A year after the July 4 shooting, some Americans are reconsidering large gatherings

Luca and Lennyn Fantasia, ages 7 and 5, bounced around the Park Ridge, Illinois, Memorial Day parade in May in giddy holiday mode. They wore red, white and blue outfits, admired the marching band and darted into the street to scoop up hard candies.

Their parents, Megan and John, quietly discussed whether it was safe to be there.

“We had this conversation right before we came,” said Ms. Fantasia, a resident physician, adding that they had chosen a spot at the beginning of the parade route, reasoning that it was the best place to be if they needed an appointment to make. fast exit.

“The kids love this stuff,” she said. “We don’t want to miss any experiences. But is it really worth it?”

Americans gather in full, public celebrations across the country on Tuesday, in major cities and small towns alike, to mark the Fourth of July with festivals, Main Street parades and fireworks displays.

But like having mass shootings Scattered across the country, some people say that in recent years they have felt an increasing sense of unease or fear of gun violence overtaking their sense of security at public events once considered unquestionably safe, whether concerts, worship services or parades. Others will continue their holiday celebrations without worry, saying they consider the possibility of indiscriminate violence small.

But for many, especially in the Chicago area, the fear of gun violence has special resonance. Tuesday marks the one-year anniversary of a mass shooting that occurred during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb 25 miles north of the city.

The carnage unfolded when a man with a high-powered rifle climbed onto the roof of a downtown business and fired into the crowd, killing seven people and injuring dozens. Robert E. Crimo III, 22, who faces 117 criminal charges, including murder pleaded not guilty.

The City of Highland Park celebrates the National Day and Jubilee not with a traditional parade, but with a memorial ceremony, community walk, picnic and concert. The city says security will include metal detectors and baggage checks.

Jacqueline von Edelberg, an artist and activist in Highland Park, said she plans to attend the day’s events but acknowledged that many people opted out.

“Some people are excited about it because they want to show solidarity with people, and other people can’t put themselves in that kind of environment,” Ms von Edelberg said.

The fact that they have to consider security risks at public gatherings today, she said, “shows how normalized gun violence is in America.”

As if to underline the problem as the holiday approached, at least two people died and 28 others were injured in a shooting at a Baltimore neighborhood party early Sunday, police said. A motive for the shooting, reported at 12:30 a.m. in Baltimore’s southern Brooklyn neighborhood, was unclear.

In Chicago’s suburbs, police departments have added more officers to protect Fourth of July events.

In Evanston, just north of Chicago, city officials announced more police officers, increased security at intersections along a parade route there, K-9 patrols and drone flights.

Other suburbs, including Glencoe, have pledged to add more security and traffic controls during their holiday events.

Research shows that Americans see gun violence as a growing threat in their communities, whether they live in rural areas, suburbs or cities.

A poll executed last year by the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy and the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research revealed widespread fear of armed attackers. About 4 in 10 Americans believe they are at least somewhat likely to experience gun violence within the next five years, with young adults the group most likely to report that concern, the survey said.

Those fears can be amplified during events that take place outdoors and are difficult to secure, even with police officers present.

“Everyone goes to crowded public events, even sometimes,” said Jens Ludwig, the director of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. “It’s really striking that this is now a shared feature of the American experience: worrying and hoping that there isn’t also a mentally ill person with an AR-15.”

In some cases, guns weren’t the problem. In 2021, the driver of an SUV plowed through an annual Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six people and injuring dozens more.

Some people at the parade in Park Ridge, Illinois, in May said they still felt safe in public, or were determined not to let safety concerns cloud their experience.

“I’ve been going here for 50 years,” said Sue Caldwell, 85, as she walked toward the Memorial Day parade in Park Ridge. “We can’t just give up everything.”

Sharone Marck, a 49-year-old Highland Park attorney, is a resident who has decided to avoid the Fourth of July festivities.

She was at the parade in Highland Park last year. After hearing the staccato gunshots and seeing people fleeing, she dropped what she was holding in her hands, grabbed her young son and her mother and helped them sprint away to safety.

This year both her children will be at camp. Mrs. Marck and her husband plan to cook, drink and listen to music with their neighbors away from the center of town, where the shootings took place.

“I want to go there to pay my respects, but I don’t want to go with hundreds of people and a huge police presence,” she said.