A recent report from the Montana-based Crime Prevention Research Center says the majority of mass shootings in the U.S. since 1998 “have occurred in places where guns are banned,” and more than half of these crime have been committed solely with handguns.
Only 16.8 percent used only rifles “of any type” in these shootings, the CPRC report explains.
CPRC founder and President John R. Lott told the Washington Times that none of these shootings, from 1998 to 2023, would have been prevented by requiring universal background checks. The report includes a chart showing this, and another chart showing that 18 percent of mass shootings do not occur in “gun free” zones.
Lott’s report covers the period between Jan. 1, 1998 and Oct. 25, 2023.
Among the startling revelations in the report is that 52 percent of mass murderers “have seen mental health care professionals before their attacks.” Over the same period, 20 percent of mass shooters were veterans, and in 2022 specifically, about 6 percent were veterans, which translates to the overwhelming majority not having served in the military.
Lott told the Washington Times that mass shootings are not as common as the public has been led to believe. He asserted media attention contributes to the public perception of such shootings happening more frequently.
The newspaper reported that Mark Bryant, executive director at the Gun Violence Archive, says Lott is “trying to minimize” the number by disputing what can be defined as a mass shooting. The Archive defines such incidents differently by counting the number of people wounded rather than just killed so in their perspective, a mass shooting is an event in which four or more people are killed and/or wounded, excluding the shooter.
The CPRC study says the number of attacks “is increasing at an increasing rate.”
“In five-year intervals,” the report states, “the number of mass public shootings varied this way: 2.6 (1999-2003), 3.4 (2004-2008), 3.6 (2009-2013), 4.2 (2014-2018), and 6.0 (2019-2023). In five-year intervals, the number of people murdered in mass public shootings varied this way: 16 (1999-2003), 24.4 (2004-2008), 30 (2009-2013), 53.2 (2014-2018), and 46.8 (2019-2023).”
The study also revealed that 43 percent of mass shooters died by suicide and 17 percent have been killed by police. The other 39 percent are taken alive. There does not appear to be a column for mass shooters who have been stopped by armed private citizens.
“Hispanics are underrepresented as a share of mass murderers,” the CPRC report said. “10.8% of these mass murderers are Hispanic compared to Hispanics, making up 18.9% of the general population. But their 17.1% share of the victims is close to Hispanics’ share of the general population.
“Compared to Middle Easterners at 4% of the general population,” the report continues, “they are overrepresented as a share of mass murderers (6.9%) and underrepresented in terms of victims (0.9%).”
Lastly, the report notes, “Asians make up 6.1% of the population, but they are overrepresented in both mass murderers (7.8%) and even more overrepresented as victims (9.7%). Interestingly, 44% of the Asians murdered in these attacks were murdered by other Asians.”
