Seven dead and several injured left at least three mass shootings in Alabama, Kentucky and Missouri over a weekend that confirmed the spiral of armed violence the United States is experiencing today.
A birthday party in the state of Alabama (southeast) ended in tragedy Saturday night after about twenty people were shot dead at the Mahogany Masterpiece dance hall in downtown Dadeville, a city of just three thousand people.
Dadeville Police Department chaplain Pastor Ben Hayes said most of the victims – four of them fatal – were teenagers attending a 16-year-old girl’s birthday party.
Alabama Gov. Republican Kay Ivey tweeted on social media Sunday morning that she was “in mourning with the people of Dadeville” and condemned violent crimes that “have no place in our state.”
This incident occurred on the same day that a similar incident at Chickasaw Park in Louisville, Kentucky (Southeast) killed two people and injured four others.
Both shootings come in addition to the one reported Friday in Kansas City, Missouri, in the west central area, which killed one man and injured four, including a girl under the age of five.
Online tracker Gun Violence Archive warned that from the beginning of the year to April 16 there were 161 mass shootings in the country, more than 1.5 a day.
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) found that concern and fear of gun violence is widespread in the United States, as most families have been affected by an incident involving these devices.
Statistics show that one in five adults has killed a relative with a gun, including homicide and suicide, CNN reported.
No one escapes armed violence, analysts say, lamenting that shootings, which are becoming more frequent nationally, can surprise anyone anywhere, the same in schools, parks, churches, markets, restaurants, an event and like now at a birthday celebration.
More than 40,000 people die from firearms here every year, while the mortality rate from related causes reached 12 per 100,000 population, according to the World Health Organization.