Search results
The Federal Bureau of Investigation designated 61 of all events in 2021 as active shooter incidents. [8] The United States has had more mass shootings than any other country. [4] [9] [10] [11] [12] After a shooting, perpetrators generally either commit suicide or are restrained or killed by law enforcement officers.
Feb 15, 2024 · Between 2019 and 2020, the total number of mass shootings each year jumped from 414 to 610. Then, 2021 became the worst year for mass shootings since GVA began tracking them in 2013, with...
- A Troubling Upward Trend
- The Study Design
- Other Key Findings and Applicability
- Mass Shooting Demographics
- Interviews
- Other Limitations
- About This Article
The research examined an era of marked increase in the number and deadly effect of mass shootings in the United States. To summarize that trend: 1. The project spanned mass shootings over more than 50 years, yet 20% of the 167 mass shootings in that period occurred in the last five years of the study period. 2. More than half occurred after 2000, o...
The research adopted a mixed method approach combining objective, or readily quantified, data, to populate the database and the interviews of the small sample of persons in prison who had committed mass shootings. The database, as well as a detailed study methodology and research codebook, are available at www.theviolenceproject.org(link is externa...
Trauma, Suicidality, and Crisis
Suicidality was found to be a strong predictor of perpetration of mass shootings. Of all mass shooters in the The Violence Project database, 30% were suicidal prior to the shooting. An additional 39% were suicidal during the shooting. Those numbers were significantly higher for younger shooters, with K-12 students who engaged in mass shootings found to be suicidal in 92% of instances and college/university students who engaged in mass shooting suicidal 100% of the time. In terms of past traum...
Crisis / Mental Illness
In public discourse, mass shootings are often blamed on mental illness. But the research indicates the role of mental illness in mass shootings is complicated, not clear-cut. Mental health issues were common among those who engaged in mass shootings, with psychosis playing a minor role in nearly one third of the cases, but a primary role 10% of the time. The data indicate, however, that nearly all persons who engage in mass shootings were in state of crisis in the days or weeks preceding the...
Warning Signs — Leakage
Nearly half of individuals who engaged in mass shootings (48%) leaked their plans in advance to others, including family members, friends, and colleagues, as well as strangers and law enforcement officers. Legacy tokens, such as manifestos, were left behind by 23.4% of those who committed mass shootings. About 70% of individuals who perpetrated mass shooting knew at least some of their victims. In particular, K-12 school and workplace shooters were “insiders” — current or former students and...
Of the 172 individuals who engaged in public mass shootings covered in the database, 97.7% were male. Ages ranged from 11 to 70, with a mean age of 34.1. Those shooting were 52.3% White, 20.9% Black, 8.1% Latino, 6.4% Asian, 4.2% Middle Eastern, and 1.8% Native American. Most individuals who perpetrated mass shootings had a prior criminal record (6...
The research team cautioned that the qualitative data, from five interviews, did not lend themselves to generalization, because each individual’s story is unique. There was no single profile of a person who engaged in a mass shooting, but the interviewed mass shooters shared the following traits: 1. Early childhood trauma and exposure to violence. ...
The database used open source data, leaving room for bias, the researchers noted, because the source data were originally gathered for different purposes. Media outlets have their own biases, in terms of coverage of different mass shootings. Generally, the report noted, certain categories of mass shootings tended to attract the most coverage. They ...
The research described in this article was funded by NIJ award 2018-75-CX-0023, awarded to Hamline University. This article is based on the grantee report “A Multi-Level, Multi-Method Investigation of the Psycho-Social Life Histories of Mass Shooters,” September 2021, by project’s Principal Investigator, Jillian Peterson. The Co-Principal Investiga...
Feb 9, 2024 · On average, our data shows that five people die in a mass killing of any kind, compared with seven in a fatal public mass shooting. Though these public killings result in more per-incident...
May 27, 2021 · Since 2014 the US has averaged more than one mass shooting a day, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. There is no official definition of “mass shooting”, but this database tracks...
May 15, 2022 · 601 mass shootings in 2022 already, including the attack in Colorado Springs This averages out to more than 13 such attacks a week. National America has seen at least 601 mass shootings so...
Mar 23, 2021 · There have been dozens of mass shootings in the United States in just the past five years, according to the Violence Project, which maintains a database of attacks in which at least four...
