Mass shootingsUnderstanding Mass Shootings in America

A mass shooting in Boulder, Colorado, left 10 people dead less than a week after a spate of shootings at three spas in the Atlanta area claimed eight lives, including six Asian women. 

The type of public mass shooting that dominates headlines has been less common in America over the past year, though mass shootings of a less visible sort have indeed been occurring ever since the start of the pandemic — and at increased rates. When The Trace analyzed shootings with four or more injuries from the first two-thirds of 2020, we found that more than half took place in majority-Black census tracts. Less than 10 percent of census tracts nationally have majority Black populations.

Here’s the big picture on mass shootings in America, and how they fit into our country’s epidemic of gun violence.

Tragedy and Spectacle
There is no official definition of “mass shooting,” though it is often understood as an incident in a public place that claims four or more lives, and attracts widespread media coverage. In the last five decades, these events have become far more common.

Other groups, like Gun Violence Archive, use a much broader definition for what counts as a mass shooting, sweeping in incidents that happen in homes, and where there are four or more casualties — not just deaths.

The random nature of indiscriminate gunfire unleashed without warning is all the more frightening because it can happen anywhere. In recent years, gunmen have killed worshipers at a church, moviegoers at a theater, people at a gay nightclub, and young children at an elementary school. In July 2016, a 25-year-old Army reservist who was reportedly angry over police shootings of unarmed Black men killed five officers and wounded 11 others during a rampage in Dallas.

Mass shootings are both tragedy and spectacle. As a result, they attract a huge amount of attention, which tends to distort views about the prevalence of incidents, the most common victims, and how the weapons that are used are obtained.