United States: the dark litany of shootings continues, elected officials work on reforms

In Philadelphia, in the northeast, shooters opened fire on crowds in a crowded street.

“Fourteen people (…) were hit by gunfire and hospitalized“, police inspector DF Pace told reporters.Three of those people, two men and a woman, were pronounced dead after arriving at hospitals with multiple gunshot wounds“.

And in Chattanooga, Tennessee (south), two people were shot dead and a third succumbed after being hit by a vehicle during a shootout, according to local police.

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“More than one shooter was involved“, Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy told reporters.

The country is marked by an outbreak of gun violence, in particular the massacre in a school in Texas on May 24 (19 children and two teachers killed). Since then, more than twenty shootings have taken place, according to the association Gun Violence Archive.

Inspector Pace, in Philadelphia, told local media that the officers who went to the scene had “observed several gunmen opening fire on the crowd” in the bustling South Street area.

According to him, the police opened fire on one of the shooters who dropped his weapon and fled, but it is not known if he was hit.

According to Inspector Pace, two semi-automatic weapons were found at the scene, one with a high-capacity magazine.

A witness, Eric Walsh, described to the Philadelphia Inquirer people fleeing the shooting “with blood splatters on white sneakers and scraped knees, scraped elbows“.

– Enough” –

Democratic President Joe Biden on Thursday called on Congress to restrict assault rifle sales and lambasted Republican lawmakers who oppose it, lamenting that “too many everyday places (have) become places of killing, battlefields“.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy is working with a group of parliamentarians from the two major American parties on reforms, an arduous task because Republicans almost systematically reject most measures intended to regulate weapons.

Murphy said on Sunday that the group hoped to craft a set of laws that could have the support of at least 10 Republicans, in addition to the approval expected of nearly all Democrats.

“I think the possibility of success is better than ever“, he told CNN. “But I think the consequences of failure for all of our democracy are greater than ever.“.

Measures being developed would likely include, he said, “a significant investment in mental health, funds for school safety and some small but strong changes to gun laws“, including an expansion of background checks for gun purchases.

According to a CBS News poll, a majority of Americans say they favor tougher gun ownership rules, with 81% saying they support background checks for all potential buyers. But, according to this survey, they consider that the passage of such restrictions is notably hampered by the inaction of politicians.

Faced with the repetition of violence, Joe Biden said again “enough” sunday.

“In Texas, you can turn 18 and buy an assault weapon – although you can’t buy a gun until you’re 21. If we can’t ban assault weapons like we should, we need to at least raise the age to buy assault weapons to 21“, he tweeted.

In the United States, 393 million firearms — more than the population — were circulating in 2020.

In addition to the Texas killings, a series of deadly shootings have occurred recently. On May 14, a white man defining himself as “racist” et “anti-semitic“thus killed ten black people in a supermarket in Buffalo, on the border between the United States and Canada.

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And four people were killed in a shooting at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The shooter was targeting the doctor who had operated on his back and whom he considered responsible for his pain, according to the police.