Highland Park massacre marked 309th mass shooting in US this year

The Fourth of July bloodbath in Highland Park, Illinois marked the 309th mass shooting in the United States this year, data shows.

Six people were slaughtered and dozens more injured when a gunman opened fire at the city’s annual Independence Day parade Monday.

Aspiring rapper Robert “Bobby” Crimo, 22, was identified as a “person of interest” in the massacre and taken into custody shortly after the carnage.

The bloodbath marked the 309th mass shooting of 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The nonprofit tracks shootings in which at least four people were wounded or killed, excluding the shooter.

A total of 314 mass shootings have been tallied by Gun Violence Archive as of early Tuesday, the latest being in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where one person died and four others were injured, the data shows.

In addition to the Highland Park slaughter, five other mass shootings broke out in the US on July Fourth, including incidents in Boston, Chicago and Richmond, Virginia, according to GVA data.

Five people were wounded when gunfire erupted in the 6500 block of S. Martin Luther King Drive in Chicago. A 17-year-old boy was among the victims and police said the gunman may have been traveling in a black SUV. No arrests have been made, WLS-TV reported.

In Richmond, four men and two women were shot by “random gunfire” early Monday outside an internet café. Cops were looking into what motivated the shooter, but said there was no ongoing threat to the public, WWBT reported.

And in Boston, four men were shot at about 12:15 a.m. Monday near Washington and Baily streets. At least 11 people were hurt at seven different shooting scenes between late Sunday and early Monday, according to NBC Boston.

The Highland Park shooting, meanwhile, joined GVA’s list of 13 mass murders in the United States with 20 victims or more since 2013.

The 2017 Las Vegas massacre carried out by a gunman who opened fire at a crowded music festival remains the deadliest attack during that span – with 59 dead and 441 injured, according to GVA data.

The Orlando nightclub shooting in 2016 is second on the list. Fifty people were killed and another 53 hurt when a gunman targeted a gay nightclub and gunned down partiers until he was shot by police following a three-hour standoff.

“This is never ending,” a woman replied to GVA’s tweet listing the deadliest mass shootings over the last decade. “We need #GunControlNow.”