43 Killed Over July 4th Weekend: What the Gun Violence Numbers Show

At least 43 people were killed in shootings across the United States between early Saturday, July 4, and Monday, July 6, 2026, according to the Gun Violence Archive — a toll that accumulated as the country marked the 250th anniversary of its declaration of independence.

The weekend's violence was scattered across the country in separate incidents: block party arguments, nightclub confrontations, and street disputes. The Gun Violence Archive, which collects and checks shooting data from more than 5,000 sources every day, also recorded 6,612 total gun deaths in the US for the year so far as of July 6, along with 12,219 injuries. The archive counted 227 mass shootings — defined as any incident where at least four people are shot, not counting the shooter — with 11 classified as mass murders.

The Weekend's Incidents

One of the deadliest single events occurred in Wilkinson County, Mississippi. Early Saturday morning, Centreville Police investigated a shooting that left two adult men dead and at least nine others wounded, according to The Guardian.

In Compton, California, three people were killed across two different Independence Day block parties on July 4. Austin, Texas saw two separate fatal shootings: a man was killed and another wounded outside a sports bar Saturday night after an argument, and a man and woman in their late teens or early twenties were shot dead in a nightclub parking lot early Sunday morning. Travis County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Kristen Dark confirmed the second shooting followed an altercation around 4am. In Batesburg-Leesville, South Carolina, Ronald Cleveland Brown, 39, and Devante Elliott, 34, were shot and killed in a large crowd on Sunday, July 5.

The archive also recorded a mass shooting on July 4 in Radcliff, Kentucky, where one person died and three were injured, and a separate mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio. Additional shootings took place in Fort Worth, San Antonio, Channelview, and Philadelphia.

In east Los Angeles, four people were shot near Whittier Boulevard on Sunday night as crowds gathered in the streets following Mexico's 3-2 World Cup elimination by England. The Los Angeles Police Department said a suspect pulled a firearm during an argument at approximately 9:30pm local time and opened fire. Two of the four victims — a woman and a boy — were bystanders who left the scene to get help on their own. All four were treated at local hospitals for injuries that were not life-threatening.

AP News reported that at least 33 people were killed nationally across the extended holiday weekend, with 11 of those deaths occurring in Chicago. A separate shooting in Indianapolis left at least two dead.

The Bigger Picture

Year-to-date gun violence figures through July 6 show a broader pattern. The archive recorded that 115 children aged 0–11 had been killed by gunfire and 205 others injured. Among teenagers aged 12–17, 440 had been killed and 1,340 wounded. The archive also tracked 294 murder-suicide incidents, 648 unintentional shootings, and 442 incidents where someone used a gun in self-defense — a separate category that captures the full range of gun-related events rather than grouping them all together. In police-involved shootings, 24 law enforcement officers had been killed and 165 injured; 754 suspects or subjects had been killed and 380 injured.

The Gun Violence Archive recently removed its estimates of suicide deaths from its homepage while it improves how it sources that data. This means the current total death count is likely lower than the true number compared to how the archive reported in previous years.

The Fourth of July weekend has historically seen higher gun violence numbers in the US. The reasons include large outdoor gatherings, alcohol consumption, and the widespread use of firearms — both for celebration and criminal purposes. This year's 250th anniversary brought especially large public events across the country, which appears to have added to the usual risks without fundamentally changing the pattern. The shooting clusters in Compton, east Los Angeles, Austin, and Wilkinson County each reflect what happens when dense crowds gather in areas with existing local tensions — not a single coordinated event.

What comes next from this data is predictable. When the weekend numbers are released, gun-control advocates will point to the 43 dead and 227 mass shootings year-to-date as evidence that action is needed. Gun-rights supporters will cite the 442 defensive gun use incidents as proof that armed citizens provide important protection. Neither group's numbers are wrong, but neither fully settles the central debate over gun policy. They simply lay out the different dimensions of the problem from opposing angles.