How many mass shootings occurred in the U.S. each month of 2025 and how does that compare to 2024?
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Executive summary
Gun Violence Archive (GVA) and multiple news organizations report roughly 350–400 U.S. mass shootings in 2025 to date, while 2024 had substantially more incidents under broad trackers (about 586 events recorded on one compiled list), and some databases show a drop in the rarer category of “mass killings” (fatalities-based) by about 24% in 2025 versus 2024 (AP/Northeastern database) [1] [2] [3]. Sources use different definitions — four or more people shot (GVA, many outlets) versus three-or-more killed (some federal/fatality-focused datasets) — producing divergent month-by-month totals [4] [5] [2].
1. What the headline numbers mean: multiple counts, multiple definitions
No single monthly breakdown appears in the supplied documents; major trackers diverge because they use different rules. Gun Violence Archive and crowd-sourced trackers count incidents where four or more people are shot (injured or killed), producing totals in the high hundreds for 2025 (reports cite roughly 350–391 events through mid-December) [1] [6] [7]. By contrast, AP/USA Today/Northeastern-style databases that focus on “mass killings” (fatalities thresholds) show far smaller counts — 17 mass killings in 2025 as of reporting — and report a roughly 24% decline versus 2024 [8] [9].
2. Month-by-month totals: not supplied, so don’t assume
Available sources do not publish a month-by-month table of mass shootings for 2025 within the provided results. Several outlets cite year-to-date totals (e.g., “more than 350” or “381–391” incidents in 2025) and snapshots as of particular dates (mid-November, mid-December), but none give a complete month-by-month count for the full year in the provided snippets [6] [3] [7]. Therefore a precise per-month comparison to 2024 is not available in current reporting.
3. Year-to-year comparison: broad trackers show fewer incidents in 2025; fatality-based databases show a pronounced drop in mass killings
Multiple news outlets and databases reporting on 2025 say mass-shooting counts this year are lower than in recent years. Local and national outlets cite GVA-derived counts (e.g., “more than 350” to “391” mass shootings in 2025) and editorial summaries that 2025 has seen fewer mass shootings compared with the previous five years [6] [7]. Separately, the AP/USA Today/Northeastern “mass killings” database reports 17 mass killings in 2025 — the lowest since 2006 — and states that mass killings fell roughly 24% compared with 2024 [8] [9].
4. Why numbers can shift: definitional choices and timing matter
Trackers differ on whether to count nonfatal incidents, domestic or gang-related events, and whether to require deaths rather than injuries. GVA uses a four-or-more-shot definition; Mother Jones and some academic/federal sources use three-or-more-killed or other criteria, producing far smaller tallies [4] [1] [2]. News reporters also note that small changes can create large percentage swings when raw counts are small — especially for mass killings (fatality-based) — so a 24% drop in that subset can occur even as broader shooting problems persist [8] [10].
5. What analysts and experts say about causes and significance
Coverage quotes experts who caution that 2025’s drop in mass killings may reflect short-term volatility or improved prevention/response (school threat assessments, community programs) rather than a durable trend [8] [11]. The AP/Northeastern data managers and researchers note both that mass killings are rare (and therefore year-to-year swings are noisy) and that investments like the Safer Communities Act and state threat-assessment programs might contribute to reductions in some settings [8] [12].
6. How to interpret media-cited totals when comparing 2024 and 2025
Comparisons should specify the source and definition: 2024 appears on some compiled lists to have hundreds of incidents (one Wikipedia compilation cites 586 mass-shooting incidents in 2024 using a four-or-more-shot definition), while several 2025 snapshots show 350–391 incidents depending on the date and tracker [2] [1] [3]. For the narrower count of mass killings (fatalities-focused), 2025 is widely reported as markedly lower than 2024 — about 24% down — but that represents a different phenomenon than the broader injury-inclusive mass-shooting tallies [9] [3].
7. What reporters recommend and what’s missing from the public record
Journalists urge transparency: state and federal agencies should clarify definitions and publish standardized, month-by-month counts so the public can compare trends reliably; current reporting instead stitches together different datasets and date-stamped snapshots [1] [6]. Available sources do not supply the requested monthly breakdown for 2025 versus 2024 in a single, authoritative table — that data gap prevents the precise month-to-month comparison you asked for [6] [1].
If you want a precise monthly side‑by‑side for 2024 and 2025, I can extract month-level counts from a single consistent source (for example, Gun Violence Archive) and compile them into a table — but that requires pulling the monthly data directly from that tracker’s reports (available sources do not already provide the month-by-month table in the materials you supplied) [13] [1].