On November 5, 26 people were fatally shot and another 20 were wounded at the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs in rural Texas. In the seven days following that mass shooting, there were seven other mass-casualty incidents across the country in which four or more people were shot.
In those attacks, 35 people were shot, five of them fatally, according to Gun Violence Archive, which compiles statistics on shootings using police reports and news clips.
Four of the seven shootings took place at bars, clubs, or live music venues. The others included a drive-by shooting, an altercation at a home, and a commemoration for a gunshot victim.
- In South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 9, four teenagers — ages 14, 14, 15, and 18 — were wounded when someone in a car opened fire on them just after 8 p.m. No arrests have been made.
- In Dayton, Ohio, on November 10, three men in their 20s were critically injured and a 5-year-old was also wounded when an altercation escalated to gunfire in a home around 1:30 a.m. Police have not named a suspect.
- In New Orleans on November 11, a man was killed and five people were wounded in a shooting following a disagreement in the 9th Ward around 7:45 p.m. Police have a person of interest in custody. Witnesses said the shooting broke out near a second-line parade following a funeral for a recent gunshot victim.
- In Fayetteville, North Carolina, on November 11, Akash Talati, 40, was killed in a shooting at the adult club he owned. Four others, including the suspect, were injured. The suspected gunman was reportedly angry he’d been ejected from the club. “Life is too short for fake connections,” Talati posted to Facebook hours before his death.
- In Dallas on November 11, Johnny Williams, 28, was killed and three others were injured after a disturbance inside a bar spilled out into the street around 1:30 a.m. and someone opened fire. No arrests have been made.
- In Atlanta on November 12, two men were killed and two others were wounded when someone fired on rowdy patrons who mounted the stage during a rap concert just before 9:40 p.m. The armed suspect is reportedly at large.
- In Gary, Indiana, on November 12, seven people were wounded in a shooting at a live music venue around 2:30 a.m. One suspect is in custody and police are searching for another.
There is no universally accepted definition of a “mass shooting.” The FBI defines “mass murder” as an incident in a public place that claims four or more lives, not including the gunman. Other groups, like Gun Violence Archive, define a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people are shot, including domestic shootings. By the latter definition, mass shootings are a daily occurrence in the United States.
So far this year, by the broader definition, at least 2,079 people have been shot in mass shootings, 404 of them fatally. To compare, 1,993 were shot in mass shootings in 2016, 456 of them fatally.
Mass-shooting deaths account for roughly 1.2 percent of annual shooting deaths in the United States. In the 35 days between the massacres in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, at least 4,319 people were shot in incidents of everyday gun violence, 1,385 of them fatally.