2021 saw most US shootings in 20 years, FBI says
- Last year’s active-shooter carnage left 103 people dead and 140 wounded in the biggest number of such attacks on record, the FBI said
- Its active shooter report does not encompass all gun violence or even all mass shootings. Gang- or drug-related violence and domestic disputes are excluded
The 2021 total, spread over 30 states, was 52 per cent higher than 2020 and about double each of the three previous years, according to the FBI. The agency defines an active shooter as someone engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a public space in seemingly random fashion.
Commercial businesses accounted for just over half of all such incidents last year, which also was notable for an emerging trend of “roving active shooters” opening fire in multiple locations, as was the case with a gunman who attacked several Atlanta-area day spas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Monday.
Last year’s active-shooter carnage left 103 people dead and 140 wounded, the report said. By contrast, the FBI counted 40 active-shooter attacks in 19 states that killed 38 people and wounded 126 in 2020, a year that coincided with the height of restrictions on social and economic life due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Comparisons with recent years are heavily skewed by data from 2017, the year a gunman opened fire on an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas from a high-rise hotel window, killing 56 people and wounding hundreds more in a single incident.
