US Counts Three Dozen Mass Shootings in First Month of Year

There have been over 44,000 fatalities due to 647 mass shootings in the US in 2022, the Archive reported, adding that the vast majority of shootings this year have occurred in the South, in states like Texas, Florida, and Louisiana.

As people across the country beg for gun reform — families of gun violence victims have been calling on officials to tighten gun control legislation — mass shootings keep occurring at a frenetic pace.

In 2022, the Gun Violence Archive counted 647 mass shootings. Of those shootings, 21 involved five or more fatalities. The group recorded 690 mass shootings in 2021, with 28 involving four or more fatalities.

As of late January, the Gun Violence Archive has counted 39 mass shootings this year. Six of them involved four or more fatalities.

The United States suffered its worst mass shooting in nearly a year when a gunman killed 11 and wounded several others in California.

Last year saw almost double the number of mass shootings compared with just 4 years ago. In 2022, death rates from firearms reached their highest level in three decades.

For many big city mayors - even Democratic ones - more cops are the answer. However, anti-police sentiments have exploded, most recently at a protest in Atlanta against yet another killing by police, and many say more militarism just isn’t the solution.

After the California massacre, a Congressman lamented that mass shootings are “a uniquely American experience.”

With the termination of many coronavirus-era assistance programs and recession on the horizon, few expect such experiences to decrease.

The United States has far more lax firearm laws and policies compared to other countries — the federal right to own a firearm is even baked into the Constitution via the Second Amendment. Gun laws and regulations also vary from state to state. Some states have more restrictive laws, while some allow for much greater firearm ownership rates for protection and hunting.

As a result, firearms have become one of the leading causes of death for Americans of any age, and, according to the Giffords Law Center, they're also the leading cause of death for children below the age of 18.