The United States has surpassed 400 mass shootings in 2023, setting the stage for a record-breaking year in gun violence without any significant federal firearm legislation on the horizon.
America reached the grim figure by Saturday — the earliest in a year 400 shootings have been recorded since at least 2013, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Like CNN, the GVA — a non-profit group formed in 2013 to track gun-related violence — defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
With five months remaining in 2023, the US has already eclipsed the number of mass shootings recorded each year from 2013 through 2018. Should the current pace continue, 2023 will see more mass shootings than in 2019 through 2022. The Gun Violence Archive started tracking these numbers in 2013.
In 2019, it took 356 days — nearly the entire year — to hit 400 mass shootings. This year and in 2021, however, the United States reached that marker in just seven months.
The rate of mass shootings in 2023 has consistently outpaced that of past years, with an average of nearly two mass shootings a day.
Nearly 1 in 5 US adults has had a family member killed by a gun, including homicides and suicides, according to a 2023 survey from KFF (formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation). About the same proportion of adults have been personally threatened with a gun, and about 1 in 6 adults has witnessed an injury from a shooting, the survey found.
“This is the only country in the world where men who are having breaks with reality exorcise their demons through mass slaughter,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who has made gun safety legislation central to his work following the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, told CNN earlier this year.
“We’re not the only place in the world…
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