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Gun violence over July 4 week dropped in 2024, but still above 2019 levels
The number of people killed and/or wounded in shootings over the Fourth of July week in the U.S. dipped this year, making it the fourth year in a row gun violence around July 4 has dropped, according to a tally by the Gun Violence Archive.
From July 1 to July 7, 340 people were killed and 756 were wounded for a total of 1,096 shooting victims across the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive. In 2023, the week of July 4 in the U.S. saw 451 people shot and killed and another 1,130 wounded. These numbers exclude those who died by suicide.
The archive also recorded 20 mass shootings —which it defines as a shooting in which four or more people are shot and/or killed, not including the shooter— over Fourth of July week this year. That was down from 28 a year ago.
Chicago, which saw a spike in gun violence this year, had the most shootings and deaths over the 2024 holiday, with more than 100 shot and 19 killed since Wednesday, according to the Chicago Police Department. That was a 91% increase in shooting victims compared with last year.
In 2022, the Illinois suburb of Highland Park was the site of a devastating mass shooting in which seven people were killed and dozens more were wounded when a gunman opened fire on the city’s Fourth of July parade. That parade returned this year for the first time since the shooting.
Gun violence in Chicago made Illinois have the most individual shooting incidents of any state over the holiday week this year. California also saw a fairly high number of shooting incidents this year, which is unsurprising given that it is the nation’s most populous state.
The number of shooting victims over the Fourth of July week has been dropping every year since 2020, but they still remain above 2019 levels. That year, there were 1,177 total victims, with 318 deaths and another 859 people wounded. The numbers then spiked in 2020, when 536 people were killed and 1,172 were wounded, for a total of 1,708 gunshot victims.
The Gun Violence Archive also recorded 34 mass shootings in 2020, the highest number over the last six years and a leap up from 18 in 2019.
The U.S. has also seen a slight dip in gun violence overall in the first half of 2024 compared with last year. From Jan. 1 through June 30 of last year, 9,683 people were killed and 18,630 people were wounded in shootings. Over that same period this year, 8,539 were killed with another 16,192 were wounded.
— Erin Cauchi and Anna Schechter contributed reporting.
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Sen. Mark Kelly says feds need to do a “better job” of letting Americans know “there’s a huge amount of misinformation” on election
Washington — Sen. Mark Kelly said Sunday that the federal government needs to do its part to inform Americans of the vast swath of election misinformation that’s being consumed on social media platforms like X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
“It’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and in the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on Nov. 5,” Kelly said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Kelly, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s seen these misinformation operations target not only his state of Arizona, but also other battleground states.
“There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China,” Kelly said.
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In a committee hearing last month on foreign threats to the 2024 election, Kelly presented screenshots of Russian-made web pages showing fabricated headlines designed to look like Fox News and The Washington Post, targeted at voters in battleground states.
“So my constituents in Arizona and others — they seek to influence the outcome of these elections, and that is absolutely beyond the pale,” Kelly said at the Sept. 18 hearing. “We’ve got to do something about it.”
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump each have the support of 49% of Arizona voters, according to CBS News’ battleground tracker as of Sept. 30.
In another battleground state, Pennsylvania, Trump returned Saturday to hold a rally in Butler three months after an attempted assassination on him. He was joined by members of his own party and billionaire Elon Musk, who said Trump was the only way to preserve democracy and warned of a last election if he does not win in November.
Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Kelly called the social media mogul a hypocrite.
“He’s standing next to the guy that tried to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, saying that this is somehow going to be the last election and they’re going to take away your vote,” Kelly said. “And you know, it just doesn’t pass the logic test.”
At the White House press briefing on Friday, President Biden – speaking from the podium for the first time since taking office – said he’s confident of a free and fair election but alluded to the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol in his concerns on whether it will be a peaceful transfer of power.
“The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,” Mr. Biden said. “If you notice, I noticed that the vice-presidential Republican candidate did not say he’d accept the outcome of the election, and they haven’t even accepted the outcome of the last election.”
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