The mass shooting at a Fourth of July parade in Chicago’s Highland Park suburb on Monday, which claimed six lives, is the latest in a wave of gun violence that has rocked the United States since the start of the year.
According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), there have been at least 309 mass shootings in the US, six months into 2022. The tragedy in Highland Park is the 15th mass killing of the year and the 11th mass shooting of the holiday weekend.
As per GVA data, around 10,072 people have died nationwide due to firearms — including intentional and accidental killings but not suicides — so far this year.
The GVA defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed. Within the first 185 days of 2022, there have been an average of 11 such incidents a week.
Mass Shooting Highland Park 6 Killed, 24 Injured – prelim
309th Mass Shooting in 2022
15th Mass Murder 2022Snapshot of all Mass Murders with over 20 victims pic.twitter.com/U3ZuhpvUCV
— The Gun Violence Archive (@GunDeaths) July 4, 2022
A Forbes report states shooting incidents in 2022 are rivalling last year’s record-breaking numbers. “Mass shootings this year are on track to approach the 692 recorded in 2021, which was the highest figure since the Gun Violence Archive started tracking shootings in 2014,” it said.
The attack at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two teachers were killed, was the country’s deadliest shooting this year.
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Here is a brief look at six high-profile mass shootings so far this year:
January 23
Six people were found shot dead during a welfare check on a home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A 34-year-old man has been charged with the murders, which appeared to be a robbery gone wrong.
April 3
Six people were killed in an apparent gun battle that erupted as nightclubs were emptying in downtown Sacramento, the state capital of California.
May 14
A white teenage gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighbourhood of Buffalo, New York.
May 24
Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed when a teenage gunman went on a shooting rampage at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas – America’s worst school shooting in a decade.
June 1
A man who blamed a surgeon for pain he suffered after back surgery stormed into a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and fatally shot four people, including the doctor.
July 4
At least six people were killed and 30 others, including children, were injured when a gunman armed with a high-powered rifle opened fire at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois.
(With AFP inputs)