Almost 43,000 people were killed in armed attacks in the United States of America last year. 654 mass shootings were recorded.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, a website that tracks violent deaths and their causes in the United States, 42,888 Americans died in gun violence through December 31, 2023. That averages out to about 117 deaths every day.
Almost 1,700 victims were children and teenagers, of which 1,381 between the ages of 12 and 17 died from firearms.
Among the victims were 295 children, aged up to 11 years.
The deadliest shooting of 2023 occurred in Lewiston, Maine on October 25 when a gunman opened fire with a sniper rifle at a bowling alley and local bar, killing 18 people and injuring 13.
After an intensive two-day search, the police found the attacker dead in a nearby recycling plant, where he had committed suicide.
The massacre in Maine was one of the deadliest mass shootings in the US in decades, prompting President Joe Biden to urge Congress to pass stricter gun laws.
“Guns are the number one killer of children in America, more than car accidents, more than cancer, more than any other disease,” the US president said.
– Deadliest shootings –
The Maine shooting was the deadliest of 2023, but there have been several other deadly mass shootings.
On January 21, a gunman opened fire at a Chinese New Year celebration in Monterey Park, California, killing 11 people and injuring nine. The police tracked down the suspect in the van, where he committed suicide.
Hundreds of shoppers at a mall in the Dallas suburb of Allen, Texas fled on May 6 after a gunman opened fire, killing eight and wounding seven others. The suspect was shot and killed by a police officer.
In Enoch, Utah on January 4, a man killed seven family members, including his wife, five children and mother-in-law, before committing suicide. Police said the suspect was under investigation for domestic violence and that his wife had just filed for divorce.
At the end of March, there was also a shooting at a private school in Nashville. Six people were killed, three students and three adults. The suspect, who was a former student of the school, was killed by police officers.
Figures show that in 2023, 1,438 people were killed in police-involved shootings, while 50 police officers were killed in the line of duty.
1,563 accidental shootings and 673 incidents of murder and suicide were also recorded.
Most of the deaths occurred in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Illinois and California, AA writes.
