The United States has had more mass shootings in 2023 than there were days in the year so far.
Data collected by the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a nonprofit organization that collects and compiles information about gun deaths in America, paints a stark image of gun violence in America.
The GVA defines a mass shooting as having a ‘minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident’.
By the Archive’s definition, there have been 518 mass shootings in the US since the year began. A total of 605 people have been killed in these shootings.
The deadliest mass shooting so far this year took place this month, after a gunman opened fire at a bar and bowling alley in Lewiston, Maine.
A total of 22 people died and over 70 reportedly injured – some from a stampede – in the massacre, which happened at Schemengees Bar and Grille and Sparetime Recreation, around four miles apart.
Previously the shooting at a Chinese New Year party in Monterey Park was the largest shooting in the US this year.
Huu Can Tran, aged 72, killed 11 people during a Chinese New Year celebration at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park.
Among those deaths, a disturbing number of children and teenagers have been targeted. According to the GVA, a total of 246 children, aged months to 11 years old, have been killed by firearms in 2023. Another 545 were injured.
Among those were the three children killed in the mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, that took place in March.
The shooting took place at a private Christian elementary school in the Tennessee city. All three of the children killed were 9-year-old first graders. Three adult faculty members were also killed in the massacre.
Another 1,157 teenagers, defined by the GVA as ages 12 to 17, have been killed by gun violence in 2023. A total of 3,273 teens have been injured.
Four young people were killed when shooters targeted a Sweet 16 birthday party in the small town of Dadeville, Alabama. Another 32 partygoers were injured in the shootout.
The victims included the 18-year-old brother of the girl celebrating her birthday. He reportedly pushed his sister out of the line-of-fire to save her life.
However, deaths in mass shootings only make up a small percentage of the total number of the 35,278 firearms deaths as of October 26.
About 15,544 of those deaths were homicides, a total which also includes murders, unintentional or accidental deaths from firearms, and domestic abuse.
According to a report from nonprofit organization Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun violence advocacy group formed in the wake of the 2013 Sandy Hook school shooting, 70 women per month are shot and killed by their partners in the US.
In one of the most disturbing incidences of violence this year, a man in Utah shot and killed his wife after she asked for a divorce. He then turned the gun on their five children, aged four to 17.
The shooter had previously been investigated by police for domestic abuse against his wife and older children, but a prosecutor declined to press charges due to a lack of evidence.
Some of those deaths also included incidents of accidental violence, often as a result of children obtaining unsecured firearms around the house.
In Houston, Texas, a 3-year-old girl shot and killed her 4-year-old sister while the two children were playing with an unsecured firearm they found in a parent’s bedroom.
‘You’ve got to be sure you’re being a responsible gun owner, securing your weapons in a safe place,’ Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said after the tragic death.
‘It’s got to be more than just telling young kids not to touch the weapons. You know, we’ve got to do a little more. We see far too many tragic situations like this unfold.’
One of the most striking examples of this took place only days into the new year. In January, a 6-year-old student somehow obtained a gun owned by his parents and brought it to school, where he fired a single shot at his first grade teacher.
The victim, teacher Abby Zwerner, became one of a total of 11,912 Americans that have been injured by firearms so far in 2023.
But the largest percentage of gun deaths is still suicides. A total of 8,514 deaths from self-inflicted gunshots have been recorded in the US so far.
According to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicides by firearm increased nearly 35% between 2019 and 2020, coinciding with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
These deaths have not meaningfully decreased, according to the GVA’s data. Just over 24,000 Americans used guns to kill themselves in 2021 and 2022 as well.
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