The number of mass shootings across the U.S. thus far in 2019 has outpaced the number of days this year, according to a gun violence research group. This puts 2019 on pace to be the first year since 2016 with an average of more than one mass shooting a day.
As of November 17, which is the 321st day of the year, there have been 369 mass shootings in the U.S., according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which tracks every mass shooting in the country. Twenty-eight of those shootings were mass murders.
The GVA defines a mass shooting as any incident in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter. The group also tracks mass murders as defined by the FBI — incidents in which at least four people are killed. There have been 28 mass murders so far in 2019. The FBI does not have a formal definition of a mass shooting.
The toll of 369 mass shootings includes several high-profile attacks, two of which happened within 24 hours of each other:
A shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, on November 14, with two teenage students killed and three wounded. The suspect, a 16-year-old student, shot himself in the head and died the next day.
A drive-by shooting spree in Odessa and Midland, Texas, on August 31, with seven people killed and 24 wounded
A shooting in a historic district of Dayton, Ohio, on August 4, with nine people killed and 27 injured.
A shooting at Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on August 3, with 22 people killed and at least 24 wounded. It was the deadliest shooting of the year.
A shooting in a municipal building in Virginia Beach, on May 31, where a former city employee killed 12 people and wounded four.
The GVA said there have been a total of 34,365 gun deaths — including homicides, suicides and accidents — and 25,929 injuries, as of November 17.
The last time the mass shooting toll topped days of the year was 2016, which had 382 mass shootings — the most in any year since the Gun Violence Archive started keeping track. The past two years came close, with 346 mass shootings in 2017 and 340 in 2018.