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The United States has had more mass shootings than any other country, according to some metrics. Between 1966 and 2012, 292 public mass shooting (defined as four or more victims and excluding gang killings or domestic violence) occurred across the world: 90 of these, or 31% of the total, took place in the United States.

A mass shooting is commonly defined as a shooting resulting in at least four victims, excluding the perpetrator. When the definition is restricted to four or more people killed, data shows 146 mass shootings between 1967 and 2017, with an average of eight people dead including the perpetrator. The perpetrator generally either commits suicide, is killed, or is restrained by law enforcement officers or civilians.

Definition

There is no fixed definition of a mass shootings in the United States. The Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012, signed into law by Congress in January 2013, defines a "mass killing" as one resulting in at least 3 victims, excluding the perpetrator. In 2015, the Congressional Research Service defined a mass shooting as "a multiple homicide incident in which four or more victims are murdered with firearms, within one event, and in one or more locations in close proximity". A broader definition, as used by the Gun Violence Archive, is that of "4 or more shot or killed, not including the shooter". This definition, of four people shot regardless of whether or not that results in injury or death, is often used by the press and non-profit organisations.

Frequency

Studies indicate that the rate at which public mass shootings occur has tripled since 2011. Between 1982 and 2011, a mass shooting occurred roughly once every 200 days. However, between 2011 and 2014 that rate has accelerated greatly with at least one mass shooting occurring every 64 days in the United States.

The frequency in which mass shootings occur depends upon how one chooses to define "mass shooting." In recent years, the number of public mass shootings has increased substantially, although there has been an approximately 50% decrease in firearm homicides in the nation overall since 1993. The decrease in firearm homicides has been attributed to better policing, a better economy and environmental factors such as the removal of lead from gasoline. However, this does not account for an increase in firearm injuries or suicides, nor explain the increase in mass shootings.

Differing sources

A comprehensive report by USA Today tracked all mass killings from 2006 through 2017 in which the perpetrator willfully killed 4 or more people. For mass killings by firearm for instance, it found 271 incidents with a total of 1,358 victims. This equates to a mass shooting approximately every 16 days. roughly 22.5 per year, with a mean of 5.01 victims per incident. Mother Jones listed seven mass shootings, defined as indiscriminate rampages in public places resulting in four or more victims killed, in the U.S. for 2015. The average for the period 2011–2015 was about 5 a year. An analysis by Michael Bloomberg's gun violence prevention group, Everytown for Gun Safety, identified 110 mass shootings, defined as shootings in which at least four people were murdered with a firearm, between January 2009 and July 2014; at least 57% were related to domestic or family violence. This would imply that not more than 43% of 110 shootings in 5.5 years were non-domestic, though not necessarily public or indiscriminate; this equates to 8.6 per year, broadly in line with the other figures.

Other media outlets have reported that hundreds of mass shootings take place in the United States in a single calendar year, citing a crowd-funded website known as Shooting Tracker which defines a mass shooting as having four or more people injured or killed. In December 2015, The Washington Post reported that there had been 355 mass shootings in the United States so far that year. In August 2015, The Washington Post reported that the United States was averaging one mass shooting per day. An earlier report had indicated that in 2015 alone, there had been 294 mass shootings that killed or injured 1,464 people. Shooting Tracker and Mass Shooting Tracker, the two sites that the media have been citing, have been criticized for using a broader criteria — counting four victims injured as a mass shooting — thus producing much higher figures.

Contributing factors

There could be several possible factors that work together to create a fertile environment for mass murder in the United States. Most commonly suggested include:

1. Failure of government background checks due to incomplete databases and/or staff shortages.
2. Higher accessibility and ownership of guns. The US has the highest per-capita gun ownership in the world with 88.8 firearms per 100 people; the second highest is Yemen with 54.8 firearms per 100 people.
3. The copycat phenomenon.
4. Desire for fame and notoriety.
5. The widespread chronic gap between people's expectations for themselves and their actual achievement, and individualistic culture.
6. It is debatable whether mental illness is also a factor. Many of the mass shooters in the U.S. suffered from mental illness, but the estimated number of mental illness cases has not increased as significantly as the number of mass shootings.

Weapons used

Several types of weapons have been used in mass shootings in the United States including semi-automatic rifles, handguns, and shotguns. In contrast to the rest of the world where the perpetrator usually only has one gun, more than half of US mass shootings are committed with multiple weapons. AR-15 style rifles have been described as "the weapon of choice" of perpetrators of mass shootings by CNN, CBS News, and Wired magazine in 2016, U.S. News & World Report and USA Today in 2017 and The New York Times, ABC News, and The Guardian in 2018.

