Does the United States have more mass shootings than other countries? It depends on the dataĮxactly how mass shootings in the U.S. also tallies the most mass shootings](/state-rankings/mass-shootings-by-state), with (depending upon definition) somewhere between 21 and more than 600 in 2020. Viewed in terms of sheer volume, the U.S. The United States does have an unusually high rate of gun violence for a developed and wealthy nation. Below is an alphabetized list of just some of the developed countries other than the United States that have experienced one or more mass shootings in the past few decades. tend to get the lion's share of media exposure, mass shootings are clearly a worldwide issue. Mass Shootings: A Global ConcernĪlthough events in the U.S. Within the homicides, 71 were a result of a mass shooting. Of these, 22,938 were suicides, and 14,415 were homicides. In 2016, for example, there were 37,353 gun deaths in the United States. In fact, in the U.S., roughly two-thirds of all gun-related deaths are suicides. However, few gun-related deaths fall under any definition of a mass shooting. Statistics related to the overall level of gun violence in a given country tend to be easier to obtain. for the year 2017 ranged from a low of 11 to a high of 346.Ĭlearly, a significant error margin exists, particularly when creating country-to-country comparisons. In fact, in a 2019 study that compared four different databases, the number of mass shooting events recorded in the U.S. Other databases discard some or all of these incidents. Some databases include organized terrorist attacks, armed robberies gone wrong, and gang-related shootings. Some databases include occurrences in which the shooter killed only family members (but still in a public place, such as a restaurant). Similarly, some databases include events in which at least four people were wounded, but not necessarily killed. However, most other stat trackers require at least four fatalities. As such, database-to-database differences are common-and confounding.įor example, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) defines a mass shooting as a single attack that happens in a public place and in which three or more people are killed with a firearm. The first complication is that there is no official, universally accepted definition for a mass shooting, so each stat-tracking organization has its own qualifying criteria. How Differing Definitions of 'Mass Shooting' Confound Comparisons One primary reason for this disconnect is that reliable data on mass shootings can be notoriously, frustratingly difficult to obtain.

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