Newly released data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows the United States had more casualties from its list of "active shooter" incidents in 2022 than in each of the four previous years.
The FBI counted 50 active shooter incidents in 2022 in 25 states, plus Washington, D.C., with 313 casualties. Those casualties included 100 people killed and 213 wounded, not including the shooters.
The 22-year-old male active shooter who climbed onto a rooftop and took aim with a rifle on a crowd of parade watchers in Highland Park, Ill on July 4, 2022 killed seven people and wounded 48. That tragic active shooting had the highest number of casualties for 2022, the FBI found.
According to the FBI, only nine of the incidents saw no casualties.
May of 2022 saw the highest number of incidents, and January to September 2022 had the fewest incidents.
Active shooter incidents during 2021 and 2022 happened on each day of the week, meaning each day from a Monday until a Sunday saw an incident, when they did occur. And more active shooting incidents happened on Sunday than other days of the week, FBI data showed.
In nine of the incidents, law enforcement were engaged in gunfire, the report showed. In five of those incidents police were injured. In one of the incidents an armed security officer was killed.
In one of the incidents, the FBI says, referring to the Club Q nightclub shooting in Nov. 2022 in Colorado, an unarmed citizen was able to "subdue and disarm" the shooter while the person was firing at patrons inside the nightclub.
The FBI also included data from a study on shooter incidents in the U.S. between 2000 and 2013 and found seven categories for locations where the public was at most risk for an active shooter. Those locations included open spaces, areas of commerce, education facilities, residences, government buildings, places of worship and health care facilities.
In the FBI data for 2022, all50 active shooter incidents happened in the seven location categories.
In 17 of the incidents in 2022, the shooter fired weapons in multiple locations included in those categories.
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