The number of mass shootings across the U.S. so far in 2019 has outpaced the number of days this year, according to a gun violence research group. This puts 2019 to be the first year since 2016 with an average of more than one mass shooting a day.
As of Wednesday, which was the 212th day of the year, there have been 248 mass shootings in the U.S., according to data from the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, which tracks every mass shooting in the country. The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as any incident in which at least four people were shot, excluding the shooter.
The toll of 248 mass shootings includes several high-profile rampages in the past week alone, such as the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday in the San Francisco Bay Area, which led to three deaths and 15 injuries; a shooting at a Brooklyn block party, which caused one death and 11 injuries; and a shooting at a Walmart in Southaven, Mississippi on Tuesday, which killed two people and injured two more.
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The deadliest mass shooting so far this year was an attack at a municipal building in Virginia Beach, in which a former city employee killed 12 people and injured four.
The Gun Violence Archive says there have been 32,387 total shooting incidents so far in 2019 as of Wednesday, resulting in 8,533 deaths and 16,945 injuries.
The last time the mass shooting toll topped days of the year was 2016, which had 382 mass shootings — the most in any year since the Gun Violence Archive started keeping track. The past two years came close, with 346 mass shootings in 2017 and 340 in 2018.
The Gun Violence Archive did not return requests for comment from CBS News.
