Mass shootings kill 29 in Texas, Ohio over weekend

"Our families should not be afraid to run errands on a Saturday afternoon. We should not be afraid to attend festivals or block parties or concerts. We should not be afraid to worship or to go to school," former US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords said in a statement on Saturday.

"But that's not the America we're living in today. We can change this, but first our lawmakers must take action to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people," said Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt by a shooter that caused serious brain damage in 2011. She went on to co-found a gun-control group.

Texas scored an "F" in gun law strength by the group, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. The state does not require background checks for private sales of firearms. It has no law restricting assault weapons, like the rifle used in Saturday's shooting, or limiting the number of firearms that may be purchased at one time.

Another high-profile mass shooting happened in the state last year, when 10 people, including eight students and two teachers, were fatally shot and 13 injured at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas.

So far this year, 33,028 gun violence incidents have happened in the US, including 251 mass shootings, and 8,734 people were killed, according to Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit corporation.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.