The U.S. has averaged over one mass shooting per month for the past four years. In the six months after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, CT, this trend has not relented. ThinkProgress analyzed all gun violence since December 14, 2012 and determined that there have been about 14 mass shootings.
These shootings tell a story that is now all-too-familiar to Americans. The gunman usually started by killing his family or significant other. Often, he had a history of anger or depression. And many of these killers should have been disqualified from buying a gun, whether because of their age, a criminal record, restraining order, or hospitalization.
Mass shootings, which ThinkProgress defined for this purpose as random gun-related incidents, usually in a public area and resulting in either multiple injuries or death, are still only a fraction of the gun violence that plagues Americans all over the country every day. On May 31, the number of people killed by guns since Newtown surpassed the number of American troops killed during the entire Iraq War. As of today, an average of 28 people have been shot to death every day since Newtown.
The 14 shootings since Newtown killed a total of 45 people, not including the perpetrators. Each death has transformed the lives of countless others who knew and loved the victims.
These shootings tell a story that is now all-too-familiar to Americans. The gunman usually started by killing his family or significant other. Often, he had a history of anger or depression. And many of these killers should have been disqualified from buying a gun, whether because of their age, a criminal record, restraining order, or hospitalization.
Mass shootings, which ThinkProgress defined for this purpose as random gun-related incidents, usually in a public area and resulting in either multiple injuries or death, are still only a fraction of the gun violence that plagues Americans all over the country every day. On May 31, the number of people killed by guns since Newtown surpassed the number of American troops killed during the entire Iraq War. As of today, an average of 28 people have been shot to death every day since Newtown.
The 14 shootings since Newtown killed a total of 45 people, not including the perpetrators. Each death has transformed the lives of countless others who knew and loved the victims.
Besides the shootings mapped above, there were several incidents this year that came close to turning into bloodbaths but were thankfully averted. In March, a Florida college student pulled a dorm fire alarm to bring students out into the hallway so he could slaughter them with his arsenal of guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He ultimately decided to kill himself instead. At Chelsea Middle School in Alabama, a crazed former employee took several middle school girls hostage in the locker room at gunpoint. Thankfully, he was apprehended before he could hurt anyone, preventing Chelsea from becoming the next Sandy Hook.
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