Six months after by an Army reservist, Maine lawmakers this week passed a wide-ranging package of new gun restrictions.
Three months after a , Iowa lawmakers this week passed legislation allowing trained teachers and staff to carry guns on school property.
Two states. Two tragedies. Two different approaches to improving public safety.
“We live in two different Americas, in essence,†said Daniel Webster, a health policy professor affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
“We see terrible acts of gun violence; no one wants them, of course,†Webster said. “But we see this through different lenses.â€
People are also reading…
Community members look at a memorial outside Schemengees Bar & Grille on Nov. 3 in Lewiston, Maine, where an Army reservist killed 18 people and wounded 13 others in October.
Legislatures in about 20 states already have passed measures this year to expand gun rights or restrict access to firearms. Dozens more proposals are pending. The divide continues a trend seen last year, when more than half the states , with Democrats generally favoring more limits and Republicans more freedoms for gun owners.
Maine has a tradition of hunting and gun ownership. But after an Army reservist and wounded 13 others in Lewiston, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills aimed at preventing dangerous people from possessing guns and strengthening mental health services.
Rain-soaked memorials for those who died in a mass shooting sit along the roadside Oct. 30 near Schemengees Bar & Grille in Lewiston, Maine. The state's Democratic-led Legislature gave final approval to legislation imposing new restrictions on guns before adjourning Thursday.
Before adjourning its 2024 session early Thursday, imposing a 72-hour waiting period for gun purchases, expanding background checks on private gun sales and criminalizing sales to certain prohibited people. They also passed a ban on devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into rapid-firing weapons like machine guns, and enhanced an existing law that allows judges to temporarily remove guns from people during a mental health crisis.
A gun safety coalition praised it as a significant step forward in response to constituents’ concerns after the Lewiston shooting. But Republican state Sen. Lisa Keim criticized colleagues for “using the tragedy to advance legislation†that had been unable to pass previously.
In Perry, Iowa, and sixth-grade student died and several others were wounded when in January.
A 2021 state law already allowed schools to authorize individuals to carry firearms, though some districts have not done so because of concerns about insurance coverage.
Police respond to a shooting Jan. 4 at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa. Iowa’s Republican-led Legislature passed a bill this week allowing teachers and staff who undergo training to get permits to carry guns on school property, three months after the fatal shooting.
The legislation given final approval Monday by the Republican-led Legislature builds upon the prior law by allowing teachers and staff who undergo gun safety training to get a professional permit to carry guns in schools. If they do, they would be protected from criminal or civil liability for use of reasonable force.
The legislation also requires large school districts to station a police officer or private security guard at each high school, unless the school board votes not to do so. Most of those school districts already have security staff.
Republican-led legislatures in Kentucky, Nebraska, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah also passed measures this year that would expand the ability of some people to bring guns into schools. A allots $480,000 to reimburse schools for the cost of training employees to carry guns on school property.
A painted rock memorialize Perry High School shooting victim Ahmir Jolliff outside the school Jan. 6 in Perry, Iowa. A school principal and a sixth-grade student died and several others were wounded when a 17-year-old student opened fire in January.
and , led by Republican lawmakers and governors, each enacted laws allowing people to carry concealed guns without a permit. The National Rifle Association, which supported the measures, said similar laws now exist in 29 states.
By contrast, the Democrat-led Delaware Legislature requiring people wanting to buy a handgun to first be fingerprinted, undergo training and obtain a state permit.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, imposing restrictions. One sets a seven-day waiting period to purchase firearms — more than double the three-day period required by the federal government for a background check.
Another new law in New Mexico prohibits carrying firearms within 100 feet of polling places, with an exemption for concealed-carry permit holders. Voting site restrictions on guns now exist in about one-third of the states and Washington, D.C., according to the gun-violence prevention group Giffords.
Not all new gun policies diverge along partisan lines.
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this year passed by the Democratic-led General Assembly that he said would have trampled on constitutional rights. Yet Youngkin also signed some gun restrictions: One bans devices that convert semi-automatic handguns into automatic weapons. Another allows felony charges against parents who let a child have access to a firearm after being notified the child poses a threat of violence.
