MINNEAPOLIS — The terrible massacre at Annunciation Catholic School on Wednesday adds to the sad facts about gun violence in the United States, which has the most school shootings in the world. The community is grieving the deaths of two children and the injuries of 17 others. This event highlights a long-standing public health concern.
The Pew Research Center looked at statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and found that in 2023, the most recent year for which complete data is available, 46,728 persons in the U.S. died from gun-related injuries. There were 17,927 murders and 27,300 suicides among these deaths. There were 13.7 gun deaths for per 100,000 individuals.
In the US, guns are one of the main causes of death for kids and teens. Sandy Hook Promise did a study that indicated that every day in the U.S., 12 kids die from gun violence and 32 more are hurt. This rate is more than five times higher than the rate of drownings.
The demographics of mass shooters in the U.S. are complicated, but research groups like The Violence Project have found certain patterns. A research of 111 mass shootings in the U.S. from 2000 to 2019 showed the following demographics for the people who did them:
97.7% male
52.3% White
20.9% Black
Latino: 8.1%
6.4% Asian
Middle Eastern: 4.2%
1.8% Native American
The average age of the people who shot up a lot of people in this study was 34.1 years old. A different FBI study looked at active shooter situations from 2000 to 2013 and concluded that only 4% of them were committed by women. Robin Westman, the gunman in the Minneapolis case, was 23 years old and had lawfully bought the guns he used in the attack.
You need a permit to buy pistols and some semi-automatic military-style assault weapons in Minnesota, but not most other rifles and shotguns. All gun purchases from a licensed dealer must go through a background check. Following the shooting, some legislators in Minnesota have called for tighter gun control measures. In 2023, the state passed a “red-flag” law that lets family members or the police ask a judge to take away someone’s guns for a short time if they are thought to be a danger to themselves or others.