Governor Ned Lamont Sunday evening announced that — in accordance with a proclamation from President Joseph R. Biden, Jr directing flags to be lowered throughout the country as a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the mass shooting in Allen, Texas on Saturday — he was directing US and state flags in Connecticut to fly at half-staff effective immediately until sunset on Thursday, May 11.

Accordingly, since no flag should fly higher than the US flag, all other flags, including state, municipal, corporate, or otherwise, should also be lowered during this same duration of time.

The Associated Press reports a 33-year-old male stepped out of a silver sedan and started shooting people at a Dallas-area outlet mall Saturday, killing eight and wounding seven others — three critically — before being killed by a police officer who happened to be nearby, authorities said.

Authorities did not immediately provide details about the victims at Allen Premium Outlets, a sprawling outdoor shopping center, but witnesses reported seeing children among them.

The shooting was the latest eruption of what has been an unprecedented pace of mass killings in the US, also according to the AP. Barely a week before, authorities say, a man fatally shot five people in Cleveland, Texas, after a neighbor asked him to stop firing his weapon while a baby slept.

Mass killings are happening with staggering frequency in the United States this year: an average of about one a week, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

Connecticut’s governor on Sunday said he is “sickened and heartbroken by another mass casualty shooting of innocent people at the hands of someone with an AR-15-style assault weapon.

“Our elected leaders in Congress have become too complacent and comfortable with doing nothing to protect Americans from this epidemic of gun violence,” Lamont said. “The overwhelming majority of Americans support meaningful reforms on gun violence prevention, and it is far past time that Congress acts,” Connecticut’s governor added.

Flags had already been lowered Sunday morning, ahead of the annual National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service.

The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation hosted the ceremony on Sunday morning at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Park in Emmitsburg, Md., during which 144 fallen firefighters – 79 of whom died in 2022 and 65 in previous years – were be memorialized by having their names added to a bronze plaque that will be unveiled during the ceremony, becoming a permanent part of the federal park.

Chief Bill Halstead, a Sandy Hook native and longtime chief of Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire & Rescue Company, and Firefighter Matthias Wirtz Jr of North Haven Fire Department were among those honored during last weekend’s events.