Charlotte witnessed a bloody day, unprecedented in modern North Carolina history, as four officers died and four others were injured while carrying out their duty on April 29th, in one of the worst incidents of armed violence against law enforcement nationwide.
The officers were part of a support group for the U.S. Marshals' fugitive unit. They were searching for a convicted criminal who was in possession of a firearm. Upon arriving at a house in the Shannon Park neighborhood, the officers were attacked with a semi-automatic weapon by the suspect, who was killed in the incident, according to the police report.
U.S. Marshals officer Thomas M. Weeks Jr., two probation officers - Sam Poloche and Alden Elliott - as well as officer Joshua Eyer of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD), died as a result of their injuries, leaving behind widowed spouses and orphaned children.
This painful incident occurred just one day before the fifth anniversary of another notable mass shooting. Two people lost their lives and four were severely injured in a shooting on April 30th, 2019, at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. Sadly, these incidents are not isolated; they are part of a growing trend of gun violence that is spiraling out of control.
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Growing Concern for Gun Violence in North Carolina
The most accepted definition of a mass shooting is: a single incident in which four or more people are injured or killed in a shooting, usually in the same place and time.
In 2023, there were 33 mass shootings in North Carolina, triple the number of incidents recorded in 2018, according to the Gun Violence Archive organization. In 2022, there were 21 mass shootings in the state.
There are multiple factors that can explain this plague of gun violence.
During 2023, the Gun Violence Archive organization counted 656 mass shootings nationwide. In contrast, nearly a decade ago, in 2014, there were 272 incidents of this nature. What makes the United States so vulnerable? Answer: Easy access to firearms.
The majority of Americans (61%) say it is too easy to legally obtain a firearm in this country, according to the Pew Research Center.
Can anything be done about mass shootings?
Six in ten American adults say that gun violence is a very big problem in the country today, 9 percentage points higher than in 2022, according to Pew. In fact, 62% expect the level of gun violence to increase over the next five years. Certainly, this bleak outlook could materialize if we do not stand idly by.
What are our lawmakers waiting for to take action? As long as they continue to refuse to act, tragedies will painfully continue to accumulate.