A timeline of mass shootings in the U.S.

Gun violence

A timeline of mass shootings in the U.S.

At least 2,000 people have been killed or injured in mass shootings since 1999.

A transit employee fatally shot nine co-workers at a rail yard in San Jose, California on May 26. At least 39 people have been killed in mass shootings around the United States so far in 2021.

A gunman shot and killed eight people at a FedEx operations center near the Indianapolis International airport in the late evening on April 15. On March 31, four people were killed, one of them a child, in a shooting at an office building in suburban Los Angeles. One week earlier, a gunman killed 10 people in a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, before he was taken into custody by police. At least 2,000 people have been killed or injured in mass shootings since 1999 when 13 students were killed at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, according to data gathered by Mother Jones magazine.

The U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right to keep and bear arms. The U.S. also recorded more deaths from firearms than car accidents in 2019. Past polls have shown a majority of Americans in both parties have a desire for more gun control, and new legislation may be on the way - the House of Representatives approved a pair of gun control bills in March that could make background checks more effective.

Note

The Mother Jones dataset uses the FBI’s definition of a mass shooting, which is an act of gun violence resulting in 4 or more deaths, or 3 or more deaths after 2013.

Sources

Mother Jones’ Mass Shootings in America database; Reuters reporting; ProPublica’s Weepeople font

Edited by

Jon McClure, Jonathan Oatis