By Kanishka Singh and Raphael Satter
(Reuters) – Ten people were killed and 38 injured in mass shootings in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Fort Worth before the July 4 holiday, officials said, prompting President Joe Biden to pass legislation on the gun control.
In Fort Worth, three people were killed and eight injured in a mass shooting after a local festival to mark US Independence Day, police said Tuesday.
In another shooting in Philadelphia on Monday night, five people were killed and two injured, including a 2-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy, who were both shot in the legs, when a suspect in the armored corps armed with an AR-15 opened fire on unidentified people, according to local police.
Monday night’s shooting came a day after two people were shot dead and 28 others injured, about half of them children, in a hail of gunfire at a block party in Baltimore.
The motives for the three recent shootings have remained unclear.
The United States is plagued with a large number of mass shootings and incidents of gun violence.
There have been more than 340 mass shootings in the country so far in 2023, according to data collected by Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people are shot, except exclusion of the shooter.
Biden condemned the violence on Tuesday and renewed his calls for tougher US gun laws.
“Our nation has once again endured a wave of tragic and senseless shootings,” Biden said in a statement, calling on Republican lawmakers “to come to the table with meaningful, common-sense reform.”
Citing constitutional protections for gun ownership, Republicans in Congress have generally blocked attempts to meaningfully reform gun safety laws and oppose Biden’s efforts to reinstate a ban on guns. assault weapons.
‘DURING’ FOR AN ACTION
Philadelphia officials have pleaded with state and federal lawmakers to take action.
“We implore Congress to protect lives and do something about the gun problem in the United States,” Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat, said Tuesday at a press conference.
City District Attorney Larry Krasner asked Philadelphia state lawmakers for “reasonable legislation” of the kind found in neighboring New Jersey and Delaware.
“Some of this legislation could have made a difference here,” Krasner said.
Philadelphia police said the suspect was a 40-year-old man who had an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm pistol who was wearing a body armor and ski mask.
The dead were between 15 and 59 years old.
Krasner promised to present multiple charges of murder and other offenses at the shooter’s first hearing on Wednesday.
Fort Worth police say no arrests were made in a shooting that erupted at Como Fest, a recent tradition celebrating the Como neighborhood’s African-American history.
“I choose to believe that it was a few bad perpetrators who came to this neighborhood to really wreak havoc,” Mayor Mattie Parker said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Witnesses heard a barrage of gunfire just before midnight, which initially led some to believe it was fireworks, but quickly led to a rush to security, the Dallas reported. MorningNews.
Hours later, defiant neighbors and community leaders held their Fourth of July parade in Como.
In Baltimore, police said they were looking for multiple suspects.
The latest shootings took place around the anniversary of the Highland Park mass shootings last year near Chicago, where seven people were killed and 48 others injured during an Independence Day parade. A 22-year-old man remains in custody after being charged with 117 counts in the carnage.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Gabriella Borter and Daniel Trotta; Writing by Raphael Satter and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Mark Porter, Heather Timmons, Bill Berkrot, Andrea Ricci and Gerry Doyle)