The U.S. has had at least 39 mass shootings in just 24 days so far this year,

[Harvey]

@David237

A mass-shooting is where 4 or more people are killed according to FBIs definition of a mass-shooting, and where the shooter’s motive was to simply kill as many people as possible.

@Shamrock

These headlines are intentionally misleading. The definition for a mass shooting that the main stream media uses is any incident where 4 (sometimes only 3) or more people are injured. But they actively try and make viewers think that these are all active shooter type incidents targeting random innocent people.

@Shamrock is correct here @David237 the 4 (or 3) people killed (or sometimes just shot) metric is from the media and has been pushed by anti-gun groups. That’s where you will sometimes hear people say there have been hundreds of mass shootings in a given year as evidence to ban assault weapons. But these are overwhelmingly shootings involving drugs/gangs/criminals and overwhelmingly using handguns.

The FBI definition does not have a minimum or maximum count. I’ve posted several of the FBI shooting reports here and here on this forum, its worth a read (the reports are short).

Here is the official FBI definition of a mass shooting and is included at the beginning of each report. They do include mass killings (3 or more killed) as a factor, it is not the definitive. In fact, there are several FBI labeled mass shootings with less than 3 because it was stopped by one means or another.

When evaluating shooting incidents to determine if they met the FBI’s active shooter definition,
researchers considered for inclusion:

• Shootings in public places
• Shootings occurring at more than one location
• Shootings where the shooter’s actions were not the result of another criminal act
• Shootings resulting in a mass killing (The federal definition of “mass killing” which is defined as “three or more killings in a single incident”. Derived from Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act 0f 2012, 28 USC530C(b)(1)(M)i.)
• Shootings indicating apparent spontaneity by the shooter
• Shootings where the shooter appeared to methodically search for potential victims
• Shootings that appeared focused on injury to people, not buildings or objects

This report does not encompass all gun-related shootings. 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

This methodology was first articulated in A Study of Active Shooter Incidents in the United States
Between 2000 and 2013 and was applied to the 2020 shooting incidents for consistency.