Mass Shootings in America

 

Let's start with a list of the mass shootings thus far in 2015, excluding the most recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California on December 2, 2015:

 

So far in 2015, there have been 351 mass shootings in the United States with a total of 447 people killed and 1292 people injured.  That works out to an average of 4.68 casualties per mass shooting.  It also works out to one mass shooting every 1.06 days.  On some days, there were multiple mass shootings; for example, July 17, 2015 saw five mass shootings that killed a total of 4 people and injured another 21 people.  In only 59 cases for all of 2015 was the identity of the shooter provided with the remainder being either unknown or undisclosed.

 

Rather than looking at the details for 2013 and 2014, I will just provide you with a summary for each year:

 

2014

 

Number of mass shootings: 336

Average number of mass shootings per day: 0.92

Number of people killed: 383

Number of people injured: 1239

Average number of casualties per mass shooting: 4.83

 

2013

 

Number of mass shootings: 363

Average number of mass shootings per day: 1.0

Number of people killed: 502 

Number of people injured: 1266

Average number of casualties per mass shooting: 4.87 

 

In the past three years alone, mass shootings in the United States have taken the lives of 1332 people.

 

Let's close this rather sobering posting with a bit of data.  Hereis a bar graph from Open Secrets showing how much the gun rights lobby has spent on lobbying in Washington each year going back to 1998:

 

So far in 2015, the gun rights lobby has spent $8.402 million.  At its peak, the gun rights lobby spent $15.292 million on lobbying in 2013.  Here are the top 8 gun rights lobbying clients and how much each has spent:

 

In sharp contrast, here is a bar graph showing how much the gun control lobby has spent on lobbying in Washington each year going back to 1998:

 

So far in 2015, the gun control lobby has spent $1.258 million.   At its peak, the pro-gun control lobby spent $2.218 million on lobbying in 2013.  Here are the top 6 pro-gun control lobbying clients and how much each has spent:

 

Now we have some idea why it is highly unlikely that anything will change.