US gun violence: At least nine killed in separate shootings

At least nine people have been killed in three separate shootings in the United States.

In the US state of Oregon, a shooting incident claimed three lives at a shopping center in Bend, a small city on the Deschutes River, some 130 miles southeast of the capital, Salem.

The suspected shooter is among the dead, the Bend Police Department said.

Police believe the suspect entered from the back of the shopping center and fired into a parking lot and a store. There were no injuries reported at either of those locations, according to police.

The suspect then entered a supermarket there and shot at least one person. That individual was transported to a local hospital and confirmed dead, police said.

The suspect then shot and killed at least one additional person, according to police.

Police officers then entered the supermarket and found another individual, believed to be the shooter, dead inside the store. The officers fired no shots, police said.

The deadly shooting remains under investigation.

Also in the US city of Detroit, police said a gunman shot "at random" in Detroit, killing three people and injuring another in separate locations on Sunday.

The Detroit police said they arrested a suspect following a search involving the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Department of Homeland Security.

"We got him," Detroit mayor Mike Duggan said in a tweet. "With the help of critical information from the community and strong support from (law enforcement), Detroit police officers took the suspect into custody today without incident."

Meanwhile, authorities in the Texan city of Houston said that three people were shot dead there by a gunman who first set fire to their home.

"This suspect unfortunately, and very sadly, and very evilly, set fire to several residences, laid wait for those residents to come out, and fired upon them," Houston police chief Troy Finner told another press conference.

The gunman had recently been told he would be evicted, Finner said, adding that "may have been a trigger point" for him, but that police were investigating.

The surge in US gun violence comes as firearm purchases rose to record levels in 2020 and 2021 in the country. The rate of gun deaths in those two years hit the highest level since 1995, with more than 45,000 fatalities each year.

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According to the 2018 international study Small Arms Survey, there were approximately 393 million firearms in civilian hands in the US, or 120.5 firearms per 100 people. That number is much higher now, given increases in gun sales in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

The independent data collection non-profit organization, Gun Violence Archive, says the US has witnessed over 380 mass shootings this year alone.

In late July, the US House of Representatives passed legislation to revive a ban on certain semi-automatic guns, the first vote of its kind in years amid growing outrage over rising incidents of gun violence.

US President Joe Biden said last month that the flood of guns in the country is turning American cities and communities into “killing fields.”

Back in June, Biden signed into law the first major gun safety legislation passed by Congress in three decades.

The new law is the most significant federal legislation to address gun violence since the assault weapons ban of 1994.

Biden, however, acknowledged that the law falls far short of what he and his party had advocated for to stop the alarming frequency of shootings in the US.

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