(Reuters) – U.S. health and advocacy groups have declared June 2 as National Gun Violence Awareness Day. People are asked to wear orange – traditionally a color worn by hunters – to remember shooting victims.
The annual event began in 2015 on what would have been the 18th birthday of Hadiya Pendleton, shot dead in Chicago in 2013 at the age of 15.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, as of May 23 over 16,000 people in the U.S. had died in 2023 as a result of guns, including by suicide. The number includes 100 children under the age of 12.
The following is a timeline of some of the recent incidents of gun violence in the U.S. that have been in the news:
Jan. 4 – A Utah man who had just filed for divorce shot dead seven family members, including his own five children, before turning the gun on himself.
Jan. 16 – Six people, including a baby, were killed at a shooting in Goshen, California. Two suspected gang members have been charged and pleaded not guilty.
Jan. 21 – Eleven people were killed by a man with a high-capacity semi-automatic pistol at a Lunar New Year party in Monterey Park, California. The shooter later killed himself.
Jan. 23 – Just two days later, seven farm workers were shot dead, again in California, in Half Moon Bay. A 66-year-old man was arrested and has pleaded not guilty.
Feb. 14 – A 43-year-old man with a history of mental illness opened fire on the campus of Michigan State University, killing three and injuring five, before turning the gun on himself.
Feb. 17 – A gunman killed his ex-wife and five other people in a rural hamlet in northern Mississippi. He was charged with first-degree murder.
Feb. 22 – A 19-year-old was charged with killing three people and wounding two others following a shooting spree in Orlando, Florida. One of those killed was a TV reporter covering the initial shooting. The suspect has pleaded not guilty.
March 27 – A heavily armed 28-year-old shot dead three children and three teachers at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, before being killed by police.
April 10 – Five bank employees were shot dead in Louisville, Kentucky. All of them were colleagues of the shooter, who was killed by police.
April 16 – Four young people were killed and numerous others wounded, some critically, at a shooting that erupted at a late-night “Sweet 16” birthday party in Dadeville, Alabama. Six people have been charged with reckless murder.
April 18 – Four people were found shot dead in rural Maine and three motorists were wounded by gunfire in what police said were related incidents. A man has been charged with four counts of murder.
April 29 – A man shot dead five neighbors in Cleveland, Texas, including a child, after they asked him to stop shooting a semi-automatic rifle in his yard because it was keeping their baby awake. He has been charged with five counts of murder.
May 6 – A gunman shot dead eight people, including children, in a shopping mall in Allen, Texas after opening fire with an AR-15 style rifle. Police later said he had neo-Nazi sympathies and had apparently targeted his victims at random.
May 15 – An 18-year-old fired indiscriminately at people and buildings in Farmington, New Mexico, with an assault-style rifle, killing three women before being shot dead by police.
(Compiled by Rosalba O’Brien; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
