At the scene of the deadly shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, a doctor who attended to the victims labeled their wounds as “war injuries.”
Dr. David Baum, a local resident and obstetrician who attended the parade with his family, told CNN’s “New Day” that he rushed in to help and added that some of those shot died instantly.
Baum referred to the force of the rifle used in the shooting by saying, “The people who were gone were blown up by that gunfire.”
According to CBS, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering said the shooter legally purchased the gun, which police described as a “high-powered rifle.” At least six people were killed, including a man in his 70s and a member of the local synagogue, when 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo III opened fire at the parade from a nearby rooftop. He also injured 26 other people.
For the average person, the condition of some of the victims’ bodies, according to Baum, is “unspeakable.”
Baum told CNN’s John Berman, “Having been a doctor, I’ve seen things in ERs, you know, you do see lots of blood.” However, due to the force of the gun and the bullets, some of the bodies had literal evisceration injuries.
Baum added that the casualties’ wounds reminded him of those from battle.
Baum added, “And the injuries… that I saw are wartime injuries even though I never served.” “Those are the characteristics of victims of war, not of parade victims.”
Accounts from trauma surgeons about the physical effects of gunshot wounds were included in a 2017 HuffPost investigation.
Over the Fourth of July weekend, there were other shootings as well. At a Philadelphia Fourth of July celebration, two police officers were reportedly shot, but both were later allowed to leave the hospital.
A bipartisan gun safety bill that includes stricter background checks for people under 21 and more funding for mental health was signed into law by President Joe Biden last month.
But there is still a lot of work to be done, and Biden declared in a statement on Monday, “I’m not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence.
