Manhunt underway in US after shooting on Kentucky highway

WASHINGTON – Six people were shot along a highway in the southern U.S. state of Kentucky on Saturday, authorities said. Police are looking for a suspect who is considered “armed and dangerous.”

Kentucky State Police spokesman Scottie Pennington told local media that four to six people were shot.

There were “multiple serious injuries,” but no deaths have been confirmed, local news station WYMT reported.

Authorities were searching for Joseph Couch, 32, who is considered a person of interest in the shooting that temporarily closed Interstate 75 in both directions due to an “active shooter situation.”

“Consider armed and dangerous,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “Do not attempt to approach.”

Pennington posted on Facebook that “we urge people to stay indoors.”

He later told the Louisville Courier Journal that “we have no idea where (the suspect) is.”

Rural Laurel County lies south of the city of Lexington, along I-75, a major north-south highway that runs through the eastern half of the United States.

Saturday’s incident follows the deaths of two students and two teachers in a shooting at a school in Georgia.

A 14-year-old boy was charged with murder, while his father, who bought the gun for him as a gift, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder.

– More weapons than people –

Gun violence is rampant in the United States. There are more firearms in this country than people.

While polls show that Americans favor stricter gun restrictions, efforts to curb guns always face stiff political resistance, thanks to a powerful gun rights lobby, constitutional protections and a passionate culture around gun ownership.

The 2022 gun safety package passed by Congress was the most eye-catching in decades, tightening background checks and supporting states that pass so-called “red flag” laws, which allow the seizure of guns from people deemed high risk.

Still, advocates say much more needs to be done.

That same year, more than 48,000 people died as a result of gun violence, according to the Surgeon General, who issued a landmark advisory this year calling gun violence a “public health crisis.”

Gun rights and gun violence regularly play a role in elections.

Republican candidate Donald Trump, who is seen by his party as a champion of gun rights, posted on social media that “our thoughts are with the victims” of the shooting in Georgia.

Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, a former California prosecutor and attorney general and former U.S. senator, called on Congress to “finally” pass a ban on assault rifles.

It would be similar to the law that President Joe Biden helped draft as a senator and that passed in 1994. However, the law expired after 10 years without being renewed by Congress.

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