Mass Shootings by Year

Last updated on February 16th, 2017 at 04:57 pm

(12/6/15) In a previous report I presented total number of gun background checks (sales)by year which showed a dramatic increase over the last 6 years. With this in mind I wanted to see if mass shootings have increased or decreased to go along with increased gun possession. Calculating mass shootings is very subjective. If you count every time 2 or more people were shot the total for 2015 alone would be 353. The FBI classifies a mass shooting as anytime 4 or more people were killed by a gun. For objectivity we will use the FBI statistics.

Results: It is not possible to correlate increased guns with increased mass shootings. In 2012 there was a record 7 mass shootings. If this anomaly is removed mass shootings average around 2-3 per year. Here is a chart for reference: