Thanksgiving in the United States has passed with a heavy toll from gun violence, resulting in 35 deaths, including a five-year-old child who was shot while teenagers were filming a video. The Minnesota police stated on Facebook that a 13-year-old boy is suspected of accidentally firing a gun he was handling, leading to the child's death. They added that the boy has been arrested and placed in a juvenile facility. The police noted in their statement that "other minors were present" at the scene, which was a house in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, where "they were attempting to film a video for social media."
Firearms also claimed the lives of at least 35 other individuals on Thursday during Americans' Thanksgiving celebrations, according to the "Gun Violence Archives" website. A five-year-old girl died in Atlanta. Her family told a local television channel that she accidentally discharged a loaded gun that had been left on a chair. However, police confirmed through Fox News that a three-year-old child was the one who accidentally shot her. Additionally, a 25-year-old man was killed by a stray bullet in Philadelphia while dining with his family. The police are searching for a 19-year-old man suspected of shooting him after being ejected from another party at a neighboring house, according to a local NBC affiliate.
Gun violence has increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people since the beginning of the year, including suicides, according to the "Gun Violence Archives," which noted that this toll includes 274 children under the age of 12.
