‘Mass shooting handbook’: Highland Park mayor Nancy Rotering issued with guide after Independence Day attack that killed seven | World News
Mass shootings in the US have become so common that an official handbook has been prepared to help mayors respond to shootings in their communities.
When the first funeral took place for the victims of mass shooting on independence day near Chicago in IllinoisThe mayor of the city where it happened, Highland Park, revealed that she was shocked when she discovered the notebook’s existence.
Vice President Kamala Harris (L) with Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering (R)
“No mayor ever prepared for this [shooting] but there is a handbook for mayors on mass shooting situations,” Mayor Nancy Rotering told Sky News.
“A 198-page handbook is currently being sent to us in an effort to help us, because so many people have experienced this ridiculous tragedy before us.
“And that angers me for no reason. There’s no reason for weapons of war to be on the streets of the United States.”
Seven people were shot dead and 46 others injured Monday morning when a 21-year-old local man, Robert E. Crimo III, opened fire from a rooftop at the Independence Day parade.
All of those who have died have now been named. Katherine Goldstein is 64 years old, Nicolas Toledo-Zaragoza is 78 years old, Eduardo Uvaldo is 69 years old, Jacquelyn Sundheim is 63 years old and Steven Straus is 88 years old. Husband and wife Irina and Kevin McCarthy are attending the parade with their 2-year-old son. He survived unscathed but both died.
Robert E. Crimo III faces seven counts of murder. Photo: Lake County Major Crime Task Force
Crimo has been charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and prosecutors are expected to bring further charges against more than 46 people injured in the attack.
He legally purchased his weapon despite having a knife seized from him in 2019 and is known to mental health officials.
Mayor Rotering told Sky News: “The laws don’t do what they need to do to protect American citizens.
Countering the gun lobby’s argument that gun rights represent fundamental American liberties protected by the Second Amendment to American construction, the mayor said: “It tells you that we need to have a national conversation about what freedom means.
“We’re there to celebrate our freedom, and in the end, we’re running for our lives. There’s no reason for these guns to be on our streets. It has nothing to do with that. freedom. It deals with everything related to terrorism.”
According to data collated by the Gun Violence Archive, 220 people were killed in gun violence across the United States during the July 4 holiday last weekend and 570 were injured.
During the same four-day holiday, there were 11 incidents that were classified as mass shootings.
A police officer walks down Central Avenue in Highland Park after the shooting
Any shooting in which four or more people, excluding the gunman, are killed or injured is considered a mass shooting.
The mayor, who was at the Highland Park parade and among those who fled, revealed that her city was among the few trying to change gun laws from the bottom up rather than relying on the states. or the federal government to introduce bans.
“Our city passed an assault weapons ban in 2013 and a mass magazine ban through a strange permutation of the law. We are currently working with the governor, the president of the Senate. House of Representatives, Speakers of the House, and legislators to allow other Illinois municipalities to ban these weapons.
“We know that the access government is causing this problem. Every other country in this world has people with mental health problems, people with anger problems, people who play games. violent electronics – they don’t have the right to use these guns. We need to talk about why we’re still allowing access to these weapons of war.”
Abandoned chairs at the scene of the mass shooting at the July 4 parade on Central Avenue in Highland Park, Ill., on Monday, July 4, 2022. (John Starks/ Daily Herald via AP)
At a memorial service for one of the victims, Jacquelyn Sundheim, Rabbi Wendi Geffen said: “We shouldn’t have to be here today. Nothing – not a single thing – makes us happy. gather to mourn Jacki is acceptable..
“We’re horrified. We’re outraged, hurt, hurt, inconsolable because the terror has come upon us and taken our Jacki.”
The service went live, and Jacquelyn Sundheim’s daughter asked people to use their pain to make the world a better place.
“I want you to put a little more joy and compassion into this world each day. Don’t let this sadness, this fear, this rage make you bitter towards our world. The world is darker without my mother in it, and it has come up with us now to fill it with a little laughter, she said.
