Continuing a dark litany that no longer even makes headlines in the national press, except for exceptions such as the recent massacre in a school in Texas (south), several shooters opened fire on the crowd in a crowded street in Philadelphia (north- is).
They hit 14 people, three of whom died, police said.
Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said one of the deceased had an altercation with a man, and the other two were “innocent passers-by” in the busy evening neighborhood.
In Chattanooga, Tennessee (south), two people were shot dead and a third succumbed after being hit by a vehicle during a shooting near a nightclub, according to local police.
“More than one shooter was involved,” Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy said, noting that “several people” remain hospitalized in critical condition.
Whether in Philadelphia or Chattanooga, the police made no immediate arrests, according to local media.
The United States is going through an outbreak of gun violence, marked in particular by the massacre in a school in Texas on May 24 (19 children and two teachers killed).
In the past weekend alone, the Axios site counted that in total, including those of Philadelphia and Chattanooga, at least 11 people had died and 54 had been injured in multiple victim shootings.
The violence broke out, for example, during parties of young people celebrating their “graduation”, the end of their high school course.
In Philadelphia, police said they found two semi-automatic weapons on site, one with a high-capacity magazine.
– “Enough” –
Democratic President Joe Biden would like Congress, failing to ban them, to increase the legal age to buy an assault rifle to 21 instead of 18.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy is working in this direction with a group of parliamentarians from the two major American parties, an arduous task because Republicans almost systematically reject 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 expected agreement of nearly all Democrats. “I think the possibility of success is better than ever,” he told CNN.
Measures being developed would, he said, include “some small but strong changes to gun laws,” including more background checks for gun purchases.
According to a CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday, a majority of Americans say they favor tougher gun ownership rules, and even an outright ban on semi-automatic weapons.
But the opinion poll also reveals to what extent this subject, like others, is deeply divisive.
72% of Democratic supporters believe that the country would be safer if fewer weapons circulated there. Nearly half (46%) of Republican voters believe, on the contrary, that security would be better if more Americans were armed.
In the United States, 393 million firearms – more than the population – circulated in 2020. Since the beginning of the year, 18,574 people have died there by firearm, including 10,300 suicides, according to Gun Violence Archive.
In addition to the massacre in Texas, a series of deadly shootings have occurred recently, with balance sheets and in particularly dramatic circumstances.
On May 14, a white man defining himself as “racist” and “anti-Semitic” killed 10 black people in a supermarket on the border between the United States and Canada.
Four people were also killed in a shooting at a hospital in Tulsa (Oklahoma, south). The shooter was targeting the doctor who had operated on his back and whom he considered responsible for his pain, according to the police.
