Led largely by shootings, mass killings in the United States hit the highest level this year since at least the 1970s.
A database compiled by the Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University has been tracking mass killings since 2006 and found that 2019 had the most on record. Further research going back to the 1970s revealed no other year during which mass killings were so abundant.
A mass killing is defined by the database as an incident where four or more people are killed, not including the perpetrator.
The report concluded that there were 41 mass killings in 2019, 33 of which were mass shootings. In total, 211 people were killed during this year’s slayings. Although 2019 marked the highest number of mass killing incidents, 2017 had the most death with 224 victims. That was the same year of the Las Vegas shooting, the deadliest in American history.
James Densely, a professor and criminologist at Minnesota’s Metropolitan State University, told the Associated Press that crime tends to come in waves. For instance, serial killings marked the 1970s and 1980s, the 1990s saw an uptick in school shootings and child abductions, and fears of terrorist attacks punctuated the 2000s.
“This seems to be the age of mass shootings,” Densley said.
He also pointed out the contrasting statistics with mass shootings and overall rates of violent crime.
“What makes this even more exceptional is that mass killings are going up at a time when general homicides, overall homicides, are going down,” Densley explained. “As a percentage of homicides, these mass killings are also accounting for more deaths.”
Two of the year’s worst shootings were the back-to-back rampages at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and a bar in Dayton, Ohio. Separated by just hours, the two mass shootings stunned the nation.
