What is a mass shooting? There's no consensus definition, but here's what you should know
Excerpt from Wyatte Grantham-Philips of USA Today
Mourning and outrage have shaken the nation as mass shootings continue to mark some of the latest chapters of a long history of gun violence across the United States.
On June 1, a gunman killed four people in a shooting at a medical center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The attack comes after high-profile shooting massacres in Buffalo, New York, where 10 Black people were killed, and Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in May.
As Americans grapple with these horrific shootings and many demand change, it's important to understand the language and data surrounding mass shootings and their impact worldwide.
"These (data) counts are just a really small fraction of lives that are altered forever after these tragedies... (Mass shootings) shatter families and whole communities," Sarah Burd-Sharps, senior director of research at advocacy nonprofit Everytown For Gun Safety, told USA TODAY.
What is considered a mass shooting? How many mass shootings occur each year? Here's what you need to know:
'We're in a paralysis': There have already been a dozen mass killings this year. Here's what the numbers show.
Bloodshed since Sandy Hook: Uvalde school shooting among deadliest school attacks in past 10 years
What is considered a mass shooting?
There's no single consensus on the definition.
The Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit research group, defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot or killed, not including the shooter.
In contrast, Everytown currently defines it as a shooting in which four or more people are shot and killed, again excluding the shooter – but Burd-Sharps noted that they are moving toward expanding the definition to also include four or more injuries in the future.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation doesn't have a mass shooting definition. Instead, the FBI defines "mass murder" as an incident where four or more people are killed, which can include gun violence.
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