Mass Murder Database Released

The longest-running and most comprehensive source of data on mass killings reveals that 2,646 people in the United States have died in 504 events over the past 17 years.

The ONEssociated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Murder Databasemaintained by James Alan Foxprofessor of Northeastern, was made available to the public on Thursday.

It refers to any mass murder, with all weapons and means, in which four or more people (excluding the perpetrator) are killed within a 24-hour window. Fox's database provides a different perspective than other gun-related websites, including the Gun Violence Archive, which includes shootings with four or more victims, most of whom survive their injuries. Less than 5% of mass shootings in the Gun Violence Archive are mass murders.

Fears of mass shootings in public places have grown in the past three months since the killings of 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The murders of 10 people in a supermarket in Buffalo. and the killings of seven people at a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois.

Fox says access to the database can help deepen perspective and reduce anxiety surrounding such horrific incidents.

“Surveys show that 40 percent to 50 percent of Americans fear that they or someone in their family will be the victim of a mass shooting,” says Fox, a professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern who studies mass killings. since the early 1980s. “Up to a third of Americans avoid certain places for fear of being the victim of a mass shooting.

Mass shootings involving firearms in public spaces occur an average of six times a year, Fox says.

“These cases are absolutely terrifying because they can happen anytime, anywhere, to anyone without warning,” says Fox. “But they are also extremely rare.”

Accidental public shootings tend to get the most media attention. But the database reveals that such incidents amount to a quarter of all mass shootings. By a ratio of 2 to 1, mass killings take place more often in private homes than in schools, markets, churches and other public places.

“In the face of too much media coverage and public fear, we tend to embrace easy fixes and quick fixes that don't necessarily work and sometimes make things worse,” says Fox, “as opposed to some really important and fundamental changes that in the long run it could make our nation safer.”

Fox says he supports several gun control initiatives, including background checks and raising the gun ownership age. He argues that these measures would lead to fewer mass shootings. Additionally, he says, limiting magazine capacity would reduce casualties in mass shootings.

The database allows users to compare mass killings year by year. It shows that 20% of mass murders don't involve firearms, Fox says.

2022's 19 mass murders are on average with other years, Fox says. Those numbers—as scary as they are, Fox notes—have remained relatively stable over the past 15 years.

“Mass shootings tend to motivate people to do something about gun laws,” Fox says. “Most of the proposed laws will have a limited effect on mass shootings. But they are important in light of the thousands of gun homicides that occur annually.”