Saturday’s shooting in El Paso, Texas, is the 249th mass shooting incident this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass shooting as four or more victims injured or killed excluding the perpetrator in one location.
The shooting reportedly took place at a Walmart in the Cielo Vista Mall area. Several outlets reportthat the El Paso Police Department has taken multiple suspects into custody.
In June, five people were injured and 12 died at a shooting in Virginia Beach,Virginia, the deadliest mass shooting so far this year. The shooter died after a gunfight with police.
And last month, at the most recent high-profile mass shooting this year, which took place at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California, three people died and twelve others were injured. The local coroner’s office recently stated that the shooter killed himself.
In the case of both the El Paso shooting and the Gilroy Garlic Festival, there were early reports of multiple shooters, which is rare. Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee later said it was likely there was no second shooter.
However, one recent exception to the rule that there’s rarely a second shooter was the May shooting at the STEM School in Highlands Ranch, Colorado, where two shooters were apprehended by police.
Last year, the FBI released a report on the perpetrators of active shootings from 2000 to 2013. The FBI’s research revealed many of the common ideas associated with active shooters are misconceptions.
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