TWO unrelated mass shootings in less than 24 hours in America have left the country reeling yet again, with calls for change ringing out across the 50 states.

But will change ever come?

What happened at the weekend?

An attack by a lone gunman at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, left 20 dead on Saturday. A 21-year-old white man was arrested – he is thought to have posted a manifesto online saying he was motivated to attack due to the “Hispanic invasion” of the state.

Only hours later on Sunday, white man Connor Betts, 24, killed nine people – including his own sister – in a rampage in Dayton, Ohio. His motives are yet unclear.

What’s the reaction in America?

Donald Trump posted condolences on Twitter, saying the El Paso shooting was “an act of cowardice”. He later condemned “racism, hatred and white supremacy”, and called for mental health gun reforms. But he has been accused by some of being partly to blame. US singer John Legend, who hails from Ohio, was among those who said the president’s “racist” rhetoric had played a part.

There have been more mass shootings than days in America this year?

Staggering, but true. The Dayton rampage took place on the 216th day of the year, but it was the 251st mass shooting in the US.

The figures come from the non-profit Gun Violence Archive, which monitors every mass shooting in the country, categorising a mass shooting as any incident in which at least four people are shot, not including the shooter.

Statistics also show there have been 33,028 shooting incidents in total this year in the States, as of Sunday, with 8,734 deaths and 17,308 injuries.

It’s nothing new, though?

Hundreds of mass shootings take place annually in the US. But the last time the toll of mass shootings leapt ahead of the days of the year was three years ago, with 382 events.

The deadliest mass shooting in modern US history was at a concert in Las Vegas in October 2017 that claimed 58 lives.

Didn’t the Florida shooting spark a movement for change?

The killing of 17 students and staff at Stoneman Douglas High in Florida in February 2018 really seemed to promise change in the country. It became the deadliest high school shooting in US history, ahead of the Columbine High School shooting that claimed 15 lives in Colorado in 1999.

What happened afterwards?

The frustration of survivors and victims' families boiled over and there was a high-profile campaign calling for change, with people marching in the streets. Florida then established new rules on the minimum age for buying rifles, raising it from 18 to 21, and brought in waiting periods and background checks for those buying guns. But the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) launched legal action challenging the age requirement clause and the energised campaigning seemed to fade.

What will happen now in America?

Commentators believe that if change did not take place in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 in America, then it’s unlikely now.

In that incident, a 20-year-old white male shot and killed 26 people, including 20 children aged between only six and seven-years-old.

It remains the worst mass shooting at a high school or grade school in US history.

But change is possible?

In March, New Zealand was rocked by a mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, with 50 people killed.

Previous attempts to tighten up gun control there had failed due to opposition from pro-gun lobbies and the popularity of hunting there.

But within days, Prime Minister, Jacinda Ahern, announced a ban on the sale of all types of assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons, saying: "Our history changed forever. Now our laws will too.”