Police in Smithsburg, Maryland, said a gunman killed several victims in an action on Thursday afternoon. Initial reports point to at least three dead.
The city sheriff said the shooter no longer poses a threat, but did not specify whether he was arrested or killed.
Over the weekend, at least two other such actions took place, with a toll of 9 dead and 28 injured, between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Saginaw, Michigan.
The attacks come amid a string of similar episodes across the US in recent weeks. The Gun Violence Archive organization has reported nearly 240 mass shootings since the beginning of this year. The number of deaths caused by firearms, including homicides and suicides, exceeded 18,500, according to data released last Sunday (5).
On the last day 2, two attacks were reported. The first took place in the parking lot of a church in Ames, Iowa, during a mass. At least two women died, and the shooter killed himself afterwards. The second took place in Racine, Wisconsin, during a wake, with two dead.
Earlier, on the 1st, a gunman killed four people in Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to the police the following day, the man was targeting a doctor who had operated on his back.
Eight days earlier, a massacre at a Texas school ended with 19 children and 2 teachers dead. The author, an 18-year-old man, carried an AR-15 rifle and, before being responsible for the worst massacre at a children’s educational institution in the country in a decade, he also shot his grandmother.
The case in the city of Uvalde followed another episode in Buffalo, New York, in which ten people died in a supermarket. The author had racist motives and should be indicted for domestic terrorism. After the attack in Texas, President Joe Biden gave an emotional speech in which he criticized the pro-gun lobby in the country and defended the control on access to weapons.
All the episodes have increased pressure on the US Congress and President Biden to propose and debate bills that limit access to weapons or, at the very least, impose a requirement that the purchaser present a background, such as a police record.
