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US passes 100 mass shootings by 2023: here are all the events mapped
A line of police tape on a city street with cars and buildings in the background.
Since the beginning of 2023, the United States has averaged more than one mass shooting per day. He gun violence fileA nonprofit group that tracks gun violence using police reports, government sources, news coverage and other public data, tallied 106 mass shootings in 2023 through March 9, a 68-day period.
There is currently no official, universal definition of what constitutes a mass shooting. Groups define it differently based on the number of victims, whether they are killed or injured, whether the shooting occurs in a public or private space, and whether the shooter is aiming at the victims. The Armed Violence File defines it as an event in which at least four people were killed or injured.
The lack of a consistent definition creates opportunities for people to interpret the data differently, making it difficult for lawmakers to come up with an agreed set of facts on which to address gun control.
For example, using a much narrower definition of a mass shooting, security specialists who wrote a 2013 Congressional Report identified just 78 mass shooting events between 1983 and 2012. This number is in stark contrast to the GVA findings for 2014, which determined that 273 mass shootings occurred that year alone.
Looking at the most recent numbers, the Gun Violence Archive recorded 647 mass shootings in the US in 2022. Compared to last year, mass shootings in 2023 are outpacing last year’s rate. Stacker data cited from the gun violence file to visualize the extent of mass shootings so far in 2023. Data is as of March 7, 2023.
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Emma Rubin // Stacker
There have been mass shootings in gun-friendly states, and some stricter ones
Map of mass shootings by location so far in 2023.
Several of the states where there have been mass shootings this year are the ones that do not require gun owners to obtain a permit carry a concealed weapon However, some of the most high-profile mass shootings this year, such as those in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Parkcalifornia, and Washington D.C.it happened in states with stricter gun laws.
Gun violence in the US is a complex problem with many contributing factors beyond state laws. A 2022 study from Everytown for Gun Safety compare state laws to gun violence rates, however, shows a correlation between the two. States with the most restrictions on gun users also have the lowest rates of gun-related deaths, while states with the least regulations have the highest rate of gun deaths.
With 120 firearms for every 100 residents, the US is the only country in the world with more civilian-owned guns than people, according to the 2018 Small Arms Survey.
Emma Rubin // Stacker
Mass shootings take place in almost all types of public and private spaces.
Column chart of mass shootings by date so far in 2023.
This year, shooters have targeted people on college campuses, cultural celebrations, gas stations, private residences, city centers and even on highways.
The deadliest single event to date remains the January 21 shooting in Monterey Park, California, where a gunman killed 11 people and wounded nine others in a dance hall in an Asian-American community during a celebration of the Lunar New Year.
Nine incidents of mass shootings occurred between February 17 and 19, the most of any weekend in 2023. That weekend, nine children were shot at a gas station in Georgia, six people were shot on I-57 in Chicagoleaving a child dead, and five people, including a 4-year-old boy, were shot at a parade in new orleans.
Firearms are leading cause of death in people under the age of 24 in the US, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics in December 2022.
