UPDATED, originally Posted April 3, 2018: An article at Vox has gained attention for illustrating America's "unique gun violence problem" in 17 maps and charts. A similar New York Times opinion piece by Nicolas Kristof on "How to Reduce Shootings" and another at the...
International Comparisons
Stossel TV on “The Myth of U.S. Mass Shooters”
From Stossel TV: Dozens of news outlets reported that America has the most mass shooters in the world. Many say that shows America needs more gun control. CNN claimed that "the U.S. has the most mass shootings". The WSJ reported that "U.S. leads the world in mass...
New CPRC Research: Mass Public Shootings are much higher in the rest of the world and increasing much more quickly
Executive Summary The U.S. is well below the world average in terms of the number of mass public shootings, and the global increase over time has been much bigger than for the United States. Over the 18 years from 1998 to 2015, our list contains 2,354 attacks and at...
The Number of Mass Public Shootings by year since 1998, comparison to international number of such shootings over time
This graph shows the number of mass public shootings per year from the beginning of 1998 through today, November 8, 2018. Our data set is available here. 2018 has the second highest number of mass public shootings over those 21 years, with 2012 having the highest...
Few mass public killers have obvious political or religious reasons for doing their shootings, vehicle attacks, or bombings
“right-wing terrorism has become far more commonplace — and, since 9/11, far more deadly — than Islamist terrorism in America” -- Max Boot, Washington Post, October 28, 2018. "the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the...
Twenty killed in school shooting massacre in Crimea, wounds more than 65, 10 in critical, 5 in coma described as “extremely grave”
Unless you watch the news closely you likely missed the news that a day ago there was a very deadly mass public school shooting in Crimea. It will probably be another day or so until there is a good idea how many people were killed by eighteen-year-old Vladislav...
At the New York Post: America doesn’t actually lead the world in mass shootings
Drs. John Lott and Michael Weisser have an op-ed in Friday's New York Post. The claim that the US has by far the most mass public shootings in the world drives much of the gun-control debate. Many argue that America’s high rate of gun possession explains the high rate...
New CPRC Research: How a Botched Study Fooled the World About the U.S. Share of Mass Public Shootings: U.S. Rate is Lower than Global Average
Executive Summary A paper on mass public shootings by Adam Lankford (2016) has received massive national and international media attention, getting coverage in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, plus hundreds of other news outlets spanning at least 35...
UPDATED: Vehicle attacks around the world since 2000
Terrorist vehicle attacks with 4 or more fatalities are still relatively rare, though they are becoming more frequent. Radical Muslims committed 83% of mass public attacks committed up through the end of 2017. Including attacks where fewer than 4 victims...
UPDATE: CPRC Original Research: All but two of the 25 worst mass public shootings, 60 of the worst 68, occurred outside the United States
Picture of victim being removed from ISIS attack in Tunisia that left 39 people dead LAST UPDATED: Updated on February 14, 2018. Previous November 1, 2017; April 29, 2016 (originally posted on June 28, 2015) (Detailed discussion on Europe and the...
Muslims responsible for at least 80% of the worldwide bombings killing at least 4 people during 2014-15
During 2014 and 2015 there were 1,761 bombings in the world that killed at least four people. Of those, 1,401 were by radical Muslims, 58 were non-Muslims, and 302 were unknown. It seems likely that most of those unknown attacks were also by radical Muslims, but...
UPDATED: France had more casualties from mass public shootings in 2015 than the US suffered during Obama’s entire presidency (532 to 527)
“With respect to Planned Parenthood, obviously, my heart goes out to the families of those impacted. … I say this every time we’ve got one of these mass shootings: This just doesn’t happen in other countries.” –Obama, news conference at COP21 climate conference in...