Before a man killed at least four people Wednesday at a Tulsa medical facility, there had already been 231 mass shootings this year in the U.S., according to the Gun Violence Archive. The Tulsa case was the twentieth mass shooting since last week’s massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tx., left 19 children and two teachers dead, reports the Washington Post. Mass shootings, defined as incidents where four or more people — not including the shooter — are injured or killed, have averaged more than one daily so far this year. Not a week in 2022 has passed without at least four mass shootings.
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Mass shootings have been on the rise. In 2021, almost 700 such incidents occurred, a jump from the 611 in 2020 and 417 in 2019. Before that, incidents had not topped 400 annually since the Gun Violence Archive started tracking in 2014.This year is on pace with last year’s high when comparing the same time period. The toll is immense. Mass shootings have killed 256 people and injured 1,010 more through the end of May.