2023-06-13 22:26:32
AWhen the mayor of the American port city of Annapolis, Gavin Buckley, appeared in front of journalists on Monday night, he complained of “senseless violence”. A few hours earlier, two young men had opened fire at a school graduation ceremony. Three visitors collapsed dead and three other guests were taken to the hospital with serious gunshot wounds.
In Antioch, California, an 18-year-old was shot and killed at a birthday party early Sunday when, according to the police report, “some uninvited guests” drew firearms; another six people, aged between 18 and 20, suffered gunshot wounds.
At the same time, about 4500 kilometers away, panic broke out when at least one gunman shot at a celebration in Syracuse, New York. At least 13 people collapsed from bullets. It also happened in Houston, San Francisco and other cities last weekend shootings with dead and injured.
Heat as a reason for violence?
Is it the heat? As the Giffords Law Center and other gun violence organizations have observed, as temperatures rise during the summer, so do shootings in major American cities. For Chicago, for example, the Giffords Law Center registered almost 35 homicides with weapons in March 2018 in a first survey of summer waves of violence in 2018. In July, on the other hand, almost twice as many people died from gunshot wounds in the Windy City. Philadelphia had about 15 deaths in shootings in January, rising to more than 30 in August.
The association blames the living conditions of the often African-American residents of the big cities for the deadly summers. Although black males make up only about seven percent of the population, one in two victims of a gun homicide is an African American male. “It’s even worse in the summer,” writes the Giffords Law Center. “Poorer residents have less access to air-conditioned housing. This leaves them with no choice but to face the heat and violence on the streets.”
More than 20 years ago, psychologist Craig Anderson found that more violent crime and sexual assault occurred during heat waves than during temperate weeks. Scientists from the University of Washington are already warning of more shootings, not just in the summer months. Climate change is making many Americans even quicker to take up arms on warm days in the other seasons.
“People are trying to solve their gun problems,” Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley said of the weekend’s spate of shootings. “It’s the most ridiculous thing we can do as a society.”
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