Shootings disrupt U.S. over weekend amid public outcry against gun violence

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- A series of shootings have occurred across cities and communities in the United States over the past weekend, taking lives and causing injuries, amid rising public outcry against gun violence.

There is also a growing concern that the deep-seated problem could further exacerbate in the United States as summer approaches -- typically the nation's most violent season -- and businesses and public places are moving to fully reopen in spite of rising COVID-19 cases and deaths.

DEADLY WEEKEND

Police responded to two separate shootings in Prince George's County in the state of Maryland that happened within minutes of each other on Friday evening. One of the incidents happened inside a shopping mall in the city of Hyattsville, leaving one person killed.

"This is shocking to us as it is to you and to our community," Hyattsville City Police Chief Jarod Towers told reporters on Friday night.

At least four people were injured in a shooting that police said involved "several parties" outside a tavern in Virginia Beach, a coastal city in southeastern Virginia, early Saturday morning.

Several officers were monitoring the tavern when they noticed a group of people arguing before several took out their guns and started shooting, according to the police. Two officers then intervened and shot at one of the people who was armed. The suspect fled and has not been located.

"I was sitting there and all I saw was a bunch of people trying to get in and my gut instinct told me to get out of the way, shortly after I heard a bunch of gunshots followed by people pushing to get in the door," an eyewitness told a local news station. "I ran down the street and heard multiple more gunshots, they just kept coming in, it was terrifying."

Police in other states such as Illinois, Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, Colorado, and California, have reported at least one fatal shooting over the past two days, a week after several mass shootings attracted national attention during the previous weekend, including one at a car show in Dumas, Arkansas, which killed one person and injured at least 27 others.

More than 17,000 people have died or been injured due to gun violence in the United States so far this year, during which time the country has seen at least 110 mass shootings, according to a database run by the nonprofit research group Gun Violence Archive.

PUBLIC OUTCRY

A group of residents in a neighborhood of Montgomery, capital of state Alabama, marched this Saturday to decry gun violence, a day after a shooting in the city left one dead and another in critical condition.

"That's terrible," Jonathan Givens, an organizer of the walk-out, reportedly said. "That's a sad thing."

More than 1,100 fake body bags -- each one representing 150 people -- were placed on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Thursday to spell out "Thoughts and Prayers," a common phrase U.S. politicians use in the wake of tragedies arising from shootings.

The demonstration fell on the fourth anniversary of the "March For Our Lives" rally to commemorate the more than 170,000 people who have died from gun violence in the United States since the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the state of Florida, where a gunman killed 14 students and three staff members with a semi-automatic rifle.

"We want to provide a stark reality and visual of what not having done anything for years looks like," Daud Mumin, "March For Our Lives" board of directors co-chair, told ABC News.

"Thoughts and prayers are reserved for things that are outside of our control, that are outside of our responsibility and ability, right?" Mumin said. "Gun violence is not a natural thing."

Gun violence has been on the rise across the United States in the past few years, a trend fueled by a confluence of factors, from the economic and social disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic to the unrest during the 2020 elections, as well as a surge in gun sales. Homicides were up 30 percent between 2019 and 2020 in the nation, the largest one-year increase in six decades.

"Gun violence is one of America's deadliest and longest running epidemics," co-wrote Michael Dowling, president and CEO of Northwell Health, New York's largest healthcare provider, in an opinion published recently on magazine Scientific American with Chethan Sathya, a firearm injury researcher. "It is nothing less than an immediate need."

"NATIONAL STAIN"

Guns are deeply ingrained in U.S. society and the nation's political debates. With nearly 400 million guns in civilian hands -- the equivalent of 120 firearms per 100 citizens, the United States is also an outlier among wealthy, developed countries in terms of gun issues.

The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gives Americans the right to bear arms, and four-in-ten American adults say they live in a household with a gun, including 30 percent who say they personally own one, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2021.

Around half of Americans -- 48 percent -- see gun violence as a very big problem in the United States, a different Pew research showed. Another 24 percent of U.S. adults say gun violence is a moderately big problem. But Americans are divided over whether restricting legal gun ownership would lead to fewer mass shootings.

U.S. President and Democrat Joe Biden announced in February a new set of actions aimed at reducing gun violence across the nation, including a crackdown on the illegal flow of guns, and helping prosecutors bring cases against those using "ghost guns" -- unserialized and untraceable firearms -- to commit crimes.

Republicans, however, have continued to push for loose gun regulation at the state level, arguing that it is a constitutional right to bear arms and that it is necessary for people to arm themselves at a time of rising gun violence.

Biden issued a statement in early March in response to a drive-by shooting outside a high school in Des Moines, capital of state Iowa, which killed one teen boy and injured two girls, saying that "too many families have had to bury a piece of their soul after yet another tragic shooting."

"Every American should be able to visit a house of worship, a grocery store, a night club, or any other place without fear of being gunned down," he continued. "That too many cannot is a stain on our national character."