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The Gun Violence Archive (GVA) reported on Monday that the number of mass shootings in the U.S. surpassed the 500 mark over the weekend.
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The nation’s 500th mass shooting in 2023 occurred Saturday night in Denver, Colorado, leaving five injured, according to the Denver Police Department.
Hours later, another mass shooting took place in El Paso, Texas, early Sunday morning. It claimed the life of a 19-year-old and left five others wounded, bringing the total number of mass shootings to 501.
The nonprofit’s website defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are injured or killed by gunfire, not including the shooter.
Weekly Mass Shooting Update:
There have been 25 U.S. mass shootings in the 18 days of September, bringing 2023’s total to 504.
January: 54
February: 40
March: 40
April: 56
May: 80
June: 66
July: 86
August: 57
September: 25There were 488 mass shootings by this date last year.
— The Gun Violence Archive (@GunDeaths)
September 18, 2023
The GVA indicates that the 500 mass shooting threshold was surpassed in September in the last two years, with 645 in 2022 and 689 in 2021, the year with the highest number of mass shootings in U.S. history.
This hat trick was also surpassed in 2020 with 610 mass shootings while in 2019 and 2018 the number recorded was lower with 414 and 335 mass shootings respectively.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) in its annual report on crime and safety indicated that there were 188 school shootings with casualties in the 2021-22 school year. This figure represents more than double the number of incidents documented a year earlier.
According to the K-12 school shooting database, there were 305 school shootings in 2022 and 230 through September 5, 2023.
Real-time U.S. gun violence data for 2023, as of September 18th:
•13,716 deaths
•27,032 injuries
•504 mass shootings
•30 mass murders
•723 children (0-11) shot
•3,974 teenagers (12-17) shot
•864 defensive use incidents
•1,151 accidental shootings
•~17,226 suicides*— The Gun Violence Archive (@GunDeaths)
September 18, 2023
Mass shootings have increased over the past decade, but so has gun ownership among the population. Americans increasingly view gun violence as a public concern.
An October 2022 Gallup poll finds that a majority of Americans favor gun control, with 57% supporting stricter gun laws. The agency notes that gun control has majority support among Democrats, while it is in the minority among Republicans.
Data from Annals of Internal Medicine indicate that 7.5 million U.S. adults became new gun owners between January 2019 and April 2021. About one-third of U.S. adults report personally owning a gun established as a right under the Second Amendment to the nation’s Constitution.
