Tonight, we begin with the growing epidemic of gun violence that spread across 10 states with more than a dozen mass shootings since Friday. At least seventeen people were killed and nearly seventy other injured in the shootings from Philadelphia to Chattanooga, from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Somerton, South Carolina. The rise in gun violence and mass shootings seems to be impacting every community across the country. There have been two hundred and forty-six mass shootings so far in just this year while today is just a hundred and fifty seventh day of the year. And the last month shootings have taken place at churches, grocery stores, doctor’s offices and elementary schools. According to the Gun Violence Archive, more than seven hundred children under the age of eighteen had been killed by firearms so far this year. And this follows data from the CDC showing that for the first time in history, firearms were the leading cause of death for the children in the US in 2020. So, when will Congress and lawmakers do something about the violence?

As you can hear behind me, people are simply fed up with the gun violence here in Philadelphia. Just this passed Saturday that hundreds of people were gathered here along South Street of a very popular section of the city when the shooting broke out. Well, today we learned that police have made one arrest and as many shootings we covered in the past, we’re hearing more calls for action, more worry about the future. What started in Philadelphia as a confrontation with words quickly turned physical then deadly. The gunfire, the screaming, the panic ended with three people dead and eleven others injured. It was just one of several mass shootings this weekend. Philadelphia’s district attorney L.C calls what’s happening in the city heartbreaking. It’s a country more recently awash in shootings. In Chicago which leads the US gun violence, at least thirty-two people were shot and five people were killed. In Tennessee, gunfire outside a nightclub claimed the lives of two people while fourteen others were wounded. Some residents are now wondering whether it will ever be safe go out again. In South Carolina and Texas, shootings at graduation parties killed one person and injured a dozen others including a twelve-year-old.