US gun epidemic: 11 killed in a dozen mass shootings over weekend

The gun epidemic continued to rip through multiple communities across the US over the weekend, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens of others, according to an independent research group.

As per the latest numbers collected by the Gun Violence Archive, it was a devastating weekend of mass shootings in the country with lawmakers mulling over new, more stringent gun safety regulations.

After two cold-blooded massacres, last month — one at a New York supermarket, and another at a South Texas elementary school — 12 mass shootings were recorded between Friday and Sunday, according to the group that tracks incidents of gun violence in the US.

Mass shootings were reported in many US states this past weekend, including California, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, and Texas, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

One of the major shootings took place in Atlanta's College Park neighborhood on Saturday night when seven people were shot by an unidentified assailant during a house party, reports said.

The Gun Violence Archive on Monday announced that this past weekend's numbers pushed the combined total of gun-related deaths and injuries in the US past 25,000 since the beginning of 2022.

The group said it has recorded 266 mass shootings in the country just this year.

The deadly mass shootings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and Tops Supermarket Buffalo last month reignited the debate about gun control and renewed calls to implement legislative reform. 

On Sunday, a group of 20 senators announced an agreement to reform national gun laws after weeks of hectic negotiations amid growing anger and outrage across the country.

It came after thousands of people took to the streets across the US, including in Washington, DC, to denounce rising gun violence while urging politicians to take action.

In the capital, demonstrators gathered near the Washington Monument at the National Mall, with banners that read "protect children not guns," "end gun violence" and "enough is enough" while shooting survivors and gun control activists delivered speeches.

Last weekend, at least 17 people were killed across the US in what rights groups said was the deadliest weekend of mass shooting violence this year.

Tens of thousands hold protests against gun violence in US

Thousands of protesters have rallied against gun violence in cities across the United States following recent mass shootings in Texas, and New York.

“Everyday shootings are everyday problems," Trevon Bosley, whose brother Terrell was shot and killed in 2006, said. "The cries of the nation's children can be heard across the world, and you choose to turn away."

Homicide rate in US on rise

In a separate incident reported on Friday in Colorado, a teen mother accused of stabbing her newborn daughter to death was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Leiyla Cepeda had just given birth the same day the police found the baby dead with stab wounds on her chest, according to an arrest affidavit.

Investigators found the dead newborn in a bedroom in the basement with a pair of scissors stained with dried blood while multiple stab wounds were found on the baby's torso.

The 18-year-old Texas teenager denied harming the infant, claiming the baby wasn’t moving after birth and that her face was purple when she was born.

She claimed she used the scissors to cut the umbilical cord as she had given birth on her own.

According to the affidavit, however, an autopsy of the dead infant showed she was born alive and that "a significant number of puncture wounds" were found on her chest, rib cage, and abdomen.

Weld County District Attorney noted that Cepeda was 17 at the time of the alleged crime, however, as she turned 18 on Friday she was charged as an adult.

A month ago, two eight-year-old twins were starved and abused by a mother and her boyfriend in Texas resulting in the death of one of the twins.

In April, a mother in California was accused of drowning her two children in a bathtub while her husband was away at work. The father came home only to find the children dead.

A New Jersey mother was accused of multiple stabbing of her 5-month-old daughter in the chest in December, while the baby was announced to have died from homicide.

According to the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the homicide rate of infants killed on the day of birth in America is 74.0 per 100,000 person-years.

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