Over 500 mass shootings recorded in 2023 in US

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
18 Sep 2023 17:16

There have been more than 500 mass shootings recorded in the United States over the past year thus far, with a grim reality before US citizens in light of the crisis.

Parishioners pray during a service at the St. Paul A.M.E. Church, Aug. 27, 2023, for the victims of a mass shooting in Jacksonville, Florida (AP)

There have been a staggering 502 cases of mass shootings in the United States since the beginning of this year, the Gun Violence Archive, a non-profit dedicated to monitoring gun-related violence and incidents, said Monday.

The report highlights the growing concern surrounding gun violence across the nation.

Late last month, the Gun Violence Archive sounded the alarm, revealing a disturbing increase in the frequency of mass shooting incidents in 2023 compared to previous years.

If this alarming trend of an average of two mass shootings per day persists, the year-end figure could soar to a harrowing 700 cases, a grim milestone for the United States amid inaction from officials.

Even more alarming is the revelation that the number of mass shooting cases involving four or more individuals killed or wounded has nearly tripled over the past decade. In 2014, the United States recorded 272 such cases, but by 2020, that number had surged to 610. It has been on the rise since then. This trajectory suggests that the years of President Joe Biden's tenure may witness the highest rate of mass shootings in recent memory.

Civilians dying en masse

President Biden has declared gun violence a top priority of his administration, recognizing that firearms remain the "number one killer of children" in the United States.

Despite his pledges to tackle the crisis at hand, the Biden administration is failing to mitigate the burden of the domestic crisis on US citizens, with civilians dying en masse on a weekly basis.

Another grave issue the US is facing is school shootings, which is an almost-exclusive phenomenon that is an extension of mass shootings.

A report by the National Center for Education Statistics shows that the number of mass shootings in US elementary and secondary schools that either ended in injury or death broke a new record in the 2021-2022 academic year as gun violence across the country rises.

Released on September 14, the report demonstrated that 327 school shootings at public and private elementary and secondary schools were reported in 2021-2022, which includes 188 incidents with casualties and 139 that did not report any deaths or injuries.

As the death toll increases just about every week, some are looking for solutions to prevent guns from being handed to people prone to becoming violent.

The conventional definition of a mass killing involves an occurrence when four or more people are killed within a 24-hour period. It excludes the assailant from being included in the death toll.

It is worth mentioning that the rise in gun deaths among children and teens is part of a broader recent increase in firearm deaths among Americans overall. In 2021, there were 48,830 gun deaths among Americans of all ages – by far the highest yearly total on record and up 23% from the 39,707 recorded in 2019, before the pandemic.