Over the weekend, the United States experienced yet another devastating wave of gun violence. A mass shooting in Dorchester Saturday morning left 8 wounded. While this shooting was not related to Carnival, it impacted what should have been a time of joyful celebration. The next day, two more were wounded in a double shooting in Worcester. Thankfully, all have survived, but they will live forever with the trauma of gun violence.
This brings home how much work we still need to do to prevent gun violence in Massachusetts. Saturday’s incident was the 2nd mass shooting in the Commonwealth this year. In April, a shooting in Lawrence left a teenager dead and 5 others injured. Springfield has seen 24 fatal shootings this year, including a 10 y.o. girl and her grandmother who were shot and killed by a neighbor earlier this month.
Our hearts are with everyone impacted by these shootings. We have far too many grieving families and traumatized communities in Massachusetts.
And of course, it’s not just MA. The news of the shooting targeting Black people in Jacksonville, Florida this weekend shakes us to our core. Someone with hate in their heart and a gun in their hand killed 3 Black people who were just trying to go about the business of their day. A stark reminder that we cannot fully address gun violence without also confronting white supremacy.
I am also thinking of the shooting at a restaurant in Trabuco Canyon, California last week where a man shot his wife and then randomly started shooting at others, killing 3 and wounding 6 others. And just yesterday, a shooting at University of North Carolina that sent students jumping out of windows to escape.
While these are all different incidents that require different responses, there is one theme that remains consistent. Conflict, hate, white supremacy, domestic violence - all of those things are made way more lethal when coupled with easy access to guns.
We have so much work to do, and we remain committed to doing that hard work. We must strengthen our laws, meaningfully invest in community based solutions, and dig deep into the root causes of gun violence, including hate