Mass Shooting Factsheet

DEFINITION:

A mass shooting is an incident of targeted violence carried out by one or more shooters at one or more public or populated locations. Multiple victims (both injuries and fatalities) are associated with the attack, and both the victims and location(s) are chosen either at random or for their symbolic value. The event occurs within a single 24-hour period, though most attacks typically last only a few minutes. The motivation of the shooting must not correlate with gang violence or targeted militant or terroristic activity.*

*Definition developed by Jaclyn Schildkraut and H. Jaymi Elsass. The data underlying the visualizations below are collected and maintained by Jaclyn Schildkraut and H. Jaymi Elsass.

Number of mass shootings in the United States, 1966-2022
441
They have resulted in:
1,569 deaths
3,923 victims
(both injured and killed)
Mass shootings have been increasing steadily in frequency since 1966
1966-75
12 mass shootings
2013-22
170 mass shootings
Chart. y-axis shows number of mass shootings, 0 to 25. x-axis shows the year, 1966 to 2022. dots shows the number of mass shootings per year and a trend line curves upward as we move from 1966 to 2022.
95.7%
of perpetrators were male
The majority of mass shootings took place at a
workplace (29.0%)
school (24.3%)
Average age of mass shooters
33.4 years old
75.1%
of perpetrators used handguns
54.1%
of perpetrators were white

Follow @RockGunResearch on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for the latest in gun violence research.

MORE FROM THE REGIONAL GUN VIOLENCE RESEARCH CONSORTIUM

Can Mass Shootings be Stopped? To Address the Problem, We Must Better Understand the Phenomenon (report)

Mass Shootings: The Motives Vary, but the Path to Violence Is Largely the Same (blog)

Changing How We Talk about Mass Shootings (podcast)

Mass Shootings Can Be Prevented … and the Media Are a Good Place to Start (blog)