In 10 years of gun control debate, US mass shootings from Sandy Hook to Uvalde Elementary School have nearly tripled

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A mass shooting is defined as a gun violence incident in which four or more people are injured or killed, excluding the suspect or perpetrator.

In 2022 alone, as of May 25, there were 213 mass shootings in the United States, killing 242 people and injuring 912 others, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that collects media and government reports of gun violence , law enforcement and commercial sources. The Gun Violence Archive is likely to represent a minority of incidents because its daily analysis does not capture every single gun violence incident.

If these incidents continue with the same frequency for the rest of 2022, the country will reach 540 mass shootings that year.

But the year 2022 is not an isolated case. As shown in the chart above, mass shootings in the US have increased over the past decade. Heavy on the national consciousness are the mass shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut nearly 10 years ago, when 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7 and six adults were shot dead.

Since 2013, the year after the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, mass shootings in the United States have nearly tripled. As of 2022, there have already been 213 mass shootings — a 50% increase from 141 shootings in May 2017 and a 150% increase from 84 in May 2013.

The number of people injured or killed does not include the suspect or the perpetrator. These graphs show the death toll from all mass shootings since 26 people were shot dead on December 14, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

In fact, thousands of US citizens have lost their lives in mass shootings over the past decade, not to mention the many more thousands injured. The number of mass shooting victims has almost tripled since 2013, as has the number of shootings.

Mass shootings in schools

Since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Gun Violence Archive has recorded 27 mass shootings at US schools, including 19 in elementary schools and 8 in colleges or universities.

Those shootings claimed hundreds of lives, including at least 22 dead and 16 injured this year alone — the third-highest year for school shooting deaths in the past decade. Note that this does not include everyone who was shot or killed in US schools this year, only those specifically killed or injured in a mass shooting — again, a shooting that resulted in four or more victims.

We remember the lives of the young victims of all these mass shootings.

SEE MORE: Commemoration for the victims of the Uvalde school shooting

Gun Manufacturing, Gun Control and Politics

Even before the Sandy Hook mass shooting, gun control was a sharply divisive issue in American politics, with massive amounts of money being spent on political campaigns.

In fact, gun rights lobbying increased 1.5-fold in the year after Sandy Hook, from $6 million to $15 million, according to OpenSecrets. Gun control lobbying also increased eightfold, but only increased from $250,000 to $2 million. In 2021, the gun rights lobby recorded its highest spending year in more than two decades, at $16 million.

And it’s no secret that many gun rights advocacy groups fund members of Congress. Since 1989, congressmen have received millions in gun rights and gun control interests. On the one hand, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has benefited the most from gun rights groups; On the other hand, Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) brought in some more money from gun control lobbyists.

The National Rifle Association alone has given many millions of dollars to congressmen – including Mitt Romney, who has directly and indirectly reaped $14 million from the group.

And as political support continues and gun rights lobbying increases, so does gun manufacturing. Over the past 20 years, the number of firearms manufactured in the United States has nearly tripled from 3.9 million to 11.3 million, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Adjusted for population growth, that’s more than twice as many domestically manufactured guns per 100,000 people.

According to police officials, Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old suspect in the Uvalde shooting, legally bought two AR-15 assault rifles six days after his 18th birthday. Two days later he committed the massacre at the elementary school.

RELATED: Beto O’Rourke’s break at Uvalde press conference wasn’t planned, his campaign says

On Wednesday morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer launched two bills to review firearms backgrounds, but no votes were scheduled as of this writing.