in a country where there are guns everywhere and at any time."

The National Rifle Association did not respond to The Associated Press' request for comment.

Jaime Guttenberg would now be 19 years old. His father already spends his days campaigning for gun control.

"We should not be surprised at the state America has reached today," said Mr. Guttenver. "Look at the numbers. They don't lie. We must definitely do something to improve the situation, we must do something now"./ VOA