Washington
\nTen people were killed and 38 wounded in mass shootings in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Fort Worth ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, officials said, prompting a fresh call from President Joe Biden to pass gun control legislation.
\nIn Fort Worth, three people were killed and eight wounded in a mass shooting after a local festival to mark the US Independence Day holiday, police said on Tuesday.
\nIn a separate mass shooting in Philadelphia on Monday evening, five people were killed and two were wounded, including a 2-year-old boy and 13-year-old boy, both of whom were shot in the legs, when a suspect in body armor and armed with an AR-15 opened fire on strangers, according to local police.
\nThe Monday night shootings came a day after two people were shot dead and 28 others injured, about half of them children, in a hail of gunfire at a neighborhood block party in Baltimore.
\nThe motives in all three recent shootings remained unclear.
\nThe United States is struggling with a large number of mass shootings and incidents of gun violence.
\nThere have been over 340 mass shootings in the country so far in 2023, according to data collected by the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
\nBiden condemned the violence on Tuesday and renewed his calls to tighten America\u2019s gun laws.
\n\u201cOur nation has once again endured a wave of tragic and senseless shootings,\u201d Biden said in a statement, calling on Republican lawmakers \u201cto come to the table on meaningful, commonsense reforms.\u201d
\nCiting constitutional protections for gun ownership, Republicans in Congress have generally blocked attempts to significantly reform gun safety laws and oppose Biden\u2019s push to reinstate a ban on assault weapons.
\n\u2018Begging for action\u2019
\nPhiladelphia officials pleaded with state and federal lawmakers to act.
\n\u201cWe are begging Congress to protect lives and do something about America\u2019s gun problem,\u201d Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney, a Democrat, told a news conference on Tuesday.
\nThe city\u2019s district attorney, Larry Krasner, asked Philadelphia state lawmakers for \u201creasonable legislation\u201d of the type found in neighboring New Jersey and Delaware.
\n\u201cSome of that legislation might have made a difference here,\u201d Krasner said.
\nPhiladelphia police said the suspect was a 40-year-old man who had an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and a 9mm pistol who wore body armor and a ski mask.
\nThe dead ranged in age from 15 to 59.
\nKrasner vowed to present multiple charges of murder and other offenses at the shooter\u2019s first court hearing on Wednesday.
\nPolice in Fort Worth said no arrests had been made in a shooting that broke out at Como Fest, a recent tradition celebrating the Como neighborhood\u2019s African American history.
\n\u201cI choose to believe this is a few bad perpetrators that came into this neighborhood to really wreak havoc,\u201d Mayor Mattie Parker said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
\nWitnesses heard a barrage of gunfire just before midnight that led some to initially believe it was fireworks but soon led to a stampede for safety, the Dallas Morning News reported.
\nHours later, defiant neighbors and community leaders held their July Fourth parade through Como.
\nIn Baltimore, police have said they are seeking multiple suspects.
\nThe latest shootings took place around the anniversary of last year\u2019s Highland Park mass shooting near Chicago, where seven people were killed and 48 others wounded at an Independence Day parade. A 22-year-old man remains in custody after being indicted on 117 felony charges for the carnage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington Ten people were killed and 38 wounded in mass shootings in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Fort Worth ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, officials said, prompting a fresh call from President Joe Biden to pass gun control legislation. In Fort Worth, three people were killed and eight wounded in a mass shooting after a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341608,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-341588","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n