The Fourth of July weekend descended into bloodshed across America as shootings in multiple states killed at least 43 people and wounded dozens more, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
The violence erupted during what should have been a celebratory time as the nation marked 250 years since declaring independence. Instead, from early Saturday through Monday morning, a string of shootings left bodies in parking lots, at street parties, and at public gatherings from California to South Carolina to Mississippi.
In Los Angeles, a shooting erupted around 9:30 p.m. Sunday at a gathering of Mexico soccer fans watching their team fall to England in World Cup play. Police said someone pulled a gun during an argument and opened fire, striking four people total. Two were bystanders caught in the crossfire: a woman and a child. All four were treated for non-life-threatening injuries at local hospitals.
The violence rippled across the country. In Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina, three people were shot in a crowd on Sunday, with Ronald Cleveland Brown, 39, and Devante Elliott, 34, both killed. In Austin, Texas, a man and woman in their late teens or early 20s were gunned down in a nightclub parking lot in the pre-dawn hours of Sunday after an altercation. A separate shooting at a sports bar parking lot in Austin on Saturday night left another man dead and a second injured.
Compton, California, saw three separate shootings at Independence Day block parties on Saturday alone, all fatal. In Wilkinson County, Mississippi, police investigated an early Saturday mass shooting that left two men dead and at least nine others wounded.
The tally reflects a grim pattern in American life. The Gun Violence Archive has recorded 6,604 gun deaths nationwide for the year to date as of Monday morning. The same database documented at least 224 mass shooting incidents, defined as cases where four or more people were killed or injured, excluding the shooter.
Research suggests that gun violence occurs at elevated rates during major holidays in the United States compared to other periods. The Fourth of July weekend this year proved no exception.
Calls for federal action on firearms have intensified as these tragedies mount, yet Congress has repeatedly failed to enact meaningful restrictions on gun ownership or sales at the national level.
Author James Rodriguez: "Another holiday, another body count that America has learned to accept as the cost of freedom."
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