Deadliest shootings

The following are the twenty deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history (c. 1950 onwards).

† Was previously the deadliest mass shooting

See also

• Gun violence in the United States
• Spree killer
• List of serial killers in the United States
• List of rampage killers (Americas)
• School shootings in the United States

References

1. "US Mass Shootings, 1982–2017: Data From Mother Jones' Investigation".
2. U.S. Leads World in Mass Shootings. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved: October 2, 2017.
3. Why the US has the most mass shootings. CNN. Retrieved: October 2, 2017.
4. Why the U.S. is No. 1 – in mass shootings. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved: October 2, 2017.
5. The United States Has Had More Mass Shootings Than Any Other Country. Mother Jones. Retrieved: October 2, 2017.
6. ^ Christensen, Jen (5 October 2017). "Why the US has the most mass shootings". CNN. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
7. Berkowitz, Bonnie; Gamio, Lazaro; Lu, Denise; Uhrmacher, Kevin; Lindeman, Todd (5 October 2017). "50 years of U.S. mass shootings: The victims, sites, killers and weapons". Washington Post. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
8. Blair, John Pete; Schweit, Katherine W. (2014), A Study of Active Shooter Incidents, 2000–2013 (PDF), Washington DC: Texas State University and Federal Bureau of Investigation
9. ^ Greenberg, Jacobson & Valverde, Jon, Louis & Miriam (February 14, 2018). "What we know about mass shootings". Politifact. Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 20 February 2018. As noted above, there is no widely accepted definition of mass shootings. People use either broad or restrictive definitions of mass shootings to reinforce their stance on gun control. After the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, Congress defined "mass killings" as three or more homicides in a single incident. The definition was intended to clarify when the U.S. Attorney General could assist state and local authorities in investigations of violent acts and shootings in places of public use.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
10. "H.R. 2076 (112th): Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012". govtrack.us. United States Congress. Retrieved 20 February 2018. (I)the term mass killings means 3 or more killings in a single incident;
11. Ingraham, Christopher (3 December 2015). "What makes a 'mass shooting' in America". Washington Post. Retrieved 5 November 2017. But starting in 2013, federal statutes defined "mass killing" as three or more people killed, regardless of weapons.
12. Follman, Mark. "What Exactly Is A Mass Shooting". Mother Jones. Retrieved August 9, 2015. In January 2013, a mandate for federal investigation of mass shootings authorized by President Barack Obama lowered that baseline to three or more victims killed.
13. Krouse, William J.; Richardson, Daniel J. (July 30, 2015). "Mass Murder with Firearms: Incidents and Victims, 1999-2013" (pdf). FAS.org. Congressional Research Service. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
14. "General Methodology". Gun Violence Archive. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
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16. Christensen, Jen (August 28, 2015). "Why the U.S. has the most mass shootings". CNN.
17. ^ "About the Mass Shooting Tracker". Mass Shooting Tracker. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
18. "Orlando club shootings: Full fury of gun battle emerges". - BBC News. 13 June 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2016. Cites Mass Shooting Tracker
19. Axelrod, Jim (6 November 2017). "Are Americans becoming "numb" to mass shootings?". CBS Evening News. Retrieved 21 February 2018.
20. "Rate of mass shootings has tripled since 2011, new research from Harvard shows". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
21. Ehrenfreund, Max (2015-12-03). "We've had a massive decline in gun violence in the United States. Here's why". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2017-12-13.
22. "Behind the Bloodshed". USA Today. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
23. Mark Follman; Gavin Aronsen; Deanna Pan (12 June 2016). "A Guide to Mass Shootings in America". Motherjones.com. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
24. Mark Follman; Gavin Aronsen; Deanna Pan. "US Mass Shootings, 1982–2016: Data From Mother Jones' Investigation". Motherjones.com. Retrieved 13 June 2016. Original date 28 December 2012 ; list updated every 5 minutes. Figures for years 2011–2015: 3, 7, 5, 4, 7.
25. Melissa Jeltsen (18 July 2014). "Mass Shooting Analysis Finds Strong Domestic Violence Connection". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
26. "Analysis of Mass Shootings". Everytownresearch.org. 20 August 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2016. This analysis has later figures than reported in the article
27. "The San Bernardino shooting is the second mass shooting today and the 355th this year". Washington Post. December 2, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
28. Ingraham, Christopher (August 26, 2015). "We're now averaging more than one mass shooting per day in 2015". Washington Post. Retrieved September 6, 2015.
