Murdered in their homes or in broad daylight, killed by strangers or their loved ones: gun violence has struck the United States again this year, causing 2023 will end with 650 mass shootingsalmost two per day, the second worst rate since 2014.

The data shows that this tragic figure has been surpassed by 690 mass shootings in 2021 alone. Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a nonprofit project that collects data from local newspapers and police departments to create a national database on gun violence.

There were 647 mass shootings in 2022, defined as those in which at least four people, not including the perpetrator, were injured or killed in a single incident.

Three more shootings were reported in 2023, for a total of 650, making it the second-highest number of deaths since GVA began collecting data in 2014.

More than 120 firearms per 100 inhabitants.

The reason shootings continue is simple: there are more guns than people in the United States.

In particular, according to a Swiss research organization, there are about 120.5 weapons per 100 inhabitants. Small Arms Reviewwhich estimates there were 390 million guns in circulation in the United States in 2018.

The problem has worsened in recent years, especially as a result of the pandemic, he explained. EFE Kelly Drain is a researcher at Giffords, named after former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was seriously wounded in a 2011 shooting while still in office.

We have seen an increase in gun purchases during the pandemic, in 2020, and also in 2021. We’ve seen many people who previously didn’t own guns start purchasing guns, meaning more households in the US own guns compared to previous years.

Additionally, those who routinely shoot at groups of people often have mental health problems or have experienced drastic changes in their lives, such as layoffs or loss of loved ones, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic, the researcher explained.

Maine, site of the deadliest shooting of 2023

The deadliest shooting of 2023 occurred in October in Lewiston, Maine’s second-largest city, where an Army reservist killed 18 people and wounded 13 others when he first opened fire at a bowling alley where a tournament was being held. child, and then in a restaurant.

The author of this massacre, Robert CardThe 40-year-old man suffered from mental health issues and was found dead following the incident after committing suicide in a truck near the waste treatment plant where he had worked until recently.

Little political will

The brutality of mass shootings often prompts attempts to reform laws governing the right to keep and bear firearms, protected by the Second Amendment to the US Constitution. However, these efforts rarely lead to significant change.

In 2022, the horrific school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 students and two teachers were killed, prompted the US Congress to approve the most important gun control legislation in three decades.

Despite this, for many, the legislation does not sufficiently address the most important element of shooting: assault rifles like the AR-15, which are designed as combat weapons and allow a person to continue shooting without stopping to reload.

American President, Joe Bidenstrongly called for a ban on assault rifles, which had already been banned between 1994 and 2004. However, it met almost unanimous opposition from the Republican faction that currently controls the lower house.