Violence and mass shootings surge in the summer months, especially around the Fourth of July, one of the deadliest days of the year.
Shootings around the holiday last year left more than a dozen people dead and over 60 wounded. Two years ago, a mass shooting at a July 4 parade killed seven near Chicago. The mother of a 10-year-old boy left paralyzed by the attack said her family didn't attend this year's parade, which returned for the first time since the shooting. “I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to attend ... again,” said Keely Roberts, who was wounded.
The Gun Violence Archive, which tracks mass shootings involving four or more people, shows June, July, and August have had the highest total number of mass shootings over the past decade. The lowest totals were from December through March, reports the Associated Press.
Independence Day topped the list with 58 mass shootings over the last 10 years, closely followed by July 5, according to the archive. The totals are not yet in for this year, but a drive-by shooting in Philadelphia on Thursday left a 19-year-old man dead and injured seven others, while Chicago police investigated two mass shootings that wounded 14 people early Friday, AP reports.
“It’s the gathering, the free time, the drinking,” said criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University, who oversees a mass killings data maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with the university.
In the first half of this year, there were 19 mass killings — 14 of them shootings — with at least four dead in the U.S., according to the database. In 2023, the nation recorded the highest number of mass shootings — 39 — since the tracking began.
A combination of factors have caused the summer months to see an increase in violence and shootings.
Mass killings are far more likely to happen at a home and most often the victims are related to the shooter or are a close acquaintance.
When school is out, families are spending more time together, children are often home all day and there’s a greater likelihood of more victims when everyone is under one roof, said Jesenia Pizarro, a criminology professor at Arizona State University.
Teenagers also have more idle time on their hands. “It’s like the opportunity shifts in the summer,” she said.
After two mass shootings hours apart in Dayton, Ohio, left of three people dead and eight injured in late June, police said one of the shootings took place at a vacant house where hundreds of teens and young adults had gathered.
Family reunions, block parties and festivals in the summertime all bring more people together — and create more opportunities for trouble, more so when there’s drinking involved.
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