Last night, Fourth of July celebrations became quite deadly for jubilant citizens in New York. According to police reports, fourteen people were shot on the often-dangerous holiday.
By the end of the bloody night, 10 shooting incidents had been reported, the first at about 5:17 p.m. in Flatbush, Brooklyn where a 24-year-old man had been shot in the back. Later, across the city in East Harlem, one man shot another man in the head at about 8:15 p.m. At 10:15 p.m., reports indicate that an unknown drive by shooter hit an 18-year-old male five times in the torso in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Following, at 11:15 p.m. another man, 22, was shot in the right leg while walking down a street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
Closer to midnight, there was an uptick in the violence. The New York Post reports that a shooting at a large gathering in Brooklyn led to five people being shot at about 11:30 p.m. This incident included three women, one who was shot in the thigh and two in the hand.
After midnight, another Brooklyn shooting was reported. This time, a man was shot in Prospect Park South. Not far away, a woman walked into a hospital seeking treatment for a gunshot wound. The same occurred at a hospital on Staten Island, where another shooting victim received treatment.
Reports concluded with a post midnight shooting in the South Bronx where a man was shot, yet sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
At this time, it appears that all of the victims will survive their injuries.
New York boasts some of the toughest gun laws in the nation. This fact, combined with the spike in shootings, should make for an interesting debate about the efficacy of restrictions preventing gun ownership. Still, in favor of anti-gun legislation, New York has seen a sharp decline in gun violence since its bloody decades from the 1970s-1990.
