611 Mass Shootings Recorded So Far In 2022—Second-Worst Year For Gun Violence In Almost A Decade

Topline

There have been 611 mass shootings in the U.S. this year, making it the second-worst year for gun violence in the eight years since the Gun Violence Archive, the nation’s most comprehensive tracker of mass shootings, began recording data—as the country recovers from major shootings this week in Colorado Springs and Chesapeake, Virginia.

There have been 610 mass shootings in the U.S. so far this year.

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Key Facts

The 611 mass shootings so far this year surpasses the 610 recorded in 2020, making 2022 the second worst year since the Gun Violence Archive started recording gun violence data in 2013—the highest was 690 in 2021.

On Thanksgiving Day, a shooter killed two and injured two in Houston Texas, one day after shooters in Philadelphia and Temple Hills, Maryland, injured four in two separate attacks, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an event that killed or injured at least four people, not including the shooter.

As of Nov. 25, 39,935 people have died from gun-related events in the U.S. this year, including 18,221 who died by homicide, murder or an unintentional shooting, plus another 21,714 who died by suicide.

Of those victims, 291 were children ages 0-11, and 1,225 were teens ages 12-17.

The number of gun deaths this year, however, is lower than in 2021, when more than 45,000 people died from gun violence, even though there have been more mass shootings this year.

Big Number

35,351. That’s how many people were injured in gun-related incidents in the U.S. this year—the third highest injury rate since the Gun Violence Archive started recording data. It’s less than the 40,602 people that were injured last year and the 39,542 in 2020.

News Peg

On Tuesday night, a gunman opened fire in a Walmart breakroom in Chesapeake, Virginia, killing six people and injuring at least four before killing himself. It was the latest high-profile mass shooting this year, and the second that’s made national headlines this week, after another gunman in Colorado Springs killed five people and injured more than two dozen when he fired a long rifle—which police described as an AR-style firearm—inside a gay club. Those shootings resparked a national debate around gun violence, background checks and AR-15 assault rifles, which have been dubbed killers’ “weapon of choice.”

Key Background

Calls to reform the country’s gun laws have been circling for decades, but were reignited after two high-profile mass shootings in May: the attack that left 10 people dead at a grocery store in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, and the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 21 people, including 19 children. Congress passed a gun control bill in June that included provisions to strengthen background checks for gun buyers younger than 21, close the so-called boyfriend loophole that had allowed people convicted of domestic abuse to own a gun as long as they aren’t married to the person they abused, and invest money into red flag laws that allow courts to seize guns from people determined to be a danger to themself or others. Other gun control legislation has been more controversial. One was an assault weapon ban bill that passed the House of Representatives in July but failed to get Senate approval, after GOP members of Congress argued it would take weapons away from people who need them for self-defense.

Tangent

The U.S. leads other large Western countries with developed economies in gun violence by a large margin. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, four out of every 100,000 people die by gun violence in the U.S. every year. That’s eight times the number of gun deaths recorded each year in Canada (0.5 per 100,000), and a massive step above European countries, including Switzerland (0.2), Norway (0.1), Germany (0.1) and the United Kingdom (0.04).