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Active shootings in the US have almost doubled in the last five years, from 31 in 2017 to 61 in 2021, new FBI figures revealed, as a Texas elementary school became the latest to witness a gun massacre.
In 2021, there were 61 active shooters, who killed 103 people and wounded another 140. This does not include any shooters themselves also killed while carrying out their crimes, according to the bureau’s count.
In the first year of the pandemic, only 40 gun-crazed maniacs opened fire on public spaces – killing 38 people and injuring 126 more – up from 30 such armed frenzies in 2019 and 2018 and 31 in 2017.
The bureau’s report eerily came out the day before a gunman killed 14 children and one teacher in a Texas school and a week after an 18-year-old white supremacist murdered 11 people in a Buffalo, New York supermarket.
There’s been a 97 percent spike in mass shootings from 2017 to 2021 and exactly a 52.5 percent increase since last year.
The FBI defines ‘active shooters’ as one or more people who try to kill a population with a firearm.
A wounded Boulder, Colorado gunman is pictured being escorted from the scene by the police after being shot
Ahmad Alissa, 22, killed 10 people March shooting at a crowded King Soopers store grocery in Boulder, Colorado
Casualties, which includes the dead and wounded, was far higher in 2021 – 243- than it was in 2020 – 164, a nearly 50 percent increase.
There were active shooters in 30 states last year, according to the Feds report, up from 19 states in 2021. California had six mass shootings, followed by Georgia and Texas with five each. Colorado and Florida had four and Michigan, North Carolina and Tennessee each had three.
The vast majority of spree killers were men, 60 out of 61 shooters, and the ages ranged from 12 to 67. Half of those who opened fire were taken alive by police, 14 were killed by law enforcement, 11 died by suicide, 4 were shot by armed civilians and one died in a high speed chase with police.
‘The U.S. is in the midst of a multiyear trend where we are experiencing an increase in mass shooters who are seeking to advance their ideological beliefs or based on a perceived personal grievance,’ John Cohen, former undersecretary at the Department of Homeland Security told ABC News. ‘A growing subset of our population believes that violence is an acceptable way to express one’s ideological beliefs or seek redress for a perceived personal grievance.’
The reasons for the killing spree was not addressed by the FBI.
‘These reports were not intended to explore all facets of active shooter incidents but rather intended to provide law enforcement officers, other first responders, corporations, educators and the public in general with a baseline understanding of active shooter incidents,’ the report stated.
Ahmad Alissa, 22, killed 10 people March shooting at a crowded King Soopers store grocery in Boulder, Colorado
There were some indications of motive by the location that the massacres occurred.
There were 32 shootings in business or commercial establishments, ranging from supermarkets to manufacturing plants. Four shooters were current employees, three were former employees, one was a former boss and another was a contractor.
The FBI noted that more shooters targeted multiple sites for their rampage, either in one day or over multiple days.
Two of the shooters wore body armor and another had four improvised explosive devices, the bureau found.
The only consistent pattern that emerges seems to be that most – about a third – were disturbed males, ages 25 to 34.
In one of the most deadly shooting last year, Ahmad Alissa, 22, killed 10 people in March at a crowded King Soopers grocery in Boulder, Colorado.
Illinois saw the second highest body count when a shooter killed 8 people at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis in April.
In November 2021, Ethan Crumbley murdered four students inside the Oxford High School and injured seven more, including a teacher.
