As California grappled with a mass shooting in Monterey Park over the weekend that left 11 people dead, within 48 hours, another gunman went on a shooting spree in Half Moon Bay, just under 400 miles away, killing at least seven people.
Within that short time span, four other mass shootings took place across the United States, with the number of shootings nationwide so far this year already outpacing the number of calendar days.
As of Tuesday, at least 39 mass shootings had unfolded across the country since the year began, according to the Gun Violence archive, a nonprofit that tracks the spread of what has been called an American disease and which defines a mass shooting as a single incident in which at least four people — other than the shooter — are shot.
At least 70 people have been killed and 167 wounded in mass shootings so far in 2023, according to the archive.
Those figures mark a historically quick start for mass shootings this year, with more mass shootings recorded so far this month than in any January over the past decade, according to the archive, which has kept records since 2014. This is despite Congress having passed the most sweeping federal gun control law in 30 years last year, enhancing background checks and encouraging states to pass so-called red flag laws, among other provisions.
In the wake of recent mass shootings, there have been repeated calls for tighter federal gun control measures, as state measures, including in California, face the might of a Supreme Court that has blocked multiple restrictions, including the purchase of high-capacity magazines.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
