The Georgia school shooting is the 384th mass shooting in the US this year

‘Back to school’ had a tragic meaning this year for a small north Georgia city after a 14-year-old shooter killed two students and two teachers at Apalachee High School.

The shooting, in which the suspect and his father are being charged, is the 384th mass shooting in the US this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

There have been way more mass shootings than days so far in 2024, a trend that’s continued each year since 2019, underscoring the growing prevalence of gun violence in American life.

In 2023, there was a total of 656 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive; the worst year since 2021, when there were 690 mass shootings.

According to the Axios-Ipsos American Health Index, gun violence has surged ahead of the opioid crisis as Americans' top public health concern.

However, many pro-gun lawmakers and citizens insist: “Guns do not kill people, it is people who do that.” It implies that no matter America’s gun homicide rate, the solution is to improve morals, not to impose gun control.

Perhaps by going over the deadliest shootings in modern US  history, the magnitude of what has been happening for decades can be better understood.

10:08 p.m. on October 1, 2017. Jason Aldean was performing at Route 91 Harvest Country Music Festival in Las Vegas.

Suddenly, Stephen Paddock began shooting from his room, located on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Hotel, 1,180 feet from the crowd he massacred.

The gunman shot for 15 minutes and killed 57 people and himself. There were a total of 851 wounded.

2:02 a.m. on June 12, 2016. Omar Mir Seddique Mateen pulled out a semi-automatic rifle and a 9mm Glock 17 pistol and shot at those inside the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

When the Orlando Police (OPD) arrived, the murderer barricaded himself in the premises, taking dozens of hostages for more than three hours, until the SWAT intervened and shot him down.

That massacre resulted in 49 dead and 53 wounded, in what was considered the worst terrorist attack on the United States since 9/11. A year later though, it got overtaken by the Las Vegas shooting.

7:15 a.m. on April 16, 2007. Seung-Hui Cho, a young English Literature major, opened fire at the West Ambler Johnston Hall student residence at Virginia State University, known as Virginia Tech.

Two hours later, the murderer blocked several entrances to the Engineering career building, located 600 meters from the residence. All hell broke loose there.

In total, there were 33 victims of this shooting, including the gunman. Twenty-nine people were injured, including several students who decided to jump out of the window rather than get shot at.

9:25 a.m. on December 14, 2012. Adam Lanza, 20, shot his own mother, Nancy Lanza, killing her and leaving her body at their home. He then headed to Sandy Hook Local Elementary School, located in Newtown, Connecticut.

At 9:35 a.m., Adam Lanza took out a Bushmaster XM-15 ES2 rifle and started shooting people he met at the school lobby.

Lanza killed 27 people and himself. Twenty of his victims were children, and seven were adults, including his mother, Nancy Lanza.

11:30 a.m. on November 5, 2017. Sutherland Springs, a small town in Wilson County (Texas) with just over 500 inhabitants, was celebrating a church mass that was interrupted by Devin Patrick Kelley.

This 26-year-old former soldier had been expelled from the force five years earlier for mistreating his wife and two-year-old son. The mother-in-law of his new wife, whom he had threatened, went to that church, although she had not gone that day.

Armed with a Ruger AR-556 rifle, the former soldier killed 26 people and injured another 20. Among the deceased, there were seven children and a pregnant woman. After being chased briefly by the police, Devin Patrick Kelley decided to take his own life.

October 16, 1991. George Hennard, 35, rams his Ford Ranger through a window at Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas. Unfortunately, that day it was more crowded than usual, with almost 150 people inside.

Hennard then began firing from inside the truck while holding both Glock 17 and Ruger P89 pistols. He then exited the truck and yelled, "All women of Killeen and Belton are vipers! This is what you've done to me and my family! This is what Bell County did to me. This is payback day!"

George Hennard's attack resulted in 23 deaths and 27 injuries. Hennard himself would end up taking his own life in the bathroom, after being cornered by the police.

10:00 a.m. on August 3, 2019. Patrick Wood Crusius, a 21-year-old white supremacist, broke into a Walmart store at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso, Texas and started shooting with a semi-automatic rifle.

Half an hour earlier, the killer had posted a manifesto on the Internet, complaining about "the Hispanic invasion, automation, big corporations, and environmental degradation."

Patrick Wood Crusius fatally shot 23 people and injured another 23 of varying severity.

On July 18, 1984, 41-year-old James Huberty, fatally shot 21 people and wounded 19 others at a Mc Donald’s in the San Ysidro neighborhood of San Diego, California.

Approximately 77 minutes after he had first opened fire, he was killed by a police sniper. According to his wife, Huberty had called a mental health clinic days before, but they never returned his call.

11:28 a.m. on May 24, 2022. Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, arrived at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Five minutes earlier, he had shot his 66-year-old grandmother, with whom he lived.

Armed with an AR-15 rifle, which he had bought days before turning 18, Salvador Rolando Ramos carried out this massacre, presumably because of the bullying he had suffered in his school years.

After Virginia Tech (2007) and Sandy Hook (2012), the one in Uvalde was the shooting that left the most victims in a school in the United States. There were 21 dead: 19 students and two teachers.

The Georgia school shooting was the 23rd US school shooting of 2024, according to a database maintained by magazine Education Week, which counts 11 dead and 38 injured in such attacks so far this year.

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