Has the news of mass shootings become “normal” as President Obama suggested after last week’s attack at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado?
After Wednesday's shooting at a treatment facility in San Bernandino, Calif., that left 14 dead, it may seem like you are hearing about this type of gun violence nearly every other day in the United States.
You’d be close.
With reports of 355 mass shootings in the U.S. on the 337th day of 2015, it averages out to more like a shooting a day, and then some. It is a shocking statistic, one that made the rounds on social media almost immediately after the shooting in San Bernardino.
But wait, there's more:
Gun violence by the numbers
- 31,537: The number of people who died from gun violence in the United States in 2014 (murders, suicides or police intervention)
- 11,583: The number of people who were murdered with guns being the weapon used
- 4: The minimum number of people who have to be killed or injured in a specific incident for it to be termed a "mass shooting"
- 355: The number of mass shootings in the United States so far this year
- 462: The number of people killed in mass shootings in the United States in 2015
- 31: The percentage of adults in the United States who reported having a firearm in their home in 2014
- 60: The percentage of shooters in mass shooting incidents who were not prohibited from purchasing a handgun for any reason
- 47: The percentage of Americans who say they favor stricter laws on gun sales, according to a report from Gallup
- 58: The percentage of Americans who answered the Gallup survey in 2012 saying they favored stricter laws on gun sales. That survey was taken following the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
- 70: The percentage of mass shootings between 2000-2013 that happened at either a business or educational facility, according to an FBI report
- 60: The percentage of those incidents that were over before the police arrived
- 21: The number of those incidents were unarmed citizens restrained the shooter
- 3: The number of times armed individuals who were not law enforcement personnel exchanged gunfire with the shooters and killed them (This number is out of 160 shooting incidents that happened between 2000-2013)
- 37: The number of shooters out of 160 who committed suicide before law enforcement arrived on scene
- 88.8: The number of guns per 100 residents in the United States, according to the National Rifle Association
- 89: The reported percentage of the drop in crime that came after a law in Kennesaw, Ga., enacted in 1982, required heads of households to keep at least on firearm in the house
- 89: The average number of people who die from gun violence each day in America (including murder, suicide, police intervention and unintentional shootings)
- 2: The number of mass shootings carried out by more than one shooter (among the 28 deadliest shootings in U.S. history)
- 2.3 billion: The amount of money spent on lifetime medical care for gun violence victims in the United States
Sources: Brady Campaign to Prevent gun Violence; National Rifle Association; FBI.gov; Gallup; CNN
