430 people died in 915 shootings in US last week: Gun Violence Archive

At least 430 people died in at least 915 shootings that took place across the United States last week, according to ABC News and the Gun Violence Archive.

Also, 1,007 people were wounded in the shootings that occurred between Saturday, July 17, and Friday, July 23, according to ABC.

The stunning numbers are indicative of the surge in gun violence across the country.

Last year marked the deadliest year for shooting-related incidents in the US in at least two decades with over 43,000 gun deaths, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit group that tracks gun violence data.

The number of gun-related deaths, however, is likely to eclipse that record this year, as over 24,000 gun fatalities have been recorded in 2021.

More than 800 of the 24,000 individuals, who have been killed in shootings this year, were under the age of 18, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

And 174 of them were under 12 years old, data shows.

Gun violence on July 4th: Nearly 100 die during holiday

Nearly 100 people have been shot around the July 4th holiday due to gun violence as the nation marks the independence day.

Some of the shootings on record for 2021 were mass shootings, incidents where four or more people were injured or killed, not including the suspect, ABC News said.

Eighteen mass shootings have occurred in 12 cities in the US this week alone, killing 19 dead and wounding 74, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Gun violence was rife across the country this past week, with 47 states and the District of Columbia all being affected.

According to ABC News, Illinois saw the most gun violence, with 109 incidents over the past week. Texas was next recording 63 incidents, followed by Pennsylvania, California and New York, with 59, 52 and 48 incidents, respectively.

July 18 was the worst day for such violence in the country last week, ABC News reported, noting nearly 22 percent of all gun-related incidents happened between midnight and 3 a.m.

President Joe Biden discussed the spike in gun violence at a town hall event last week and described as “ridiculous” the idea that people need weapons that can fire up to 120 shots.

“I'm continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things. But I'm not likely to get that done in the near term. So here's what I've done. The people who, in fact, are using those weapons are acquiring them illegally. Illegally. And so what happens is, I've gotten ATF out, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. I have them increase their budget and increase their capacity, along with the Justice Department, to go after the gun shops that are not abiding by the law of doing background checks,” Biden said.

The Democratic president also said his administration is “going to do major investigations and shut those guys down and put some of them in jail for what they’re doing,” referring to shadow gun dealers and gun shops that do not obey the law.

During his presidential campaign, Biden pledged to reinstate an assault weapons ban, create a voluntary gun buyback program and send a bill to Congress to repeal liability protections for gun manufacturers and close background check loopholes.

Gun violence also includes suicide and according to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 13,500 gun-related suicides this year.

With about 121 firearms in circulation for every 100 residents, the US is by far the most heavily armed society in the world, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, a research group.

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