USA TODAY International Edition
2017 sets record in active shootings
FBI report cites 30 such cases with 138 fatalities
Violence last year helped break two grim records when it comes to active shooters: the most incidents and the most people killed in any one year since at least 2000, the first year the FBI has data on the subject.
The 17-year high was revealed in a report that delves into active shootings throughout 2016 and 2017, the gunmen and the carnage left behind. In 2017, there were 30 active shooting incidents throughout the nation. A total of 138 people were killed in the shootings, the first time a death toll has risen above 90 for a single year.
“Am I surprised by the increase? No,” former FBI Agent James Gagliano said. He said the rise could be blamed on a number of things, including video games, accessibility to guns, copycats, the news cycle and the Web.
“Part of it is these individuals who see one gunman on the news and they think, ‘Wow, if they did this, I can do it, too,’ ” he said. “It’s a vicious circle, and for the most part after these incidents, nothing changes. We all retreat to our corners and bicker.”
An active shooter is defined by the FBI as someone actively killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. The data aren’t just on mass shootings, in which three or more people are killed. The data also don’t include drugand gang-related shootings that appeared targeted.
Last year had a dramatically higher death toll primarily because of attacks at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas and the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
Fifty-eight people were killed and hundreds more hurt in Las Vegas. Twenty-six were killed and another 20 hurt in Texas.
Over the years, the statistics have shifted in the number of attacks and the death tolls. In 2016, there were 20 active shooters, who left 83 people dead. The highest death toll recorded before last year was in 2012, when 90 people were killed.
The 183 deaths and 30 active shooters, while the highest recorded by the FBI, may just be an outlier, said Ron Hosko, a former assistant FBI director.
He said active shooters are relatively rare, so because the numbers are small, they tend to fluctuate.
“I think — and hope — this is just a statistical anomaly,” Hosko said. “The more time that goes by, the more we’ll be able to tell if this is a rise or just simply the numbers fluctuating.”
He said that while it’s always good to examine the events and try to figure out ways to reduce them, “there’s a risk of making too much out of spikes and valleys” when it comes to data.
Among the findings from the twoyear report:
There were 30 active shootings last year and 20 in 2016. The only year that came close to topping 2017 for active gunmen was 2010, which had 26. There were 138 people killed and 593 wounded in 2017 during active shootings, topping all years since 2000. The number killed has fluctuated each year. All 50 shooters in 2016 and 2017 were men, and all worked alone. In the FBI’s previous report on 2014 and 2015, there were 42 shooters, three of whom were women. The attacks in 2016 and 2017 were stopped in a variety of ways. Thirteen of the gunmen committed suicide, 11 were killed by police, eight were stopped by citizens, and 18 were taken into custody by officers. In 2016 and 2017, 21 states reported an active-shooter situation. Six happened in Texas. Five each happened in California and Florida. Shooters don’t discriminate on locations. One happened in a mall, seven in schools, three in government buildings, two in churches, and more than a dozen in a variety of open spaces, businesses, workplaces and even while a gunman was driving a car.