Two gun attacks in the space of 24 hours have taken the number of mass shootings in America to 250 this year.

Shortly after an armoured gunman opened fire near a bar in downtown Dayton, Ohio, adding at least nine more names to the list of dead, the mayor of that city wondered why.

In a press conference on Sunday morning, Nan Whaley questioned why her city had to be the latest face of mass murder in a country that has seen an epidemic of gun violence that experts say has only gotten worse in recent decades. She was the second mayor to confront the question in 13 hours, after a gunman in El Paso, Texas, had opened fire at a shopping centre and killed at least 20 people Saturday. But she was far from the second mayor to confront the question this year.

“Why does Dayton have to be the 250th mass shooting in America?” Ms Whaley asked, apparently referencing a tally compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, which actually pegs her city's tragedy as the 251st mass shooting. “El Paso was 249 , Dayton is 250 this year.”

In interviews, experts on gun violence told The Independent that the violence over the weekend in Ohio and Texas underscores the rate of these tragedies in a country that clings to the Second Amendment as one of the pre-eminent definitions of freedom.

And, whether Dayton qualifies as the 250th mass shooting of the year — different definitions are employed by various groups — they said that the shootings have only got worse in recent decades, and that the violence has been exacerbated in part by the rhetoric coming from Donald Trump.

Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Show all 21 1 /21 Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Several officers (top left and right) firing at Connor Betts (bottom left), who they identified as the gunman, seconds after he began killing people outside a bar in Dayton, Ohio Dayton Police Department/EPA Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Betts killed nine people including his sister, and injured 26 others. He was also shot dead at the scene by the responding officers Dayton Police Department/AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar The Anderson Manufacturing AM-15 rifle with a 100-round double drum magazine which Connor Betts used Dayton Police Department/EPA Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Surveillance footage of people beginning to flee from the sound of gunshots fired by Connor Betts Dayton Police Department/EPA Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Police officers move towards Connor Betts Dayton Police Department/EPA Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar The vehicle which Connor Betts traveled to the scene in Dayton Police Department/EPA Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Bodies are removed from the scene of a mass shooting in Dayton AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar The city's mayor, Nan Whaley, said the shooter was wearing body armour and used a ".223 high-capacity" gun during the assault. “In less than one minute, Dayton first responders neutralized the shooter.” AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar The FBI is assisting with the investigation Derek Myers/AFP/Getty Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar It was the second mass shooting in the US in less than 24 hours AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Witnesses comfort one another at the scene AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Police tape drapes over a chair near a pile of shoes. The shooting took place in the popular bar and nightlife area, Oregon district Dayton Daily News via AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Dayton police look for evidence Dayton Daily News via AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Shoes piled outside the scene AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Residents comfort each other as they await word on whether they know any of the victims AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Authorities retrieve evidence markers AP Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Evidence markers lay on the ground near a hotdog stand Reuters Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Evidence markers rest on the ground after a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio, U.S. August 4, 2019. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston BRYAN WOOLSTON Reuters Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar People fill the streets during a vigil EPA Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Mourners gather to recognise the victims Getty Ohio shooting: Gunman kills nine after opening fire outside bar Mourners leave flowers and candles at the entrance of Ned Peppers bar Getty

“At the end of the day the president of the United States, whoever it is, one of his primary roles is to keep this country safe,” said David Chipman, a former Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms agent and senior policy advisor for the advocacy group Giffords. “The guy’s golfing. People are on vacation. This is a clear and present danger.”

Mr Chipman likened the continual violence he sees with firearms in the United States to other major tragedies that spurred massive changes, and noted that tragedies like the 9/11 terror attacks — which brought about a massive restructuring in American government — show that change can happen.

But, one major difference he sees is lack of willingness for leaders on the right to address the issues, even if just with their voices.

So, he said, it’s less than surprising that, after years of Mr Trump describing immigrants and people of colour as criminals, that a gunman who allegedly wrote an anti-immigrant manifesto would walk into a Walmart near the US-Mexico border in El Paso, and begin shooting people.

“It’s a failure of leadership and courage. We are under attack,” he said. “And that attack, unfortunately, is coming from within.”

Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

Josh Sugarmann, the director of the Violence Policy Centre, said that the US has seen an increase in the number of shootings since the 1980s, and agreed that the president’s rhetoric has pulled the curtain back on dangerous currents of anger in the country.

But, he also noted that the majority of mass shootings that receive national attention are all carried out using similar firearms.

In El Paso, in Dayton, in Parkland, Florida last year, and in Las Vegas before that — all of the shootings appear to have been carried out with assault-style weapons, which are semi-automatic versions of the kinds of weapons soldiers take into the battlefield.

“The common bloody thread that runs through them is a semi-automatic firearm able to accept a high-capacity magazine, and more often than not that firearm is a military-bred assault weapon,” Mr Sugarmann said.