2023 on pace to have highest number of mass shootings in US history

The Gun Violence Archive classifies a mass shooting as a shooting in which four or more people are injured or killed. Since 2020, the U.S. has had more than 600 mass shootings each year, and this year is no different. This weekend’s violence saw shootings in four states.

The horrors in Lewiston, Maine, will not soon be forgotten. Eighteen were killed and 13 more injured in a shooting that left many in Maine’s second-largest city speechless.

But less than three days removed from the tragedy, a mass shooting in Texarkana, Texas, left three people dead and three others in the hospital after a fight broke out at a party. 

Then, early Sunday, two people were killed and 18 others were injured in a shooting in the popular Tampa neighborhood of Ybor City. The father of one of the victims, a 14 year-old, spoke to Scripps News Sunday morning.

"It’s painful, man, to see your child laying there. And there’s nothing I can do but stand behind the yellow tape and watch them take his body away. I can’t go see him. This is my last time seeing him," said Emmitt Wilson, the victim’s father.

During that same time frame, police responded to an incident in which 15 people were shot in Chicago.

In Indianapolis, another nine were injured with one dead following a shooting there.

"Our children need us and this, tonight, is another example of why it’s important for us to have conversations with our youth and continue to educate them about gun violence, about settling disputes, and just how to have a good time and go home safely," said Officer Samone Burris, with the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, these mass shootings are the latest in the 580 that have occurred so far this year in the United States. At this rate, 2023 is on pace to be the year with the highest number of mass shootings in U.S. history after 610 took place in 2020, 690 in 2021 and 647 in 2022.