U.S. hits a gruesome mass killing milestone

With more than three weeks left in the year, 2023 has set a gruesome gun violence record for the U.S.

According to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which tracks incidents of gun violence across the country, there have been 38 mass killings involving guns this year, defined as shootings in which four people or more are killed, not including the shooter. The number of mass killings this year is higher than in any year since at least 2006, The Washington Post reported.

GVA altogether recorded 630 mass shootings in which at least four people were shot (killed or injured, excluding the shooter) in 2023. In the past nine years, only 2021 and 2022 had more mass shootings than this year (to date).

Here are more grim statistics from 2023, according to GVA's tally (as of Dec. 5 at the time of publication):

• 1,571 minors under 18 years old have been shot and killed
• 39,939 gun deaths, almost two-thirds of them suicides
• 34,087 gun injuries

Mass shootings are a uniquely American phenomenon. They take place in homes, supermarkets, places of worship, movie theaters, nightclubs, workplaces, concerts, college campuses and schools.

They are also an increasingly common part of childhood in America. Children from as young as preschool age are put through active shooter drills and trained on lockdown procedures in the event of a shooting. These drills have been found to have a profound impact on children's mental health, and experts often dispute how well they protect students, especially in the absence of more stringent gun laws, more proactive safety measures and competent law enforcement responses.

Meanwhile, efforts to limit access to guns — an obvious and crucial factor in reducing mass shootings — have repeatedly been rejected by lawmakers, the vast majority of them Republicans. Legislation to enact stricter gun reform measures has failed, over and over, at both the state and federal level. And research has shown that in states with GOP-majority legislatures, mass shootings can lead to an increase in laws that loosen gun restrictions.