Along with Annapolis Attack, How Many People Were Shot Across U.S. Yesterday?

You need to know that I am not taking sides on this issue; I often take both sides. Guns will never, and should never be eliminated from the US. Assault weapons, on the other hand, should not be available to the public. 

Police officers secure the area after multiple people were shot at an office building housing The Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., on Thursday. (Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press)

U.S. gun violence

Five people were killed, and two wounded, when a gunman burst into the offices of the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis, Md., yesterday.

The dead — four journalists and a sales assistant — and wounded were not the only victims of gun violence in America on Thursday.

By this tracker's count, there were at least 64 other shootings across the United States yesterday, resulting in 22 deaths and 37 injuries.

A man holds a copy of The Capital Gazette near the scene of a shooting at the newspaper's office on Friday in Annapolis, Md. A man armed with smoke grenades and a shotgun attacked journalists in the building Thursday. (Patrick Semansky/Associated Press)

And June 28 was a relatively slow day for gunplay.

On Wednesday, there were at least 93 gun incidents in the U.S., causing 30 more deaths and 83 woundings.

To date in 2018, there have been almost 28,500 shootings or attempted shootings in the U.S. More than 7,000 people have been killed, and just short of 13,500 have been injured.

Over the past four years, the U.S. has averaged more than 56,500 shootings annually, causing 14,200 deaths and almost 28,000 injuries.

It appears that gun violence is increasing in the United States — or people are doing a better job of keeping track of it.

Four-year-old Demi Gonzalez of New York stands among thousands of empty shoes owned by or representing deceased victims of gun-related violence in the United States, during a May 2 protest near the headquarters of the Smith & Wesson gun company in Springfield. Her cousin Christopher Matthews was accidentally shot to death by a 12-year-old friend. (DRIEGELAB)

In 2014, there were 12,556 deaths. In 2017, 15,631 people were shot and killed.

So far 2018, is running closer to the four-year average, on pace for:

56,800 shootings

14,150 deaths

26,894 gun injuries

The number of mass shootings — defined as four or more shot and/or killed — seems to be declining, with 154 recorded through almost half the year, on pace for somewhere in the low 300s. (Although July and August are traditionally busy months for gun violence.) In 2017, there were 735 mass shootings, up from 671 in 2016, and 335 in 2015.

In the past week, the U.S. has experienced 15 mass shootings, including yesterday's Maryland attack. Nine people have been killed and 58 more wounded.

Gun violence happens in big cities, like Chicago — where 13 people shot on Wednesday and Thursday alone — and in places you might consider relatively safe. There were two mass shootings at birthday parties in the early hours on Sunday — one in Florida, the other in North Carolina.

Protestors march through the streets at the 'End of School Year Peace March and Rally' in Chicago on June 15 to kick off a national gun-reform tour by students from Parkland, Fla., site of one of the worst U.S. school shootings. (Jim Young/AFP/Getty Images)

Last weekend in Gary, Ind., there were four separate shootings, resulting in one death and 16 injuries.

"These senseless and egregious acts must stop," Richard Allen, the local police chief, told reporters. "Not only does it cause an emotional drain on the spirit of our city, but it casts a shadow on the progress we have made."

Last year, Gary — a city of 76,000 — had 46 murders and 118 gunshot wound victims. It has the third-highest murder rate of all American municipalities.

I live in Abbotsford, B.C. Canada, in a district of 2 cities, Abbotsford and Mission - total population 180,000. For the past couple years we have had a drug war play out in our area giving us one of the highest, if not the highest ratio of murders-per-100,000 people in Canada - 5.53. There were 10 murders in our district in 2017. Before the drug war we averaged 4 murders per year and in 2011 had not one single murder.

Gary, Indiana, had a ratio of 60.5 murders per 100,000 in 2017. If Abbotsford-Mission had that ratio there would have been more than 100 murders or 10 times the current rate.

I don't know how to fix it! I suspect very few of the murders in Gary were committed by assault weapons. I would like to see them banned anyway as it might save the lives of a few children in the next school massacre. If that shooting is at your child's school, I suspect you might be glad they weren't using an assault weapon. But banning assault weapons is just one small band aid on a system riddled with bullet holes. It may slow down the bleeding in one spot, but you are still going to bleed out eventually. 

I suggest a Congressional Inquiry into what can be done to address this problem which has reached way beyond ridiculous in proportion.