New US mass shooting leaves 2 dead, 1 wounded in Alabama

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
17 Jun 2022 10:32

The mass shooting spree in the US continues, this time hitting a small church group in suburban Alabama leaving the community in utter shock.

Police and emergency services respond to the scene of a shooting at St.Stephen's Episcopal Church in Vestavia Hills, Ala., June 16, 2022 (NSB)

Another shooting rocks US citizens, as a suburban Alabama church shooting left two dead and one wounded on Thursday. According to the Alabama police, the suspect has been taken into custody following the attack at St Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills.

The shooting took place at 6:22 pm local time and police rushed to the scene. Vestavia Hills police Captain Shane Ware stated that “From what we’ve gathered from the circumstances of this evening, a lone suspect entered a small church group meeting and began shooting,” he said at a briefing late on Thursday. The captain added that the suspect is in custody and that there was “no threat to the community at this time”.

Rev. Kelley Hudlow said to broadcast outlet WBRC: “It is shocking. St Stephen’s is a community built on love and prayers and grace and they are going to come together.

"People of all faiths are coming together to pray to hope for healing.”

A year chock-full of US mass shootings

The recent spree of tragic shootings has pushed guns to the forefront of a national debate as US leaders grapple with how to reduce the alarming rate of violence.

Earlier this month, as a response to mass shootings, senate members announced a bipartisan framework that offers measured gun curbs and efforts to improve school safety and mental health programs.

Although the proposal does not present more radical solutions to the mass shootings crises in the US, it is a modest move that will pave the way for more legislation to put an end to gun violence in the future.

There have been hopes among people in leadership to pass the law quickly, perhaps this month, before the political momentum dies out as it was only recently when mass shootings claimed tens of lives in Uvalde and Buffalo.

According to the framework, juvenile records of gun buyers under the age of 21 will be made available when they undergo background checks. The shooters that committed their crimes in Uvalde and Buffalo have committed mass shootings in recent years, though they're both only 18. Furthermore, the agreement will offer money to states to enforce "red flag" laws that will facilitate confiscating guns from people considered potentially violent.

The framework would also require more people who sell guns to obtain dealer licenses, which entails that they'd have to implement background checks on purchasers.

In June, Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law that prohibits New Yorkers under the age of 21 to buy semiautomatic guns. With that, New York became the first city to enact major gun control initiatives following a rampage of deadly mass shootings across the country.

Republicans and Democrats once again have shown a sharp divide in their approach to containing gun violence. Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas had stated that after the Uvalde school shooting that the government should boost school security and mental health facilities, but he was confident that tighter gun regulations will be merely ineffective in containing mass shootings.