These graphs clearly show how common mass shootings are in the US. Hamas authorities publish list of fatalities +++ EU call for ceasefire

Wednesday evening at 6:56 pm in the small American town of Lewiston, about 250 kilometers north of Boston: a man armed with an AR-15 assault rifle runs into a bowling center north of the city center and fires randomly. He then continues in his Subaru, runs six kilometers further south to a barbecue restaurant and shoots the employees and guests there.

18 people are killed and 13 people are injured. The crime is already considered one of the worst mass shootings in American history. But the number of victims could still rise – also because the shooter is still on the run. Although the police immediately cordoned off all streets and access roads, they have not yet been able to catch the perpetrator.

The eyewitnesses to the crime are shocked: Brandon just wanted a normal evening of bowling. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the armed gunman burst into the hall. “At first I thought a balloon had burst. When I turned around I saw he had a gun. “I ran down the bowling alley and climbed into the shaft above the pins,” the American told the AP.

A mass shooting almost every day

However bad and extraordinary the acts of violence may be for the eyewitnesses, victims, their relatives and for the places concerned, they are unfortunately commonplace. Reports of mass shootings have long become common in the US. On average, there is more than one violent crime involving firearms every day and there are more than three victims.

The bloody trail of these so-called mass shootings can be followed closely in the Gun Violence Archive, which is updated daily by a nonprofit organization with data on gun-related deaths and injuries. The numbers are frightening: Since the beginning of 2014, there have been 4,606 mass shootings in the US, with 19,227 injuries and 4,862 deaths.

After a brief decline in the number of shootings in 2018 and therefore also in the number of injuries and deaths, the number of violent crimes involving firearms has risen sharply again in recent years. In 2021, the US set a sad negative record with 690 mass shootings, 704 deaths and 2,829 injuries. 2022 was also disastrous and in 2023 the balance sheet looks very bleak again at the end of October.

There has to be a mass shooting added almost every day, as evidenced by the calendar for the current year. There's almost always shooting, especially on weekends: so far this year there have only been two weekend days without a mass shooting.

A look at the interactive map shows that East Coast states are more affected by gun violence deaths than either Midwestern or West Coast states, with California being a sad exception. In general it can be said: where more people live, there are more shootings. The crimes usually take place in urban areas or near the center of a large city, but tragedies involving firearms also occur again and again in rural areas.

There have been repeated calls recently to tighten gun laws – especially after particularly brutal acts such as the May 2022 school massacre in the small town of Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 schoolchildren, two teachers and the killer were shot in May.

The problem is now seen as a “mass shooting crisis” – no longer as a collection of many individual cases, but as an ongoing social phenomenon. But so far no political initiative has succeeded in reducing the number of guns and their owners. And with no quick fix in sight in the near future, reports of mass shootings will unfortunately remain commonplace.

(This story appeared in a similar form on November 24, 2022 and March 28, 2023 on watson.ch. We have updated it to reflect current events.)