Another bloody weekend in America has renewed calls for gun reform out of Washington, after at least six mass shootings took place over a four-day span, starting Thursday night.
It started in Indianapolis, Ind., Thursday at a FedEx facility where eight people were killed in a mass shooting. Four of the victims were Sikhs. It is unclear if the shooter, 19-year-old Brandon Hole, targeted that community specifically.
By the end of the weekend, at least eight people were killed and at least 10 wounded in back-to-back shootings in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio, Nebraska and Louisiana, according to CNN.
Around noon Saturday, a 21-year-old was shot and killed at Westroads Mall in Omaha, Neb. A 16-year-old was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder and an 18-year-old was arrested in connection to the shooting as a possible accomplice.
In LaPlace, La., a suburb of New Orleans, six people were injured after someone opened fire on a 12-year-old’s birthday party.
In Columbus, Ohio, one person was killed and five others were wounded after a gunman fired on a vigil for a shooting victim who died a year ago. Around 7:30 p.m., an SVU shot into a small crowd that gathered in the parking lot of a Dollar General. No one who attended the vigil died, but a 39-year-old woman driving by was shot and killed.
This was just on Saturday.
Sunday, a 7-year-old girl was killed and a 29-year-old man injured in a shooting in Chicago. Also on Sunday, Stephen Nicholas Broderick, a former Travis County Sheriff’s Office detective who was charged last year with sexual assault of a child, was arrested after allegedly killing three people in Austin, Texas during a shooting that began right before noon.
Around 12:40 a.m. Sunday, a shooting at a tavern left three people dead and three wounded in Kenosha, Wis. A person of interest has been identified and will be charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide and may face other charges. The shooting took place after a person was removed from the tavern and likely came back soon after. It is unclear why that person was removed.
These tragedies tally up to at least 47 mass shootings since March 16, when eight people were killed at three Atlanta-area spas.
Efforts to pass sweeping gun control laws at the national level are pretty much impossible at the moment because of the makeup of Congress. Though Democrats control the White House and Congress, their majorities are razor thin, and there is even strong debate amongst Democrats on how progressive they should be in addressing America’s gun violence problem.
Last week, President Joe Biden took limited steps with his executive powers to tighten restrictions on ghost guns and pistol stabilizing braces that allow guns to be shot more accurately. His loftier goals of banning assault weapons and enacting universal background checks have to be passed by Congress.
Unless Democrats kill the filibuster, any legislation in the Senate would need 60 votes. Basically, some moderate Republicans in that chamber would need to support Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s plans—and we know that ain’t happening.