Which U.S. states had the highest number of mass shootings in 2025?
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Executive summary
Multiple news outlets and datasets say 2025 saw fewer mass shootings than recent years, but counts vary by definition and tracker; several state-level summaries identify Texas, Illinois and California as having the most mass-shooting incidents in 2025 (reporting more than 325–381 incidents nationally) [1] [2]. Definitions differ: Gun Violence Archive and many media outlets count incidents where four or more people were shot; AP/Northeastern count “mass killings” defined as four or more killed — a narrower tally that fell to 17 in 2025 [3] [4].
1. What reporters are actually counting: rival definitions drive rival answers
There is no single federal definition of “mass shooting,” and major trackers use different rules. The Gun Violence Archive (used by CNN and others) defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot, injured or killed, excluding the shooter — a broad tally that produced hundreds of incidents in 2025 [5] [6]. The AP–USA TODAY–Northeastern “mass killing” database counts incidents with four or more killed, producing a far smaller number (17 mass killings in 2025) [4] [7]. Journalistic summaries that name top states typically use the broader GVA-based or similar tallies [5] [1].
2. Which states the reporting identifies as having the most incidents in 2025
Local and regional media roundups and data summaries published in 2025 repeatedly single out Texas, Illinois and California as the states with the highest number of mass-shooting incidents under the broader definition; those outlets placed national totals in the 325–381 range as late-year tallies [1] [2] [8]. Several outlets note that California and Texas also have very large populations, a factor that correlates with higher raw counts [1] [8].
3. Population and exposure matter — raw counts can mislead
Newsrooms and researchers warn that raw incident counts privilege large states. Reporting that lists Texas, Illinois and California as leaders also acknowledges population differences: California and Texas are among the nation’s most populous states, and Illinois ranks in the top six, so per-capita rankings can look different from raw counts [8] [1]. Available sources do not provide a consistent per-capita league table for 2025 within this packet of reporting.
4. Trends: fewer mass killings, but mass shootings still high by other measures
Multiple pieces note 2025 was unusually low for mass killings (four or more killed) — the AP–Northeastern database recorded 17 mass killings, the fewest since 2006 — even as broad-count mass-shooting trackers recorded several hundred incidents [4] [2]. Gun Violence Archive and other aggregators reported declines in mass-shooting totals compared with 2023–2024 highs, and GVA wrote mass shootings had fallen to “pre-COVID levels” by December 2025 [6] [2].
5. What researchers and journalists caution about interpreting the numbers
Experts quoted in the coverage say volatility and definitions make year-to-year comparisons fragile: a handful of incidents can swing totals up or down, and “regression to the mean” likely explains much of the 2025 dip in mass killings [9] [7]. The Rockefeller Institute and other research groups stress differences between “mass public shootings” (targeted public attacks) and broader mass-shooting tallies, and the factsheet work highlights that measurement choices materially change counts [10] [11].
6. Where the reporting leaves gaps and what to ask next
Available sources repeatedly state which states had the highest raw counts under common media definitions — Texas, Illinois and California — but they do not provide a unified, source-consistent per-capita ranking in the documents supplied [1] [8]. Available sources do not mention an authoritative federal breakdown by state using a single standardized definition for 2025; if you need per-capita comparisons or a state-by-state table from a single definitional approach, that specific compilation is not found in current reporting.
7. Bottom line for readers and policymakers
If your question is “which states had the most mass shootings in 2025” under the widely used four-or-more-shot metric, reporting and local data summaries point to Texas, Illinois and California as the top states in raw counts amid a national total in the mid-hundreds [1] [2]. If you mean “mass killings” (four or more killed), the landscape changes dramatically — 2025 recorded far fewer such events and state-level leaders are less salient in the AP–Northeastern database [4]. Always check which definition a source uses before comparing state rankings [3] [5].