San Francisco: The US is grappling with a new wave of gun violence in one week that has led to multiple fatalities and injuries.
The latest shooting happened during a Juneteenth celebration at Lake Merritt in Oakland, US state of California, and left 15 people injured, reports Xinhua news agency, citing police statements.
The crowds were peaceful on Wednesday night when an illegal sideshow involving vehicles and motorbikes occurred near Grand Avenue and Bellevue Avenue, Oakland Police Department said in a press release.
During the sideshow, someone walked onto the hood of a car, which led to the occupants getting out and assaulting that person. Then came the gunfire, Oakland Police Department Chief Floyd Mitchell said at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
The Oakland Fire Department said it transported at least four gunshot victims to a local hospital.
On Wednesday evening, seven people were wounded in a shooting in North Philadelphia in the US state of Pennsylvania, local media reported.
The shooter or shooters departed the scene in a vehicle, which was captured by a nearby police camera. As investigators continue to delve into the case, no weapons have been found at the scene, and no arrests have been made thus far.
On Tuesday afternoon, a seven-year-old boy was killed in a “random shooting” on Chicago’s Near West Side, Chicago police said.
The boy was shot while exiting a building in the Oakley Square Apartments complex. Residents who live in the apartment complex said they do not allow their children to play outside for fear of random gun violence, local media reported.
“It’s a shame that I have to keep my child in prison in our home unless we’re going somewhere,” resident Rhonda Dyson was quoted as saying by CBS News.
The residents’ fear of being shot has a reason. So far this year, Chicago police said 127 children and teens under the age of 18 have been shot, 17 of them fatally, local media reported.
Over 190 mass shootings have occurred in the US in 2024 so far, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more victims are shot or killed.
Experts said that mass shootings happening near election times often greatly influence the nation’s views on guns.
“If there are any particularly horrendous shootings in the months to come, that has a way of pushing the issue back to the forefront of the agenda,” Robert Spitzer, a gun policy expert, was quoted as saying by Stateline.
However, states continued to diverge on gun policy this year, with intense debate in the swing states that will decide the upcoming US presidential election.
According to a report released this month by the Pew Research Center, voters overall are divided over whether the increasing number of guns in the US is good or bad for society: 52 per cent say it is very or somewhat bad, while 22 per cent say it is good.
Perhaps no topic divides voters more deeply than the role that firearms have in American life, the report said.
–IANS