On June 4, 2023, local time, New York, USA, police said that a thief opened fire early in the morning at a 7-11 convenience store in downtown Manhattan. Visual China map
This year, bloodshed continued across the United States, setting a new record for the "deadliest six months" since 2006. From Jan. 1 to June 30, there were 28 mass killings in the United States, all but one of which involved gun violence, totaling 140 victims.
On July 2, 2023, local time, a mass shooting occurred in the southern district of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and the debris of the party fell to the ground. Visual China map
Mass killings are defined as the deaths of at least four victims in a 24-hour period, according to the Associated Press, whose database has partnered with Northeastern University tracks all U.S. mass killings since 2006. This milestone figure in 2023 broke the record of 27 mass killings set only in the second half of 2022. When James Alan Fox, a professor of criminology at Northeastern University, began overseeing the database about five years ago, he never imagined that such a record would emerge.
"We used to say that there were about 12 to 36 [mass killings] a year." "But 28 cases in six months, which is a shocking statistic," Fox said. Amy Barnhorst, a psychiatrist and associate director of the violence prevention program at UC Davis, said, "Hopefully, it's just temporary." ”
On July 2, 2023, local time, a mass shooting occurred in the southern district of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, and residents listened to a press conference at the scene. Visual China map
Experts such as Barnhorst and Fox attribute the increase in bloodshed to the growing U.S. population and an increase in the number of guns. However, while mass killings easily dominate all the front pages of the news, they are rare in the statistics and account for only a small fraction of the country's overall gun violence.
While mass killings often prompt Americans to try to reform gun laws, those efforts often struggle to succeed. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, urged gun legislation after the Nashville school shooting to deny access to guns for people who could harm themselves or others, but the legislation is doomed to be difficult to move forward in conservative Tennessee and has not seen significant progress.
The NRA remains strongly opposed to gun control, including the AR-15 rifle and similar weapons. "Biden and Harris' constant efforts to undermine Second Amendment will not bring security to Americans; On the contrary, it only emboldens criminals. NRA spokesman Billy McLaughlin said in a statement, "That's why NRA continues to fight for the Self-Defense Act." Rest assured, we will never bow our heads, we will never back down, and we will never apologize for defending the right of law-abiding Americans to self-defense. ”