Slate, May 2023
If you feel as if mass shootings are happening more often, that’s, well, because they are. The pace of mass killings so far in 2023 has broken records compared with previous years, with an average of about one per week, according to the Mass Killings Database, which is produced by USA Today, Northeastern University, and the Associated Press.
Yet while the pace is up compared with past years, mass shootings still account for a relatively small percentage of gun deaths in the U.S., according to James Alan Fox, who manages the database. He’s also written 18 books on mass violence in the U.S. and is currently a professor of criminology, law, and public policy at Northeastern. Slate spoke with Fox about what these numbers mean, what can be done to reduce the violence, and some common misconceptions about mass shootings.
