The dangerous pace of mass shootings intensified in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and has persisted ever since. Between 2019 and 2020, the total number of mass shootings each year increased from 414 to 610. 2021 then became the worst year for mass shootings since GVA began tracking them in 2013, with 690 in 44 states and Washington, D.C. In 2023 there were 656 mass shootings.
GVA data shows that mass shootings increased after May 2020, compared to trends in previous years. Shootings doubled in July 2020 compared to the previous year, as researchers noted in JAMA Open Network when analyzing GVA data between April 2020 and July 2021.
The rise in mass shootings coincided with an overall rise in gun violence during the pandemic. The firearm homicide rate in the United States in 2020 was the highest recorded since 1994, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Between 2019 and 2020, the overall firearm homicide rate increased about 35%, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
CNN reports on mass shootings based on data from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks gun violence in the United States. CNN and GVA define a mass shooting as a shooting that injured or killed four or more people, not including the shooter. The number of mass shootings and casualties is not exact and is subject to change as reports from authorities, media and other sources upon which GVA relies are updated and verified.
These charts include U.S. mass shootings to date that fall within this definition and are updated as new data becomes available to GVA. Data can lag breaking news.
