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Another Bloody Summer in America
Summer had barely begun when the grim record was set: forty-nine people murdered at a gay nightclub in Orlando, the worst mass shooting in modern American history. Summer’s end brought another unwanted milestone as 85 homicides — 73 of them by gun — gave Chicago a single-month body count unseen in 20 years and pushed the city past its shooting total for all of 2015. In between, in Dallas, another terrible superlative was notched when a sniper’s rifle delivered law enforcement its deadliest day since 9/11.
Now add in gun violence you didn’t hear about. The period between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend — 93 days — left more than 4,100 Americans dead from gun homicides and unintentional discharges, according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive (GVA). More than 8,650 others were wounded. That’s a daily average of at least 44 dead and 93 injured, a rate slightly greater than last year, when the totals were higher but a quirk of the calendar also made the summer a full week longer.
- Snip -
So this story that America began to tune into this summer is a story of privilege, but one where the dividing line falls between security and slain bystanders, peace of mind and homes scarred by pock-marked reminders of close calls. In bullet-torn neighborhoods, summertime pleasures can be chancy endeavors. Grilling with friends on his back porch in South Philadelphia, a 16-year-old boy was gunned down in a drive-by. Two brothers in North Carolina died when an argument during a Father’s Day cookout escalated. Seven people were hurt in Brooklyn when a man angry over being denied entry to a Fourth of July cookout grabbed his gun and fired into the crowd. So far this year, at least 73 people have been shot at cookouts (some of those shootings fell before Memorial Day, when unseasonably warm weather drew victims out to their barbecues and into harm’s way).
That total does not account for 19-year-old Daquarius Tucker of Houston, killed in July when gunfire exploded at an Independence Day block party. Sixteen days later, his brother, Damarcus Tucker, who had served as a pallbearer at Daquarius’s funeral, was killed when a shooter mistook him for someone else. A mother lost two sons in less than a month.
https://www.thetrace.org/2016/09/gun-violence-another-bloody-summer-in-america/
Now add in gun violence you didn’t hear about. The period between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekend — 93 days — left more than 4,100 Americans dead from gun homicides and unintentional discharges, according to the nonprofit, nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive (GVA). More than 8,650 others were wounded. That’s a daily average of at least 44 dead and 93 injured, a rate slightly greater than last year, when the totals were higher but a quirk of the calendar also made the summer a full week longer.
- Snip -
So this story that America began to tune into this summer is a story of privilege, but one where the dividing line falls between security and slain bystanders, peace of mind and homes scarred by pock-marked reminders of close calls. In bullet-torn neighborhoods, summertime pleasures can be chancy endeavors. Grilling with friends on his back porch in South Philadelphia, a 16-year-old boy was gunned down in a drive-by. Two brothers in North Carolina died when an argument during a Father’s Day cookout escalated. Seven people were hurt in Brooklyn when a man angry over being denied entry to a Fourth of July cookout grabbed his gun and fired into the crowd. So far this year, at least 73 people have been shot at cookouts (some of those shootings fell before Memorial Day, when unseasonably warm weather drew victims out to their barbecues and into harm’s way).
That total does not account for 19-year-old Daquarius Tucker of Houston, killed in July when gunfire exploded at an Independence Day block party. Sixteen days later, his brother, Damarcus Tucker, who had served as a pallbearer at Daquarius’s funeral, was killed when a shooter mistook him for someone else. A mother lost two sons in less than a month.
https://www.thetrace.org/2016/09/gun-violence-another-bloody-summer-in-america/
This summer's gun violence brought to you by the extreme right-wing gun lobby, and the Republican Party. Happy Labor Day America!