FBI report shows mass shootings are on the rise in America

1,043 people were shot in incidents between 2007 and 2013, 486 of whom were killed

People gather at a memorial for victims following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in December 2012 (Getty)

It’s not your imagination, nor is it media hype: mass shootings really are on the rise in the US, according to a report released by the FBI on Wednesday. The study assessed 160 so-called “active shooter incidents”, in which a gunman shot multiple people in the US between 2000 and 2013, and found that the number of such incidents had spiked in recent years.

During the first seven years covered by the study, there were an average of 6.4 mass shootings annually. That figure more than doubled, to 16.4 shootings per year on average, between 2007 and 2013. A combined 1,043 people were shot in the incidents, 486 of whom were killed. More than two-thirds of the shootings took place at schools and businesses. Sixty per cent of the incidents were over before police responded and, in around one in four cases, the shooters killed themselves.

Though they did not offer a conclusive explanation for the dramatic increase in mass shootings, officials said they believed there could be a copycat element to the trend, with gunmen inspired by previous incidents. The goal of the report, conducted by the FBI in conjunction with Texas State University, was to identify common themes in mass shootings, and to better prepare local law enforcement to deal with them.

An “active shooter incident”, the study said, is different from many other violent crimes because “law enforcement personnel and citizens have the potential to affect the outcome of the event based upon their responses.” The spike in shootings, it added, “reinforces the need to remain vigilant regarding prevention efforts... and for law enforcement to aggressively train to better respond to - and help communities recover from - active shooter incidents.”