How many mass shootings have there been in America in 2025
Executive summary
Different trackers use different definitions, but major count-based trackers put U.S. mass-shooting totals for 2025 in the high hundreds while a separate “mass killings” database—using a stricter fatalities-based definition—records far fewer events: Gun Violence Archive (and sources that mirror its four-or-more-shot definition) reported roughly 381–397 mass shootings through late 2025 (Wikipedia cites 397 shootings, 387 killed, 1,776 wounded as of Nov. 30) [1]. By contrast, the AP/USA Today/Northeastern “mass killings” database counted just 17 mass killings through December, the lowest since 2006 [2] [3].
1. Two competing counts, two different questions
The disagreement about “how many” comes from definitions. Gun Violence Archive and many news outlets define a mass shooting as any incident in which four or more people are shot (injured or killed) in one event, producing counts in the hundreds for 2025 (Wikipedia reports 397 such incidents and 1,776 wounded as of Nov. 30) [1]. Independent trackers like the AP–USA Today–Northeastern database define “mass killings” as incidents with four or more fatalities; that narrower framing yields a far smaller number—17 mass killings in 2025—showing the same year can look very different depending on the yardstick [2] [3].
2. How big are those numbers in 2025?
Under the broad, four-or-more-shot definition, multiple outlets and datasets (GVA, local reporting compilations) placed 2025’s cumulative mass-shooting total in the roughly 300–400 range by autumn and early winter (examples: Axios referenced 381 tracked mass shootings; CNN and GVA-based trackers updated through December) [2] [4]. Wikipedia’s snapshot summarized those figures as 397 shootings with 387 killed and 1,776 wounded as of Nov. 30 [1]. Under the fatalities-based definition, 2025 registered 17 mass killings — the fewest since 2006 — a roughly 24% drop from 2024 [2] [3].
3. What explains the divergence in reporting and public perception?
Two factors drive confusion: inconsistent definitions and media focus on the most lethal public rampages. The broader GVA-style metric captures many events with survivors and is useful to understand the overall burden of incidents where multiple people are shot; the AP-style mass-killing count highlights truly catastrophic fatalities and is more volatile year-to-year because those events are rarer [1] [2]. News coverage gravitates to high-fatality, public-site attacks, so rare “mass killings” shape public fear disproportionately to their frequency even as the larger pool of multi-victim shootings remains substantial [2].
4. What do experts and outlets say about trends in 2025?
Multiple outlets and experts cautioned that 2025’s lower mass-killing total may reflect “regression to the mean” rather than durable change; some attribute declines to improved threat assessment, emergency response and targeted funding from recent federal measures, while others warn the underlying problem of gun violence remains large [5] [6]. Gun Violence Archive also reported downward movement toward pre-COVID levels for mass shootings in their year-to-date summaries, but emphasized continuing overall gun violence harms [7].
5. Methodological limits and what’s not answered
Available sources make clear that there is no single authoritative national count because definitions and inclusion rules differ; Wikipedia, GVA, Mother Jones, AP and academic datasets each use different criteria and produce different totals [1] [8] [2]. Available sources do not mention a single, government-issued official 2025 mass-shooting total; if you seek a single number, you must pick which definition matters for your question [1].
6. What readers should take away
If your goal is to measure the broader scale of events where four or more people are shot in a single incident, expect a 2025 total in the high 300s per major aggregators (Wikipedia cites 397 as of Nov. 30) [1]. If your concern is the deadliest episodes—events with four or more deaths—the AP/USA Today/Northeastern database shows a far smaller count (17 in 2025), a historically low figure but one experts say may not signal a lasting improvement [2] [3]. Choose the definition that matches the policy or public-safety question you care about and cite the corresponding dataset.