July 6 (Insider) – The return of mass shootings in America was felt over Fourth of July weekend, as cities from Chicago to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to Fort Worth, Texas, were gripped by gun violence.
There were 375 shootings, including 18 mass shootings, in the US from July 3 to the evening of July 5, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks shootings nationwide.
The spike was a dark reminder that as normal life resumes, so too does gun violence.
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The frequency of mass shootings had briefly subsided in the 15 months since the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic and offices, schools, and movie theaters closed their doors. Experts warn that the return of frequent mass shootings is imminent, so long as weapons designed to kill people quickly and in large numbers are widely available.
To be clear, gun violence was up last year through the pandemic, even though there were fewer mass shootings.
On July 4, a clothing store owner in West Philadelphia was holding a cookout outside his store when one or more gunmen fired anywhere from 90 to 100 shots into the crowd, killing the 23-year-old store owner and another man. The shooting happened while fireworks were being set off, making it hard to know where the bullets were coming from, NBC Philadelphia reported.
Ninety-two people were shot, 16 of them killed, in what was the deadliest and most violent weekend this year in Chicago, according to The Chicago Sun-Times. In the early hours Monday, a person driving past fired on a group hanging out in a park on the South Side, killing two and wounding two, including a 12-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy.
The definition of a mass shooting differs from source to source, but the Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as a single incident in which four or more people are shot (not counting the shooter) in the same incident in roughly the same time and place.
By this definition, at least 18 people died and 71 were injured in 18 mass shootings over Independence Day weekend.
Last year’s Fourth of July weekend was also marred by violence with 26 mass shootings, the nonprofit reported.
Here are all the mass shootings recorded across the US over Fourth of July weekend:
| Date | Location | Address | # Killed | # Injured |
| July 3 | Lancaster, PA | 50 block of W Orange St | 0 | 4 |
| July 3 | Chadbourn, NC | Broadway Rd | 3 | 1 |
| July 3 | Swainsboro, GA | 229 S Main St | 1 | 3 |
| July 3 | Hammond, IN | 5900 block of Wallace Rd | 2 | 2 |
| July 3 | Chicago, IL | 1000 block of W 89th St | 0 | 4 |
| July 4 | Thermal, CA | Jackson St and Airport Blvd | 0 | 4 |
| July 4 | Omaha, NE | 2311 N 24th St | 1 | 4 |
| July 4 | Danville, IL | 12 S College St | 0 | 4 |
| July 4 | Fort Worth, TX | 3400 block of Horne St | 0 | 8 |
| July 4 | Rantoul, IL | 400 block of S Maplewood Dr | 0 | 5 |
| July 4 | North Las Vegas, NV | 1200 block of W Helen Ave | 2 | 7 |
| July 4 | Dallas, TX | 3700 Dixon Ave | 0 | 5 |
| July 4 | Dallas, TX | 8200 block of Towns St | 3 | 2 |
| July 4 | Chicago, IL | 39 N Menard Ave | 1 | 3 |
| July 5 | Santa Rosa, CA | 1500 block of Beachwood Dr | 1 | 3 |
| July 5 | Cincinnati, OH | 166 W Mehring Way | 2 | 3 |
| July 5 | Toledo, OH | Lawrence Ave and Wall St | 0 | 5 |
| July 5 | Chicago, IL | 6108 S Wabash Ave | 2 | 4 |
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