Days Without a Mass Shooting

In 2017, we never went more than five days without one.

The mass shooting in Las Vegas on October 1 was the worst in modern history. Unfortunately, while of varying magnitude, mass shootings are somewhat regular in the United States.

Based on data collected by the Gun Violence Archive, there was another shooting in Lawrence, Kansas on the same day. As of writing this, three more mass shootings took place since Las Vegas.

The chart below shows the number of days we’ve gone this year without a mass shooting. As a nation, our longest streak ends at only five days.

This of course depends on your definition of mass shooting. There’s no set definition for the term, but the Gun Violence Archive defines it as a an incident where four or more people are shot or killed in the same location, not including the shooter.

As other sources, you might also look to the Stanford Mass Shootings of America data project and the Mother Jones dataset.

Become a member. Support an independent site. Make great charts.

See What You Get

Favorites

Think Like a Statistician – Without the Math

I call myself a statistician, because, well, I’m a statistics graduate student. However, the most important things I’ve learned are less formal, but have proven extremely useful when working/playing with data.

Interactive: When Do Americans Leave For Work?

We don’t all start our work days at the same time, despite what morning rush hour might have you think.

How to Spot Visualization Lies

Many charts don’t tell the truth. This is a simple guide to spotting them.

Life expectancy changes

The data goes back to 1960 and up to the most current estimates for 2009. Each line represents a country.