North Carolina Shooting – In Raleigh, North Carolina, on Thursday night, a young shooter opened fire, killing five people, among them an off-duty police officer. The suspect, a young white man according to the police, has been detained. According to Raleigh Police Lt. Jason Borneo, one injured officer was discharged from the hospital while a second person’s status remained critical.
When one of our own dies, it is a devastating and heartbreaking day for all of us, according to Mr. Borneo. According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, this incident is the bloodiest one that North Carolina has had this year. In 2009, a gunman opened fire at a nursing home in Carthage, N.C., killing seven elderly patients and a nurse and injuring several other people, including a police officer.
Similar shooting attacks left ten people dead at a supermarket in Buffalo in May; also in May was the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers, and another shooting at a Fourth of July celebration in Highland Park, Ill., that left seven dead.
Mass shootings across the United States have remained commonplace as President Joe Biden’s administration tries to clamp down on gun control. In June, the U.S. Senate passed a bill to see gun control measures put in place at the state level. The Bipartisan Gun Safety Bill passed by a vote of 65-33.
The law would mandate states to pass red flag laws and set up background checks for 18- to 21-year-olds, among other measures. The bill also includes increased funding for mental health and school safety. It will tighten a federal ban on domestic abusers buying firearms and reinforce laws against straw purchasing and trafficking of guns.
Mr Biden also signed the first federal gun reform law after a series of gun violence crimes claimed multiple lives in recent months.
