3 Mass Shootings in 24 Hours Leaves the Country Grieving | Prayers for the Victims and Families

The past weekend in the United States of America was one filled with grief as three mass shootings led to the death of more than 30 people. In the past week, there have been a total of four shootings that have led to the tragic loss of lives. The country has been praying for the victims and their families after the heinous attacks.

The incidents took place in El Paso, Dayton, and Chicago. The shootings in the first two locations left at least 29 dead and injured dozens more, according to The Guardian. The third incident took place in a park and wounded seven more, according to NBC Chicago.

In El Paso, a border city in Texas, 20 people died at the hands of a suspected gunman who had published an anti-immigration manifesto on the dark web. He had opened fire at a Walmart superstore on Saturday. He was arrested and is in custody. In Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday, a gunman wearing body armor, carrying 100 bullet magazines, opened fire at the local Ned Peppers nightclub. Nine people, including the gunman's sister, died there. He was shot dead in the first 30 seconds of his opening fire.

"Had this individual made it through the doorway of Ned Peppers with that level of weaponry, there would have been catastrophic injury and loss of life," Dayton police chief Richard Biehl said about the attacker in Ohio told BBC.

In Ohio, hundreds of people gathered at the venue to hold a vigil for those that passed away. The police haven't found a motive yet. People left flowers in front of the bar and tucked flowers into the bullet holes. The governor, Mike DeWine, said that the pain felt by the families can't be erased even as people chanted "Do something!"

In Texas, prosecutors said that the shooter is being considered as a "domestic terrorist" and they are "seriously considering" hate crime charges, according to BBC. In that shooting, among the dead were a couple, Jordan and Andre Anchando, who died protecting their young child. A 21-year-old girl, Daisy Fuentes, told the Guardian that her grandparents were among the dead. They had just gone to Walmart to shop and she would never see them again.

In Chicago, a gunman opened fire from a car, the police said. These were the casualties from only the past weekend. Just a week before, a 19-year-old opened fire with a high-caliber rifle at an annual food festival in northern California. Three people were killed and more were wounded there.  Many of the victims were taken to Mount Sinai Hospital and had stabilized, according to CNN.

Police Chief Eddie Johnson said, "You have to stop yourself and ask what will it take before we get a handle on what's going on. Not only in Chicago, but across the country. From police departments to the court systems to prosecutors to legislators -- we have to come together and figure out more common-sense solutions to these problems because clearly too many of our citizens are being shot and killed."

Since the attacks, people are expressing their grief and praying for those who fell victim. According to BBC, President Donald Trump said, "This has been going on for years, for years and years in our country and we have to get it stopped." He also said that the gunmen were "very, very seriously mentally ill."

On average, there has been one mass shooting every 12 days in 2019 in the US, according to ABC News. The FBI defines a mass killing where three or more people, not including the suspect, is killed. They don't have a definition for a mass shooting, though. However, many other organizations like the Gun Violence Archive has their own definition - a mass shooting is where four or more people were shot or killed. This definition makes Dayton the 251st mass shooting this year and Chicago the 252nd.

As many as 102 people have died in 2019 alone because of mass shootings. The first mass shooting this year was in a Florida bank. Five people were killed in that shooting alone. There have been many calls from families of victims, activists, and lawmakers to stop gun violence across the country by adopting stricter laws.

Our prayers and wishes are with the families of those who lost their lives.

References:

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/04/us/chicago-mount-sinai-hospital/index.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49229054

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/04/mass-shootings-el-paso-texas-dayton-ohio

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Mass-Shooting-Near-Douglas-Park-Playground-Police-518001731.html

https://abcnews.go.com/US/deadly-mass-shootings-month-2019/story?id=63449799