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Multiple mass shootings across America over the weekend have left communities reeling in what is becoming almost a daily norm.
Mass shootings have escalated to a record pace in 2023 with 162 mass shootings being reported in only 107 days according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Over the weekend, communities in Dadeville, Alabama and Louisville, Kentucky, who is still recovering from a mass shooting at a bank that left four people dead and several others injured, were hit with the terrifying news that a mass shooting had taken place in highly populated areas.
Details are still emerging in a shooting at a sweet-16 birthday party at a Dadeville dance studio that left four people dead and 28 others injured late Saturday night.
Sgt. Jeremy Burkett with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said some of the injured remain hospitalized in critical condition according to the Montgomery Advertiser. He did not identify a suspect but said the person is no longer a threat to the community.
Of those four victims was Philstavious “Phil” Dowdell, a high school senior attending his sister’s sweet-16 birthday party. Dowdell was set to graduate from high school in a couple weeks and attend Jacksonville State University on a football scholarship in the fall.
“Everybody loved Phil. He always had a smile on his face. He always spoke to everyone. He was the ideal kid that you want to coach. He wasn’t just a great athlete. He was a great kid,” his coach Roger McDonald told the Montgomery Advertiser.
That same evening, in Louisville, Kentucky, two people were killed and four others injured when someone shot into a crowded park. The casualties could have been much worse as Louisville Metro Police Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said there were hundreds of people in the park at the time.
“This has been an unspeakable week of tragedy for our city,” Mayor Craig Greenberg said at a news conference Saturday night. “This is not our city. This is not who we are. This is not who we want to be… This is enough.”
Mass Shootings Impacting More and More Americans
A recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that nearly 1 in 5 adults in America has had a family member killed by a gun, including homicide and suicide, and about 1 in 6 has witnessed an injury from a gun.
That problem is exacerbated in the Black and Brown community.
According to the report, Black adults (31%) are about twice as likely as White adults (14%) to say they have personally witnessed someone being shot and are also twice as likely to have a family member who has been killed by a gun (34% compared to 17% of White adults).
One-third of Black adults (32%) and Hispanic adults (33%) say they worry either “every day,” or “almost every day” about themselves or someone they love being a victim of gun violence, compared to one in ten (10%) White adults.
The report was released after the tragic shooting at Nashville’s Covenant Presbyterian School that left three students, three adults, and the shooter dead. The report found that guns are now the leading cause of death among children and teens in the U.S., surpassing car accidents.
Calls for gun reform have ramped back up across the nation with legislators in Tennessee even being expelled for for joining in a gun reform protest.
However, NRA-backed Republican legislators continue to do nothing as the nation’s gun violence problem grows.
Tennessee State Rep. Tim Burchett (R) said school shootings are something “we’re not gonna fix” after the 13th school shooting in the nation this year.
According to a new CBS/YouGov poll released Sunday, about 76% of Americans surveyed said they believed mass shootings are something “we can prevent and stop if we really tried.”
Gun control is racist.