TEHRAN- The U.S. is set to break the record this year for the most mass shootings in modern history. 

Outside of warfare or a conflict zone, there is no other country that experiences such ongoing gun violence in everyday public life.

In the latest incident, the attacker caused "terror" in yet another mass shooting at a school. 

This is the one place where children, the most vulnerable in society, have seen an uptick in the number of mass shootings over the decades, leaving so many young innocent souls traumatized for the rest of their lives. 

The gunman went on a shooting rampage firing at a crowd attending a high school graduation ceremony in Virginia, leading to seven casualties. 

According to police, two people, who are reported to be a boy and his young father, have been killed, while five others have sustained gunshot wounds.

Addressing a press conference, Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards branded the attacker's action as "disgusting and cowardly."

Edwards says the deceased were men aged 18 and 36, while the wounded included a 31-year-old man who has suffered life-threatening injuries and four other males aged 14, 32, 55 and 58 who are expected to survive.

In addition to that, a 9-year-old girl was hit by a car in the chaos and panic that ensued the shooting, and multiple other people were injured in falls or suffered from anxiety.

According to police, the shooter, who has been arrested, was armed with four firearms, when he maimed his victims at the Huguenot High School's commencement ceremony inside a theater on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University.

"Obviously, this should have been a safe space... It's just incredibly tragic that someone decided to bring a gun to this incident and rain terror on our community," Edwards said.

These days, mass shootings in public places such as schools, shopping centers and places of worship have become a norm in the U.S.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, the latest mass shooting was the 279th in the first 157 days of 2023 in the United States.

The gun violence monitoring group defines a mass shooting as four or more people being shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter.

The latest tragedy came on the same day as a new study showed 1 person had been killed in the U.S. every 11 minutes in 2021 as a result of the tragic reality of gun violence.

Titled "U.S. Gun Violence in 2021: An Accounting of a Public Health Crisis" by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, the study revealed that in 2021, gun deaths reached the highest number ever recorded for the second consecutive year. 

"Nearly 49,000 people died from gun violence in the U.S. in 2021. Each day, an average of 134 people died from gun violence - one death every 11 minutes," the study said. 

It indicated that 48,830 lives were lost to firearms in 2021, an increase of over 3,600 deaths from 2020 -- the previous record high. Of those, the report revealed that 26,328 suicides involving a firearm took place in 2021, and 20,958 homicides were recorded.

According to the study, the gun suicide rate represented an 8.3% increase from 2020, the largest one-year increase in more than four decades, whereas the gun homicide rate was up 7.6%.

"Guns, once again, were the leading cause of death among children and teens in 2021, accounting for more deaths than COVID-19, car crashes, or cancers," said the study.

According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, as of May 1 this year, at least 13,959 people have been shot dead. 

But 2023 is on track to break the glim record of mass shootings, which traumatizes and terrorizes an entire community. At one point this year, there were more mass shootings in the U.S. than days. 

That has sparked some serious soul-searching as well as rising protests against authorities for tighter gun control laws in a country where there are more firearms in the hands of people than there are U.S. citizens.
Despite the outcry, the prospects of tighter gun control measures are slim with little appetite in Congress to address the deadly matter in the face of powerful gun lobby groups, whose lucrative money finds its way to the pockets of lawmakers. 

International rights group Amnesty International says that "U.S. governments have allowed gun violence to become a human rights crisis."

It adds, "The U.S. government is prioritizing gun ownership over basic human rights. Despite the huge number of guns in circulation and the sheer numbers of people killed by guns each year, there is a shocking lack of federal regulations that could save thousands."

Some of the deadliest mass shootings so far this year in the U.S. include:

1. Enoch, Utah (4 January) - eight killed

2. Goshen, California (16 January) - six killed

3. Monterey Park, California (21 January) - 12 killed, nine injured

4. Half Moon Bay, California (23 January) - seven killed, one injured

5. Nashville school shooting, Tennessee (27 March) - seven killed, one injured

6. Louisville, Kentucky (10 April) - six killed, eight injured

7. San Jacinto County, Texas (28 April) - five killed

8. Henryetta, Oklahoma (1 May) - seven killed

9. Lake Wales, Florida (2 May) - five killed

10. Allen, Texas (6 May) - nine killed, seven injured

The deadliest mass shooting to date in the U.S. remains the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, when a gunman opened fire on a crowd attending a music festival. The attacker killed 60 people.

The most heartbreaking act of terrorizing a community with bullets is still the May 24, 2022, mass shooting that occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The attacker shot 19 little kids to death, along with two teachers, while 17 others were injured. The eldest victim among the children who were murdered on that dark day was just eleven years old. 

What made the incident more tragic was that police had been waiting outside the very classroom where the shooter was shooting at his victims one by one. An investigation was launched to try and establish why the police did not enter the classroom and confront the attacker. 

Following the first anniversary of the massacre, the parents of the dead children are still seeking answers. 

Since 2014, on average, the U.S. has witnessed nearly 40,000 gun deaths every year. Tens of thousands of others have sustained injuries. 

As the U.S. sends its military across the world under the slogan of "bringing peace" to other countries, it is incapable of bringing peace to its own citizens back at home.

On both fronts, it has been unsuccessful with countries subject to U.S. invasions, wars, and conflicts instigated by Washington seeing nothing but havoc, instability and terror. 

Experts point out that the U.S. is a country that has been built on violence and only through violence it can survive, thrive and make a vast amount of profit.

Profit in selling weapons to fuel war overseas and profit in selling firearms at home that result in mass shootings.