The agency recorded 50 such shootings in the US last year, in which more than 300 people were shot
Crosses along a highway honor the victims of a school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, June 3, 2022 © AP / Eric Gay
The number of ‘active shooter’ incidents in the US fell in 2022, although more people were shot during these events, according to FBI statistics released this week. In the deadliest incident, 22 people – including 19 children – were murdered in a Texas elementary school.
There were 50 active shooter incidents in 2022, compared to 61 in 2021, the statistics revealed. A total of 313 people were shot, up from 243 in 2021. The number killed, however, fell from 103 to 100.
The FBI defines an ‘active shooter’ as one or more individuals “actively engaged in killing or intending to kill people in a populated area.” Some 13 incidents reviewed by the FBI in 2022 were considered ‘mass killings’, defined by the government as “three or more billings in a single incident.”
Law enforcement officers apprehended 29 of the shooters involved, while three remain at large. The remainder were either killed or took their own lives to avoid capture. The overwhelming majority (47) of shooters were male, while one was female, one “non-binary,” and one unidentified. A total of 29 of the perpetrators used handguns, 26 used rifles, while the rest used shotguns or unidentified weapons.
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The deadliest incident took place in Uvalde, Texas, where an 18-year-old gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school. Police officers waited more than an hour to enter the school and shoot the gunman, and were heavily criticized for their response.
The report offers only a small glimpse into the scale of gun violence in the US, as the FBI noted that it did not analyze self-defense incidents, domestic disputes, hostage situations, gang violence, or drug-related violence. According to the most recent data gathered by Pew Research, a record 48,830 people died of gun-related injuries in the US in 2021.
Some 54% of these deaths were suicides, while 43% were murders and the remaining 3% were either accidental, undetermined, or involved law enforcement.
Gun murders have climbed sharply in recent years, increasing by 45% between 2019 and 2021. Democrats continue to blame the widespread availability of firearms, while Republicans blame ‘soft-on-crime’ policies embraced in Democrat-run cities and states during the George Floyd riots of 2020.
