USA Today, April 2026
The horror and tragedy of mass shootings in American schools, churches and other public places capture the nation’s attention. But these are only part of the larger violence of mass killings – deaths by guns, knives, fires, vehicles and other weapons in public and in private – that plague the U.S., research shows. Over the past decade, USA TODAY, along with Northeastern University and The Associated Press, has been tracking all mass killings in the United States.
More than five dozen variables are collected across four linked tabled – incidents, offenders, victims and weapons, with criminal proceedings tracked through to sentencing. The database includes all incidents in the U.S. since 2006 in which four or more victims are killed within 24 hours regardless of weapon, location, circumstances, and victim-offender relationship.
