America’s mass shooting crisis, in numbers

Before the end of a long Fourth of July holiday weekend, more than 75 people were injured and at least 11 people were killed in nearly a dozen mass shootings across the country, accelerating an already fast-moving rate of mass acts of gun violence in the US this year.

At least 346 mass shootings were recorded within the first six months of 2023 and through the July 4 weekend, a rate of at least one every day, and outpacing the rates of mass shootings at similar points in the calendar in previous years.

Three people were killed and eight others were wounded in a mass shooting at a festival in Fort Worth, Texas on 3 July. Five people were killed and two others were injured when a gunman in a bulletproof vest fired into a crowd of strangers in Philadelphia that same night.

And in Baltimore, two people were fatally shot and 28 others – half of which were children – were injured in a hail of gunfire during a block party in Baltimore on 2 July.

The deadly incidents underscore the nation’s failure to combat an epidemic of gun violence even as officials across the US and in the highest courts in the country loosen gun laws and make it easier to arm Americans in public.