By: Audrey Cable

Since the start of 2023, there have been over 33 mass shootings in America, and over 56 deaths in these mass shootings. In 2022 there were 648 mass shootings in America. Many families have lost loved ones to mass shootings and are dealing with the losses due to this extreme gun violence in America.

Kaytlin Jenkins, a 20 year old who lived in Huntsville, Alabama, died in a mass shooting a couple days after the start of 2023. WSFA 12 News reported that Jenkins’s cousin, Sylvester Jenkins said, “Her life is lost. No future. No kids, a marriage, a family. All that is gone. For what?”

Jenkins went to Alabama A&M University, and was killed at an off-campus birthday party; one other girl, Quantasia Grant, who was also 20, died during the shooting on January 7. 

In High Point, North Carolina, a family of five was killed. Robert J. Clayton shot and killed his family; he had three kids who were 18, 16, and 10 years old along with his wife, Athalia A. Clayton. According to Fox 8 News, after Clayton killed his family, he then killed himself. Reports from Fox 8 News say that two family members who escaped went banging on neighbors’ doors asking for help saying that someone was trying to kill them. The mass shooting took place on January 9, 2023.

An eight year old little girl is in critical condition after Martin Muniz shot her along with five other people. According to Cleveland 19 news three people died at the scene, and one died in the hospital. Only the eight- year-old survived and is in the hospital in critical condition. Muniz is currently in jail and was charged with aggravated murder. He shot and killed his sister, dad, nephew, and brother-in-law. The eight-year-old is the brother-in-law’s child. The shooting took place in Cleveland, Ohio, on January 13, 2023. 

In Goshen, California, six people were killed in a gang-related shooting as reported by The New York Times. Two of the six people killed in this mass shooting were a 17 year old mother and her child who was six months old. “We believe that this was very targeted. This was very personal, and we also believe that it was a message being sent,” Sheriff Boudreaux said. Two people survived this shooting by hiding in a nearby trailer. The Goshen shooting took place January 16, 2023.