
As of May 10, there have been four shootings in the United States in which four or more victims died this year, compared with 11 at the same juncture last year. It’s the lowest incident count over the first four months of a year since at least 2006, when researchers started the Mass Killing Database, which is maintained by the Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.
The drop builds on year over year data, which shows that mass shootings declined from 39 in 2023 to 30 in 2024.
The percentage of Americans indicating that they are fearful of mass shootings nearly tripled from 16 percent in 2015 to 46 percent in 2024, according to Chapman University. And as many as one-third of respondents in a 2019 survey commissioned by the American Psychological Association admitted to having avoided certain places or events out of concern for a shooting.
The truth is these events are exceedingly rare. Moreover, nearly half of all mass shootings take place in private dwellings, and about one-quarter involve gang conflict, drug trafficking or other criminal enterprises.
— James Alan Fox in This year there have been zero public deadly mass shootings