Violence was unleashed in cities across the US over the July 4 holiday weekend. More than 180 people were killed and 516 injured in shootings across the nation.
In Ohio, a mass shooting during a Fourth of July block party left a 17-year-old dead and 11 others injured.
In Chicago, a city that has been plagued by deadly violence, 100 people, including two police officers, were shot. Eighteen people were killed and at least a dozen children injured.
And a one-month-old baby is in critical condition at a local hospital after being shot in the head last Friday.
Frustrated residents say enough is enough.
“When are we really gonna say enough,” said Andrew Holmes a community activist in Chicago. “When are we really gonna get out here and stop this ourselves? We need help on all ends, all levels. So, it starts at turning these individuals in. Then we go and prosecute them.”
The city’s police superintendent addressed the violence.
“There are too many violent offenders and too little consequences in our courts,” said Supt. David Brown of the Chicago Police Dept. “There are too many illegal guns in our city.”
In New York City, at least 35 people were shot in 29 shooting incidents from Friday through Monday killing two.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, in the first five days of July, there were a whopping 20 mass shootings across the country, bringing 2021′s total to 336. May saw 72 mass shootings and June saw 76. “The 14 mass shootings over the past holiday weekend are the most of any weekend in 2021,” the organization said in a tweet.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued the first-in-the-nation executive order declaring gun violence in New York as a disaster emergency.
“People are dying every day out there,” Cuomo said at a press conference. “Time is not on our side, begin by acknowledging the problem. And you know what the problem is, it is a statewide problem, and it is an emergency, and I want the people of the state to understand that, and I want them to respond to the emergency for the way it is. So today, the first state in the nation is going to declare a disaster emergency on gun violence.”
And in Philadelphia two children were killed, adding to the increasing number of children dying by gun violence.
“This is the second child in less than a week to die from an accidental gunshot wound. We have the right to be armed in our home, but we also have to be responsible,” said Deputy Commissioner Robin Wimberly.
Meanwhile, the deadly weekend was the latest example of the surge in violent crime across the country and there does not seem to be an end in sight.
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