Data Underload  / 

Days Without a Mass Shooting

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

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.

Chart Type Used

Line Chart

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

See What You Get

Learn to Visualize Data See All →

How to Make Frequency Trails in R

Also known as ridgeline plots, the method overlaps time series for a 3-D-ish view of the data. While perhaps not the most visually efficient, the allure is undeniable.

Downloading Your Email Metadata

Email provides a window into who we interact with and what we do. This tutorial describes how to get that data in the format you want.

Introducing a Course for Mapping in R

Mapping geographic data in R can be tricky, because there …

How to Visualize and Compare Distributions in R

Single data points from a large dataset can make it more relatable, but those individual numbers don’t mean much without something to compare to. That’s where distributions come in.

Favorites

Sleep Schedule, From the Inconsistent Teenage Years to Retirement

From the teenage years to college to adulthood through retirement, sleep is all over the place at first but then converges towards consistency.

How You Will Die

So far we’ve seen when you will die and how other people tend to die. Now let’s put the two together to see how and when you will die, given your sex, race, and age.

How Much Americans Make

Median income only tells you where the middle is. The distributions of income are a lot more interesting.

Guessing Names Based on What They Start With

I’m terrible at names, but maybe data can help. Put in your sex, the decade when you were born, and start putting in your name. I’ll try to guess before you’re done.