U.S. witnesses bloodiest weekend of gun violence so far in 2023

NEW YORK, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Nine mass shootings took place in the United States over the weekend, resulting in 13 deaths and over 40 injuries, according to the data from Gun Violence Archive, making it the bloodiest weekend of gun violence so far in 2023.

On the heels of several high-profile mass shootings in California last month and an attack at Michigan State University on Feb. 13, nine mass shootings in a single weekend is "certainly high for this time of year," according to local media.

As of Feb. 19, there have been 81 mass shootings so far this year, compared to 59 during the same period last year.

Mark Bryant, executive director of the Gun Violence Archive, was quoted in a USA Today article as saying that "the number of shootings over the weekend is unusual for mid-February in the U.S."

Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, told USA Today that mass shootings underscored ongoing inaction from state and federal lawmakers. Almost all states witnessing mass shootings over the weekend don't require a license to carry concealed loaded guns.

"Instead, state lawmakers have pushed Right to Carry laws that either eliminate the need to get a license to carry concealed guns or make getting such a license very easy," Webster said. "But the 'more guns everywhere' approach has been found to increase violent crime and does nothing to reduce mass shootings."

Researchers on gun violence say legislative disorder in the United States has fueled gun violence severity. A case in point was the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June 2022 to strike down a New York state law that limits gun-carrying in public.

The high court's ruling that set new standards for evaluating gun laws left many open questions, resulting in an increasing number of conflicting decisions as lower court judges need help figuring out how to apply it, the Associated Press reported.

In several instances, judges looking at the same laws have come down on opposite sides on whether they are constitutional in the wake of the conservative Supreme Court's majority ruling, it reported, calling the phenomenon "legal turmoil," for which the Supreme Court needs to step in soon to provide more guidance for judges.

The weekend also put a 3-billion-U.S.-dollar industry of companies working to "protect children or employees" into the limelight, as gun violence particularly ravaged U.S. schools in recent months, like the attack at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year, and the tragedy at Michigan State University last week.

As the New York Times listed, the offerings are numerous: automatically locking doors, bullet-resistant tables, Kevlar backpacks, artificial intelligence that detects guns and countless types of training exercises, like breathing techniques to avoid panic during an attack or strategies for how to use a pencil to pierce a shooter's eyes.

However, the effectiveness of such products and services must still be proven.

Calling it an entire industry that capitalizes on school shootings, Odis Johnson, the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Safe and Healthy Schools, said that these companies have very little evidence that what they are selling works.