


Other states are experiencing a new round of pressure. That year, 60 people died when a gunman opened fire over an outdoor country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip.Īnd on Wednesday, a ban on dozens of types of semi-automatic rifles cleared the Washington state legislature and is headed to the governor's desk. The data shows a high of 45 mass killings in 2019 and 230 people slain in such tragedies in 2017. Those figures just barely exceed the averages of 31.1 mass killings and 162 victims a year, according to an analysis of data dating back to 2006. In 2009, the bloodshed slowed and the year finished with a final count of 32 mass killings and 172 fatalities. The pace of mass shootings so far this year doesn't necessarily foretell a new annual record. The likelihood of Congress reinstating a ban on semi-automatic rifles appears far off, and the US Supreme Court last year set new standards for reviewing the nation's gun laws, calling into question firearms restrictions across the country. Yet the violence continues and barriers to change remain. Open Arms Veterans & Families Counselling 1800 011 046Īll have taken the lives of four or more people at once since January 1.Care Leavers Australasia Network (CLAN) on 1800 008 774.Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support line 13YARN on 13 92 76.Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467.Gruesome records set within the last decadeįrom coast to coast, the violence is sparked by a range of motives: murder-suicides and domestic violence, gang retaliation, school shootings and workplace vendettas. The US recorded 30 or fewer mass killings in more than half of the years in the database, so for there to have been 17 less than a third of the way through this year is remarkable. The 2023 numbers stand out even more when they are compared to the tally for full-year totals since data was collected. Yet mass killings are happening with staggering frequency this year - an average of once every 6.53 days, according to an analysis of The AP/USA Today data. The bloodshed represents just a fraction of the fatal violence that occurs in the US annually. It counts killings involving four or more fatalities, not including the perpetrator, the same standard as the FBI, and tracks a number of variables for each. The Parkland victims are among the 2,842 people who have died in mass killings in the US since 2006, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today, in partnership with Northeastern University. Outrage doesn't begin to describe how I feel."
