The FBI released their report on “Active Shooter Incidents in the United States in 2019” a few days ago. This seems like it is now a yearly report. (list of previous reports at the bottom)
The CURRENT FBI Active Shooter Report, for all 2019 incidents:
For those that aren’t aware, the FBI Active Shooter incidents uses the criteria that I think most people would agree is the real definition of a mass shooter. Someone whose intent is to kill as many random people as possible. Shooters such as Parkland HS, Aurora Colorado movie theater, Las Vegas, etc are typical examples. This is in contrast to other sources who may use an arbitrarily chosen number as a threshold, for example “more than 3 deaths is a mass shooting”, and often include gang activity and domestic disputes. The FBI definition uses intent to cause harm and will include an incident no matter how many or how few deaths occurred.
The official FBI definition follows in part, and can be seen in its entirety on page 3 of the current report:
The FBI defines an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. Implicit in this definition is the shooter’s use of one or more firearms. The active aspect of the definition inherently implies that both law enforcement personnel and citizens have the potential to affect the outcome of the incident based upon their responses to the situation.
…
This report does not encompass all gun-related shootings. Because the risk to civilians in active shooter incidents appears related to the apparent randomness of so many victims, a gun-related incident was excluded if research established it was the result of:
- Self-defense
- Gang violence
- Drug violence
- Contained residential or domestic disputes
- Controlled barricade/hostage situations
- Crossfire as a byproduct of another ongoing criminal act
- An action that appeared not to have put other people in peril (for example, the accidental discharge of a firearm in a bar or a suicide in a public parking lot)
High level statistics:
- 28 incidents with 30 shooters
- 247 casualties (97 killed, 150 wounded), not including the shooters
- 17 LEO casualties (2 killed, 15 wounded)
Of the 30 shooters…
- 29 male, 1 female
- 4 wore body armor
- 15 apprehended by LEO
- 9 killed by police
- 5 committed suicide
- 1 killed by citizen
I skimmed the list of incidents and saw 12 out of 30 that used rifles (not specific as to type), 1 used a shotgun, the remainder used used handguns.
Four (4) shooters wore body armor. I do not believe 2018’s report listed any armor used. The 2016-2017 report listed 3 shooters wearing body armor, 2014-2015 report listed 2 shooters with body armor. So while it is not “common” for a shooter to have armor, it is certainly not out of the realm of possibility.
Links to previous FBI Reports on Active Shooter Incidents:
