Gun violence ravages U.S., especially on major holiday: USA Today

Teens comfort each other by hugging after a prayer vigil in Highland Park, suburb of Chicago, Illinois, the United States, July 5, 2022. People held mourning services for a mass shooting during an Independence Day parade in downtown Highland Park on July 4.(Photo by Joel Lerner/Xinhua)

Firearm homicide rates in the United States have soared in recent years, following a sharp increase that began around 2015.

NEW YORK, June 30 (Xinhua) -- The United States has witnessed five mass shootings each Independence Day on average over the past decade - more than on any other day of the year, reported USA Today on Thursday.

In that time, there have been more than 50 shootings in which four or more people were hit by gunfire on July Fourth, according to an analysis of Gun Violence Archive data by researcher James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston.

"The holiday this year comes as the nation is grappling with historically elevated levels of gun violence, which surged during the coronavirus pandemic," said the report. "Seven out of 10 Americans say crime is 'out of control' in the United States, according to a June USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll of 1,000 residents."

"While early data suggests overall firearm homicides may finally be starting to decline again, researchers are documenting an alarming acceleration of mass shootings and mass killings, frequent episodes of gunfire on school grounds and increasing incidents of armed robberies, carjackings and road rage in many cities," it noted.

Firearm homicide rates in the United States have soared in recent years, following a sharp increase that began around 2015, Andrew Morral, director of the National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research at the RAND Corporation, was quoted as saying.

"As a result, the U.S. is experiencing firearm homicide rates we haven't seen since the early 1990s during the crack cocaine epidemic," he said. "At the same time, firearm suicides have been increasing for the last 15 years and are now at a level higher than we have seen in more than 50 years."