Mass shootings are skyrocketing amid the coronavirus lockdown, with more attacks so far in 2020 than usually occur over the span of an entire year.
As of Thursday, 336 mass shootings have been documented across the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive, an independent research group. The number of mass shootings, which is defined as four or more victims, not including the shooter, is already greater than the total 269 killed in all of 2014, 335 in 2015, and within single digits of the 2017 and 2018 annual numbers. Last year was the record for the most mass shootings in a single year, though 2020 is on track to surpass it by September if current monthly trends continue.
The number of mass shootings ranged from 26 to 28 in each month between January and April, surged to 50 in May, skyrocketed to 92 in June, and sits at 76 in July, with one more day left in the month. Stay-at-home orders commenced in mid-March and remained in effect through most of April. Some states have rescinded them, while others have continued or tightened them after initially loosening the orders.
More than 225 people have been killed in these shootings this year and more than 1,050 injured. Only two such incidents took place on the campus of a school or university at the start of the year prior to most U.S. schools closing their doors as local and state leaders mandated virtual learning due to the pandemic.
The largest shootings involved a dozen to 18 victims and were not limited to one state or region of the country. Last week, seven people in Manteca, California, were wounded at a house party after a man opened fire on the group. Fifteen people were shot in Chicago while leaving a funeral home on July 21, and 13 others were shot at a riverfront gathering in Peoria, Illinois, several days earlier.
Fourteen people in Atlanta were shot, and two were killed earlier in July after a fight broke out during a fireworks show. More than a dozen people were shot in incidents in Bogalusa, Louisiana, Cleveland, Ohio, and Kansas City, Missouri, earlier this year.
