String of Recent Shootings Across the Country Underscores America’s Ongoing Crisis of Gun Violence

June 11, 2020 — Giffords, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, warned that the latest string of shootings across the country highlights the fact that gun violence remains an urgent threat. Overnight, local news reports detailed that seven people were shot in Northeast Washington DC, while in Philadelphia, one person was killed and six injured after 50 shots were fired.

Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents: In Alabama last Thursday, seven people were killed in a mass shooting at a home in Morgan County; in Kansas City, Missouri, this past weekend, one person was killed and four injured after a fight led to gunfire. Seven people were injured at a block party in Hope, Arkansas, and five people were wounded after a shooting at an American Legion in Dyersburg, Tennessee.

Statement from Peter Ambler, Giffords Executive Director:

“This past week is a stark reminder that every part of America is suffering from an unrelenting crisis of gun violence. It has become an inescapable fact of life in our country and that must stop. Americans shouldn’t have to emerge from lockdowns only to encounter gun violence. Children should not have to cower in their classrooms during active shooter drills. Black and Brown people should not have to live in fear of being shot by police. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can elect leaders with the courage to break the gun lobby’s stranglehold over our political system, leaders who will fight to pass the solutions that will better protect every single life from gun violence. The laws recently passed in Virginia are the latest sign that change is possible. This year, we’ll elect gun safety candidates up and down the ballot that will pass gun safety laws to save lives.”