Where There's a Will There's a Way: Examining the Possible Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Incidents of Mass Violence in the USA

Definitions Of Mass Shootings

In the United States, there are several different, but common, definitions of mass shootings:

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  The Congressional Research Service defines mass shootings, as multiple, firearm, homicide incidents, involving 4 or more victims at one or more locations close to one another.

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  The Federal Bureau of Investigation does not define “mass shooting” as its own term; it only defines a “mass murderer” as someone who kills four or more people in one location, and that does not necessarily have to be with a firearm.

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  The Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a leading organization on the topic, uses this definition, as does the Giffords Law Center.

Therefore, the most useful definition of a mass shooting, then, is as a single incident in which four or more people are shot or killed. A mass shooting typically occurs in a single place and time but can include multiple locations near each other. That is the definition used by the authors in this chapter.

The problem then becomes, what definition does one use to get a complete list of this type of violence in the United States. Those working on this subject simply choses one of the above definitions, alters it to meet their needs, and then conducts research to find events which fall under their definition. The result of this is that is very difficult to compare lists given the varying definitions. Moreover, trying to compare decades of these events is almost impossible. The best a researcher can do is to given detail on which events were included and those that were not.