Summer Violence Has Begun As 25 People Were Shot In New York City This Weekend

Nothing says summer in New York City like an influx of shootings, and this weekend could be considered the welcoming of the hottest season of the year with 25 people shot within a 48-hour period.

Six people were killed in the shootings and a stray bullet paralyzed an 11-year-old girl when she was struck outside of her apartment building.

Tayloni Mazyck was left paralyzed outside of her building in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, when the bullet struck her and was lodged in her spine.

“She can’t feel her legs. She has pain in her arms,” said her mother, Priscilla Mazyck, to the Daily News. Doctors say she will never walk again.

So far, there have been 440 reported shootings in the city this year, which is actually a 23 percent drop from the 574 reported at this time last year.

While the city is trying to curb gun violence, the outburst this weekend made up 5 percent of the year’s shootings and seems to mark to be the beginning of a violent summer.

When the weather gets hotter and school lets out, young kids have nowhere to go, often becoming wrapped up in the streets and gang activity. At least two of the shootings this weekend are believed to be gang-related.

The issue of gun violence is not an easy one to solve, as sides disagree whether trying to take guns off the street will stifle the problem, or whether legal guns should be easier to obtain in order to curb gun violence.