More gun violence across the US leaves 6 dead, dozens injured

Mass shootings and gun violence across the US killed at least six people this weekend, and wounded dozens of people, the Associated Press reported.

The shootings follow a surge in homicides and other violence over the past several years that experts say accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic.

The latest shootings happened in suburban Chicago, Washington state, central Pennsylvania, St. Louis, Southern California and Baltimore.

Multiple people with guns fired shots at a holiday crowd in Missouri and bullets flew among teenagers partying in Illinois.

“There’s no question there’s been a spike in violence,” said Daniel Nagin, a professor of public policy and statistics at Carnegie Mellon University. “Some of these cases seem to be just disputes, often among adolescents, and those disputes are played out with firearms, not with fists.”

Researchers disagree over the cause of the increase in gun vio;ence. Theories include the possibility that violence is driven by the prevalence of guns in America, or by less aggressive police tactics or a decline in prosecutions for misdemeanor weapon offenses, Nagin said.

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