29. "More than one mass shooting happens per day in the U.S., data shows". PBS NewsHour. Retrieved 2015-10-08.
30. Follman, Mark (December 3, 2015). "How Many Mass Shootings Are There, Really?". New York Times. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
31. Stuart, Elizabeth (December 7, 2015). "Number of U.S. Mass Shootings Greatly Exaggerated in Media, Acclaimed Researcher States". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved December 10, 2015.
32. ^ Healy, Melissa (24 August 2015). "Why the U.S. is No. 1 – in mass shootings". LA Times. Retrieved 6 November 2017.
33. Johnson, Kevin. “Texas Church Shooting Background Check Failure.” USA Today. November 9, 2017. Accessed November 17, 2017. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/11/09/texas-church-shooting-background-check-breakdown-highlights-federal-gun-record-problems/847947001/.
34. Barrett, Devlin. “FBI's Gun Background Check Database Missing Records.” Chicago Tribune. November 10, 2017. Accessed November 17, 2017. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-fbi-gun-background-check-system-missing-records-20171110-story.html.
35. The United States Has Had More Mass Shootings Than Any Other Country. Mother Jones. Retrieved: October 2, 2017.
36. Dorell, Oren (December 18, 2012). "In Europe, fewer mass killings due to culture not guns". USA Today. Retrieved August 11, 2015.
37. "The real mental health issue behind gun violence". CNN. January 25, 2016. Retrieved November 7, 2017.
38. Campbell, Holly (December 2, 2015). "Inside the mind of a mass murderer". WANE.com. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
39. Fox, James Alan (January 16, 2011). "The real causes of mass murder". Boston.com. Retrieved November 9, 2017.
40. Smith, Aaron (June 21, 2016). "Why the AR-15 is the mass shooter's go-to weapon". CNN. Retrieved February 15, 2018. The AR-15, the type of rifle used in the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, is the weapon of choice for mass killers.
41. Picchi, Aimee (June 15, 2016). "America's rifle: The marketing of assault-style weapons". CBS MoneyWatch. CBS News. Retrieved February 23, 2018. America has grown accustomed to military-style semi-automatic weapons such as the AR-15. It's not hard to see why: These firearms have been heavily marketed to gun owners. But at the same time, they're often the weapons of choice for mass murderers.
42. Zhang, Sarah (June 17, 2016). "What an AR-15 Can Do to the Human Body". Wired. Retrieved March 3, 2018.
43. Williams, Joseph P. (November 7, 2017). "How the AR-15 Became One of the Most Popular Guns in America, A brief history of the guns that have become the weapons of choice for mass shootings". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved February 15, 2018. They're lightweight, relatively cheap and extremely lethal, inspired by Nazi infantrymen on the Eastern Front during World War II. They're so user-friendly some retailers recommend them for children, yet their design is so aggressive one marketer compared them to carrying a "man card" -- although ladies who dare can get theirs in pink. And if the last few mass shootings are any indication, guns modeled after the AR-15 assault rifle -- arguably the most popular, most enduring and most profitable firearm in the U.S. -- have become the weapon of choice for unstable, homicidal men who want to kill a lot of people very, very quickly.
44. Jansen, Bart; Cummings, William (November 6, 2017). "Why mass shooters are increasingly using AR-15s". USA Today. Retrieved February 15, 2018. AR-15 style rifles have been the weapon of choice in many recent mass shootings, including the Texas church shooting Sunday, the Las Vegas concert last month, the Orlando nightclub last year and Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.
45. Oppel Jr., Richard A. (February 15, 2018). "In Florida, an AR-15 Is Easier to Buy Than a Handgun". The New York Times. Retrieved February 15, 2018. The N.R.A. calls the AR-15 the most popular rifle in America. The carnage in Florida on Wednesday that left at least 17 dead seemed to confirm that the rifle and its variants have also become the weapons of choice for mass killers.
46. Lloyd, Whitney (February 16, 2018). "Why AR-15-style rifles are popular among mass shooters". ABC News. Retrieved March 2, 2018. AR-15-style rifles have become something of a weapon of choice for mass shooters.
47. Beckett, Lois (February 16, 2018). "Most Americans can buy an AR-15 rifle before they can buy beer". The Guardian. Retrieved March 2, 2018. While AR-15 style rifles have become the weapon of choice for some of America's most recent and deadly mass shootings, these military-style guns are still comparatively rarely used in everyday gun violence. Between 2010 and 2014, only 3.55% of gun murders were carried out with any kind of rifle, according to a Guardian analysis of FBI data. The majority of gun murders are still committed with handguns.
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52. ^ "Terrorist attacks and related incidents in the United States". johnstonarchive.net. Retrieved 6 November 2017.

• Mass shootings
• Mass shootings in the United States
• Gun violence in the United States