By Brendan O’Brien

CHICAGO, (Reuters) – A Chicago school teacher and a teenager from Arizona were among the hundreds who were gunned down over the weekend. This was part of a steady stream of shootings which has forced the United States into examining ways it can reduce gun violence.

More than 124 people were killed and 325 wounded in more than 300 shootings recorded in the United States since Friday, according to GunViolenceArchive.org, a Washington D.C. non-profit that tracks shootings.

This weekend’s violence occurred following a string of horrific mass shootings that took place in Uvalde (Texas), Buffalo, New York, and Tulsa (Oklahoma). These events sparked a renewed debate about tighter gun ownership restrictions, something gun rights advocates strongly oppose.

The mayors of several large American cities expressed their dismay at the effects of violence on their neighborhoods after the shootings over the weekend.

Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said to reporters, “I’m tired talking about guns and body” after 14 people were wounded and two others died in an attack at a city nightclub.

On Sunday, Mayor Jim Kenney stated that “the surge in gun violence we’ve witnessed across the country and here in Philadelphia makes us not only heartbroken but angry.” This statement came after 12 people were injured and three were killed when shots were fired at a South Street bar.

A Pennsylvania teacher union reported that Kris Minners (second grade resident advisor at Philadelphia Girard College), was one of the casualties in the shooting.

Kenney said, “We witness lives being lost and people injured by yet another horrific, brazenly committed and deplorable act of gun violence.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul enacted 10 gun control laws Monday as a response to the violence.

Washington D.C. lawmakers are looking at various gun control measures. But any new federal gun legislation is likely to face steep obstacles from Republicans, especially in the Senate.

After a shooting at a mall strip mall, a Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego tweeted that “Change must occur now” after the death of a 14 year-old girl and injuries to eight other victims.

Police officers were also shot and killed in Chicago and Baltimore over the weekend. One of the officers who was shot in Chicago on the weekend, Sunday’s South Side officer, sustained a gunshot wound during a traffic stop. This is the second shooting in that area within the past four days.

Lori Lightfoot of Chicago stated that the victims must include officers and residents before they can act.