Aishwarya Thatikonda, 27, was among the nine people who died in a horrific mass shooting in a busy Texas shopping mall in the United States. She died just days before her birthday. The US has seen at least 191 mass shootings in the first 127 days of the year, bringing to the fore the issue of gun control — or a lack of — in the United States.
The rising mass shootings show a troubling trend in the United States where federal and state governments are struggling with gun violence. As shootings take place even in states with stricter gun laws, the lawmakers also wonder about the roots of such incidents.
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Just two days ago, President Joe Biden pleaded for Congress to do more to curb gun violence as a wave of mass shootings across the US shows no sign of abating. “For God’s sake, do something," the president wrote in a column published Sunday in USA Today. “America doesn’t have to be a place where our children learn how to duck and cover from a shooter, or scan a movie theater or restaurant for their exit options."
Here is a look look at some recent incidents:
On April 30, an Oklahoma sex offender shot his wife, her three children and their two friends in the head before he killed himself. The shooter had moved the victims’ bodies, which were found in a heavily wooded area on a rural Oklahoma property.
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On April 28, a man shot and killed five of his neighbors, including a 9-year-old boy after they asked him to stop firing rounds in his yard because a baby was trying to sleep in Cleveland, Texas. The shooter was arrested after a multi-day manhunt.
On April 18, four people were killed in a home and three others were wounded by gunfire on a busy highway in a neighboring community in Bowdoin, Maine. A man who was released from prison a few days earlier is charged in the killings.
On April 15, four young people were killed and 32 others were wounded by gunfire at a girl’s 16th birthday party in Dadeville. Police arrested two teenagers and a 20-year-old man on murder charges.
On April 10, an employee shot and killed five people and wounded eight others inside the Old National Bank in Louisville. He was also livestreaming the attack. Police later shot and killed the gunman.
On March 27, three students and three adults were killed inside The Covenant School in Nashville. The suspect, a former student, was killed by police. There have been 15 mass shootings in US schools since 1999, killing 175 people, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University. The actual number could be higher, as ‘mass shootings’ in this database are defined as more than four people dying, not including the perpetrator.
On January 23, a farmworker killed seven people in back-to-back shootings at two Northern California mushroom farms, authorities said.
On January 21, a 72-year-old man killed 11 people and wounded nine others in a shooting at a Lunar New Year dance in Monterey Park. The suspect later died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
On January 16, six persons were killed in Goshen in California. The police said it was an assassination-style shooting and appeared gang-related.
On January 13, a man killed four people in Cleveland in Ohio state. He is under arrest.
(With inputs from AP)
