This year could be the second year with the most recorded mass shootings in the United States, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit organization that tracks incidents of gun violence across the country.
Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.
There have been at least 607 mass shootings as of November 22 of this year. That’s just shy of the 638 mass shootings in the country at this point last year, the worst year on record since the group began tracking them in 2014. There were a total of 690 mass shootings in 2021.
Tuesday’s massacre at a Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia, left six dead and four injured. That was just three days after five people were killed in a shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado.
In the past week alone, mass shootings have claimed at least 24 lives and 37 people have been injured in gun attacks in seven states, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
There have been more mass shootings than days so far in 2022, a trend that has continued every year since 2019, underscoring the growing prevalence of gun violence in American life.