Active Shooters in Public Spaces Rose Sharply In Past 5 Years

Active shooters violently targeted members of the public across the U.S. at a rate that was 89% higher from 2019 to 2023 than in the previous five-year period, the FBI says. Last year, 105 individuals were killed during active shootings, the highest level in recent years, CBS News reports. The public safety numbers showed a mix of slight year-over-year improvements in some areas of concern — including a 4% decrease in active shootings in 2023 compared to 2022 — and small drops in other metrics, like total casualties and "mass killing" events. The report, which examined just a portion of gun violence nationwide, showed a consistent trend in which shootings targeting members of the public remain historically high, an increase of 60% since 2019. Forty-eight active shooter incidents targeted, killed or injured people in 26 states during 2023, down from 50 in 2022. Among those attacks, 15 met the federal definition of a "mass killing," in which three or more victims are killed during an attack. That's up from 13 in 2022. 

In three active shootings last year, law enforcement said there were no reported injuries or deaths. The study defined an active shooter as "an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area." Active shooter incidents do not include shootings in which an individual was acting in self-defense, drug or gang-related violence or shootings tied to other criminal activity. The federal government said it released the numbers "to provide law enforcement officers, other first responders, corporations, educators, and the public with a baseline understanding of active shooter incidents." Still, the report qualified its findings by noting that there is neither a mandatory reporting system that tracks active shooting incidents nationwide nor a "central intake point for reporting active shooter incidents, as there is for other crimes." California was the state with the highest number of active shooter attacks took place (8), followed by Texas and Washington (4 each). Throughout the U.S., 244 victims were shot by active shooters last year; 139 were injured and 105 were killed. Compared to the previous year, total casualty rates — injuries and deaths combined — were down from 313 in 2022, but five more people were killed in 2023 than in 2022.