U.S. surpasses 500 mass shootings in 2023

• Hours later, that increased to 501 mass shootings after one person died and five others were wounded in El Paso, Texas, early Sunday.

By the numbers: Just five years ago, the country had never experienced 500 mass shootings in one year:

• 2018: 335 mass shootings
• 2019: 414 mass shootings
• 2020: 610 mass shootings
• 2021: 689 mass shootings
• 2022: 645 mass shootings

Flashback: The 500 mass shootings threshold was crossed in September in the past two years, according to the archive.

• In 2020, it occurred in October.

Between the lines: The FBI does not define or quantify what constitutes a mass shooting.

• Gun Violence Archive, an independent research and data collection organization, defines a mass shooting as a shooting in which four or more people were shot or killed, not including the shooter. This makes its numbers higher than some other sources with varying definitions.

Of note: A January shooting on the eve of Lunar New Year in Monterey Park, California, a largely Asian American area, has caused the most deaths so far in 2023. Eleven people were killed and nine others injured in the massacre.

• The most injuries related to gun violence occurred in April at a birthday party shooting in Dadeville, Ala., that left four people de and 32 others injured.

The big picture: With increasing personal experiences, more Americans view gun violence as a public health concern.

• One in six Americans have personally witnessed someone being shot, according to survey data from earlier this year.

Zoom in: Gun violence has greatly affected children. Firearms are the top killer of kids in the country.

• Gun deaths among children hit a record high in 2021, per data released in August.
• There were 305 school shootings in 2022 and 230 by Sept. 5 in 2023, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.

Go deeper: Gun deaths among U.S. children hit a new record high