A Mass of Shootings

DANIEL PEPIN | FEATURES EDITOR

Gun violence is on the rise in America. In particular: mass shootings. A mass shooting is a difficult term to define and there is no universally acknowledged definition, however the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive (GVA) terms it as “four or more people being killed or injured in one location at roughly the same time”. This January has suffered a new record of mass shootings. According to GVA, there has been 52 mass shootings in the 31 days of January 2023. That is nearly two per day. The previous record was established only last year at 34 mass shootings in January 2022. This is a frighteningly significant increase which indicates an upward trend in gun related violence in America in recent years.

Many of these shootings have taken place in residential areas. Towards the end of January there was a spate of attacks in California taking place in petrol stations, parks, and tree nurseries.

GVA notes that no shootings have taken place in schools or places of worship. Understanding what causes these shootings and why America has, unfortunately, become synonymous with gun crime is a heavy and complex discussion.

Some blame America’s infamous gun laws, as the FBI has seen an increase of 65 percent in gun ownership since 2019, according to the BBC. However, California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Others such as Jaclyn Schildkraut, the interim executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at the non-partisan Rockefeller Institute of Government tells the BBC that the rise of life stressors are undoubtedly a factor especially at times of uncertainty, such as the pandemic

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