Americans are wildly concerned about mass shootings, and there is heightened media around many mass shooting incidents. But what are the actual numbers of people killed in mass shootings, and where do they occur? The numbers and locations may surprise some.
The Washington, D.C.-based Gun Violence Archive (GVA) crunches data from more than 1,500 media, law enforcement, government and commercial sources daily to provide near-real time data about the results of gun violence.
According to GVA, its mission is to document incidents of gun violence and gun crime to provide raw, verified data to those who need to use it in their research, advocacy or writing.
As of today, May 25, 2016, there were 113 mass shooting incidents reported and verified.
GVA defines a mass shooting as four or more shot and/or killed in a single event (not including the shooter), at the same general time and location.
So far in 2016, the top five U.S. cities for the (number killed) in mass shootings are:
- Piketon, Ohio (8)
- Kalamazoo, Mich. (6)
- Appling, Ga. (6)
- Chesapeake, Va. (6)
- Pittsburgh, Pa. (5)
Topping the charts for the number injured in a mass shooting is Hesston, Kan., (from one incident where a gunman killed 3 and injured 14).
The Gun Violence Archive homepage has a dashboard with various gun violence statistics that are updated daily.
Learn more about GunViolenceArchive.org’s methodology on its website.
