As debates about gun control continue at the legislative level, lives continue to be lost over senseless gun violence. This past weekend, at least four major United States cities suffered from mass shootings, which left six dead and thirty-eight injured.
Shootings in Austin, Cleveland, Chicago, and Savannah took place in a six-hour window from late Friday night to early Saturday morning. Police forces in these respective cities are investigating the nature of the shootings that occurred.
In a weekend news conference, Savannah Police Chief Roy Minter Jr. said that one person was killed and eight were wounded in a residential neighborhood shooting in east Savannah. An 18-month-old baby and two teenagers were wounded in the gunfire from a dark-colored sedan that shot into a group of people standing in front of a home.
"It’s very disturbing what we’re seeing across the country and the level of gun violence that we’re seeing across the country. It’s disturbing and it’s senseless," Police Chief Minter Jr. said.
Two adults who were hit in the Savannah shooting are in critical condition. Minter said sixty shell casings were collected from the scene, and three houses and several cars were struck by the gunfire.
Elsewhere in downtown Austin, Texas, a gunfire barrage left one dead, thirteen wounded, and one person in critical condition. This shooting occurred at 1:24 a.m. Saturday and was allegedly the result of a dispute between two groups, with most of the shooting victims being innocent bystanders from the situation.
In Chicago, two suspects are sought by police after they opened fire on a gathered crowd in the city's Chatham neighborhood shortly after 2 a.m. on Saturday morning. Nine individuals were wounded with non-life-threatening injuries, while one 29-year-old woman was killed in the shooting. This shooting was among multiple shootings that totaled forty-four individuals shot, including six deaths, since Friday in Chicago.
The Gun Violence Archive tracks shootings across the country, and at the time this article was written, they've reported that there have been 275 mass shootings so far in 2021.
Read up on the shootings at the link below.