People attend a vigil to mourn for victims of a school mass shooting at Town Square in Uvalde, Texas, the United States, May 29, 2022. At least 19 children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in the town of Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Wu Xiaoling)

Five people were gunned down and two dozen others wounded in a pair of weekend mass shootings in the US, the latest in a string of deadly gun attacks that have left lawmakers scrambling to tackle the crisis.

The shootings - late Saturday in Philadelphia and early Sunday in Chattanooga, Tennessee - further jolted a country facing a gun violence epidemic that has already claimed several thousand American lives in 2022 and shows no signs of abating.

They come as polarized US senators find themselves under pressure to craft a measure that codifies at least basic, preliminary steps to help reduce the carnage.

In Philadelphia, two men and a woman were killed when multiple people opened fire on a crowd at a popular South Street nightlife area.

Philadelphia Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw said one of the victims had gotten into a fight with another man, which could have been the cause of the shooting. The two others were "innocent bystanders," she told reporters.

An eruption of violence in Chattanooga resulted in 14 people being shot, including two killed, while another person died and two more were injured after they were struck by vehicles fleeing the scene, police chief Celeste Murphy said, adding "several" victims remained in critical condition.

The pre-dawn incident occurred near a nightclub in a downtown section of the city of 180,000.

As of mid-Sunday no arrests had been made in either case, Murphy and Philadelphia media said.

Such gun violence has become almost commonplace in America, with more than a half-dozen other shootings recorded over the weekend in which multiple people were killed, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which tracks shootings nationwide.

But the shock felt over recent mass shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, which saw 10 and 21 people gunned down respectively, have spurred ardent cries for action.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy has been working with a bipartisan group of senators on reform measures - a heavy lift with Republicans routinely rejecting most forms of gun control.

Senator Murphy said Sunday the group hoped to hammer together a legislative package that draws at least 10 Republican votes on top of expected support from nearly every Democrat.

The emerging package, he said, would probably include "significant mental health investment, school safety money, and some modest but impactful changes in gun laws," including an expansion of background checks for gun buyers.

AFP