The U.S. Has Had More Mass Shootings Than Days in 2019

With two mass shooting devastating the U.S. within just 14 hours of one another, people are once again contemplating the gun crisis in America. And it is a crisis, as CBS pointed out that there have been more mass shootings this year than days. 

To be more specific, there have been 251 mass shootings this year, in only 216 days. It marks the first time since 2016 that America is on pace to average at least one mass shooting a day.

According to The Gun Violence Archive—which tracks all the mass shootings in the world—for an incident to be considered a mass shooting, at least four people outside of the shooter had to have been struck by a bullet. Of these 251 shootings, five of the most deadly incidents have happened within the past eight days, leaving more than 100 people injured or dead.

After this weekend’s bloodshed, and with the country reeling, authorities have begun investigating the shootings and in particular, the killers’ respective motives. The El Paso shooting is being treated by authorities as a “domestic terrorism case” after the alleged shooter was said to have been motivated by hatred towards Mexican immigrants.