While signing several gun rights measures, Republican Gov. Mark Gordon of Wyoming also that would have allowed people to carry concealed guns in public schools and government meetings. Gordon cited concerns could have exceeded the separation of powers provision in the state constitution.
And in some cases, high-profile shootings have prompted lawmakers to avoid taking action on proposals they might otherwise have considered.
Missouri’s Republican-led House had been prepared to debate bills exempting guns and ammunition from sales taxes and allowing people with concealed-carry permits to bring guns onto public transportation. But after the deadly , House Majority Leader Jon Patterson said those bills would not be brought up this year.
Yes, it's getting worse: New data shows mass shootings are more frequent
Yes, it's getting worse: New data shows mass shootings are more frequent
was produced by , a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system, and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media.
On Oct. 25, 2023, a gunman opened fire in Lewiston, Maine, ultimately killing 18 people and injuring 13 more at a bowling alley and a nearby bar. He was after a two-day manhunt. Maine, which has one of the lowest homicide rates in the nation, remains in shock.Ìý
If it feels like U.S. mass shootings have become more frequent, that intuition remains correct, according to data analysis by .Ìý
Under even one of the most conservative definitions of "mass shootings," in which a gunman slaughters four or more strangers in a public place, the number of these crimes has indeed been climbing in the last few years — and they have higher death tolls, as well.
Mass shootings account for just a fraction of the daily toll of firearm deaths in the U.S., where every day in acts of gun violence in 2022.
Our analysis is based on data through 2022 from The Violence Project, a nonprofit research group that uses a narrow definition of mass shootings adopted from the Congressional Research Service, which advises federal lawmakers.
Mass shootings have been on the rise steadily for the past 40 years
Thirty-three of these massacres occurred from 2018 through 2022, compared with 25 from 2013 through 2017, according to The Violence Project data. We compared five-year periods, rather than annual data, so we could more clearly see trends over time. A focus on yearly data would be skewed by 2020, when there were two mass shooting incidents, which researchers attribute to the COVID-19 lockdown.
Still, the latest five-year period saw more attacks than any other comparable timespan dating back to 1966 — an average of about 6.6 mass shootings per year since 2018.
The Violence Project as single incidents in which four or more people are killed (not including the shooter), in public locations, such as schools, stores, or workplaces. It excludes murders that occur as a result of other crimes, such as domestic violence, robbery and gang violence.
At least seven mass shootings so far in 2023 fit this definition:
- , California: 11 dead, 9 injured.
- , California: 7 dead, 1 injured.
- , Tennessee: 6 dead.
- , Kentucky: 5 dead, 8 injured.
- , Texas: 8 dead, 7 injured.
- , Pennsylvania: 5 dead, 2 injured.
- , Maine: 18 dead, 13 injured.
This means 2023 is on par with the number of mass shootings in recent years. The Violence Project counted eight mass shootings in 2021, and seven in 2022.Ìý
While shooting incidents show a gradual upward trend, the number of those killed is rising at an alarming rate
As mass shootings in the U.S. reached a record high, so did the number of deaths and injuries. From 2018 to 2022, perpetrators killed 257 people — close to the 266 fatalities in the five-year period that ended in 2017, and significantly more than any previous period.
The rise in deaths and injuries from 2013 through 2017 was mostly due to the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. At a Las Vegas music festival in 2017, a gunman with multiple assault weapons killed at least 60 people. Over 850 people were injured, including scores hurt in a stampede, according to The Violence Project.Ìý
Injuries have likewise risen significantly; one contributing factor: assault weapons
Our analysis shows that in the past five years, assault-style weapons have been used in half of mass shootings. Prior to 2013, they were used in one-third or fewer of all mass shootings.
There is no national, legal definition of a "mass shooting." Several organizations track this form of gun violence, but use different yardsticks.
In 2024, The Marshall Project will update the charts included in this article with full data from 2023. For more on mass shootings and how they are defined, is available.Ìý
